Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

History returns to St Mary’s

byEmilie Ng
21 August 2015
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Writing history

Writing history: St Mary’s Catholic Church parish priest Capuchin Friar Lam Vu and Archbishop Mark Coleridge greet parishioners during the 150th anniversary celebrations. Photo: Alan Edgecomb

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Parish celebrations call back former organist and ‘treasured’ items

ZIPPING through South Brisbane on a motorbike, John Feltoe stopped in at St Mary’s Catholic church to say a quick prayer before his study session.

“It was dry times in those days,” Dr Feltoe said of his 1947 days.

Produce trucks raced past the church, one of them dropping off an unwanted creature.

Not sure of what to do with the unwelcome snake, the young medical student knocked on the presbytery door for Fr Richard Thompson.

“He came from Bundaberg, you see, so he got a stick and he went at the snake,” Dr Feltoe said.

Fr Thompson was also the former editor of The Catholic Leader in 1929 until 1942 when he was asked to take over St Mary’s from Fr William Cashman.

It was also the same time Dr Feltoe began playing the organ at St Mary’s Church.

“I was born in 1929, christened there, had my first communion, confirmation, and I was taught how to play the organ by the former organist,” he said.

Dr Feltoe’s connection to St Mary’s Church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last week, started with his mother.

Related Stories

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

“My mother lived at Jones St, in Highgate Hill, and they would come to St Mary’s for Mass,” Dr Feltoe said.

“She and a few other parishioners would be on their hands and knees to scrub the sanctuary.

“The priest at the time had boot polish on and it would leave black marks on the white marble floor.

“The altar boys weren’t allowed to wear shoes, they had to wear black slippers, but the only ones you got at the time were for girls and they had pompoms.

“So you took the pompoms off.

“I was on the altar about 1946.”

His mother and father were married at St Mary’s Church, and remained parishioners until his mother died in 1981.

Dr Feltoe’s mother was “fond” of the community’s first parish priest, Fr Frank Dorrigan, and inherited six blown glass, deep red drinking tumblers and three sherry glasses.

They were all engraved with either 1911 Reverend Dorrigan, of FC 1911.

“Mum treasured those until the day she died, and after she died, they came to me,” he said.

Last week, Dr Feltoe took those same glasses that once belonged to the church’s first pastor and put them into the hands of the community’s present parish priest, Fr Lam Vu following their 150th anniversary celebrations.

Dr Feltoe said he realised the “historical significance” of the glass items and happily offered them to Fr Vu, along with a photo of the 1935 Annual Holy Communion of the Holy Name Society.

The photo was taken on a basketball court, now the church’s car park.

Dr Feltoe said he would return to St Mary’s Church at the next historical celebration but for now was happy looking after his wife Berneice at their Everton Park home.

Fr Vu said it was not the church but people, like Dr Feltoe, who made up the parish’s history.

“The church reminds us of our past but the people make the history,” Fr Vu said.

“It was amazing to celebrate 150 years of the parish, and to remember how the parish first started and connect with them.”

More than 250 people gathered at St Mary’s for the anniversary Mass on Sunday August 16 followed by a food festival outside.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge presided at the celebrations, along with former parish priests Fr Ken Howell and Capuchin Friar Fernanto Pananghat.

With celebrations at an end, Fr Vu said St Mary’s church would close between August 24 and September 5 for restorations to the existing floor.

Fr Vu said the parish needed in excess of $150,000 in donations to continue future restorations to the church’s interior.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Crisis in Ukraine

Next Post

Friends needed at St Columba’s

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies
QLD

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

20 May 2022
Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition
QLD

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

20 May 2022
Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Next Post
Fr Michael Grace

Friends needed at St Columba’s

A seed of confidence

A treasure of the Church

Popular News

  • Pregnant woman

    Queensland election: The pro-life political parties committed to abortion law reforms

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies
QLD

Gwen has given 15,000 hours of cuddles to sick and premature babies

by Joe Higgins
20 May 2022
0

BRISBANE grandmother Gwendoline Grant has clocked up 15,000 hours cuddling and caring for sick and premature babies...

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

Helping stroke survivors earns Ozcare volunteer national recognition

20 May 2022
Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

19 May 2022
Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping