Formation of St Anthonys Parish
1942 was, and still is, the most disastrous year in the history of Australia. Singapore fell to the Japanese and 22,000 Australians were captured, about 8,000 were to die in captivity.
The first bombing raid on Darwin killed some hundreds of people and more were to die in the following raids. Invasion threatened and 3 Japanese midget submarines raided Sydney harbour and the explosions of the depth charges and torpedoes could be heard in Marsfield.
In New Guinea, Rabaul fell with the loss of 1400 men and the Kokoda Trail fighting dragged on, but there were a few bright spots on the cloudy horizon. The United States Navy and the Anzac Naval Squadron defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May. The United States Navy inflicted another defeat on the Japanese at the battle of Midway in June and on 20th June 1942 Archbishop Norman Thomas Gilroy D.D., later Cardinal, later still Sir, and always "Bluey" declared St. Anthony's a parish of the archdiocese of Sydney.
Due to the large number of Italians in Marsfield it was decided to name the Parish after one of the most popular Italian saints. St. Anthony is known as "il Santo" in Padua where he died and is buried in the great basilica there. He was born in Lisbon in 1196 and became a Franciscan monk in 1220. He went to Morocco as a missionary but ill health forced his return to Europe where he became an eloquent preacher. He is represented in our church in the famous statue depicting one of his visions where he held the child Jesus. Apart from his uncanny ability to find lost objects he performed many miracles, one of the most famous of which was portrayed by Donatello (the Renaissance artist, not the Ninja turtle) in the basilica at Padua. It is called "the Healing of the Irascible Son". This young man kicked his mother and in a fit of remorse afterwards he cut off his foot. The Donatello bronze depicts St. Anthony refitting the errant foot, possibly the earliest example of micro-surgery.
Marsfield, originally the Field of Mars, was named early in the last century. Land grants were made to the Marines and later to former soldiers of the N.S.W. Corps. As they were mostly veterans of Wellington's Peninsular Army they named the streets after their own Napoleonic war battles and other famous British victories.
The area was mostly small farms and remained fairly stagnant until the first Gladesville road bridge was built in 1881 and five years later the Northern Railway Line was opened. Our Parish was originally part of Ryde Parish and in 1916, Epping Parish, including Marsfield was cut off from Ryde. St. Anthony's had it's official beginnings in Marsfield in 1922 when the Vincentians purchased Curzon Hall for use as a seminary and named it after St. Joseph.
This imposing building pictured above was built in 1898 by a wealthy business man, Mr Harry Smith, who named it after one of his wife's relations, Lord Curzon of Kedleston (Viceroy of India 1899 to 1905). He was renowned as an able politician and the most blatant snob in England and in 1900 that really meant something. He was apparently planning to visit Curzon Hall after his stint in India but resigned his post after an unseemly row with Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, Commander in Chief of the Army, and returned to England.
Had he come to Australia I doubt he would have met many of the locals and share a glass of vino and a few jokes in a tin shed off Balaclava Road. More's the pity, it was quite good stuff once you fished out the twigs.
In the twenties and thirties Marsfield was predominantly an Italian area of market gardens, orchards and a few small cottages. As St. Joseph's Seminary had its own chapel, the Parish Priest of Epping requested the Vincentians to allow the local Catholics to attend Mass at the chapel. They also attended Benediction and a children's catechism class was also held.
In 1929 Eastwood Parish, including Marsfield, was cut off from Epping and Father J.M. Cusack was appointed Parish Priest. Father Cusack had been an outspoken member of the "Manly Union", a group of Priests who fervently believed that the Australian church should be served, primarily, by Australian born clergy. His attacks on the Irish monopoly of the time caused him to be banished to a country Parish and by the thirties he was Parish Priest of Eastwood.
Father Cusack did not like his parishioners attending Mass at the Seminary and demanded that the Vincentians lock the gates on Sunday. The Vincentians locked the gates and Father Cusack commenced saying Mass at the old Eastwood Town Hall in Agincourt Road. The uncharitable remarked that the lockout had more to do with the collection plate than religious rivalry. Amongst other great achievements he started the Marsfield tradition of clerical characters (or eccentrics?). Older residents tell great stories about his refusal to give communion to women wearing large brimmed hats or too much lipstick and his novel method of counting the communicants before Mass was nominated for an academy award. A well known parishioner recounts the story of when her parents took her to be baptised. They wanted her named Beverley but as Father Cusack had never heard of St. Beverley he gave her a popular Catholic name of the time.
Father Cusack arranged the building of the old church/school which was opened on 24th June 1934 by the Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Philip Bernardini S.T.D. J.U.D.
Like the many church/schools scattered throughout Australia in those days, a curtain was drawn across the altar during weekdays when class was in session. Children were seldom bored as they could tune in to the next class on the other side of the hessian curtain. Some were even educated.
But the winds of change were starting to blow.