Religion - Year 9 - The Catholic Church in Australia: First Mass Celebrated by Fr Dixon 1803

James Dixon (1758–1840) Biography - Roman Catholic priest, was born at Castlebridge, County Wexford, Ireland, into a family in comfortable circumstances. He was educated by a neighbouring parish priest and later at Salamanca and Louvain, where he completed his course in 1784 and became curate at Crossabeg parish, near Wexford. There he was arrested in 1798 under suspicion of taking part in the Irish rebellion and of having commanded a company of rebels at Tubberneering. He was tried by court martial and convicted on shaky evidence. According to Dr Caulfield, bishop of Ferns, he was probably mistaken for his brother Nicholas, who took an active part in the rebellion. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but was reprieved conditional on his being transported for life. Dixon arrived in New South Wales in the Friendship on 16 January 1800...

The Fascinating History of Australia's First Mass, and the Priest who Celebrated it - The first-ever Catholic Mass in Australia was celebrated by a wrongly convicted priest, Fr. James Dixon...

 
Fr James Dixon, Parramatta Pioneer - Fr James Dixon was a prisoner priest in the early Colony of New South Wales and said the first Mass sanctioned by the government. The proclamation was read at Government House, Parramatta, and the first Mass was celebrated in Sydney on 15 May 1803...

Catholics in Australia: The First Priests - It was not until 1800 that the first priests arrived in the colony -- as convicts! One of these, James Dixon, was granted conditional emancipation and permission to say Mass for the Catholics of Sydney, Liverpool and Parramatta on successive Sundays, a practice that continued from 1803 until March 1804, when the Castle Hill rebellion so alarmed Governor King that he withdrew Dixon's privileges. ...