CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 881, 27 January 1930, Page 16

CATHOLIC EDUCATION

DIVINE BLESSING INVOKED MASS AT ST. PATRICK’S Divine blessing on the religious teachers of the diocese who are about to commence another year’s work was invoked at St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday morning, when a solemn pontifical mass was celebrated for that purpose by Dr. Liston, Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland. Present in the sanctuary were priests from the various city parishes, and at the throne as chaplains of honour were Monsignor Cahill, the Vicar-General and Monsignor Lane. The deacon and sub-deacons of the mass were the Rev. Fathers Zanna, rector of St. Peter’s Rural College and Terry. Dr. feuxton was master of ceremonies. The cathedral was crowded, and in the nave were representatives of the various religious teaching orders of brothers and sisters to the number of over 250. The choir which was specially selected from the teaching sisters, and under the conductorship of Mr. E. Jenner, of the Teachers' Training College, Wellington, sang the mass in Gregorian chant. Mr. H. Hiscocks was at the organ. .In the course of his address, Dr. Liston referred to the substantial support given to the Catholic educational policy in New Zealand by bishops, priests and people from the year 1841, when Father Petitjean, S.M., established in Shortland Street the first Catholic school in the country and the first school of any kind in the city of Auckland, down to the present month, when four new primary schools are about to be opened and blessed in the diocese. “Our teachers are guides, instructors and models, in whose hands Catholic parents gladly place their children to be trained-Into divine truth and divine law,” concluded Dr. Liston. “Long experience has shown us how wisely and well they carry on their exalted and useful work as Christian educators.”