Talks commenced between The Most Reverend Dr Daniel Mannix (Archbishop of Melbourne) and Fr William Cagney OMI (Provincial Oblates Australia) about the possibility of a new secondary College located in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne being established and operated by the religious order known as the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Oblates).
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate were founded by a Catholic priest named Eugene de Mazenod in Aix-en-Provence, France in the early 1800’s and were officially approved as a new congregation in 1826 by Pope Leo XII. Their mission to Australia commenced in 1894 when Frs Roger Hennessy OMI and Daniel O’Ryan OMI arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Photo L-R: Fr William Cagney OMI (Provincial Oblates Australia) with His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Cooray OMI (Archbishop of Colombo) at Penshurst, Sydney, November 1968.