Interview with Fr. Fullerton
Would you present yourself, Father?
My name is John Fullerton, presently District Superior of the United States. I just spent 8 years as District Superior of Australia after having been District Superior in the US from 2002 to 2008 and then four years as Headmaster of St. Mary’s Academy and College in St. Marys, KS.
Did you learn valuable lessons in the US as District Superior?
For me, this position was a sink-or-swim situation. My first priestly assignment in 1996 was in Michigan, where I acted as prior and started the boys’ school, which gave me the valuable experience of running schools. Then, I was thrown into the District Superior position. My previous training as an Air Force officer helped somewhat for working with people and organizing. In any case, these six years gave me the chance to learn many lessons, especially how to work with large groups of people as well as watch over priests.
How different was the leadership of the Australian District?
In Australia, the main duty of the District Superior is also to watch over priests, and through the priests in turn to care for the people. Obviously, the workload is in smaller scale in Australia. We have presently 20 priests in the District which includes New Zealand. The number of the faithful is just under 4,000. When you consider that St. Mary’s is a parish of 4,000 … it covers basically for the entire population of the Australian District.
How different is Australia as country, geography and culture?
In Australia, most people live on the coastline since the center of the continent, the outback, is just hot and dry. Most congregate in the coastal cities and these are where our large centers are, including our two high schools, and, by and large, our families have moved to these schools.
Would you mind to articulate the main properties you own in the country?
Sydney was the first priory opened around the year 1982 by Frs. Hogan and Laisney, and it has been ever since the headquarters for the District house. The priests at the beginning had to travel regularly to Melbourne and Brisbane. Next came the Hampton priory, a suburb of Melbourne, then Brisbane and lastly Perth. School-wise, our first established school was Rockdale, in Sydney, which has always been a small grade school for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. When the Tynong school near Melbourne opened, many Sydneyites moved there. The Brisbane high school was the last to open. And in New Zealand, which is also part of the Australian District, technically called Australasia, the SSPX has a priory and high school in Wanganui in the North island. This only priory services the major cities of Auckland and Wellington as well as a few more missions.
What about the people themselves?
People come from the most varied nationalities. It reminds me very much of the US. By and large, they are very open. In the Sydney parish, for instance, we host many Samoans who came to Botany Bay via New Zealand. We have also many Lebanese, Filipinos, and the other older European ethnicities, like Irish, Italians, and English.
Is there an Irish streak about the Catholic Church in Australia?
Certainly. People from Ireland come with a one-year visa to work, and we occasionally see them coming to our parishes. Irish priests were the first to care for the Catholics sent there. Most provinces were a penal colony, except South Australia, which boasted of not being so: you did not need a record to get there! I was told that convicts were also sent there from the US.
Could you describe the origins of the traditional movement in Australia?
Like in the US and Canada, after the Council, a number of priests resisted the changes of Vatican II. We need to mention prominently the work of Fr. Cummins, a New Zealander Redemptorist who, like Fr. Normandin in Quebec, traveled through both countries. He ended up in Perth and gave his church to the SSPX. Then you have more sedentary priests, like Fr. Fox, who ministered to the faithful of Sydney, who were one of the resilient groups which gathered to do whatever they could to keep the faith and the Mass of all times. Msgr. Hodgson was also there for a while. Keep in mind also that the first Society Sister ever was Sr. Mary Michael from Sydney, and the first priestly Australian vocation was Fr. Gerald Hogan, ordained in 1977.
What about the apostolate in the islands?
The priests do travel to French-speaking New Caledonia and to English-speaking Fiji six times a year. For Fiji, much of the expenses are covered by the Australian District, and whatever donations the faithful can provide is by way of food. The priests also tend to Vanuatu twice a year, and more specifically, the little island in the North of the archipelago called Rotuma, but it takes three planes and two boats to reach it. The conditions of life there are very primitive. I spent two weeks there. At that time the airport runway was grass, and if there had been heavy rain the plane could not land. Also, because it was grass, the plane could have so much fuel when it landed, and it could not take off without having to refuel, but the fuel was brought from another island by boat. When I visited, I had to stay there for two weeks because the boat had not come to deliver fuel. Living there is very simple. You’re fed like a king with lobster, coconut milk, wild chicken caught in their snares, and wild pigs which they raise. They also have fertile gardens, with all kinds of vegetables, especially taro roots and tropical trees for fruit. I ate huge chestnuts on open fire, which were delightful. They offered also a strange fruit, called breadfruit, which they used as dessert accompanied with coconut juice.
What did you think of the religious situation there?
We are talking about a small island which is 10 miles long by two miles wide with a population of 2,000 people. In the Rotuma island itself, you see only the grandparents and children. This is because the parents and those out of school are out working either in Fiji, New Zealand, or Australia, and send some of their money back to the island to their family. There is no industry there, except drying out coconut oil to make diesel from the oil. There were two Catholic churches built by the Marist priests and, today, they have no priest ministering to them. We asked permission to use one of these churches, but the bishop is against us.
What was the welcoming party like when you first set foot down under?
Well, no sooner had I been there than the priests from New Zealand who finally had rejoined the Australian District called me and said: “Welcome to the District! By the way, our church in Auckland has burned down and we had no fire insurance.” That was not the welcoming party I had expected!
Did you encounter different obstacles to the development of tradition? Perhaps, the smaller group and a sense of isolation?
I can say that we had no spare priests, and that obliged me to be going on a regular mission just about every weekend, since Sydney had to cover four missions in the area. By and large, we’ve had the same problems with teenagers caught up in modern media and technology, which is pulling them away from both their family and the faith. It makes it harder for families to keep a strong faith when all this is conspiring against them. The parents cave in, and before long, leave the school and, later on, the parish.
How is the school situation in Australia and New Zealand?
In Australia, the schools are funded by the government. This is financially a great benefit, and so far, we have not had to compromise with our faith and teaching. The downside is that teachers need diplomas to teach, and this includes Sisters and Priests. Right now, in Australia, you have to have a master’s degree which takes two years after the bachelor’s degree. The last priest who went through this program was American-born Fr. Palko, and the government gave him time to get his studies down while teaching. This is why we are working with the seminary to allow the Australian seminarians to have online courses for credits for their bachelor’s degree. Two thirds of our priests are engaged in school.
What is the relation of the District priests with the seminary?
The relationship is very good. Besides Australia and New Zealand, the seminary hosts vocations from Asia, Africa, the Philippines and South Korea. During the long summer months, that is, between December and March, when they cannot return home, the seminarians are welcomed to one of the parishes and get some exposure to families who later may welcome them to stay. Some go to a mission like Singleton where the priest stays at the rectory for his own vacation and offers daily Mass to the seminarians. Priories are also open for them to stay. This past summer, two Chinese seminarians went home after their first year but could not make it back due to the COVID crisis. Their parents were rather opposed to their vocation.
Is the time of ordinations like the rallying point of traditionalism in Australia?
Yes, indeed. The priests have their meeting at the seminary in mid-December just before ordinations, which means that most of them stay for ordinations. Since Fr. Scott’s time, who inaugurated the priestly ordinations with the six-year seminary, the ordinations are really the meeting of tradition, a small version of what our ordinations at Winona were a few years ago in the US.
Any last impression or last word?
I left during the COVID crisis, but many people came to us, even though the local bishops were trying to keep their churches open, including Bishop Fisher of Sydney, although he denied communion on the tongue. And so many people came to us. Around Easter, there were a few weeks when people could have no Mass. But if the faithful could not go to the priests for Mass, our priests were able to drive for eight hours and visit the faithful: with confessions and communions, and this has certainly opened the eyes of many people who have been steady faithful since then.
As to the last word, I can truly say that I enjoyed my time in Australia, and I even became an Australian citizen. But, needless to say, it is good to be back home.
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