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

Lawyer, teacher, administrator, provincial; born Dublin, Ireland, 27 July 1805; died Dublin, 23 December 1884, aged 79.

Joseph Lentaigne, after studying law at Trinity College, and serving at the Irish bar, entered the Society at Lyons in his 38th year on 25 November 1843. He studied at Vals, and was ordained priest, 17 June 1849. He arrived at Clongowes about the year 1850, where he acted as prefect of studies and taught until his appointment as rector in November 1855. In 1858 he became the first vice-provincial, which office he held until 1863. From 1863-65 he was rector and master of novices at Milltown Park, and during 1865 sailed to Australia with Father William Kelly to found the Irish Australian Mission.

On 21 September 1865, after 58 days at sea, Lentaigne and Kelly disembarked at Melbourne. They had been fortunate to secure a passage on the Great Britain, Brunel's steamship which four years earlier had carried the first all England cricket eleven to tour Australia. Compared with the sailing vessels that sometimes took up to or over a hundred days to reach Australia, it had been luxury travel. There were a hundred Catholics on board, and the two priests administered to their spiritual and sacramental needs.

On the evening of their arrival Kelly preached at St Francis' Church in the city centre where Bishop Goold was conducting a mission. The climate, Lentaigne reported, was like that of the south of France, but food, clothing and housing were expensive, perhaps twice as much as in Ireland.

The arrival of the Jesuits appears to have caused little comment from the people of Melbourne. 'We have never met any incivility; our being Jesuits has not excited any attacks', wrote Lentaigne. He was not slow to comment on Australia society. He believed that Melbourne was particularly corrupt, with heretics, Jews and idolatrous Chinese. In addition, he was concerned that the Protestant colleges flourished in Melbourne, and Catholics needed to retain the faith; so great need existed for a boarding school. He found it difficult to raise finance, as the Catholics were generally poor, small business people.

Lentaigne praised the Catholic boys as 'affectionate, manly but wild creatures; great liberty has been allowed them by their parents. The mixture with Protestants, Jews and infidels is most dangerous to them'. Furthermore, he believed that Melbourne Catholics suffered from mixing with these people and they were not good at approaching the Sacraments or hearing Mass. He was concerned about much drunkenness and immorality in Melbourne society.

In March 1868 Lentaigne was recalled to Ireland, as he suffered much from bronchial trouble. During his time in Melbourne he had been responsible for making the original agreement with Bishop Goold, and in fact laid the juridical foundation of the Irish Mission for both missionary and educational work.

He spent the rest of his life, except for two years as rector of Belvedere College, 1872-3, at Gardiner Street, where he died. He was a member of a famous old Anglo-Norman family, and was a real gentleman, as well as a prominent Jesuit.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)