Being Scottish in an Irish Catholic Church in a Scottish Presbyterian Settlement: Otago's Scottish Catholics, 1848–1895

Abstract

This article examines the contribution of Scottish Catholics to the development of Catholicism in Otago, New Zealand in the later nineteenth century. In particular it looks at the curious position they occupied in a colony defined by the religious and national identity of its founding group: Scottish Presbyterians from the Free Church. For over two decades a nascent Catholic Church in Otago was led by Scots and ministered to by French missionaries. As the colony progressed, however, and its population became more heterogeneous, this pioneer Scots Catholic leadership was sidelined. From 1871 an overwhelmingly Irish Catholic community was led by Bishop Patrick Moran who played on national and religious loyalties to fuse an Irish and Catholic identity among his flock. Scots nonetheless continued to make a distinctive contribution to Catholicism in southern New Zealand, adapting to the Irish flavour of the colonial Church but bringing to it useful elements from their Scottish background.