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 Francis Xavier G Kaercher, died 13 April 1885

Born in Germany c1830. At the age of 40 (1871), Fr Kaercher was invited by Bishop Quinn to come to Brisbane. The German migrants who came to Queensland in those early days spoke only German, and because of this, felt they were neglected by the Church. Bishop Quinn sought to rectify this problem by using a German born Preacher, and so when he met Fr Kaercher in London, asked him to come to Brisbane. He was asked to be pastor to the Germans living in Brisbane, Sandgate, Rosewood and other areas. However, the experiment proved to be a failure because of the temperamental nature of the two men. Fr Kaercher's requests for Baptismal fonts, confessionals etc. were seen as unreasonable due to his constant travelling and Bishop Quinn refused to pay him a stipend because he had no regular parish, forcing him to depend on what he got from Baptisms etc, from the poor community that he served. Fr Kaercher appealed to the Pope but weakened his arguments by the inclusion of personal attacks against the Bishop and other clergy. He was not a patient man. The conditions laid down by Bishop Quinn were unreasonable, as the priest had to administer to an area of a thousand square miles. Fr Kaercher's mission was not a success and despite all his protests, he eventually returned to Germany. He did serve at various times in Brisbane, Toowoomba and Rockhampton.
(Ref. Linane K1, Southerwood p 207. Death date has been listed as 1905?)

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 28:
Fr Francis Xavier Kaercher

Fr Kaercher was a German priest who responded to Bishop Quinn's invitation to come to the Brisbane diocese to minister to German migrants. Bishop Quinn was aware that many German Catholics in his diocese, unable to speak English, were worshipping in Lutheran and Baptist churches where German was spoken.(1)

Fr Kaercher arrived in Moreton Bay, aboard the Storm King, on 28 February 1871. He was registered as an authorised celebrant of marriages in Queensland by 1 May 1871.(2)

Pugh's Almanac records Fr Kaercher in Brisbane in 1871/1872. He was resident in Maryborough in 1873. He returned to be based in Brisbane from where he endeavoured to move around the infant diocese ministering to German Catholics. According to these records he was residing at Kangaroo Point in South Brisbane in 1875 and 1876.

Bishop Quinn wanted Kaercher to be a resident priest like others in the colony, instead of moving to where German people had settled. Some Irish priests resented his coming into their parishes. When I was pastor of Gatton in the 1980s, researching the history of the Church in the Lockyer Valley, I was informed that some baptisms of children of German Catholic settlers had not been recorded. Some priests refused to enter details in parish registers because Kaercher officiated without their permission. This was one reason why he left the diocese. His name is not recorded in Pugh's Almanac after 1877.

He may have clashed with more than Irish priests, for the Telegraph newspaper reported:

We announced that Mr Mills, the printer of the Telegraph and the Week, has been served with a writ for £1000, issued at the suit of the Rev Francis Xavier Kaercher, late Roman Catholic priest at Maryborough. This gentleman must be very litigiously inclined for on Saturday afternoon one of the reporters on our staff was handed another writ, addressed to the Telegraph Newspaper Co (Limited) for a like amount. In case Mr Kaercher may require serving any further process on any person connected with either of the papers mentioned, with reference to any matter that has been published therein, we beg to inform him, that Messrs Bunton and Mayne, solicitors, Queen Street, will accept service of same on the company's behalf.(3)

In 1880, the Weekly Times reported that 'among the passengers on aboard the John Elder's 4,152 tons, C B Groves, bound for London, were Rev F Kaercher and servant'.(4)

The Freeman's Journal in 1885 reported:

The Australian announces with regret that news has been received from Germany of the death of the Rev Francis Xavier Kaercher, who was for several years a missionary priest in Queensland. Father Kaercher died on the 13th April last at the residence of his brother, who is parish priest of Endingen, in the diocese of Freiburg, Grand-duchy of Baden. When the late Bishop O'Quinn visited Europe to attend the Vatican Council, he selected a number of priests for Queensland, and among them Father Kaercher, whose special work was the giving of missions to the German Catholics who are scattered throughout the colony. Father Kaercher arrived in Brisbane in 1871, and immediately commenced his work, which he continued during his residence in Queensland. About the end of 1880 he returned to his native Germany.(5)

Footnotes
1. Information from Lutheran Pastor of Gatton - in 1980s. 2. Brisbane Courier, 1 May 1871, p. 2. 3. Telegraph, Brisbane, 2 Jan 1877, p. 2. Col. 5. 4. Weekly Times, Melbourne, 25 Sep 1880, p. 21. 5. Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 31 Oct 1885, p. 15.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.