Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 230-233:
James Cullen

Although he was Archbishop Duhig's nephew, he asked no favours and expected none. It was said that there was no love lost between Fr James Cullen and his uncle.

James Edward Cullen is one of the newest priests in the photo and this was possibly his first annual retreat in the Archdiocese. Jim was born in Brisbane in 1902, his mother being Elizabeth Duhig whose brother was a young curate at Ipswich at the time. Jim went to school at Holy Cross, Wooloowin, then Gregory Terrace. Priestly studies were begun at Springwood, and followed by a year at Manly.

In 1922, Jim was chosen to go to Rome. In company with two other Brisbane students, Con Roberts and Brian Bolton, and chaperoned by Fr Thomas Simmington, they sailed from Brisbane on the Orient liner Osterley in 1922. James Cullen was enrolled at the Irish College in Rome but did not last. Apparently, Italian food was not to his liking. In poor health, he was transferred to finish his studies at All Hallows in Dublin, where he was ordained in June of 1926 with James O'Donnell.

Between 1927 and 1934, Jim had seven curacy appointments - Dalby, Murgon, Ipswich, Kingaroy, Bulimba, Boonah and Kangaroo Point.

In 1935, he went back to Murgon as Parish Priest where the independence suited him. He had the area of Wondai, Proston, Goomeri and Kilkivan as Mass Centres and yet no Catholic school in the whole of the parish.

Fr Cullen invited the Presentation Sisters to come and had a convent ready for them early in 1937. It developed into a boarding and secondary school.

Sr Rosa McGinley wrote: 'The Murgon Convent, at Fr Cullen's invitation, became quite a popular place for Sisters from other Presentation Convents to spend the long Christmas vacation.

'Not only did this town, with its picturesque setting and rich farmland, provide a change from city and coast, but Fr Cullen's own generosity left the Presentation Sisters lastingly grateful to him.'

The picturesque setting also gave Jim the encouragement to keep up that good clean hobby that was recommended at Springwood, viz. photography. He left behind several albums containing rural scenes, church buildings and motor picnics with the Sisters.

In 1942, Fr Jim was transferred to Buranda in Brisbane, where he remained for almost 20 years and grew to love it, while the people got used to his ways. He had a school built and again introduced the Presentation Sisters. Before the convent was available, he drove the nuns over and back to Clayfield every day. He had one of the first Holdens that became available in Brisbane, so obviously had some influence there.

Fr Cullen was in many ways a model Parish Priest and was proud of the number of vocations both to the priesthood and to the convent that his little parish produced. He was punctual, methodical, but unforgiving, and hard in many ways. Non-practising Catholics, and particularly Italians, he had no patience with. It would seem that his year at Kangaroo Point [1934] was not a particularly happy one for he was now in competition, Buranda being a neighbouring parish.

On one occasion, Mons. Prout wanted to borrow some chairs for a function, but the messenger was told, 'At Buranda, we neither borrow nor lend ...'. Again it was considered prodigious when St Luke's Parish Fete made just over £1,000 at a time when St Joseph's total was considerably less. The fact that St Luke's new school was built while St Joseph's still had old wooden school buildings was also grounds for boasting.

Jim had his priest friends and enjoyed the clerical gossip. For a day off, they would take a trip to Redcliffe on the Koopa and no doubt discuss what 'the old man' was up to. If both Jim Cullen's and Gabe Nolan's phones were engaged, other priests knew something interesting was afoot.

Some little time after celebrating his Silver Jubilee, he was offered the opportunity of accepting the title and privileges of a Monsignor. He refused on the grounds of abhorrence of 'ecclesiastical snobbery'. He was a 'biscuit tin' priest: each Saturday night he would only have to go to an old biscuit tin and pull out the appropriate sermon. They were good and practical, but had nearly always been heard last year, and the year before that ... He spoke and preached in a lazy drawl.

It came as a terrible blow when Jim was ordered to remove to Sandgate. He broke down when telling the Holy Name Society men about having to go down there to start again as the Church and all the buildings had been thoroughly neglected, etc.

He went to Sandgate in 1961. In spite of some opposition, it was by the introduction of the Wells System that he was able to put the parish back on a sound financial footing. Not only the run down 'plant' affected him but also the changes of Vatican II which were soon being introduced. Ecumenism, in particular, 'Rome going to Canterbury', both internationally and on the home front had a devastating effect on him, as though all he had ever believed in was being taken away. He suffered a paralytic stroke and was compelled to retire in 1967.

For some years, he was nursed by his sister before going to Canossa where he died on 24th August 1983. The funeral left from St Stephen's for Nudgee Cemetery.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)

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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 James Edward Cullen, died 24 Aug 1983

After studying at Manly and All Hallows, Ireland, James Cullen was ordained in Ireland on 20th July, 1926. Pugh's list him as serving at Dalby in 1928, in Murgon (1929) and Ipswich (1930). He died, aged 81, and is buried in Nudgee Cemetery.
(Ref. Pugh's and Manly magazines)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.