MARIST FATHERS

Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1929, Page 2

MARIST FATHERS

SUPERIOR GENERAL’S VISIT

FATHER RIEU IN DOMINION

WELLINGTON March 28

The Very Rev Father Ernest Rieu Superior-General, or Father-General, of the Society of Mary, whose international headquarters are at Monte Verde, Rome), arrived in Wellington by the Rangitiki this morning. He was welcomed by the Very Rev. Dr Kennedy, Provincial of the Society of Mary in Australia and New Zealand, and by a number of local clergy. This is the first occasion on which the head of the Religious Congregation, or Society, of Mary lias come to the South Seas. It is now 1)1 years since the first missionaries of this congregation were authorised to found missions in the Western Pacific. A number of these missionaries began work in the Tonga Group, and the remainder in New Zealand. The Catholic missions founded by them in New Zealand have now developed into the great organisation of tlie Catholic Cnurcli in this country. No longer are missionaries sent from the older countries to New Zealand; the Catholic Church in the Dominion is now mainly supplied by the continually growing New Zealand clergy. In the Pacific Islands, the first missions at Tonga have expanded into the missions of Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Now Hebrides, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands. It is these missions in the South Pacific and the various houses of his society in New Zealand that the Very Rev. Dr Rieu lias come to visit.

“] expect to lie in New: Zcnlancl at least two months,” Father It ion informed a “Post” reporter this morning. “I. will he a week or ten clays in Wellington, and will then probably go to the South Lsland, visiting the members of my congregation wherever they are at work. St. Patrick’s 'College, Wellington and St. Bede’s at Christchurch, are both works ol the Marist Fathers. I will he in the South Island some weeks, visiting Christchurch, Timaru, Waimate, Tcmukn, Blenheim and Nelson. In the North .Island the centres T am to visit, in addition to Wellington, are Wanganui, Otaki, Wanganui River, Highden (Palmerston North), Hastings, (Ireeiimeadows (Napier), the Seminary of the Society of Mary, Auckland, and Whangarei. After that I will visit the Pacific Islands and Australia. I hope to be in Europe again at the end of the year. I am very pleased indeed to he able to come to New Zealand. It is a great satisfaction to me to meet my own congregation here, and see this lovely land of yours.” The Very Rev. Hr Rieu was born -in 1808 in the diocese of Viviers, France, and was educated first at the Seminary of Aubenas, and then at the Faculte Catholiipie do Lyons, where he took his degree of Licentiate in Arts. He spent his early life in educational ■work in the colleges at La Soyne, Saint diamond and Riom, and later was engaged in .missionary work at Valenciennes. Later still he was appointed Procurator-General of the Society of Mary, and in 1923 became SuperiorGteneral, tfr Father-General, ol the Order*