Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/330

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PORT-AU-PRINCE


284


PORTER


Right Rev. John O'Reily, D.D. (to-day Arch- bishop of Adelaide), consecrated by Cardinal Moran at Sydney 1 May, 1888, was the first Bishop of Port Augusta. His chief work was hquidating the dio- cesan debts, especially that of the cathedral. He introduced the Sisters of the Good Samaritan from Sydney to Port Pirie in 1890. On 5 January, 1895, he was transferred to Adelaide as archbishop. The second bishop, Right Rev. James Maher, D.D. (d. at Pekina, 20 December, 1905), first vicar-general, then administrator scHe vacante, was consecrated at Ade- laide. 26 April, 1896. His episcopate was marked by a succession of fully nine years of drought, which ex- tended over the larger portion of the diocese. Owing to this disaster it was impossible to make much material progress, but the finances of the see were kept steadily in view. The third bishop and present occupant of the see. Right Rev. John Henr\- Norton, D.D. (b. at Ballarat, Victoria, 31 Dec, 1855), was consecrated at Adelaide, 9 December, 1906. He is the first native of Ballarat to be ordained priest, the first Victorian, and the third Australian, native to be raised to the episcopate. He received his early edu- cation in that city and afterwards engaged in the study and practice of architecture for four years. In 1872 he entered St. Patrick's College, Melbourne, became an undergraduate of Melbourne University, and, on 10 June, 1876, received minor orders from Archbi.shop Goold. Early in 1878 he became affili- ated to the then Diocese of Adelaide under Right Rev. C. A. Reynolds, D.D., and was sent by him to Europe to finish his stvidies. After a year at St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny, Ireland, he was admitted to Propaganda College, Rome, and was ordained by Cardinal Monaco la Valetta in St. John Lateran's, 8 April, 1882. Returning to Adelaide, Februarj-,

1883, he was engaged at the cathedral until January,

1884, when he was appointed first resident priest of the new district of Petersburg, where he has resided ever since. He was made diocesan consultor in 1894, vncar-general under Dr. Maher, 2 May, 1896, admin- istrator sede fncante on the latter's death, and ap- pointed bishop, 18 August, 1906. He was consecrated in St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral, Adelaide, by Most Rev. Michael Kelly, D.D., Coadjutor Archbishop of Sydney on 9 December, 1906. As parish priest he erected a church, presbyterj', school, and convent at Petersburg, also churches at Dawson, Xackara, Lan- celot, Yongala, Teetulpa, Renmark, Farina, and other places. He published three "Reports on the liabili- ties of the Diocese". He has recently completed a successful campaign for the final liquidation of the cathedral and Kooringa church debts. During his episcopate churches have been erected at Warner- town, Hammond, and \\'ilmington, and convents at Caltowie, Jamestown, and Georgetown.

The diocese is di\'ided into nine districts (not including the West Coast from Talia to West Aus- tralia, which is visited from Port Lincoln in the arch- diocese), namely. Port Augusta, Carrieton, Hawker, Georgetown, Jamestown, Kooringa. Pekina, Peters- burg, and Port Pirie. There are 10 diocesan priests, 34 churches, two religious orders of women — the Sisters of St. Joseph, numbering 33, and the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, numbering 9. The former have con- vents and primary schools in Port .\ugusta, Gladstone, Jamestoma, Caltowie, Kooringa, Pekina, Quorn, Georgetown, and Petersburg; the latter are estab- lished at Port Pirie only, where they manage two pri- mary schools, including a boarding and select school. The children in these thirteen schools number 754. The Society of Jesus had resident missionary priests at Port Pirie, Kooringa, Georgetown, and Jamestown, long before the formation of the territorj' into a new diocese. As circumstances permitted, they relin- quislu'd Port Pirie in November, 1890, Kooringa in September, 1899, and Jamestown and Georgetown


in September, 1900. Schools are maintained in 24 different places, the aggregate cost of salaries and general maintenance being estimated at £27,500 in the last twenty years, the original cost of the build- ings at £18,250, or a total expenditure of £45,750 by the CathoUc population, which, according to the census of 1901, is estimated at 11,953.

Auslralasian Catholic Directory; O'Reily. Maher, Norton, Reports on the liabilities of the Diocese of Port Augusta (published between 18S9-1907).

John H. Norton.

Port-au-Prince, Archdiocese of (Portcs Prin- cipis), comprises the western part of the Republic of Haiti. Its population numbers about 668,700, mostly Catholics, the greater part of whom have but a slight knowledge of their religion, and are scattered over a surface of about 3080 sq. miles. The archdiocese was created bj' the Bull of 3 June, 1861, and has ever since had a clergy almost exclusively French. In the eigh- teenth century the territorj- of the present archdiocese was served by the Dominicans, and after the P'rench Revolution was left in the hands of unworthy clergy, who were driven out after the Concordat of 1860. The archdiocese has had five archbishops: Mgrs Testard du Cosquer (1863-69); Guilloux (1870-S5); Hillion (1886-90); Tonti (1894-1902); Conan (1903). In Januarj', 1906, Most Rev. Julian Conan held the first pro\-incial council of Haiti whose acts were approved by the Congregation of the Council, 3 August, 1907. Fourteen diocesan synods have also been held and their acts and statutes have regularly been published. The seminarj- for senior students is in France (St. Jacques, Finistere), and there is a seminar\--col1ege at Port-au-Prince directed by the Fathers of the Holy Ghost with 500 pupils. About an equal number of boys receive their instruction at the Institution St. Louis de Gonzague, kept by the Brothers of Christian Instruction. There are two secondary establishments for girls: Ste Rose de Lima, directed by the Sisters of St. Joseph de Cluny, and Notre Dame du Sacrc-Coeur, directed by the Filles de la Sagesse. The province has a monthly religious bul- letin published at Port-au-Prince. Archbishop Guil- loux has left a valuable work for the history of the archdiocese and of the province, "Le Concordat d'Haiti, ses resultats", a pamphlet of twenty-eight pages relating to the origin of the different diocesan works. The metropolitan church has honorary canons, not constituting a chapter, and named by the archbishop. The archdiocese (1911) has 24 parishes, 140 rural chapels; priests, 55 secular, 42 regular; 67 Brothers of Instruction; 192 sisters.

A. Cabor.

Port de la Paix. See Cap Haitien, Diocese op.

Porter, doorkeeper (ostiarius, Lat. ostium, a door), denoted among the Romans the slave whose duty it was to guard the entrance of the house. In the Roman period all houses of the better class had an ostiarius, or ostiarj', whose duties were considered verj' in- ferior. When, from the end of the second century, the Christian communities began to own houses for holding church ser\ices and for purposes of admin- istration, church ostiaries are soon mentioned, at least for the larger cities. They are first referred to in the letter of Pope Cornelius to Bishop Fabius of Antioch written in 251 (Eusebius, "H. E.", VI, 43), where it is said that there were then at Rome 46 priests, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acoljies, and 52 exorcists, lectors, and ostiaries, or doorkeepers. According to the statement of the "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 155) an ostiar\- named Romanus suffered martyrdom in 258 at the same time as St. Lawrence. In ^^'estern Europe the office of the ostiary was the lowest grade of the minor clergy. In a law of 377 of the Codeif Theodosianua (Lib! XVI, tit. II, num.