After his return to Australia in August 1915, he was ordered to resume his work as a telegraphist for the postal service. He expressed an interest in becoming a priest and began his studies at St Columba's, in 1917, and continued them from 1919 at the Urban College in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lismore on 24 December 1923 at the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome by Archbishop Filippo Bernardini C.Ss.R., and received his doctorate in divinity in Rome the following year.