ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONER FROM EGYPT.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 397, 28 August 1889, Page 5

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONER FROM EGYPT.

', ' • • Thk Rev. D. J. O'Sullivan, dopufcy from the African Missionary Socioty, has arrived irt Auckland on a tour of laising funds for that wondorful mission, which- has its headquarters in Lyons, in France, .and has spread itself over a large, tract of .Africa," Egypt, Sierra Leone, and other portions of the globe, with the objcctof evangelising the dark heathen, and lift them out of the slough into which they havo fallen, and, in which they have wallowed for centuries. The list of the heroic missioneis and sistors who havo fallon victims to disease, i and death in Egypt alone numbers j about 60 during the last 10 3 cars. It J is almost impossible to live long ' amidst surroundings which include priations, rlisenso, and a murderous climato, which nips in tho early bud lives which aro devoted Lo such labours, and which would in all probability havo lived to good old age i£ tho conditions had been at ail favourable. The following mis&ioners and sisters, whose lives were cut short in the work, show how the death rate ranges in Egypt— tho world's oldest nation :-- Rev. Father Dornan, Lokoia, Nigor, 1886, 7 months' mission life, age 28 ; Rev. Father O'Oarrol, Eanta, Egypt, 1881, 5 months' mission lifo, ago 29 ; Roy. Father Hennebovry, buried at sea, 1885, 18 months' mission life, ago 24 ; Roy. Father Connaughten, Lagos, 1887. 17 months' mission lifo, ago 33 ; Roy. Father Moran^ Dahomey, 18S7, 2 years 11 months' mission life, age 33 ; Sister Felicite, Lagos, 1878, 5 months' mission life, ago 24'; Sister Dominic, Lagos, 1878, 4 months' mi&sion lifo, ngo 23; Sister Oeciliue, Slave Coast, 1837, 4 mission life, age 30 ; Sister Silvius, Porto Novo, 1808, 44 years' missiou life, age 29 ; Brother Joromc, Slave Coas:, ISBO, 1 year 11 months' mission life, ajjo 32 ; Brother Alphonsc, Slave Coast, 1880, 7 months' mission life, age 27. Theso men and women had actually taken their livosin their hands in the attempt ot a tasL almost beyond human power to achieve. The very fact that 500,000 is the number of slaves passed annually thiough the market, by tho man and woman hunters from the North, should enlist the sympathies of good Catholics, and even Protestants themselves, and rou&e them to hot enthusiasm, to ameliorate all in their power a cause so truly humano and noble. The thought that there is an annual destruction of two millions of lives should at least appeal to every tender heart. Thirty years ago the conversion of the Cark Continent occupiei the thoughts of tho pious mis&ioner, Mon&eignoiu' Marion de Bresillac, but Lhehornbleolimate blocked the way of the evangelist, and the poor dark African seemed destined to be left in the darkness in which he had lain for centimes, and ab last the good foundei, the Bishop de Bresillac, determined to found the Society of Mi&sionaiy Priests, who should de\ote their whole lives to thoir conversion and chiliaation. It was staited with great applause, and warmly helped by the pious as a noble cause. Tho first little band of priests were cradled in suffering, and death made short work of all of them but one. Others soon entered the ranks and fell in the caube of duty and charity. Yet the work grow. Other nations heard of tho heai trending saciitices which were being made, and moic men and women flocked to the staudaid. Year by year the difliculties were slowly oxtsicome and new stations were begun all along the coasts of Guinea, Dahomey, far up the Niger, in Capo Colony and Eg>pt. At piesenb the society counts in Europe six houses for tho religious training and education of missionaries and religieuses, an hospice at Nice for those who return from the mission in shattered health, and lifty-six chinches, schools, and dispensaries loi'tho &ick poor in Africa. Many of these are tho centres, of flourishing missions ; others are on tho v* ay to be so. Lagos, their principal station on the West Coast, scarcely counted thirty African Christians twenty your years ago ; to day they number ti\e thousand. They lnuea splendid chinch, but the cemetery beside it contains the graves of more than thirty priests and nuns who consumed their lives hero to make tlieir mission. The above with tho prefecture of Lower Egypt i& estimated to contain over forty millions of bouls. Egypt offers a splendid Held for this mission work. The enormous labours of the Society ha\o been so great a drain upon tho limited resources ol the missionaries to whom thus task has been confided that for the present not only aio they powerless to go on further, but they are obliged to abandon more than one of the stations, founded at the expense of life and suffering. Under thef-c circumstances they are forced to havo lecoul.rO to tho aid of tho charitable. With tho authorisation of the Cardinal Piefcet of the Propaganda, the two missionaries whose names appear below have been pent directly from their missions in Africa ai»d Australia for thi3 purpose. His Eminence warmly commends their appeal and vouches for its necessity. The missioners, on their an ival in Australia, met with great financial succe&s, and it is anticipated that in Auckland an equal spirit of liberality will be accorded. The gonciosiby of Protestants towards their missions is extraox*dinary. A Hue generosity would be found among their Catholic fellow-countrymen were the duty brought clearly before them — the duty we have to the heathen. Tho Bishop of Salford says: — " Your idea of sending some priests to the colonies to collect appears to me to bo very natural. In thefeo new countries where Catholics have had a fair start, wealth is greater than among tho Catholics of the Church, for instance, in England. Hitherto, they have done but little for the heathen mission, and it would seem fair to bring your claims to support before their eyes. I doubt not but that tho bishops of Australia, who, being for the most part Irish, have inherited tho generous missionary spirit of St. Patrick, will look favourably on your work. Tho sympathy between the French and the Irish vi hich exists so strongly will commend your missioners to the Irish settlers." Rev. Father O'Sullivan will preach in St. Patrick's to-morrow (Sunday) and no doubt his service will be largely attended. His Egyptian reminiscences will attract a big congregation. It is jyst possible that with the permission of Bishop Luck a lecture may be given, but upon this we cannot speak positively. The Catholic people will bepersonally canvassed throughout the district, and their donations solicited. Father O'Sullivan is an Irish missioner who years ago joined tho Society, and he will, no doubt, obtain a share of tho benevolence of the people of Auckland. The following is Bishop Luck's' certificate to the Rev. D. J, O'Sullivan, showing by what authority he collects funds for the propagation of hi 3 work :—: — " Bishop's House, Ponsonby, Auckland, Now Zealand, August 24th," 1889. My dear Rev. Father O'Sullivan, — In accordance with tho promiso I gave you soveral months ago, [ welcome your arrival in my diocese of Auckland with a 'view i>o your furthering the noblo causo of the evangelisation of the hoathen races of I Africa. For u& who are surrounded by so

mariy (blessings bhat'go'haridin handwibh *Ohrisbianiby,Mb is impossible to form an \ adequate idea of the* many curses that follow in fche train of Paganism," and in particular of the horrors of the slave trad'd and of tho moral turpitude that degrades our follow 'beings' in* the" Dark' Continent. I therefore hereby' "authorise you to exert your zealous- efforts throughout my diocese' on behalf of tho heathen, and I earnestly commend your 1 noble caupe to the co-opera-tion of my clergy and the charity of the faith- . ful. - Most people are' at limes inclined to restrict their 1 charity to'thg narrow limits of their own immediato experience, whereas '• Christian charity has n6 other boundary mark than tlie confines of humanity itself. Tho great work of dispelling the darkness of ignorance and vice by the introduction of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, "the Light of the World,'' and the practice of i Christian virtue, is one that is too often is overlooked and even under-valued. It was tliis which was the work of our Divine Redeemer, tho work He entrusted to His apostles, and in them to their successors in tho Church ; it is> this work of which we ourselves are the actual bencliciaires through the labours of a St. Patrick, a Sb. Columba, and a St. Augustine, and ibis Lhis self-same work which 'you, in common with ■ the members of other missionary societies, are so fruitfully and so faithfully carrying out in the God-forsaken regions of Africa and in other parts of tho world. I have my own personal experience in this diocose of the hardships and difficulties missionaries encounter in the work of planting the Faith amongst thoso who sib in the darkness of death, and I can sympathise with your cause all the more heartily. May our Divine Master, who is ' the way, tho truth and the life,' bles3 your efforts amongst my faithful flock and make them generous in contributing to the furtherance of your great work. — Believe me, 3'ours very sincerely in J. C. , John Edmuosd Luck, 0.5.8., Bishop of Auckland. j