"HEAVY BLOW TO CHURCH"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1929, Page 12

"HEAVY BLOW TO CHURCH"

UNUSUAL GIFTS AND GEACES

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day. The "Otago Daily Times" says: "A heavy blow has fallen upon the Catholic Church iv the death of Bishop Cleary, a man whose outstanding personality and unusual gifts and graces won for him the respect and esteem, not only of his co-religionists, but of large numbers of tho members of the denominations outside the pale of the ancient faith. If it be true that the Catholic Church flourishes and prospers in the free and stimulating air of this Dominion, it is also true that this prosperity is duo in no small measure to the guidauco and care of men with the moral fibre and intellectual ability of Bishop Cleary. He was not only a consistent churchman; he was also a perfect gentleman, as those privileged to enjoy his friendship will universally testify. His passing creates a vacancy in the religious and civic life of the Dominion which will not be easy to fill. We live in a time when the nation and the Empire need the best brains and the shrewdest minds to guide rightly the destinies of the Church and the State. How far Bishop Cleary's end was hastened by the perjplexities of the present time we cannot tell. He lived daily and hourly in an atmosphere of battle, so there was certain fitness in the acceptance by the Government of his services as a chaplain in the Great War."