1989: Kavanagh College

March 19, 2022

By AHNZ

The Catholic school in New Zealand’s most Presbyterian city, Dunedin, dates back to 1989 but has much deeper roots. Kavanagh College is an amalgamation of other Catholic schools from the 1870s and 1890s. The College was named after the fourth Catholic Bishop of Dunedin who had died earlier that decade.

Kavanagh’s values: Respect, Justice, Truth, Service. These are not values to live up to during our politically correct times which is probably why the current Bishop, Michael Dooley, has stuck the knife into his predecessor’s heritage by surrendering the college name.

Bishop John Kavanagh (in office 1949-85) was faced with two problem priests according to a new investigation commissioned by the Archbishop of Wellington. In the 1960s there were accusations against the Dutchman Rev. Freek Schokker but absence of evidence about how Kavanagh handled it. Some 10 years later another renegade named Magnus Murray was intercepted and dismissed by Kavanagh who sent him offshore for rehabilitation. Kavanagh, in this 1970s case, followed all the rules of the day. Yet, Murray turned out to be a recidivist abuser later and elsewhere on someone else’s watch.

“Bishop Kavanagh did what he was required to under canon law at the time, Cardinal Dew said…In the case of Fr Schokker, Bishop Kavanagh should have investigated the complaint, but failed to do so….the investigation’s findings that, apart from in one instance, Bishop Kavanagh had done no wrong.” – Kavanagh College to be renamed, ODT (March 2022)

“The report confirms what survivors know, that the system is broken….But they were disappointed an independent review was necessary, and by how long the decision took.” – ibid

“Papanui-Innes Community Board, Christchurch, are so Woke that they’re cancelling the memorialisation of people at the meta level, before they’re even disgraced! This is a new level of anti-human and anti-achievement and anti-recognition.” – When Political Correctness Became Prospective, NZB3 (2021)

“We defaced and tore out Captain Cook’s statue in Gisbourne while in Martin they boxed him. We un-named glaciers, we accommodated the Woke by scrapping Hamilton’s statue from Hamilton. We paid Vincent O’Malley $10,000 to find some more ancestors in disgrace so we could cancel them as well. Rotorua Boys’ High deleted their once proud House names after 93 years.” – ibid

“St Dominic’s College was a girls school established in 1871 by the Dominican Sisters who arrived in New Zealand with the first Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, Patrick Moran…Christian Brothers’ School was founded by four Irish Christian Brothers in 1876 and its name changed to Christian Brothers’ High School in 1928. It was located on the site of the present day Kavanagh College…St Philomena’s College for girls was established in 1897 by the Sisters of Mercy” – Ref. Kavanagh College history page (2022)

“Today in New Zealand history, 31 October 1944, a boatload of Polish refugees (mainly children) arrived at Wellington. The rescue kids had been displaced by the Soviets after the conquest of Germany and were likely due for a life in the Gulag Archipelago. Their homeland had been seized by National Socialists (Nazi Germany,) prompting World War II. Now it was invaded again- by Communists (Soviet Russia.) Or, in other words, liberated by our allies. So this was what winning looked like. Congratulations kids.” – 1944: Little Poland, AHNZ

“So, the Rescue Kids were pawns in Fraser’s campaign to be revered the way his predecessor, Savage, was loved. To that government the Communist Russkies were our good friends. The orphaned children were not integrated into New Zealand society, they were not welcomed to live with us. That was not the plan. The 734 children and 103 adults were installed  under military control in a prison camp built in 1942 to house the enemy. Here they would remain until 1949.” – ibid

“Father John Kavanagh, who was appointed by the Bishops’ Curia to liaise between the Curia and the Government. After negotiating all the conditions with the authorities, both Government and Church, Father John Kavanagh bought a two-storey house in Clyde Street, Island Bay, which was to accommodate 40 Polish boys…As in the case of the Polish Boys’ Hostel, it was Father John Kavanagh, the Polish children’s legal guardian, who found a suitable property..” – New Zealand’s First Refugees: Pahiatua’s Polish Children (2004)

Kavanagh was evidently a much respected man in his day and of his day which is why he was remembered later in the naming of Kavanagh College. For one, it was Kavanagh who came to the rescue of the much celebrated Polish Orphans that New Zealand rescued from life in the Gulag Archipelago. After Labour 1.0 Prime Minister Peter Fraser had finished having his publicity honeymoon with the orphans they were supposed to be kicked out of the country. Now they needed saving a second time!

It was John Kavanagh who came in to liaise and negotiate for the children’ and careers’ behalf. Father John Kavanagh bought a two-storey house in Clyde Street, Island Bay, which was to accommodate 40 Polish boys called Bursa Męska or Polish Boys’ Hostel. John became all the Polish childrens’ legal guardian and also found a beautiful mansion and extensive home for setting up the Polish Girls’ Hostel. Kavanagh, with help, successfully facilitated the children to integrate productively into New Zealand society while keeping their Polish identity.

Kavanagh brought a lot of good to his church, community, and country which is why he was raised up to the bishopric. He didn’t trumpet his own achievements but that’s what ought to be weighed up against the one thing he, the Fourth Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, did wrong according to the Seventh Bishop of Dunedin. John had no monuments or books written to his ego, he’s not prominent in our history books for what he did that might mitigate his ‘crime’ if we were seeking a balanced judgement. What he had was given in memorial after he had died: The naming of Kavanagh College in his honor.

Peter Fraser, on the other hand, certainly blew his own trumpet plenty. All the stories about the Polish Orphans feature him and there is no shortage of publicity photos. However, it was Kavanagh who put the real work in and spent the days and weeks taking care of his kids in the long term not the Prime Minister. Fraser put the kids in a prison camp, quite literally; Kavanagh gave them a father and a home and a country.

Kavanagh’s name is now being disgraced and stripped from the school to attempt to pacify people who identify as his victims despite absence of evidence. More New Zealand history being re-written on the basis that historical figures did not live up to (unspecified) 2020s values that did not exist, in this case, until 50 years after the event. The accusers, of course, are still not satisfied at the great concession. They are disappointed that there should have been an independent investigation at all (instead of just believing everything they said?) And, the fact that the report only finds zero to little that Kavanagh did wrong is, they say, proof that the report and the entire reporting system is “broken.” Sounds fair-minded and justice-seeking doesn’t it?

Along with the report and giving up the College name and denigrating Bishop Kavanagh the Bishop of Dunedin even flew one ‘victim’ to the Vatican to discuss the matter with the Pope!

This sort of redacting of history is pretty common these days. The weirdest one of all I have seen comes from Christchurch where they are proactively refusing to name things after people at all on the grounds that they might turn out to be ‘pale stale males’ one day too!

—
Image ref. Catholic Weekly (1949); Trove

Ref. New Zealand’s First Refugees: Pahiatua’s Polish Children (2004,) New Zealand Electronic Text Collection

Ref. When Political Correctness Became Prospective, NZB3 (2021)

Ref. Survivor denied entry to Vatican, ODT (2019)

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