Just returned from a weekend away with Michelle at the Werribee Park Mansion. A gift from friends or our 25th wedding anniversary.
It was built in the 1870s by Thomas Chirnside, a Scotsman who sold up in the mid 1800s to come to Australia and build a pastoral empire. The family motto was “Do or Die”. He did and then he died. Achieved his dream and then took his own life.
In the 1920s the estate was purchased by the Catholic church and turned into a seminary—Corpus Christi. Over the next 50 years 753 priests passed through its doors.
Each student spent eight years under Jesuit supervision training in Philosophy, Theology, Scripture, Church History and Humanities. They rose early for prayer and then studies. They ate their meals in silence and worked on the farm in the afternoons. Evenings were given over to private study in silence.
They lived a monastic existence.
At its peak the college housed 186 seminarians. When the Werribee Mansion could no longer cope with the demand, a new college was built at Glen Waverley on 70 acres to accommodate 200 students. It was opened in 1954.
In the early 1970s both the Werribee and Glen Waverley sites were sold due to collapsing student numbers. Today Corpus Christi has 36 seminarians undertaking the seven years of training required for the priesthood. They are doing a lot better than the Irish Catholic Church but still, the decline continues.
I wonder why?
3 Comments
lol! as if you don’t know why.
bye the way i left you a question regarding church plants under ‘how movements spread’
Steve:
Amazing that in just 20 years, the bottom fell out!
While lack of students may seem the presenting issue which reflects on the greater issues of Catholic relavance and presence in a secularizing society, I would be interested to know how much of this was exacerbated by the Jesuits and turmoil within the order.
As goes the health of apostolic movements/orders, so goes the health of the Church at large. Sobering.
SM
Trav, do I really know why or just think I know why?
Haven’t got to your question yet. My life is currently out of control. Thanks for the reminder.
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[...] In 2005, there were 1363 Catholic parishes in Australia. I’m not sure if that number is increasing or declining but the number of priests and membership in the Catholic orders are is serious decline: Where have all the Priests gone? My guess is the Catholic church will be reluctant to close parishes but numbers of active Catholics are in decline. [...]