In 1823, at the invitation of Thomas Scallan, O.S.F., the Vicar Apostolic for Newfoundland, and the Benevolent Irish Society, Fleming was recruited to come and serve as a priest in the colony. From the outset, Fleming proved to be of a very different temperament from Scallan. His ideas about the place of the Irish and Catholicism in Newfoundland were informed by his experience of his close friend Daniel O'Connell's nationalist politics in Ireland.
