Ipswich, Rockhampton, QLD; Raymond Terrace, NSW, etc

Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev Thomas A Lonergan, Unknown date of death

Thomas A Lonergan was born in Ireland and served in Maitland, Brisbane and England. He joined the OSB's after leaving Australia. Pugh's list him as serving in Warwick in 1866.
(Ref. Pugh's and Linane L71)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 78:
Fr Thomas Augustine Lonergan [OSB]

Fr T A Lonergan appears in Pugh's Almanac in 1866. It appears that he was born in Ireland about 1834 and ordained there. He was a relative of Fr Pierce Power.(1)

Fr Lonergan arrived in Brisbane in 1865 and spent a short time in Warwick with Dr Cani, the first priest-in-charge of the Warwick mission.

Catholic settlers in Mackay pleaded for a priest and Fr Lonergan was appointed to the role to arrive there in January 1866. He was responsible for the construction of the first church in Mackay. Built by Mr Ucker, it was completed before 1 April 1866, on the corner of Macalister and North (now River) streets on the site now occupied by St Patrick's College.(2) Fr Lonergan remained pastor of Port Mackay/Clermont until 1869.

There is a report of his condemnation of an attempt on the assassination on Prince Alfred:

The Rev Father Lonergan and the late Attempted Assassination on Prince Alfred

The Rev Father Lonergan, on the health of the 'Royal Family' being given, took occasion to refer to the attempted assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh, and made an impressive speech in relation thereto. He dwelt at some length upon the murderous and cowardly attack which had been made upon the Duke of Edinburgh, who had come to the shores of Australia as a visitor, and had partaken of the hospitality of the colonists. He – Father Lonergan – felt sure that no true Irishman could but hold in abhorrence the horrid crime that had recently been committed in Sydney. The rev gentleman also alluded to Fenianism and fervently disclaimed against it as being totally unrecognised by the Catholic Clergy. It was a secret Society, and its members were, therefore, utterly unregarded by the Catholic Church. Father Lonergan at the conclusion of his speech was greeted with great applause.(3)

In 1869 Fr Thomas Lonergan moved to East Maitland.(4) He remained there for over two years.(5) A report of the meeting of St Bede's branch of Holy Catholic Guild in 1871 states:

In conclusion, your council wish to record their sincere thanks to our much-respected and worthy chaplain, the Rev T A Lonergan, for his unceasing vigilance over the interest of this society in both a spiritual and temporal point of view since its inauguration; also to the brethren of St Joseph's Guild, East Maitland for the assistance they so kindly afforded us at our starting and at other times since.(6)

While Fr Lonergan is sometimes listed as a member of the Benedictine order,(7) there is no evidence of his being a member of the Benedictine order while in Australia; there is no reference to him in Birt's Benedictine Pioneers in Australia. Fr Tom Linane records that he returned to England and there joined the Benedictines.(8)

Father Thomas Augustine Lonergan, aged 67, was a priest living at 119 Meadow Street in Wembley in Hertfordshire in 1901.(9) A Thomas Augustine Lonergan died at Thanet in Kent in February 1909 at the age of 75.(10)

Footnotes
1. Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 6 Jun 1868, p. 3.
2. Daily Mercury, Mackay, 20 May 2016. On the occasion of 150th anniversary of the church.
3. Warwick Examiner and Times, 2 May 1868, p. 3.
4. Sydney Mail, 25 Sep 1867, p. 5.
5. The Maitland Weekly Mercury, Maitland Diocese - Memories of the Past, 16 May 1931, p. 4.
6. Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 1 Jul 1871, p. 10.
7. A Prayer-Calendar of Deceased Priests and Deacons in Australia 1788-2009, W T Southerwood, p. 143.
8. Tom Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, 1979, L71. p. 50.
9. English Census of 1901.
10. English death records, Thanet, Kent, Vol. 2a, and p. 770.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.