Second Archbishop of Melbourne

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Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/carr-thomas-joseph-5511

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 24-25:

Carr, Thomas Joseph, Most Rev., Irish
Second Archbishop of Melbourne
As far as I am aware no one has yet endeavoured to write a biography of this great churchman who links the tentative, struggling era of the Faith in Victoria under Bishop Goold with the bright dawn under Daniel Mannix. Born in County Galway he made his priesthood studies at St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, and at St. Patrick's, Maynooth. From '64 to '73 he was engaged in parish work in his native diocese. Thence back to college halls, with the duties of Dean of discipline, theology professor, and Prefect of the students attending the Dunboyne University. The year 1880 brought new assignments - Vice-President and Editor of the Irish Ecclesiastical Review. Next step up the ladder was the appointment as Bishop of Galway; Consecration taking place on 12 August 1883. Early in 1887 came the assignment to the Antipodes as successor to Bishop Goold of Melbourne who had died in June '86. Setting out for Rome he received the Pallium on 17 June 1887. He arrived in Adelaide on the 'Iberia' on 6 June, and came overland by train, reaching Melbourne and receiving a warm welcome on the 11th. Highlights of the Carr era can be summarised as follows: A dramatic build-up of Catholic schools with the influx of nuns and brothers from Ireland. A betterment in administration, especially in the handling of his clergy, than in the Goold era; although grave mistakes were made - as in the Fr. John Graber case. Consecration of St. Patrick's Cathedral on 31 October 1897. The holding of the Second Australasian Congress in Melbourne, 1904 - an event that indicated the developing maturity of the Church in Victoria, and from which emerged the foundation of the Australian Catholic Truth Society. The latter body, of which Carr was a co-founder, points to the atmosphere of the time - controversy, and often bitter controversy at that. Carr can therefore be regarded as an arch-controversionalist and as a refuter of false claims. Usually the arrows were aimed at the Anglican claims, as instanced in the main published work of Carr - "Lectures and Replies". Strangely he does not appear to come into the raging education controversy as much as one might expect. Either through choice or through ill-health he relied on vociferous spokesmen in the persons of Dean Hegarty of Kyneton and Archdeacon Slattery of Geelong. Two ad limina visits were made to Rome - in 1898 and 1908. He was Chaplain General of the Military Forces in the period 1912-17. In his last days another star in the firmament began to eclipse his venerable person, to wit, the Coadjutor who had arrived on the scene in 1913 - the mighty 'Daniel'. On the whole the Carr reign can be described as one in which Victorian Catholicity made great strides.
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 2)
Ref.: MDHC Files, Fitzroy, and Cardinal Moran's History, page 710 & foll.