A NEW book chronicling the 150-year history of the Catholic Church in the Macleay Valley was launched by the Bishop of Lismore, the most reverend Geoffrey Jarrett at All Saints Catholic parish hall on Monday.
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Nearly 200 parishioners packed the hall to see the official launch of the volume penned by local historian Bruce Cain.
From an initial print run of 2000 copies, about 500 have already been sold.
Mr Cain said he was glad the book is finally out there for people to read and enjoy.
“I thought at the launch 'Well there’s three years of my life,” he said.
“It was hard work but it was enjoyable and I could, if anything, done another 600 pages or a volume two. There are that many stories to tell.
“I have to thank the Port Macquarie Family History Group who had the Macleay Chronicle and the Argus digitised.
"It made searching for and compiling the thousands of pieces of information so much easier.
“If I was searching manually I would still be going.”
The book was well received by the bishop who complimented Mr Cain on his efforts.
“He said that it was by far the best local history of the Catholic Church he had seen, which was very nice,” Mr Cain said.
A copy of the book has also been sent to All Hallows College in Ireland. One of the last remaining seminaries, All Hallows at one point supplied 75 per cent of the Catholic Priests being sent to Australia.
Copies of the book are available from the Catholic Parish for $55 for the hardcover and $35 for the softcover edition.
Both volumes come with a CD-ROM containing copies of all the research material used to compile the
