Thanks to Michael Fallon MSC, Publications and audiovisual Archive Kensington

This post on the site is a tribute to Michael Fallon MSC. When Paul Stenhouse was dying in 2019, he asked Michael to take care of his books on the contents of his office on the first floor.

When Michael was appointed to Kensington monastery, he began the demanding task of going through all of Paul’s books, those which would go to the library, but, more especially, Paul’s specialist library on Semitic languages and studies. Michael catalogued them all – and many of them finally found a good resting-place, taken by Campion College, Toongabbie, now housed as a memorial in the campus residence, named after Paul Stenhouse.

But, the MSC books and magazines and photos were housed, some in the Kensington library, others in the archive on the second floor above Paul Stenhouse’s office.

In the ensuing years, Michael has sorted out all these books, cataloguing them, which means that in the room that is now the Archives on the first floor, has as many copies of books written by Australian MSC authors, books written by former confreres, books about the Australian province and its ministries, all the magazines, especially those from our colleges, and sections of documentation on Papua New Guinea, Japan, missions, and a collection of audio tapes, CDs, VHS and DVDs.

The archive is not a static archive, it is hoped that more books, documentation, audiovisuals will be added and catalogued. A further post will indicate that an Annotated Bibliography of books will soon be available.

This room is generally kept locked to ensure the safety of the collection, but can be consulted, the room visited – and Michael Fallon could accompany you to show the highlights. This might be something for your next visit to Kensington.