The looming battle: Our Lady of Fatima and public space in Cold War Queensland.

Mason, Robert

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima toured Queensland during 1951 as part of a global journey that was designed to promote moral renewal and defeat international communism. Previous analyses of Catholic anti-communism in Cold War Queensland have focussed on B.A. Santamaria's Social Studies Movement or the Labor Party split, but rarely investigate the changes in Catholic identity that preceded such dramatic events. Queensland Catholics were particularly sensitised to the communist threat at both international and local levels. They projected these concerns publicly during the Pilgrim Statue's tour, and tested the social boundaries that had hitherto constrained their public expression of anti-communism.

Introduction

Australian Catholics' participation in the 1950s anti-communist movement has been the subject of comprehensive scholarly research. (1) Less attention has been given to the preceding changes to Catholic identity that facilitated the dramatic interventions of B. A. Santamaria's Social Studies Movement, with only minimal qualms from the Catholic laity. Catholic attitudes to worship and public space had changed steadily since the end of the Second World War. The tour of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima is one of the earliest post-war examples of the large-scale public expression of Catholic anti-communism. (2) There has been no analysis of the tour in Queensland, yet it was a central period for the expression of anti-communism by the state's Catholics.

The Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima arrived in Queensland in June 1951, and began a comprehensive tour of the state's Roman Catholic parishes, as part of the statue's global odyssey. Careful preparation and much anticipation preceded the statue's arrival, and Catholics throughout Queensland greeted it with huge enthusiasm. Everywhere it went, the statue occasioned unprecedented crowds, and significant comment in both the Catholic and Protestant press:

 Nearly 100,000 people last night watched the statue of Our Lady of
 Fatima being borne from Eagle Farm Airport to St. Stephen's
 Cathedral.... After the procession had passed along Queen Street
 thousands of people rushed through Post Office Lane to find that
 they could not pass the crowd in Elizabeth Street outside the
 Cathedral. (3)

 Archbishop Duhig said that demonstrations of faith like the one
 provided by the Roman Catholic Church at the arrival of the statue
 were the best things that could happen to Australia.

 "Faith is badly needed to help us unite against those who want to
 wreck our Australian way of life and our Christian faith,' he said.

Thousands of people surged into St Stephen's grounds as the statue began its tour of Brisbane parishes. Crowds 30 deep threatened to overwhelm a police guard round the figure. (4)

Archbishop James Duhig of Brisbane's comments emphasise the core themes related to Our Lady of Fatima: societal decay and its perceived corollary, communism. In a series of apparitions to children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, the Virgin Mary had urged humanity to increase devotion and thereby avoid catastrophic wars that would emanate from Russia. Catholic devotion to the apparitions increased as communism's global influence steadily grew. The desire to encourage the message of reawakened Christian devotion prompted the creation of a replica statue of the Fatima apparition. Such was its success that a series of statues were blessed and sent on global tours to reawaken Catholics to traditional devotions and anti-communism.

This article investigates the tour of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the generally mild sectarianism of 1950s Queensland. The Pilgrim Statue was used to project Catholics' construct of anti-communism into the public space. This reveals an underlying change in Catholic identity that reflected sensitivity to the international anti-communist struggle at the expense of previous references to Irish ethnicity. The Pilgrim Statue's tour gave Catholics the confidence to display religious anti-communism in public space, and to disregard norms that had hitherto relegated its expression to the social margins.

Catholicism in Queensland

The Pilgrim Statue's subsequent ability to attract crowds in Queensland must be understood in the state's religious context. Crowds were wholly Catholic, and the tour caused considerable furore amongst Protestants. Much of the anger that surrounded Catholics' use of public space was related to perceptions of power and social exclusion. Protestants had traditionally appropriated images of civic loyalty in Queensland, and had benefited from their vaunted devotion to the British Crown. Catholics by contrast, were portrayed as largely Irish and working class, tainted politically by their pro-Eire sympathies in times of Anglo-Irish tension. The Fatima statue's visit marked a significant change for Queensland's Catholic worshippers. Irish-Australian Catholicism had not previously been associated with high levels of Marian veneration, and the statue's visit heralded a period of increased influence for European models of worship. Protestants were disorientated by the change, which presaged many of their criticisms of the Social Studies Movement.

Catholics formed a disproportionately large section of Queensland's population. (5) They also had significant influence in the state Labor Party, which governed Queensland almost continuously from 1915 to 1957. Despite this access to political power, Queensland Catholics continued to identify as a social 'Other'. Organised Catholic public events reasserted the separate, cohesive social norms that maintained Catholics' political influence. The tens of thousands of Catholics who marched in Brisbane's annual Corpus Christi celebration took great pride in the various corporate insignia that distinguished them from other religious denominations. Brisbane-based social activist, Deirdre Cook recalls that 'in retrospect it seems [the Corpus Christi procession] was a time for an expression of the church triumphant or for many Catholics to come out and thumb their noses at the Protestant establishment, or so it seemed to us working-class Catholics'. (6) Suburban working class sentiments of exclusion mobilised Catholic voters in state elections, and Catholics' lack of empathy with images of public authority remained central to their identity.

Catholics derived great pride from their network of churches, which had been built with substantial contributions from parishioners. (7) Archbishop Duhig was acutely aware of the impression Catholic buildings could make, and carefully sited new and defiant Romanesque churches on top of Brisbane's many hills. (8) Catholics took great pride in the churches' visible dominance, which projected the Catholic presence and influence to locals of all creeds. (9) Although the churches were unambiguous statements of Catholic ambition, they lacked dynamism and could do little to mitigate Protestants' ability to determine the parameters of public morality.

Although Queensland Catholics remained predominantly working class, rising incomes meant they were increasingly socially diverse. Notwithstanding these changes, networks of schools, churches and parish groups continued to sustain a cohesive Catholic identity. These networks extended to include the growing number of wealthy, established Catholics. The legal profession's 1953 Red Mass at St Stephen's Cathedral for example, was attended by the state Attorney-General, the Chief Justice, and two other judges, the Crown Prosecutor, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, the President of the Industrial Court, the Chief State Electoral Officer, as well as lawyers from private firms. (10) Moreover a comparison of attendance at the first Red Mass of 1935, with those of 1951 and 1953 shows a marked increase in high profile attendees. (11) Although they remained sympathetic to the working class sense of exclusion, professional Catholics were noticeably more confident in the expression of their political demands.

Declining social standards were used as a rallying call for Queensland's diverse Catholic groups. Archbishop Duhig juxtaposed his demands for more rural smallholdings, with the decadent and materialistic urban society of Brisbane and other regional centres. Duhig was an experienced media manipulator, and even contemporary antagonists acknowledged his skilled publicity of moral issues. In a letter to the archbishop, a Mrs Hammington makes clear that whilst she disagreed fundamentally with his religious ideals, she praised his ability to generate debate on important Christian issues. (12) This letter raises the significant point that whilst moral decline may have focussed Catholic identity, it did not extricate it from the established parameters of sectarian discourse.

Protestant attempts to marginalise Catholic rhetoric to the political periphery were under increased pressure by the early 1950s. Their criticism of Catholics' failure to condemn government policies on gambling and temperance appeared increasingly incongruent in post-war Queensland. (13) Duhig made sustained efforts to direct Catholic arguments towards the political centre, and sought to associate Catholicism with patriotism. He courted the British monarchy assiduously, (14) and was knighted in 1959 despite his previous support for the Irish cause. (15) Duhig's comments at the 1951 Jubilee Year Corpus Christi procession were typical, when he stressed Catholics' integral role in Australian history, and sought to extricate his flock from sectarian quarrels. (16)

Social renewal was at the heart of Fatima's message. The apparition had urged the Portuguese children to pray for humanity's sins, say their Rosary, and attend church on the first Saturday of every month to save the world from immediate war. (17) The apparitions were humanity's last warning, and had been granted only as a special boon to Mary. The solution to the impending catastrophe at the hands of Russia was relatively simple: moral recovery through universal and individual consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and recitation of the Rosary. (18) The Fatima apparitions urged an increase in devotional practices that represented the basic tenets of the Catholic faith, rather than urge radical change in Church practices. Our Lady of Fatima validated currently neglected patterns of Catholic worship as a means to change the world and defeat communism.

The Pilgrim Statue's tour reinforced Duhig's rhetoric of moral decline, and encouraged Catholics' engagement in secular society through an overtly religious perspective. Yet rather than buttress sectarian arguments, devotion to Our Lady of Fatima consciously inserted Catholic anti-communism into mainstream patriotic discourse. (19) Catholics' anti-communist credentials were incontrovertible, and dated from their high-profile mobilisation during the Spanish Civil War. The Pilgrim Statue's tour saw this projected into public space, and encouraged Catholics to seek new models of political action.

The pilgrimage in Queensland

 The journey of the Pilgrim Virgin is a true Pilgrimage, and there
 should be on such occasion a spirit of intense, simple and
 confident Prayer. (20)

The Pilgrim Statue global tour was conceived as a traditional pilgrimage. Accessible pilgrimages were novel concepts for Queenslanders, and few had visited the major sites of European worship. Archbishop Duhig had led a large group of Australian Catholics on a tour of religious sites in Europe a year prior to the Fatima statue's arrival, and this had prompted much local speculation about European models of saint veneration. (21) The Pilgrim Statue's tour however, did not follow the model of a traditional pilgrimage. Instead of the pilgrim journeying from the periphery of the Christian community to the centre, the 'relic' was brought from the centre to the periphery. It was not the pilgrim who experienced hardship, but the suffering and compassionate Immaculate Heart of Mary herself in the form of the statue. One of the reasons that the pilgrimage resonated in the Queensland Catholic psyche was their self-perception as a disadvantaged minority, who were isolated from the mainstream of European Catholicism. (22) The statue's arrival however, empowered Queensland Catholics through its spiritual presence, and their association with Catholics worldwide who had also dedicated their lives to Mary.

The Marian Holy Year of 1950 had validated the Catholic focus on Mary. Popular Australian Catholic sentiment viewed her as the Queen of Heaven, and was encouraged by a succession of Papal pronouncements, of which the most significant was the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. During the Holy Year, Catholics were encouraged to travel to Rome on pilgrimage, prompting Duhig's decision to lead the Australian group to the Vatican. The publicity that surrounded the trip was reinforced the following year when Pope Pius extended the Holy Year throughout the world, and local diocesan papers outlined the duties expected of Queensland Catholics. (23)

The Fatima tour was part of an integrated series of contemporary Australian Marian devotions. There had been a national Marian Congress in Adelaide in 1951 to coincide with the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary. Schools arranged Fatima Clubs that held Rosary Crusade parades, followed by nocturnal vigils in front of Fatima shrines. (24) Within parishes Fatima statues circulated from house to house, and linked her model of motherhood with 'consolation in a war weary world'. (25)

The Pilgrim Statue's tour of Queensland was highly ritualised. After its arrival in Brisbane by plane, the statue was paraded through the capital and systematically visited all the metropolitan parishes. The convoy then moved slowly north through all Queensland dioceses (with the exception of Toowoomba). Parishes, schools, and the local press gave advance notice of when the statue would pass through the town and the route it would take. On arrival, the statue was driven slowly in the open air along streets lined with Catholics who prayed the Rosary or sang, before surging forward as the statue passed.

In urban centres, sports grounds staged the main service of dedication. In rural parishes, an open-air service was held in church or convent grounds after the symbolic entry into the township. Recitation of the Rosary, convoys of cars, parochial groups and their insignia, combined with religious services and parades to focus attention on a corporate Catholic identity. Kieran Flanagan reiterates ritual's importance for clarifying relationships within communities, (26) but the nature of that relationship is defined by the precepts of the ritual. In the case of the Pilgrim Statue, that precept was the imperative to increase Catholic devotion publicly to defeat communism.

Tour organisers throughout regional Queensland borrowed heavily from the statue's reception at Brisbane's St Stephen's Cathedral, and 'all the northern towns and cities followed proportionately the same steps'. (27) Whilst this explains similarities in format, the consistent use of symbolism derived from an effective diffusion of Marian imagery over several decades. Halls, floats to carry the statue, and outside reception areas were decorated with blue ribbons, stars, lilies, and roses--all examples of established Australian Marian imagery. Notably during the Fatima tour, these were placed without apology in non-Catholic spaces. Catholics deliberately associated Marian and Australian national imagery as a means to defeat local communists. The following extract makes clear how Marian blue ribbons would have met the Australian wattle in a symbolic unity of purpose:

 A carpet was laid from the street to the church steps and wide pale
 blue ribbons in honour of Our Lady were stretched between the float
 and the church door, which was adorned with branches of golden
 wattle in a welcoming arch. Children of Mary held the streamers.
 [...] As the car with the pilgrim statue arrived the students from
 the convent in their black and white uniforms and reciting the
 Rosary paraded from the convent gate to the church. (28)

A number of factors encouraged Queensland Catholics' participation. The statue's arrival in a town generated intense publicity, which reinforced the local church's efforts. Peer pressure to attend was considerable, and fed curiosity. Where the statue's visit elicited considerable Protestant comment, participation signalled membership of the Catholic community under attack. Attacks on Catholics' right to hold such parades focussed attention on feelings of insidious discrimination, since Protestants were not perceived to face similar obstacles when they held religious parades.

Of particular note amongst Queenslanders was the reaction of the large numbers of European immigrants in the state's far north. There is little evidence that Italians or Maltese were particularly sensitised to Protestant-Catholic rivalries, which centred on Anglo-Irish histories that made no reference to the Mediterranean. The substantial Italian migrant population had already experienced Marian iconography in Italy's own synthesis of local religious identity and conservative anti-communism. From the 1930s, Italian migrants had pressured local Irish priests to allow them to replicate the Marian festivities from their regions of origin. (29) Although less overt than the Pilgrim Statue's tour, these had nonetheless proclaimed a dominant conservative, Catholic presence in public and civic space. Duhig was a fervent supporter of Italian culture, and felt saints' festivals reinforced Italians' religious identity. (30) It seems likely priests' concessions to allow public Italian processions in the early 1950s, were linked to the archbishop and to priests' experiences during the Fatima tour. (31) Subsequent Italian religious festivals followed broadly similar formats to the reception of the Pilgrim Statue. (32)

In contrast to southern states, there is little direct mention of any migrant participation in the Fatima tour. (33) Rural migrants were isolated from the anti-communist rhetoric that set the tone for political arguments in Canberra and Brisbane. Aside from reading the local paper, few were interested by the main parties' posturing. (34) Indeed, most viewed politics as an elite preserve and viewed active or overt participation askance. (35) The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 forced many migrants to re-assess their tacit consent to government anti-communism. Some second-generation migrants looked forward eagerly to proving their loyalty to Australia, (36) but most accepted the need for action only with deep reservations. (37) More migrants participated in the anti-communist Fatima devotions than regularly attended church, (38) and the tour did unite the different ethnicities in the cosmopolitan north. This provided an important precedent for later public expressions of Catholic anti-communism. The most obvious example was the 1953 international Rosary Crusade led by the American Father Peyton. As the procession moved through the far northern town of Ingham from the Catholic Church to the Rotary Park, flag bearers carried a succession of Papal, Australian, British and Italian flags in a solemn procession of symbolic unity. (39)

Catholics who did participate in the Pilgrim Statue tour felt a profound sense of empowerment. Yet prior to the statue's arrival, few knew the apparitions' details. As one American couple commented prior to their pilgrimage to Fatima:

 What did we know about the prophecies of Fatima? You could sum it
 up in one sentence: Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to some
 children in the town of Fatima, Portugal, and asked the world to
 pray for peace. We were very vague about Russia's place in the
 story. (40)

The publicity prior to the statue's arrival undoubtedly increased awareness, but the statue's actual status remained unclear. The euphoria that surrounded its reception, and the literal application of pilgrimage narratives undoubtedly sanctified the statue. Unconfirmed rumours of miraculous healings gained widespread circulation throughout Queensland, and the number of people who kissed it in supplication and hope turned the statue's white base black. Queenslanders wrote to Duhig to secure special audiences with the statue, whilst others hoped the mere sight would cure them of ailments that ranged from terminal illnesses to aching joints. (41) Equally significant were the huge increases in visible faith that the statue caused. Although rarely articulated, many Catholics shared the view that:

 The Pilgrim Virgin conveys the moral presence of Our Lady. Moral
 presence is not the same as physical presence, but rather implies
 the effect [sic.] of her real presence. (42)

There was much confusion nonetheless, which Protestants took as further evidence of Catholic superstition and the dangers of Marian devotion.

The Catholic press tried to reduce misplaced veneration with only limited success. There was editorial inconsistency over the statue's status within even one issue of the Catholic Leader. One article describes hundreds of Brisbane's desperate Catholics 'gathered around in groups having their Rosary beads placed in contact with [the statue]'. (43) Whilst a later article in the same issue pleaded, 'it cannot be too emphatically or too insistently emphasised that all honour done to this, or in fact to any other statue, is in reality paid to the person whom the statue represents'. (44) Duhig had himself visited Fatima during his 1950 tour, but his comments at the time referred primarily to support for the Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar, and show little taste for theological intricacies. (45) The secular press however, deliberately focussed on the unprecedented size of crowds attracted by the tour, and their equally unprecedented reaction. The media was generally balanced in its comments, (46) but the Queensland Times was not alone in its condemnation that Catholics' reaction was 'approaching the idolatry of primitive peoples'. (47)

The pilgrimage outside the churches

 In a free community the carrying of images sacred to any sect or
 anything that calls for adoration from a particular sect is a
 direct incitement to disorder, to a violation of the individual
 conscience. (48)

Protestants certainly did not equate the use of Marian imagery with an invitation to national, patriotic discourse. They saw the statue's tour as misguided Marian devotion at best, and at worst as the provocative worship of icons. Over a number of weeks, the Queensland Times editorial witnessed protracted and vehement debates on icon worship. (49) It is revealing that the most frequent Catholic response was that the devotion was analogous to the respect shown to the king's portrait or flag. (50) Whether or not George VI's portrait ever elicited such an emotional response is open to question, but it is significant that Catholics responded so firmly with patriotic rhetoric. Catholics carefully emphasised that they were honouring a Marian devotion that focussed on anti-communism, rather than one of Mary's other manifestations.

Protestants rarely identified the Pilgrim Statue's anti-communist emphasis and reverted to Reformation narratives, rather than respond within inclusive nationalist parameters. The Anglican Church Chronicle quoted William Tyndale (1484-1536) to remonstrate Catholic 'superstition'. (51) The Presbyterians revelled in their own reliance on the Bible rather than gaudy images, (52) whilst the Chairman of the Queensland Council of Churches hoped the hysteria would give impetus to a second Reformation. (53) The Protestant response is unsurprising, since Marian devotion was the most easily recognisable of the sectarian boundary markers, and few Protestants cared to debate the Fatima devotion's specific emphasis.

As the statue entered each new town in triumph, it was transferred to a specially decorated float and driven reverently, with a long line of cars behind it. Catholics lined the streets, and prayed the Rosary or sang Marian hymns. Yet Australia had a proudly British identity, and public and civic space in the 1950s remained largely synonymous with Protestant space. Catholic Corpus Christi celebrations in the large show grounds of cities like Brisbane or Cairns were accepted through long association in public memory. In contrast, town centres throughout Queensland were civic and Protestant spaces. They were imbued with established community memories, which Protestant Britons carefully nurtured through religious and civic ceremonies like the Anglican Procession of Witness on Passion Sunday that culminated in Brisbane's King George Square, opposite the City Hall. The decision to shut down the state capital to facilitate the procession of an icon through its streets by "Irish" Catholics, was deeply resented and caused much anger. (54)

The message and effect of Mary's presence empowered Catholics to disregard Protestant protests and move beyond the boundaries of traditional Catholic space. The movement was both a literal and symbolic shift from the periphery to the centre that marked Catholics' increased confidence to participate in debates on national direction. With political and social discourse predicated on anti-communist fears, Catholics participated without any threat to their corporate identity. The Pilgrim Statue's presence propelled Catholics' anti-communist engagement beyond established sectarian divisions, as the only means to avoid the forthcoming cataclysmic war.

Our Lady of Fatima validated Catholic religious practices, and urged they be increased. (55) The pilgrimage did not ask that Catholics remain segregated from the evils of society, but instead urged that they proclaim their Catholicism to a wider audience. (56) Only by doing so could they defeat immoral communism. The Catholic argument emphasised that since communism was directed by the devil, only a spiritual movement could defeat it. (57) Once this premise was accepted, it was apparent to Catholics that their position most effectively articulated Australia's survival, and that Protestants damaged the national effort through their impiety. The core interpretation of Fatima's message was that communism could be defeated only by being 'in public, one hundred per cent Catholic [sic.]'. (58)

Catholic anti-communism in Queensland

Fatima's message had particular resonance for Queensland Catholics. There were serious concerns at communism's strength in the state's far north. The large numbers of migrants that worked there weakened Anglo-Celtic cultural dominance, and appeared to threaten society's mores. Post-war strikes had almost crippled the state, and appeared to confirm communists were a real threat. Fear of communism was heightened by the Liberal-Country parties' increasing use of anti-communist rhetoric against the ALP. (59) Conservatives used Christian narratives to elevate communism's prominence in political discourse, and to sustain the dichotomy between an isolated Australia's Western Christian heritage under threat from a resurgent communist East.

As China and south-east Asia fell under communist influence, the fear of international communism gained immediacy. The media reinforced public concerns that communist consolidation in Europe would be repeated in the Asia-Pacific region. The outbreak of the Korean War directly engaged Australian soldiers in the fight against the 'Communist hordes' to Australia's north. The defence of Queensland's relatively under-populated north was a source of intense concern, particularly so soon after the fear of invasion in the Second World War.

Fear of communism was especially dominant in Catholic discourse. The longevity and theological construct of Catholic anti-communism gave it a distinctive character. Its emphasis on a global contest between Catholics and communists encouraged local insecurities to be projected as part of a broader international situation. Papal pronouncements rarely made reference to national difference, and the Pilgrim Statue's global tour physically reinforced the notion of a single globally integrated battle. (60) Pope Pius XII maintained a steady flow of high profile media releases that evoked both the medieval Crusades and the apocalyptic language of the Spanish Civil War. (61) Such authoritative statements provided a distinctive context for Queensland Catholics' attitude to the local communist threat, and assigned the Fatima statue a catalytic role in Queenslanders' salvation.

Catholics in Queensland responded rapidly to the sense of global crisis. The high media exposure given to communist action against European Catholics amplified local Catholics' sense of vulnerability. The then Catholic-schoolgirl, Caty Kyne recalls how nuns projected European media reports onto Australian contexts, and taught the children that 'when the Communists come girls, the nuns will be swinging from the lamp-posts'. (62) Newspapers gave prominence to Cardinal Mindszenty's famous struggles in Hungary, before relating them to his (tangential) connections to Brisbane's Archbishop Duhig. (63) The prominence accorded to communist repression in Eastern Europe was common throughout the Australian and New Zealand Church. Local realities were frequently obscured by the transferral of international stereotypes, (64) as Catholic leaders asserted the Soviet Union was using misguided local workers to pursue its own foreign policy. (65)

Whilst it acknowledged the Asian threat, the archdiocesan Catholic Leader doubled its content on European Catholicism, particularly those regions where communists were most prominent. (66) Similar emphasis was found in regional diocesan papers. Mary's renewed centrality to Catholics' anti-communist response was seen in a series of articles on national Marian devotions, which ranged from the Polish Our Lady of Czestochowa to Our Lady of Korea, as well as Marian artwork in industrial France. (67) Narratives of Irish-Catholic identity rapidly gave way to the new European focus. Awareness that Catholicism was a global movement was not new, but the perception of a Church that was globally besieged had particular immediacy in Queensland. As Catholic confidence in the public articulation of their anti-communism increased, their self-perception shifted from that of a beleaguered minority, to part of a universal majority with a mandate for action.

Although Catholic Action had a long pedigree, its anti-communist application reached Queensland relatively late. Melbourne's 1930s Campion Society had little impact in the state. Queensland Catholics' mobilisation in support of Franco during the Spanish Civil War was also significantly less pronounced than in the southern states (as was the response of Anglo-Celtic Republican supporters). Archbishop Duhig had previously favoured discrete lobbying of politicians, but became increasingly concerned at post-war communist influence. Catholic Action in postwar Queensland became increasingly associated with Marian imagery of protection from both moral decline and communism. (69) Under lay impetus, churches began to add chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. (70) With his suffragan bishops, Duhig sought to expand lay organisations at parish levels, and cultivated good relations with Santamaria's embryonic Social Studies Movement. The Pilgrim Statue's emphasis on practical lay action to halt communism should not be divorced from the broader context of Santamaria's growing influence and the new models of action he encouraged Duhig to embrace.

Whilst the use of male social networks and masculine notions of conflict were central to Santamaria's crusade, much of Fatima's success relied on her feminine imagery. The communist threat to society facilitated female social action generally, and allowed women to reinterpret the models of restricted domesticity with which they were increasingly disenchanted. (71) Katherine Massam argues convincingly that Our Lady of Fatima fused an essentially feminine form of Marian devotion with a more pro-active masculine model of action. (72) Duhig's emphasis on social conservatism gave women a degree of individual agency to combat communism, outside the normal strictures of male supervision. The Pilgrim Statue's tour reaffirmed many of Duhig's concerns that only a strong and proactive family unit could defeat communist materialism.

The themes returned in the 1953 Rosary Crusade, which gave massive publicity to its slogan: 'The Family That Prays Together, Stays Together'. The Rosary Crusade used precedents set by Fatima, and combined private devotion with public affirmation for social renewal. (73) The 1953 Crusade in Queensland mirrored the Pilgrim Statue's progression throughout the state's dioceses, and used similar apocalyptic language of conflict between 'Peace' and 'Evil'. The large crowds that listened were, as with the Fatima tour, predominantly female and calculated to respond to rhetoric that proclaimed '[h]omes [to be] the fortresses of the Nation'. (74) The militant, crusader language associated with Our Lady of Fatima did not threaten feminine models of virtue, and imagery was associated closely with the protection of the innocent. Australian Marian images had already shifted away from the ethereal woman of the 1930s and 1940s, to a more assertive image of protection by the 1950s. (75) The Legion of Mary was central to both the Fatima tour and the Rosary Crusade, and described itself 'as a Legion for service in the warfare which is perpetually waged by the Church against the world and its evil powers'. (76) Marian imagery was at the centre of public Catholicism, and became more common throughout the 1950s. Actions like the public enthroning of Marian statues in Ingham's parks marked an aggressive move into the public arena. (77) This complemented the more assertive male organisations like Catholic Action that directed men to associate Our Lady of Fatima with the military defeat of communism.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Massam is the only scholar to have analysed an Australian section of the tour in any detail. Her analysis of the statue's reception in Adelaide rightly draws attention to the sheer number of devotees, of whom many were women. (78) Most would have empathised with the broader inter-denominational 'Call to the People of Australia' that in 1951 demanded 'a restoration of the moral order from which alone true social order can derive'. (79) As David Hilliard notes however, such cooperation between churches was rare, and protests were more normally organised within denominational boundaries. (80) Massam has rightly cautioned that there is little evidence to test gendered responses to the Fatima tour. (81) Photographs in the Courier Mail though, show church receptions were comprised almost entirely of women, and remained essentially female spaces. (82) This should be tempered by requests for the statue to tour military establishments, and by its popularity when it did so. (83)

Queensland's society was highly gendered, and single male migrants composed a large proportion of Queensland's far north. In contrast to the near-hysteria in urban areas of the southeast, Ayr's Catholic church in the northern region of the Burdekin filled only immediately prior to the service. Regional centres in the state's north were frequently areas of radical left-wing politics, and local communists were often so well-known that fears of anonymous communism lacked credibility. In towns like Ayr and Home Hill, the secular media ignored the anti-communist message and instead emphasised the statue's ecumenical call for 'a return to the Ten Commandments'. (84) Although the male Holy Name Society did attend the statue, most participants in services were nuns, female sodalities and children. (85)

Conclusion

Catholics' presence in public space during the tour altered how they viewed the urban landscape. Fatima's triumphal entries rested on the presumption that the town required renewal through dedication to Mary's Sacred Heart, and the ritual processions were calculated to sanctify public space in order to facilitate this. Catholic churches, schools and hospitals already topped many of Brisbane's prominent hills following Duhig's careful acquisitions. These church buildings were an unambiguous statement that challenged Protestant conceptions of Brisbane's public space, but they had remained islands of Catholicism. The Pilgrim Statue's processions questioned this introverted and contained Catholicism, and called on Catholics to assert themselves in public as well as private space. During the pilgrimage Brisbane had, temporarily at least, appeared to be a Catholic city. Archbishop Duhig commented, '[i]t seemed as if for the moment the whole city was in prayer'. (86) One South Australian woman commented that '[i]t was as if we lived in a Catholic land at last'. (87) The massive publicity, debates and processions forced Catholics to re-evaluate their relationship to the civic landscape, and their civic duties in the context of their religious identity.

Civic and public space was integral to Catholics' perception of their relationship with the state. The re-evaluation of their relationship to symbolic space, led Catholics to re-assess their religious identity within Queensland. A purely defensive and Irish identity could not be reconciled to the discourses that surrounded the Pilgrim Statue's tour. Nor could traditional introspection combat the growing threat to morality that communism was believed to pose. Lay Catholics' public assertions of anti-communism that followed the statue's tour were the first of a series of proactive attempts to counter local communists. Santamaria's Movement was not an aberration, but was part of a gradual renegotiation of Catholic civic identity, amplified by the international situation.

Catholics continued to test the boundaries that had hitherto constrained their public expressions of anti-communism throughout the 1950s. Indeed the decade witnessed some of the most damaging displays of sectarianism in Queensland's history, and caused the longstanding state Labor government to fall. From the early 1950s, ethnic prejudice was no longer the underlying source of religious tension. The question of sectarianism was articulated in the context of the 'Communist threat', and the valid extent of Catholic action in the public sphere to combat it. The Queensland section of the tour by the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima offers a clear example of a transitional period in Catholic identity, as models of political and social behaviour moved away from Irish ethnicity towards a focus on Australian anti-communism.

University of Queensland

Notes

(1) Max Charlesworth, Paul Ormonde and Xavier Connor, Santamaria: The Politics of Fear: Critical Reflections, Melbourne, 2000; Ross Fitzgerald, Adam Carr and William J. Dealy, The Pope's Battalions: Santamaria, Catholicism and the Labor Split, Brisbane, 2003; Katherine Massam, 'The Blue Army and the Cold War: anti-communist devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Australia', Australian Historical Studies 24, no. 97, 1991.

(2) For a rare analysis, see Katherine Massam, 'Representing Active Discipleship: images of the Madonna in twentieth century Australia', Australian Feminist Studies 13, no. 28, 1998.

(3) Courier Mail, 5 June 1951.

(4) Courier Mail, 6 June 1951.

(5) Queensland had the highest proportion of Catholics of all the states; only the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory had higher proportions. Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, Vol. 3, Part 2, Table 32, 1954.

(6) K. Nelson and D. Nelson (eds), Sweet Mothers, Sweet Maids: Journeys from Catholic Childhoods, Melbourne, 1986, p. 16.

(7) Edmund Campion, 'Irish Religion in Australia', Australasian Catholic Record, 55, no. 1, 1978, p. 7.

(8) T.P. Boland, James Duhig, Brisbane, p. 322.

(9) D. Hilliard, 'A Church on Every Hill: Religion in Brisbane in the 1950s', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland XIV, no. 6, 1991, p. 243.

(10) D. Hilliard, 'Popular Religion in Australia in the 1950s: a study of Adelaide and Brisbane', Journal of Religious History 15, no. 2, 1988, p. 222.

(11) Catholic Leader, 14 February 1935; Catholic Leader, 15 February 1951.

(12) Letter to Duhig, 14 June 1951, Fatima File, Brisbane Catholic Archives (BCA).

(13) Courier Mail, 2 March 1953; Queensland Times (QT), 7 May 1956.

(14) T. P. Boland, James Duhig, p. 339.

(15) Catholic Leader, 7 March 1946.

(16) Catholic Leader, 31 May 1951.

(17) Our Lady of Fatima Magazine, February 1950, Fatima File, BCA.

(18) For more detail see V. Montes de Oca, More About Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Dublin, 1945.

(19) Thomas Kselman, and Steven Avella, 'Marian Piety and the Cold War in the United States', Catholic Historical Review 72, no. 3, 1986, p. 422.

(20) Catholic Leader, 24 May 1951.

(21) T. P. Boland, James Duhig p. 338.

(22) For another example of the isolation felt by Australian Catholics refer to their presentation to the Pope by Duhig during their 1950 tour, Boland, p. 338.

(23) Catholic Leader, 22 February 1951.

(24) Our Lady of Fatima Magazine, February 1950, Fatima File, BCA.

(25) Nelson and Nelson, Sweet Mothers, Sweet Maids p. 88.

(26) Kieran Flanagan, Seen and Unseen: visual culture, sociology and theology, Basingstoke, 2004, p. 23.

(27) Letter to Duhig, 26 June 1951, Fatima File, BCA.

(28) Cairns Post, 4 July 1951.

(29) Bianka Vidonja Balazategui, Portrait of a Parish: a history of Saint Patrick's church and parish, Ingham 1864-1996, Toowoomba, 1998, p. 31.

(30) Don Dignan, 'Archbishop James Duhig and Italians and Italy', in Ian Grosart and Silvio Tramaiolo (eds), Altro Polo: studies in contemporary Italy, Sydney, 1988, p. 165.

(31) The Festival of the Three Saints in Silkwood was started by Sicilians in 1950 after many years of lobbying, and the Festival of St Gerard Majella in Tully was started in 1955. Both provided templates for similar later festivals in Atherton, Mareeba and Ingham.

(32) Mary Quagliata, Letter to author, 16 February 2006.

(33) Katherine Massam, 'Representing Active Discipleship', p. 235.

(34) Ramon Ribes, Interview with author, 27 November 2004.

(35) Maria Trapp and Vince Cuartero, Interview with author, 31 August 2007.

(36) Stan Onaindia, Interview with author, 26 November 2004.

(37) Maria Trapp, Interview with author, 26 November 2004.

(38) Father Natali, Interview with Italo-Australian Research Project, 13 October 1997.

(39) Townville Catholic News, 1 October 1953.

(40) April Armstrong and Martin Armstrong, Fatima: pilgrimage to peace, London, 1955, p. 13.

(41) Letter to Duhig, 14 May 1951, Fatima File, BCA.

(42) Francis Johnstone, Fatima: the great sign, Washington, 1980, p. 124.

(43) Catholic Leader, 7 June 1951.

(44) Catholic Leader, 7 June 1951.

(45) Catholic Leader, 24 August 1950.

(46) Delta Advocate, 22 June 1951.

(47) Queensland Times, 4 June 1951.

(48) Queensland Times, 7 June 1951.

(49) Series of fourteen open letters to the editor both for and against the tour, Queensland Times, 4 June to 14 June 1951.

(50) Delta Advocate, 22 June 1951.

(51) Church Chronicle, 1 June 1951.

(52) Presbyterian Outlook, 1 July 1951.

(53) Queensland Times, 11 June 1951.

(54) Queensland Times, 7 June 1951.

(55) John M. Haffert, Russia Will Be Converted, Washington, 1956, p. 170.

(56) Address by Pope Pius XII on the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Quoted in J. de Marchi, The True Story of Fatima, St Paul, Minnesota, 1952, p. 338.

(57) Our Lady of Fatima Magazine, February 1950, Fatima File, BCA.

(58) Address by the Papal Legate at the Coronation of the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, 13 May 1946. Quoted in Marchi, p. 349.

(59) J. Warhurst, The 'Communist Bogey': communism as an election issue in Australian federal politics, 1949-1964, PhD thesis, Flinders University, 1977, p. 169.

(60) The Papal Address on the Consecration of the World to Our Lady of Fatima, 1942. Quoted in Chanoine Barthas, and G. Fonseca, Our Lady of Light: the worldwide message of Fatima, Dublin, 1947, Appendix 3; Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam, 1954, http://www.vatican.va/ holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/ hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam_en.html, accessed 25 September 2007.

(61) Pius XII, Mirabile Illud, 1950, http://www.vatican.va/boly_father/ pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_06121950_mirabile-illud_en.html, accessed 25 September 2007.

(62) Nelson and Nelson, Sweet Mothers Sweet Maids, p. 149.

(63) Catholic Leader, 7 June 1951.

(64) Nicholas Reid, 'Struggle for Souls: Catholicism and communism in twentieth century New Zealand', Australian Historical Studies, No. 128, 2006, p. 78.

(65) Barbara Webster, "To Fight against the Horrible Evil of Communism': Catholics, community and the movement in Rockhampton, 1943-57', Labour History, No. 81, 2001, p. 156.

(66) A comparison of Catholic Leader in the first six months of 1951, 1946 and 1935 (1936 not extant), shows content on European communism doubled, largely at the expense of articles with Irish and more general European content. Articles on Asian communism increased from 4 to 17 but remained under a third of those devoted to European communism, whilst articles on Asian missionary activity declined markedly.

(67) The series ran in Catholic Leader throughout 1951.

(68) Report of the Spanish Relief Campaign, 8 December 1937, P15-7-2, Noel Butlin Archive Centre.

(69) Elizabeth Vandeleur, Steps Along the Way: St Clare's parish and school, Tully 75th anniversary, self-published, 2003, p. 76.

(70) Courier Mail, 9 September 1957.

(71) H. M. Carey, Truly Feminine, truly Catholic: a history of the Catholic Women's League in the Archdiocese of Sydney, 1913-87, Sydney, 1987, p. 86.

(72) Katherine Massam, Sacred Threads: catholics' spirituality in Australia, 1922-1962, Sydney, 1996, p. 94.

(73) Catholic Leader, 24 September 1953.

(74) Townville Catholic News, 1 October 1953.

(75) Katherine Massam, 'Representing Active Discipleship', p. 240.

(76) Legio Mariae: the official handbook of the Legion of Mary, Dublin, 1962, p. 1.

(77) Townsville Catholic News, 1 October 1953.

(78) Katherine Massam, 'Representing Active Discipleship', p. 235.

(79) D. Hilliard, 'Church, Family and Sexuality in Australia in the 1950s', Australian Historical Studies 28, no. 109, 1997, p. 133.

(80) D. Hilliard, 'Church, Family and Sexuality', p. 135.

(81) Katherine Massam, 'The Blue Army and the Cold War', p. 427.

(82) Courier Mail, 5 June 1951.

(83) Catholic Leader, 12 July 1951.

(84) Delta Advocate, 22 June 1951.

(85) Delta Advocate, 2 July 1951.

(86) Catholic Leader, 7 June 1951.

(87) D. Hilliard, 'Popular Religion in Australia in the 1950s', p. 223.