FAREWELL MESSAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1940, Page 8

FAREWELL MESSAGE

TO PEOPLE OF NEW ZEALAND PAPAL LEGATE RETURNS THANKS. THE CONGRESS A GLORIOUS TRIBUTE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “My clear people of New Zealand," said Archbishop Panico. in his farewell address after Solemn Pontifical Benediction yesterday, “the imposing ceremonies and demonstrations of Christian loyalty will ever be an ineffable remembrance to all who were privileged to participate in them.

“The benefits we have enjoyed during these days, as ‘the stream of the river which maketh the city of God joyful,’ are the. needs of the world we inhabit, of the times in which we live. How poor is our age in true life, the spiritual life that alone can satisfy the noble aspirations of the heart of man. ‘What age,’ asks the Holy Father, ‘has been for all its technical and purely civic progress, more tormented than ours by spiritual emptiness, and deep-felt interior poverty? May we not, perhaps, apply to it the prophetic words of the Apocalypse: Thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have ’ need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.’

“To this profound question, there is but one answer. More now than ever before is evident the truth of St Augustine’s words: ‘Thou hast made my heart for Thyself, O Lord, and it cannot rest until it rest in Thee.' Imperative, therefore, is the duty of all true Christians—laymen as well -as ecclesiastics —to make known to their fellow-men ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ. No task is nobler, no undertaking is more honourable, than ‘to unfurl the ensign of the King before those who have followed and still follow false standards and to win back to the victorious banner of the Cross those who have abandoned it.’

“Prayer and example are the means of comforting and strengthening our brothers in the Faith, so that they may be Christians more in fact than in name, and that, in the ‘hour that calls for endurance for effort, for suffering for a stout heart in face of hidden or open persecution,’ they may not fall victims of cowardice, weakness, uncertainty, and may drink generously ‘the bitter chalice awaiting those faithful to Christ.’

“If we consider your congress as your participation in the Centenary celebrations of the State, it has been a marvellous demonstration of your citizenship, of your loyalty ter those in whose hands rests the destiny of this beautiful counjtry. As fruit of the congress, may the quality of your citienhip be still more perfect—your loyalty still more sincere and profound. We continue to pray without ceasing for the great blessing of real peace, founded on Christian justice and charity. This alone will bring consolation to millions of suffering families. But we fully realize that the times in which we live are grave and require sacrifice, may be the greatest degree of sacrifice. On this solemn occasion, interpretating your sentiments, I have no fear in stating that the people of New Zealand will be inferior to none in facing the trial with courage and participating with generosity and unconditionally in whichever sacrifices the rigours of the crisis may demand. “If we consider the congress as a religious ceremony, it has been a glorious tribute, of our love, to Christ, the King of Souls. And this —the crowning day of the congress—l fervently hope has been, in a particular manner, one for the people of New Zealand such as that envisaged in the Holy Father's prayer that the feast of Christ the King would be for all men, ‘A day of grace and of thorough renewal and revival in the spirit of the Kingdom of Christ.’ “With this fervent hope and prayer, I give to the ecclesiastical rand civil authorities, to the clergy—secular and regular—to the religious congregations, to those commanding and in the public services, to the Press and to you my dear people of New Zealand, my warmest thanks, and I leave you, profoundly moved as I am, with the simple and beautiful words. ‘God bless you all.’