 Since the sale or mortgaging of church land required an act of Parliament , in 1896 , the South Australian Parliament unanimously approved The Catholic Church Endowment Society Incorporated Sale of Lands Bill . This allowed the Archbishop to make good on his intention to sell all diocesan land not used for church purposes , and over the next few years , land , surplus vestments and works of art owned by the Archdiocese were sold off . These sales , combined the efforts of the Archbishop and diocesan priests to secure donations from around the Archdiocese , meant that by 1901 O 'Reily was able to report that the debt had been reduced by three @-@ quarters . This had been achieved at the same time as expenditure was being made on new schools , churches and other diocesan buildings . In fact , O 'Reily noted in his report for that year that the remainder of the debt could have been removed had expenditure been cut , writing : 
