Fr Peter Carmen Monopoli

Early Life

Peter Carmel Monopoli was born on July 4, 1934, one of five children born to Italian migrants, Margherita and Mauro Monopoli at Royal Park. When he was quite young his mother was very ill and unable to care for him, so he spent time with a foster family, the Gulyards, who had three daughters and they spoilt him and treated him as a brother.

He attended the Josephite School in Russell Street in the city and later at Christian Brothers College, Wakefield Street. It was here that he developed the desire to become a priest.

Peter’s father was a fish monger and one of his prominent customers was Archbishop Beovich, who, when he was told of Peter’s desire to be a priest at the young age of 13 years, recommended that he be sent to board for a year at Sacred Heart College, Somerton, to see if he could manage being away from family. 

Peter proved that he could, so the following year he went to St Francis Xaviers Seminary to complete his secondary education and then three years study of philosophy. He then completed his studies at St Patrick’s College, Manly, NSW. During his Summer holidays he sometimes worked as a kitchen hand on the trains to Kalgoolie.

Life in the priesthood

Peter was ordained priest by Archbishop Beovich on July 18, 1959 and his first appointment was as assistant priest at Goodwood where he began on December 22.

After three months there he moved to Keswick parish where he stayed for seven years. In October 1967 he was appointed assistant in the Salisbury parish where his fluency in Italian was a great help.

The following year he took four months leave and travelled with his father to visit Italy. On his return journey he acted as a chaplain on one of the Greek migrant ships bringing immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia.

In January 1972 he was appointed parish priest of Victor Harbor where he remained for nine years. In August 1977 he took leave for three months.

In January 1981 he was appointed Parish Priest of Murray Bridge. In February 1982 he was elected as a member of the Diocesan Ecumenism Commission, a subject in which he became very interested.

So at the beginning of 1986 he took some study leave and travelled to St John’s University in Minneapolis to study Ecumenism and undertook a Masters Degree in Systematic theology. On his return he continued as a member of the Ecumenism Commission for several years.

Other Appointments

In September 1987 he was appointed parish priest on Kangaroo Island where he remained for eight years. In December 1995 he was appointed as supply priest at Murray Bridge during the absence of the parish priest.

He returned to the city in April 1996 and he served for a time as Chaplain to the Italian Community in the western region of Adelaide, again making good use of his fluency in the Italian language. Then in 1996 he was appointed parish priest of Para Hills where he stayed for seven years.

During this time he took three months long service leave in early 2004. On his return at the end of May he took up an appointment as parish priest of Pennington.

He remained there until July 2008 when due to his failing health he retired and decide to live privately at Dernancourt. On his retirement he was given the tile of Pastor Emeritus. But where possible he continued to offer pastoral care to many people.

Fr Peter was a devoted Marian priest and on a couple of occasions he travelled to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorie in Yugoslavia. During his various periods of leave he loved to travel to Europe and to Asia.

He also loved to venture into the outback of SA on camping holidays, on one occasion going to an Aboriginal reserve where he experienced the indigenous culture and ceremonies.

In early 2011 his health deteriorated seriously and he was admitted to the Glenelg Community Hospital where he died on March 3, 2011. His funeral Mass was celebrated in St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral on Ash Wednesday March 8, 2011. He was buried at the Centennial Park Cemetery.

May he rest in peace.