Changes

Many Irish Catholics came to South Australia and established a flourishing church. However, tThe conflict between the Dominican sisters and the bishop of Adelaide in the 1860s-70s is symptomatic of a church in entropy, and it centered on a changing concept of what it meant to be a nun. The bishop, along with his vicar-general Smyth and an associate, Reverend Woods, brought in the Sisters of St. Joseph to staff the Catholic schools. This divided decisionmaking, along with Woods's impulsive and intrusive style, proved problematic, and there were deep and frequent tensions among the diocesan leadership and between the administration and the sisters.<ref> Brian Condon, "A Church in Entropy: Catholic Adelaide, 1868-1873," ''Historical Studies In Education'' [Canada] 1994 6 (3): 115-137. </ref>

Many Irish Catholics came to South Australia and established a flourishing church. However, tThe conflict between the Dominican sisters and the bishop of Adelaide in the 1860s-70s is symptomatic of a church in entropy, and it centered on a changing concept of what it meant to be a nun. The bishop, along with his vicar-general Smyth and an associate, Reverend Woods, brought in the Sisters of St. Joseph to staff the Catholic schools. This divided decisionmaking, along with Woods's impulsive and intrusive style, proved problematic, and there were deep and frequent tensions among the diocesan leadership and between the administration and the sisters.<ref> Brian Condon, "A Church in Entropy: Catholic Adelaide, 1868-1873," ''Historical Studies In Education'' [Canada] 1994 6 (3): 115-137. </ref>

 

The forces of individual privatization and the drive to increased comfort were at work in the colony of South Australia as elsewhere in the Western world. The spread in mass consumption of goods engendered major value shifts, with new and distinct differentations being made among "luxuries," "decencies," and "necessities." Luxury may have been beyond the reach of most Adelaide families, but decency - represented by such items as dining-room tables and adequate laundering equipment - was not.<ref> Linda Young, "Material Life in South Australia". ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 1994 25(1): 65-84. </ref>  

The forces of individual privatization and the drive to increased comfort were at work in the colony of South Australia as elsewhere in the Western world. The spread in mass consumption of goods engendered major value shifts, with new and distinct differentations being made among "luxuries," "decencies," and "necessities." Luxury may have been beyond the reach of most Adelaide families, but decency - represented by such items as dining-room tables and adequate laundering equipment - was not.<ref> Linda Young, "Material Life in South Australia". ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 1994 25(1): 65-84. </ref>