Two Irishmen, Peter Dillon at Paris and Thomas Poynton at Hokianga, share the honour for drawing the attention of the missionary authorities in Rome to the needs of Roman Catholics in New Zealand and the Pacific islands. Dillon, an East Indiaman captain, began trading in the Pacific in 1809 and came to know it thoroughly. He was acquainted with the activities of Protestant missionaries and fully aware of the disabilities being suffered by Catholics, especially in Australia. (The Catholic Emancipation Act was not passed in Britain till 1829.) On visiting Paris, to claim the reward for discovering the fate of the La Pérouse expedition, Dillon met a Monseigneur de Solages who was interested in the reports of navigators in the Pacific and keen to find an opportunity to visit it. Dillon, now a Chevalier of France and a man of influence, put forward a plan to the French authorities whereby missionaries would be carried on trading and naval ships to various territories in South America, and to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. At the same time Dillon presented his plan to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome through Cardinal de Croy, President of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in France. The Roman authorities approved of the plan on 22 December 1829 and authorised de Solages to begin the work with headquarters at Réunion.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the world, Thomas Poynton left Sydney in 1828 for Hokianga to begin trading in timber. Hearing in 1835 of the arrival of Bishop Polding in Sydney, Poynton went to see if the services of a priest could be obtained for the Catholics, about 20 in number, in the Hokianga district. The bishop sent Poynton's request to Rome, not knowing at the time that Rome had already decided in 1833 to set up in the Pacific the Vicariate of Western Oceania, which would include all islands south of the Equator lying between the meridians of the Cook Islands and the east coast of Australia.
The Vicar Apostolic was John Baptist Pompallier, who on 30 June 1836 had been consecrated titular Bishop of Maronea. With four priests of the Society of Mary and three brothers as companions, he sailed from Le Havre on 24 December 1836. Father Bret died in mid-Atlantic; Father Bataillon and Brother Luzy were left at Wallis Island to begin missionary work. Father Chanel (martyred on 28 April 1841 and canonised in 1954) and Brother Delorme were similarly left at Futuna. Bishop Pompallier with Father Servant, S.M., and Brother Colomban Michael arrived at Hokianga on 10 January 1838, to be welcomed by Poynton and his family.
The Bishop began his mission at Hokianga but in 1839 transferred his headquarters to Kororareka. With the arrival of more missionaries from France he began to extend his work, visiting in 1840 even distant Otago. By 1844 he had founded stations at Whangaroa, Tauranga, Rotorua, Matamata, Whakatane, Opotiki, Kaipara, Auckland, Wellington, and Akaroa. At Auckland and Kororareka he established schools for both Maoris and Europeans, the one at Auckland, opened in 1841, being the first in the town. In 1841–42 he visited Wallis, Futuna, Fiji, and Tonga.
After Waitangi, and the establishment of British sovereignty in 1840, the increasing number of settlers and their demands for ministrations created great difficulties. The area which Western Oceania embraced was too vast for fruitful administration and in 1842 Rome made New Zealand an independent vicariate. The rest of the area was named Central Oceania and placed under Bishop Bataillon as Vicar Apostolic. He was given as coadjutor Bishop William Douarre, of the Society of Mary, who made New Caledonia the centre for his work. Douarre received as one of his temporary staff Father Philip Viard, S.M., who had come to New Zealand in 1839 where he was stationed at Russell, Tauranga, and, later, at Wallis Island. Bishop Pompallier recalled Viard from New Caledonia as he wished to have him as his coadjutor. Arriving in Sydney in October 1845 Viard received from his bishop the news of his appointment, and the following January was consecrated by Archbishop Polding, returning to New Zealand with Pompallier a few days later.
In 1846 Bishop Pompallier left for Europe, and following on his report to Pope Pius IX and the Congregation of Propaganda, New Zealand was in 1848 divided into two dioceses, that of Auckland being the province of Auckland, and that of Wellington comprising the rest of New Zealand. Bishop Viard was to remain coadjutor to Pompallier, with his residence in Wellington and be Administrator Apostolic of that diocese.
Hone Heke's rising at Kororareka in 1845 led Pompallier to decide to make Auckland his headquarters, and Bishop Viard dedicated St. Patrick's Cathedral there in March 1848, just two years after he had laid the first stone. When Pompallier returned to New Zealand, in April 1850, he brought to Auckland several French and Irish missionaries, and the first Sisters of Mercy. These were from St. Leo's Convent, Carlow, Ireland, and they began immediately to take over the existing parish schools and founded an orphanage.
Progress in Auckland diocese was hampered through the departure of the Marist missionaries, many of whom accompanied Bishop Viard to Wellington in May 1850 when he left to assume his duties as Administrator Apostolic of the southern diocese. Pompallier's new missionaries faced great difficulties in taking over from the Marist pioneers as they had to learn a new language for the Maori work and meet increasing demands from the growing number of immigrants. Had it not been for the heroic work of Dr James McDonald, all the work of the early missionaries among the Maoris might have been lost.
To recruit more assistants and gain financial help, Bishop Pompallier again visited Europe in 1859, returning in 1860 with fresh helpers, including members of the Franciscan Order who for 10 years did valued work in Auckland diocese, and Suzanne Aubert, later foundress of New Zealand's own Order of Our Lady of Compassion.
By a papal brief of July 1860 Pompallier was made Bishop of Auckland. At the same time Viard was made Bishop of Wellington and ceased to be Pompallier's coadjutor.
Land disputes, followed in 1860 by warfare in Taranaki and later in the Waikato, along with the Hauhau outbreak, caused distrust between Maori and European for many years. The transfer of the capital from Auckland to Wellington, and financial depressions, brought unending problems for Pompallier, who left for Europe in 1868 and resigned his see in 1869. He was made a titular Archbishop in recognition of his valiant work. He retired to Paris where he lived through the Franco-Prussian War, doing much pastoral work until he died on 21 December 1871.
A Capuchin priest, Father J. J. P. O'Reily, who came to New Zealand in 1843, cared for the Roman Catholics of Wellington and built their first chapel. In 1844 Father Comte, S.M., was sent by Bishop Pompallier to take charge of the missionary work among the Maoris of the district.
Bishop Viard laid the foundation stone of St. Mary's Cathedral, Hill Street, in September 1850, just four months after his arrival in Wellington. Within two years he founded schools and a providence for Maori girls, this work being cared for first by Viard's own Congregation of Sisters, and from 1861 by Sisters of Mercy sent from Auckland. During the sixties people throughout the diocese, especially those on the goldfields of Otago and Westland, contributed generously for the enlargement and completion of the cathedral – first opened in 1851 and in its enlarged state dedicated in 1867. It was destroyed by fire in 1898 and the present Sacred Heart Basilica was erected on the former cathedral site in 1901.
From 1850 Bishop Viard sent priests occasionally to visit Otago and Southland. The first resident missionary, Father Delphine Moreau, S.M., sent by Viard in 1861 to found the Otago mission, laid in 1862 the foundation stone of St. Joseph's Church, a brick building still standing and serving as a school, near the site of the present St. Joseph's Cathedral. Bishop Viard blessed the church in October 1864.
In 1869 Otago and Southland were separated from the see of Wellington and erected into the diocese of Dunedin. The first Bishop, Patrick Moran, was at the time of his appointment Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern Province of Cape Colony, South Africa, and came to New Zealand in February 1871. Accompanying him were Father W. Coleman and 10 Dominican nuns who were to open the first of a series of schools in the new diocese. The Catholics in the diocese numbered about 6,000 at the time and under Moran's vigorous leadership built St. Joseph's Cathedral, 25 new churches, and 17 schools, besides several presbyteries and convents.
Bishop Viard died on 2 June 1872. To succeed him a Marist priest, Francis Redwood, was consecrated in London in March 1874, and arrived in New Zealand in November of that year. By papal brief of 13 May 1887 the see of Wellington was erected into an archdiocese, and Bishop Redwood was elevated to the office of Archbishop and Metropolitan of New Zealand.
In 1889 the first Marist House of Studies was founded in Wellington under Father J. B. Pestre, S.M. This seminary was in 1890 shifted to Meeanee where the first ordinations to the priesthood took place in 1893. The seminary was changed to Green-meadows in 1911, where besides providing priests for the Society of Mary in New Zealand, it also sends missionaries each year to work in the Marist Vicariates of Oceania.
With the separation of the ecclesiastical province of New Zealand from Australia, it became necessary for a provincial council to be held, and Archbishop Redwood convened the First Provincial Council at Wellington in 1899. Among other decisions taken was the setting up of a National Seminary for Diocesan Clergy. The founding of the Seminary of Holy Cross at Mosgiel in the diocese of Dunedin was undertaken by Bishop Verdon, of Dunedin. In 1913 Archbishop Redwood asked for and received Thomas O'Shea, S.M., as his coadjutor. Consecrated in 1913, Archbishop O'Shea succeeded to the see of Wellington on 3 January 1935, following on the death of Archbishop Redwood on that date.
In 1940, on the occasion of the Dominion Centenary, Archbishop O'Shea organised the First National Eucharistic Congress which but for the war would have been presided over by Cardinal Hinsley, of Westminister, as Cardinal Legate.
St. Columban's Seminary, Lower Hutt, was opened in May 1943 to train young men from New Zealand for the foreign missions. St. Columban's Mission Society has three mission districts in China (closed at present), four districts in the Philippines, two in Korea, four in Japan, one in Burma, and has charge of parishes in Fiji, Chile, and Peru.
In 1947 Peter McKeefry was appointed coadjutor of Wellington, being consecrated at Auckland by Cardinal Gilroy, of Sydney, and on the death of Archbishop O'Shea, on 9 May 1954, he succeeded to the see of Wellington.
On 23 May 1962 Owen Noel Snedden was appointed titular Bishop of Acheloo and Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington, and was consecrated 22 August 1962.
As successor to Bishop Pompallier, Rome nominated Thomas William Croke, who arrived in Auckland in 1870. He at once set about reorganising the work of the Church and accomplished much in four years. He was transferred to the see of Cashel, Ireland, in 1875 and died there in 1902. Auckland was without a bishop until 1879 when Archbishop Steins, S.J., a former Archbishop of Bombay, was appointed. He died in Sydney in 1881 and was succeeded by John Edmund Luck, an English Benedictine. During his 13 years in Auckland Bishop Luck revived the Maori Mission, confiding it to the care of the Missionary Society of St. Joseph of Mill Hill, London. When Bishop Luck died, in 1896, the next bishop was George Michael Lenihan, a priest of the diocese of Auckland, who ruled it until 1910, being then succeeded by Henry William Cleary who died in 1929. Bishop Cleary's successor is the present Bishop, Archbishop James Michael Liston, who from being Rector of the National Seminary at Mosgiel was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Cleary in 1920. Bishop Liston succeeded to the see in 1929, and in 1954, on the occasion of his golden jubilee in the priesthood, was appointed to the personal title and dignity of Archbishop, and three years later was given an auxiliary in the person of Reginald Delargey, a priest of the diocese of Auckland.
An outstanding event in the history of Auckland and for the Church in New Zealand was the centennial celebrations in Auckland and Hokianga to commemorate the arrival of Bishop Pompallier and the celebration of his first mass at Totara Point in 1838.
Akaroa Station, without a resident priest after 1851, was with other parts of Canterbury visited at intervals from Wellington. In 1860 Viard sent Fathers Seon and Chataigner, both Marists, to found the “Port Cooper Mission”. From the headquarters, established in Christchurch, further stations were gradually set up. Father Chataigner founded schools, introducing into the South Island the first teaching order of nuns, Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, who opened their first school in Christchurch in 1868. As a result of the request of the Bishops of the Plenary Synod, held in Sydney in 1885, Rome created the diocese of Christchurch by papal brief of 10 May 1887. An English Marist, John J. Grimes, was appointed first bishop and consecrated in London on 26 July 1887. A zealous worker, he developed further the works of the Church, and, with the aid of donations from all parts of the world, he built the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament at a cost of £80,000 and dedicated it in 1905.
On his death, in 1915, Bishop Grimes was succeeded by Matthew J. Brodie, a priest of Auckland diocese, who was consecrated in Christchurch by the first Apostolic Delegate to Australia and New Zealand, Archbishop Cerretti, later Nuncio to France and a Cardinal. Bishop Brodie died in 1943 and his successor was Patrick Frances Lyons, a priest of the archdiocese of Melbourne. In 1950 Bishop Lyons was appointed auxiliary to Cardinal Gilroy, of Sydney, and as his successor Rome appointed Edward Michael Joyce, a priest of the diocese of Christchurch.
The increasing work of the Church in New Zealand led the Bishops to decide in 1946 on the division of the studies in seminary training. Accordingly, in 1947, the National Minor Seminary as the centre for philosophical studies was opened in Christchurch and its care committed to the Society of Jesus.
Bishop Moran died in Dunedin, May 1895, and was succeeded by Michael Verdon, of the archdiocese of Dublin. Canon Verdon was a nephew of Cardinal Cullen, of Dublin, and a cousin of Cardinal Moran, of Sydney. Before coming to New Zealand he had been on the staff of Clonliffe College (Dublin Diocesan Seminary), Vice-Rector of the Irish College, Rome, and first Rector of Manly College, Sydney. He undertook the founding of the National Seminary at Mosgiel in 1900, and was its first president. Until 1934 the seminary professors were chosen from diocesan priests of New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. Priests of the Congregation of the Missions (Vincentians) from Australia took charge of the National Major Seminary in 1934.
On the death of Bishop Verdon, in 1918, James Whyte, of the archdiocese of Sydney, was appointed to Dunedin. In 1942 he asked for a coadjutor, and Hugh J. O'Neill, of the diocese of Dunedin, was nominated and consecrated in 1943. A sudden decline in health caused Bishop O'Neill to resign (died 1955), and John P. Kavanagh, of the archdiocese of Wellington, was consecrated as coadjutor. On the death of Bishop Whyte, in 1957, Bishop Kavanagh succeeded to the see.
Apart from its schools, the Church's growth has not been spectacular, but one, nevertheless, of steady development. Fifty years after Pompallier's arrival, Roman Catholics numbered 79,000, approximately one-seventh of the total population. The proportion is about the same now, but over the years original works have become intensified and new ones begun. Prominent in the educational field, the Church has in its schools almost one-tenth of the total primary and post-primary pupils of the country.
Through its secondary schools, university hostels, and training schools, the Church has its place in the development of the islands and countries bordering the Pacific. Pupils from these territories on finishing secondary courses go on to the universities or teachers' training colleges. In Auckland, Loreto Hall (founded from Craiglockhart, Scotland) and the Marist Brothers' House of Studies are helping in the growth of schools in the Pacific. Similar work is being done at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Auckland, and Calvary Hospital, Christchurch, in the training of nurses. As members of missionary societies and religious orders, New Zealand Roman Catholics are engaged in the world's major mission fields.
The strained religious relations marking the first days of the Church's entry into the country have long passed, and in inter-denominational societies, social, civic, and national bodies, Roman Catholics are represented and take an active part.
The denominational papers are the Tablet and the Zealandia.
| Maori | European | |
| Male | 28,56 | 180,655 |
| Female | 183,443 | |
| Total | 28,656 | 364,098 |
| Parishes | 261 | ||
| Churches | 517 | ||
| Clergy | M | 1,091 | |
| F | 2,456 | ||
| 3,547 |
| No. | Pupils | Teachers | |
| Primary | 273 | 50,693 | 1,264 |
| Secondary | 69 | 13,808 | 513 |
| Post-secondary— | |||
| Loreto Hall Teachers' | |||
| Training College | 1 | 30 | Lectures — Religious of the Sacred Heart Order |
| Seminaries | 3 | 238 | 20 |
by Peter Thomas Bertram McKeefry, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington.