Archbishop Daniel Mannix (1864-1963)

Born in Ireland, Daniel Mannix studied at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and was ordained a priest in 1890. He was then assigned to the seminary faculty, and from 1903 to 1912 he was named president. In 1912 he was named an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, Australia, and in 1917 he became Archbishop of Melbourne. He aroused controversy in his push for state aid to parochial schools. An ardent Irish nationalist, he spoke around the world on behalf of Irish freedom. After World War II Mannix sought to stop Communist infiltration of the Australian trade unions; he played a controversial part in the dissensions within the Australian Labor Party and backed the Catholic Democratic Labor Party, which broke away. A promoter of Catholic Action (i.e., lay apostolic activity in the temporal society) and of the Catholic social movement, he is responsible for having established 181 schools, including Newman College and St. Mary’s College at the University of Melbourne, and 108 parishes. Mannix was one of the most influential figures in Australian Church history. He insisted on a greater role for Catholics in society and he pushed for educational and political justice
(From Encyclopedia Britannica)