LATE BISHOP CLEARY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1929, Page 14

LATE BISHOP CLEARY

MOVING SPECTACLE

CHILDREN TAKE PART

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

AUCKLAND, This Day

Three thousand children knelt in prayer for the repose of the soul of Bishop Clcary, who in life had made them his special care, when tlio solemn Pontifical Mass of Eequieai was sung in St. Patrick's Cathedral this morning. Contrasting with the splendour and intricate detail of the Mass, the simple piety of the1 children as they whispered their supplications was something to touch the heart. Children of the schools and orphanages came from all parts of the city and suburbs. They filled the nave and transepts, blocked the aisles, overflowed into the sacristy passage, knelt in tho porch, and even occupied the wide north door. Fittingly enough, the orphans were given places at tho front, since Bishop Cleary had shown them particular care. Remarkable indeed was tho reverent silence in which the thousands of little ones entered the cathedra], funereal and austere in its drapings of black, gold, and violet, and knelt in their places. No sound was heard save the murmur of their intercessions as they concentrated upon their prayer-books and fingered their rosaries.

Before the high altar, stripped of all save draped ornaments proper to Requiem Mass, lay the body of the dead Bishop in its habiliments of violet, gloved hands folded in the attitude of prayer. Six great candles about the casket burned with steady flame. Soon came the throb of the organ and the strains of slow funeral music, and after a little there entered a long procession of priests, led by the tall figure of Father M'Keefry bearing aloft the processional crucifix. The Bishop of Christehureh, the Right Rev. Dr. Brodie, was then clothed in the magnificent Eucharistic vestments of black and gold, and a white mitre was set upon his head. Ten small altar boys assisted in this elaborate ceremony. The- clergy afterwards approached the altar to make their preparation for the offering of that great service which is the very centre and heart of Catholic re-

ligion, the choir of diocesan priests burst into the sombre music of the intxoit, "Requiem aeternam dona cis Domine," "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord," and the magnificent remembrance of the prelate who had passed was begun.

Bishop White Dawden preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion, urging the children to take Bishop Cleary's example as a guide for their lives.