Adolphus Lecaille

Adolphus Joseph Lecaille was a Catholic priest. He was one of the pioneer priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Geraldton in Western Australia.

Early life Adolphus Joseph Lecaille was born in Belgium. He expressed a vocation for the priesthood at an early age. Following his initial education in Belgium, he was then sent to Rome, Italy, to attend the Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide, which trained missionaries to spread Catholicism through the world. There he studied mathematics, classics, philosophy and theology . He was ordained as a priest in 1856.

Greenough (St. Peter's) Bootenal Dongarra (St Thomas') Nabawa Northampton Geraldton Irwin

The first St. Peter's church at Greenough was opened in 1866 and cost £233. It has since been pulled down.

As the years went by, the Catholic population in the Geraldton area grew in numbers and other priests were sent to assist. The Holy See then decided to excise this northern area from the Perth Diocese and created the Diocese of Geraldton on 30 January 1898. It needed a pioneering bishop and, as Lecaille was a zealous archdeacon, he was offered the bishopric. Father Lecaille requested permission to decline the honour. He was getting old and worn out by his long years of work. A Requiem Mass was held for him in Geraldton.

In recognition of Lecaille's commitment and contribution to the Geraldton Diocese, on Friday 8 June 1936 the Bishop of Geraldton, James O'Collins, exhumed Lecaille's remains from the graveyard at St Joseph's Orphanage and transferred them to Geraldton to be interred in a new mortuary chapel of St Francis Xavier's Cathedral. This chapel was built under the supervision of Dean John Hawes as its architect. The Bishop directed that Holy Mass should be celebrated there once a month for the souls of those buried in the Catholic portion of the cemetery at Utakarra, then about out of the city. The mortuary chapel is on the interior. It is built of stone with a vaulted roof.