CARDINAL MORAN

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 458, 29 March 1890, Page 4

CARDINAL MORAN

REMARKS ON AUSTRALIAN LIBERALITY.

Cardinal Moran, speaking at St. Patrick’s, Sydney, and referring to the future of Australia, said it was to him equally a matter of certainty that the progress of the Church would go hand-in-hand with the material advancement of this favoured land. One or two reasons for believing that the Church would not be left behind in the race was that their Church was the Church of the poor. At the present day they heard a great deal of Utopian schemes for putting an end to poverty, but the Roman Catholic Church, mindful of the words of Christ that they would always have the poor amongst them, devoted itself to the practical work of ministering to the poor. Referring to the early troubles ot the Church in Australia, the Cardinal said the recent evidences of the crumbling: away of bigotry and prejudice afforded a guarantee that those days would never return. The strong spirit of liberty which characterised the people of Australia would be a great aid in the working out of their career as a nation. The Australians were lovers of true liberty—in fact in this respect Australia need not yield to any country in the world - and they were determined to enjoy that liberty in the fullest measure. In such a field and with such surroundings the Church must flourish. The spirit of enlightenment, too —the twin sister of liberty—he was happy to say was a characteristic of Australia. They had not reached perfection in this respect, nor perhaps anything near it, but on all sides they had evidences which encouraged them to look forward to the not very distant day when the spirit of enlightenment, benevolence, and charity would be the distinguishing marks of all their public and private institutions, and when the great ruling and guiding principle in their onward path to national grea ; ness would be justice and fair play to ad.