Francis R. Harvey papers and sound recordings, ca. 1970-2005, and Roger Pryke papers, 1925-2001

fonds

1925-2005

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Clippings, Photographs

893647

1.30 metres of textual material, 1 album and approximately 100 photographs (9 boxes)
30 sound cassettes

Roger Irving Pryke (1921-2009), Catholic priest and welfare worker, was born in Goulburn, NSW. Between 1927 and 1933 the Pryke family moved to Sydney. He completed his secondary schooling at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill in 1937. In 1938 he entered the priesthood at St. Columba’s College, Springwood. In September that year he won a scholarship to Propaganda Fide College, Rome. He returned via the United States in 1940. In the following year he resumed studies at Springwood, then transferred to St Patrick’s College, Manly. He was ordained in 1944.

Pryke’s first appointment was as assistant priest at St Joseph’s, Newtown in 1945, before taking up the position of Secretary to the Apostolic Delegation (office of the Pope’s representative in Australia) at North Sydney. He stayed there until 1949 during which time he also served as assistant priest at Neutral Bay.

From 1950-1951 Pryke served as Assistant Secretary to Cardinal Gilroy at St Mary’s Cathedral. Gilroy then appointed him the first full-time chaplain to Sydney University until 1960. He was a popular mentor to the Catholic student group, the Newman Society. During this period he also served as parish priest at Camperdown, with a stint in the mid-1950s at St Benedict’s, Broadway. Pryke graduated Bachelor of Arts from the university in 1954. That year he led a delegation of university students to the Pax Romana Convention in Madras.

In January 1958 Pryke was one of the chief organisers of the Living Parish Week at St Patrick’s, Manly, a conference for clergy focusing on the liturgy in parish life. Pryke headed a group, Living Parish Series, providing aids for the parochial apostolate, including the bestselling Living Parish Hymn Book, edited by his friend, Father Anthony Newman.

Pryke undertook postgraduate studies in Rome, 1960-1962. He returned to St Joseph’s, Camperdown and commenced teaching theology and formation courses for nuns, held at Sancta Sophia College, Sydney University. The courses were terminated by Cardinal Gilroy in 1966 and Pryke was appointed to St John the Baptist Church, Harbord. He celebrated his silver jubilee at Harbord in 1969.

Increasingly during the 1960s Pryke was unable to reconcile his views with those of the Church hierarchy on various theological and social justice issues. He questioned the authority of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968) on birth control. Pryke was a leading light of the group Catholics for Peace, and at the forefront of the anti-Apartheid and anti-Vietnam War protest movements in Sydney. He was co-editor of the non-religious journal Nonviolent Power from 1969 to 1971. In 1970 he organised the Australian visit and speaking tour of Dorothy Day, pacifist and founder of the American Catholic Worker movement.

Pryke left the priesthood in 1972 and married Meg Gilchrist. He had met her during his chaplaincy when she was a leading Catholic activist on campus. She graduated PhD in Psychology from the University of NSW in 1974 and embarked on a career as an academic and clinical psychologist. She died in 1994. Roger Pryke worked as a welfare worker for the NSW Department of Corrective Services Parole Division from 1972 and then as an Official Visitor to Parramatta Gaol until his retirement in 1994.

Francis Ravel (Frank) Harvey is a professional writer and editor. He is a Catholic convert who was instructed and received into the Church by Roger Pryke. Harvey is the author of Chapel of Ease (1991), a parish history of St John the Baptist, Harbord. In the 1990s Pryke began preparing his autobiography. When his advancing dementia largely stalled further progress on this work, Harvey took up the challenge to complete his friend's project as a biography, originally titled Traveller to Freedom: An Ex-Priest’s Story.

Reference:
Compiled from the collection

SERIES 01
Francis R. Harvey papers, ca. 1970-2005, and Roger Pryke papers, 1925-2001

SERIES 02
Interviews with and about Roger Pryke by Francis R. Harvey, 1995, 2002-2005