"A MAN OF GOD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 4, 6 January 1936, Page 8

"A MAN OF GOD"

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD

MEMORIAL ALTARS UNVEILED

"A monument to a worthy citizen, who practised every civic virtue; to r. Christian whose life was a reflex of the Master he so loyally served." These words, descriptive of the late Archbishop Redwood, were used by Father McCarthy in the Basilica yesterday morning on the occasion of the unveiling by Archbishop O'Shea of two mosaic-enshrined altars erected to the memory of Archbishop Redwood.

"Archbishop Redwood needed no memorial in stone to perpetuate his memory," said Father McCarthy. "His memory is already enshrined in the hearts of his grateful people, and there it shall be ever cherished. But it :s befitting that our sentiments of gratitude, admiration, and love find expression in tangible form so that when your children and your children's children inquire 'What means this memorial and whose memory does it perpetuate?' then you can say that it was the expression of a people's gratitude to a leader who ruled with conspicuous ability, with unflagging zeal; that it was erected to commemorate a saintly bishop who united in his person the exercise of heroic virtue, deep humility, self-effacement, and charity that speaketh no evil; an intense spirit of praye?; simplicity and gentleness with th» exercise of a burning zeal that knew /io respite till his vast archdiocese was replete with churches, schools, seminaries, and colleges, homes for mission houses, for the poor, the sick, the aged, the needy, the unwanted, and the dying. You could say it had been erected as a tribute of the people's gratitude to a pastor, gigantic of intellect, eloquent of voice, the Chrysostem of Australasia; who used his marvellous powers of tongue and pen solely for the enunciation of those Divine truths of the Gospel which alone can direct man to his last end and enable him to regulate his conduct according to, God's ideals. In fine it was a monument to a worthy citizen, who practised every civic virtue; to a Christian whose life was a reflex of the life of ths Master he so loyally served; to a spiritual shepherd whose one interest was the well-being of his flock; to a saintly high priest whose soul was resplendent with every sacerdotal perfection: tor a worthy successor of the Apostles, whose one ambition was the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls; to a Homo Dei, a man of God, who lived by faith, who worked by charity, who died in sanctity, ani whose soul we are assured is now with God resting from his. labours."