‘Every Quarter of the World’

Abstract The British Empire and the Catholic Church had an uneasy but not unproductive relationship in the period covered by this book. Many territories under British rule had significant Catholic populations, not all of them made up of Irish or Scottish settlers. In the Mediterranean colonies like Gibraltar and Malta, Catholicism was deeply rooted and predominated in all social classes, as it did in the former New France, which became British Canada. In the wake of the French Revolution in which they had seen their mother church dispossessed, the French church leaders in the British colonies shared a cautious political outlook with their British rulers which made religious accommodation, and even limited toleration, a possibility, although achieving it was a long drawn out process in which mutual suspicions played a major role. In the ever-expanding wider empire the years after the decisive defeat of the French in 1815 saw the formation of a network of vicariates apostolic directly under the office of Propaganda Fide in Rome. The British government kept a close eye on key Catholic appointments across the empire, and the vicar apostolic of the London District, the Catholic prelate who had a brief which included colonial territories, acted as an intermediary between the War and Colonial Office and the Roman authorities. The unique communications network of the empire helped in this correspondence, as it would later in the nineteenth century with the expansion of the Church. The Irish diaspora was beginning to have its impact on the character of local churches across the empire, but had not yet achieved the dominance it gained later. Little was achieved in the evangelization of indigenous populations (in Canada this had been accomplished before the arrival of the British) or in coming to terms with diverse cultures. Little positive work was done in the care and emancipation of slaves. Nevertheless, opportunities had been opened up for future missionary activity and a less Eurocentric perception of the Catholic Church.

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