SAINT COLUMBAN’S

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 284, 29 August 1942, Page 4

SAINT COLUMBAN’S

New Missionary Society In New Zealand Visiting Wellington at present is the Very Kev; Father .James McGlynn, of the faculty’ of St. Cohimtan's Mission Society’s Collego in Essendon, Melbourne. Father McGlynn, Who is a graduate of the famous St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, where so many priests have been trained for missionary work in all parts'of the world, came to Australia in 1926 to open St. Colutubau’s College there.

The Mission Society is an organization . which came into existence on the wave of the missionary renewal which swept the Church duriiig and superseding the lust great war period. Actually its roots extend back to the beginning of the century when the Canadian priest Father John Frazer, who had spent eight years in China, 1902-1910, returned, to Europe to collect funds and explore the possibilities of inaugurating a seminary to educate missionaries for work tn China. lie was allowed to address the Students of Maynootb, with the result that there was a rush of volunteers, and several students who heard Father Frazer arc still at work in the pastures of their adoption. The seed sown had' borne good fruit. In Brooklyn, New, York, Father Frazer fired with enthusiasm the Bev. Father Galvin (now Bishop Galvin, Hanyang), who went back to China with him and became co-founder of the Society of St. Columban for Foreign Missions. The United States welcomed the new society in 1919, and today, in addition to one in Ireland, there are seminaries at Omaha (Nebraska), Silver Creek (New York), and Bristol (Rhode Island), preparing students for their work in the Orient. Bev. Father Edward Maguire, D.D., established the foundation of the society in Melbourne, which is the seat of the seminary in Australia and publication centre for the society's magazine. “The Far East” and “Columban Calendar, both well known here in New Zealand. Father Maguire and some of his colleagues visited New Zealand in 1923, receiving n warm welcome in practically every parish. Their apneal was repeated in 1930. Since, New Zealand has made substantial contributions to the missionary priesthood. Since Father McGlynn's association with the college in Melbourne no fewer than twenty priests originally from New Zealand have graduated there for work in the Far. East. ,To the Dominion’s interest in this society a representative is long overdue, and so Father McGlynn has come. Already an office centre for “The Far East’’ magazine and distribution of the “Columban Calendar” is established in Wellington. Plans are already in hand for the building of a new seminary, which will be carried out when the turmoil of the war ceases, a seminary worthy of the society and the purpose it serves in the vast missionary field of the Far East.