Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Lalor, Harold

Pastor, preacher; born Perth, Western Australia, 9 November 1911; died Melbourne, 14 July 1969, aged 57.

Harold Lalor was a well-known public figure in Perth in the 1930s. His father was the proprietor of what was then the Perth hotel, at the corner of Barrack and Murray Streets and Lalor was a radio announcer with 6PR. He was a handsome fellow, and used to dress well. He was thought of as a social figure, and was in demand in amateur dramatic circles. In 1933 a small group called the Pian Club was formed, a band of young Catholic hopefuls, great practitioners of apologetics, much under the sway of Belloc and Chesterton. Lalor joined this group.

Later in 1933 Lalor decided to enter Propaganda College, Rome, to study for the priesthood. He was a contemporary of Cardinal Knox of Melbourne, and Archbishop Young of Hobart. He was ordained, 18 March 1939, for the archdiocese of Perth, and worked there for the next seven years, especially among young people. He was not a distinguished theologian, rather a simple and utterly dedicated priest. In his early days as a priest he had a melodramatic appetite for martyrdom. In the 1940s he was back in Perth and set up the National Catholic Girls' Movement. He founded Marian Lodge, and organised many retreats there. A number of religious vocations sprang up around him. He established 'The Catholic Hour', a Sunday night radio-session, and conducted it himself for some years.

Lalor was a fiery, even sensational speaker and he soon had people jubilantly for or hotly against him. His preaching was also sensational. He saw the whole world polarised on Moscow and Rome, and was full of apocalyptic visions of the coming struggle.

Then he sprang another surprise. His own spiritual life was simpler and more serene than his public utterances suggested, and he decided to enter the Jesuit noviciate at Loyola College, Watsonia, 30 July 1946. After this time, and a brief refresher cause in theology at Canisius College, Pymble, he was once more in circulation, crusading against communism, first in Sydney and then in Melbourne, which became his base for operations all over Australia. These were the years of the 'Movement', that astonishing time when Bob Santamaria's industrial groups were wresting power from the communist cells in the unions. Over a two-year period, Lalor raised £60,000 in Sydney for the 'Movement', knowledge of which displeased the archbishop, Cardinal Gilroy. Endeavouring to gain support of the students at Sydney University, he believed he was being ‘sabotaged’ by the Catholic chaplain, Fr Roger Pryke, who was no friend of the 'Movement'.

Lalor was central to the events taking place at that time. He founded the Institute of Social Order, Belloc House, Kew, in 1952. In this capacity he was, for a while, editor of The Twentieth Century and Social Survey. When he found himself having difficulty getting into some dioceses he got himself appointed director of the Apostleship of Prayer in 1955, hoping that under cover of this fleece he might play the wolf for the purpose of getting his message across.

It was considered necessary for him to step back from this work; so he spent some time in Hobart with his friend of student days, Archbishop Guilford Young. Here, 1958-9, he founded the Christian Family Movement, and conducted adult education courses in philosophy, theology, scripture, history, social questions, liturgy and art.

Next, he was sent to the Norwood parish, Adelaide, 1959-68, where he worked with various sodalities and established Indianaid, for groups of people who founded special projects within the Jesuit mission in India. Farms were staffed and financed in Hazaribag and many educational and medical centres equipped. In Western Australia alone there were 35 groups involved in the work at the time of his death.

His last few years were at Campion College, Kew, as province director of 'Mass Media' and public relations. He helped the scholastics in the art of communication, and to this end enlisted the help of his friends in the radio and TV world.

A severe coronary attack laid him low for a while in the early 1960s, and he suffered acutely from angina pectoris thereafter. A mellowness and strong serenity developed in Lalor as he came to the end of his life, and he shared much of his deep, simple spirituality with his Jesuit friends. Through all his disappointments and struggles, he remained totally faithful to Christ and the Church. He was an admirable Jesuit.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)