PAST RECALLED

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1932, Page 2

PAST RECALLED

BY ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD,

NOW IN HIS' 95th. YEAR

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 4,

To imagine that a healthy colonial boy, who had spent the greater part of his life on a farm in primitive Nelson should have the grit, the grace, the inspirational urge, or the vocation, call it what you will, to leave the country to undergo religious instruction in a foreign land; and to realise that this same boy, now approaching the century in age, should have become the head of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand; and the oldest bishop in the world, must he accounted something unique on the human side of New Zealand’s history. • . Yet such has been the experience of his Grace Archbishop Redwood, who is leaving Wellington for England, en route to Rome and Dublin (where he will attend the Eucharistic Congress) by the Tamaroa on Wednesday next. When interviewed yesterday his Grace, who is in remarkably robust health, despite his 94 years, spoke with the greatest animation of the coming trip, and of the pleasure he eagerly anticipated at meeting his old friends in France, Rome, and Dublin once more.

“I have already attended five Enchni’iatio Congresses," said his Grace. “This one will be my sixth. The. other congresses I attended were at Montreal, Chicago, Lourdeis (in France), Amsterdam, and Sydney. . .

I have been greatly blessed. I will attend this congress in Dublin as the oldest member of the Marist Order in the world, as 1 have been with the order ever since I left Nelson as a boy of 15. Even now that seems only a few years ago. My going? .. It was .simply a matter of spiritual grace. Hotv could it have been otherwise ? . . .

That I should have 'felt’ this vocation when so young; to leave my home under distressing circumstances, with my mother in bed with a broken leg, and, suffering no little hardship to go across the seas to far-away France.”

DIAMOND JUBILEE SHORTLY “....And yet it lias come to this—it is the sixty-eighth year of my religious profession, the sixty-seventh year of my priesthood, and the fifty-eighth year of my episcopate—fifty-eight years a bishop....! tell them all that I hold a bunch of records.... You remember my jubilee? Well, d° n ’t you see, in another two years' it will be my diamond jubilee—sixty years it bishop. Well, well, 1 can only sav it is by God’s grace. You know Shakespeare says it in another way—‘There I is a tide in the affairs of man which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.’ I. took that tide when I left Nelson as a lad to become a priest.” His Grace looks forward to his visit to the Eternal City by the Tiber, which has been his spiritual retreat on many occasions during the last fifty years ; but probably, as much as anything, he anticipates his visit to France, where he grew from youth to manhood in the famous Marist college of St. diamond, near Lyons, and not so far from the old city of St; Etienne. There his Grace spent some six years of his stay in France, and he loves every stone in the great college building, which has been the nursery of some of the greatest minds in France. “So that I go back to St. diamond happy to know that I will be well received, and if I cannot see my old friends, I will doubtless meet some of their children and grandchildren Every year there is a gathering of the old boys of St diamond, and every ten years a great celebration. I was the speaker on one occasion. That was a great honour, as this college has turned out some splendid men. Not the least of them was Peter Dermier, a fine scholar and magnificent speaker, one of the keenest minds in France of his day. If an old boy cannot attend the gatherings he has to send a cable message.” HIS .MARVELLOUS EYESIGHT. “You keep up your French ’’ “Oh, yes—l spoke it like my native tongue, grew up with it, so to speak,” said his Grace. With that be turned to refer to the journal of the St. Chamond College, which he read without difficulty—and without glasses. Ninetyfour—and reading small print without glasses! When the marvel of it was pointed out, the Archbishop said that lie had recently had his eyes tested in Brisbane by an .eminent specialist. “After the most careful examination, the specialist told me that my left eye was magnificent, and my right one ncariy as good—marvellous for my age. “Your sight will last longer than you will,” said the specialist to me.” Commenting upon the existing conditions, his Grace said that New Zealand had experienced hard times before, bill with pluck and hard work had always managed to win through. There had, however, never been experienced so world-wide n depression as the present one, and as far as lie could see there was no one doing very much to mend the situation. |

‘‘There is a call for hit; melt, and I don't see them. Mussolini, yes! He has put 'ltaly into a better position than ever ii has been, ami now he has met the I’ope on friendly terms there is much to hope for. One tiling, be has raised the standard of the schools, the industries, and given (he country a firmer political, moral, and industrial backbone.

I “In my opinion,” continued his Grace, I "there can be no great improvement in the world until the principles of Christinn'+v founded on truth, justice, and charity are more firmly established and practised. It has been the cutting out of religion from education which has been a root cause of tbe world upset. It produces men, without a religious or spiritual background. That is why the stature of the leaders of nations has decreased—even in j this country, but- I must not say such: things, must IF It is the bankers and the usurers who are causing such a lot of trouble in the wor'd. Everyone is reaching out for money, and more money—for wliatF Just to enjoy the few hectic pleasures. They must come back to the faith before there will be any marked improvement.” His Grace will spend his ninetyfourth birthday at sea on Friday next. 'l'li -re will be an anticipatory dinner in celebration of the event at his residence (tui'dford Terrace; to-morrow evening, as the Tamaroa, by which steamer he leaves for England, will sail on Wednesday. His Grace is to make a stay in Home and France before proceeding on to Dublin for the Eucharistic Congress.