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 Benedict Scortechini, died 4 Nov 1886

Born in Cupromontana, Italy on 17th February 1845, he studied at the University of Rome, graduating with a law degree. As a newly ordained priest he sailed for Australia with his new Bishop, James Quinn, in 1870. His first assignment was to assist the Irish priest in charge of the Warwick area of the Darling Downs mission, Fr Stephen McDonough. The discovery of tin in Stanthorpe meant a great influx of people to that district, enabling Scortechini to develop a pastoral method of ministry, which stood him in great stead for future missions. Gympie was his next appointment in 1873, then the Logan mission in 1874 and Roma in 1881. Scortchini's great love was botany and many of his collections are still held in the Queensland Herbarium in Brisbane.
(Ref. Tynan)

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, pp 31-32:
Fr Benedetto Scortechini

Nerang was established as a parish in 1983. Fr Patrick J Tynan was the first parish priest. This was just one hundred years after the first church had been built at Nerang by Fr Scortechini. In 1989, Fr Tynan published his research into the life and times of Fr Scortechini, in a book 'Pioneer Priest and Botanist – Benedetto Scortechini'.

In my efforts to present a brief glimpse of Fr Scortechini as an early pioneer priest of the diocese there is no better source than Fr Pat's biography.

Benedetto Scortechini was born in Cupramontana, near Ancona on the Adriatic coast of Italy on 17 February 1845. His parents were Antonio and Guiditta (née Svegliati). As was customary at the time, he was baptised within 24 hours in his parish church in the diocese of Iesi.

Benedetto was educated in local schools at Iesi before he entered the minor seminary there. He moved to the University of Rome known as the Sapienza. Scortechini had a law degree when he arrived in Australia. He was to become an amateur botanist gaining an international reputation in this field by the time of his early death.

After a short time in Brisbane, Fr Scortechini was sent to assist Fr Henry McDonough in Warwick. He found this a difficult appointment. Fr McDonough's sister, Mary Anne, was living in the house and serving as housekeeper. While some priests have found a housekeeper with a devotion to a parish priest a difficulty in their appointment, how much more when the housekeeper was the pastor's sister! Fr Scortechini performed a marriage in Allora in June 1872. In December he celebrated Mass in the new church in Stanthorpe which had been opened on the first Sunday of that month by Fr McDonough. As the records of baptisms in Warwick before 1875 appear to be lost, we have no record of Fr Scortechini officiating at baptisms prior to his transfer to Gympie in June 1873.

It was in Gympie that Fr Scortechini first met the scientist priest, Fr Julian Tennison-Woods, co-founder of the Sisters of St Joseph. Their lives became intertwined from there on.

Scortechini was appointed to the Waterford/Logan mission in November 1874, following the departure of Fr Hely. Fr Benedetto took up residence on the Logan River by renting a home from Captain C Mahoney. He later purchased an adjacent property of 48 acres from the Crown Lands Department. On this site he constructed his own home Cupravale, no doubt in memory of his family home at Cupramontana in Italy.

The Logan was a large mission area: boarded by Brisbane city on the north, it extended as far as Peak Mountain in the north-west and Mount Lindsay on the south-west, to the Tweed River on the south, and of course to the sea on the east. It included inhabited islands in Moreton Bay. The Catholic population grew as many Irish Catholics, migrating through the Queensland Immigration Society's scheme, settled in the Logan. It is believed that Fr Connolly had celebrated the first Mass in the area, with Fr Denis Fouhy making visits. Fr Hely while residing in Brisbane was the first priest in charge of the Waterford/Logan mission.

When Fr Scortechini arrived there were already two churches in the Logan/Waterford mission. One at Logan was named Church of the Assumption; a timber building with a shingle roof. Another wooden church at Tamborine was named St Patrick's.

Fr Tynan notes the considerable initiative of the laity in the erection of a chapel, churches and schools. A very neat catholic chapel, St Patrick's, was opened at Coopers Plains in May 1875. Fr Scortechini is credited with the building of St Joseph's Church at Veresdale. A former Masonic Lodge at Yatala, built in the early 1870s, was purchased and opened as a catholic church and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, in December 1875. Earlier a catholic school was opened at Yatala staffed by two sisters of St Joseph, who had arrived on 25 November. The sisters' first home was the church sacristy.

On 1 January 1877 a church, Star of the Sea, was opened at Cleveland. From here Fr Scortechini serviced islands in Moreton Bay which included the Penal Settlement on St Helena, the hulk Proserpine and the Benevolent Institution at Dunwich on Stradbroke Island.

Mr William Dolan donated a property at Tallebudgera, where a church, All Saints, was built and a Catholic cemetery established. This apparently took place in 1879.

The year 1879 was a traumatic one for Fr Scortechini. As an educated lawyer, he had been called upon to draw up a will for a parishioner, Patrick McGoldrick of the Union Hotel Logan Bridge. McGoldrick's brother, Stephen, who had come to Australia from America in 1870, attempted to murder Scortechini because he, Stephen, was not the principal benefactor under the terms of the will. Stephen was sentenced to 14 years in the penal colony on St Helena Island. It was ironic that the priest he tried to kill was also chaplain to that prison.

1880 was a happy year for Fr Scortechini. His scientific hobby of Botany was honourably recognised. In November, Fr Julian Tennison-Woods, at the invitation of his friend, gave missions in the Logan; three days each at the principal centres, Tamborine, Veresdale, Waterford, and a visit to the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich, where there more than fifty Catholics. He also gave a two-day mission at Coopers Plains. Later in the year Fr Woods preached a mission in St Stephen's Cathedral. Fr Tynan lists Fr Scortechini's extensive Lenten and Easter visits in April/May to 25 Mass stations including the six churches in the mission.

In 1883 Fr Tennison-Woods was invited to do some scientific work in the Malaysian state of Perak, by the governor of the Straits Settlements. The governor was a catholic and as the former governor of Tasmania had developed a close friendship with Fr Woods. When Fr Wood's advice was sought on employing a botanist for a museum to be set up in the British protectorate he nominated Fr Scortechini. Bishop Dunne agreed to Fr Scortechini taking a year's leave from his Logan mission to fill this role. He left in January 1884. He stayed longer than the one year carrying out some amazing research.

Fr Scortechini took ill and died on 4 November 1886 in Calcutta after a short illness. His brother Peter, who had come to join him in his research, was present with him when he died.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.