FROM SOLDIER TO SAINT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 33, 9 February 1940, Page 8

FROM SOLDIER TO SAINT

A Note on Bishop Pompallier

(Written for "The Listener" by

THE REV. DR.

F. H.

WALSH

EHIND the story of Bishop Pompallier B and the early days of the Church in New Zealand lurks the picturesque figure of Peter Dillon. He was an Irish seacaptain who over the first decade of the 19th century was a famous trader in the South Seas. In 1814 he brought to New Zealand its first Christian minister, the Reverend Samuel Marsden. Then for nearly twenty years he planned and worked for the establishment of a Catholic mission to the Western Pacific. A loyal Catholic himself, he solicited the aid of Princes and Cardinals in order to establish Catholicism in these lands. His work was done when Jean Baptist Francois Pompallier set out from Le Havre on Christmas Day, 1836, on that long and adventurous journey which was not to end until he reached Hokianga on January 10, 1838. Began As A Cavalry Officer Still a young man, the new bishop had been born at the beginning of the century when a hard-won peace had been established by the Treaty of Luneville and the Concordat had settled relations with the Church, His family belonged to the gentry of the country near Lyons; so young Pompallier enjoyed the advantages of being brought up in an atmosphere of lively faith and deep culture. Having served his king as a cavalry officer in the dragoons, he laid down the sword for the cross and began his studies for the priesthood. The modern era of daring missionary enterprise had not yet dawned. Conservative influences were in the ascendant, at the Vatican; after the turmoil of revolution and Napoleonic wars, the Church seemed more anxious to preserve what survived, and to Testore what was weakened at home rather than to attempt fresh conquests beyond the seas. But the pleas of Peter Dillon and men like him, the cries of simple Catholics like

the Poyntons, who yearned for the solace of the Mass-these did not fall on deaf ears. There was in Lyons a group of diocesan priests who wished to undertake some special work for God. They called themselves Marists. To these men Pope Gregory turned. He gave these enthusiasts their chance by offering them the new mission of the Western Pacific. The Abbé Pompallier became Bishop and leader of the little band and founder of the Catholic Church. in New Zealand. He arrived in Hokianga after a long and adventurous journey. Of the seven helpers who had left France with him over twelve months before, only two remained. One had died of fever near Brazil, another, Peter Chanel, was soon to meet a martyr’s death in the island of Futuna; the rest were scattered singly through lonely islands of the Pacific. The new Bishop and his companions were warmly welcomed by the few Irish settlers, and Mass was celebrated for the first time on these shores on January 13, 1838, in a cottage lent by Thomas Poynton. Early Difficulties The missionaries studied English and Maori, and then began work with some measure of success. They were, however, handicapped by the fewness of their numbers, scanty equipment, and depressing poverty. In fact, it was eighteen months before reinforcements of men and money arrived. Meanwhile, they were in desperate straits. It was not a tolerant age; it was only ten years since Catholics had been emancipated in England. The intrepid Bishop went for some time in very real danger of life itself; however, he persevered, and enjoyed unexpected success among some particularly savage tribes who had so far resisted all attempts at conversion; in particular, the Wirinaki, whose ancestral traditions told them they must em-

brace the faith which should be preached to them by unmarried priests. No Entente Cordiale . Religious bigotry was inflamed by national prejudice and further intensified by trade rivalry. The spirit of the "entente cordiale" was not yet born; in the ’Forties it was France who was still suspected as the enemy. No one could deny that Pompallier was a Frenchman. He would have been the last to disown his country. But happily he placed the zeal for souls above considerations of race, No Politics As his qualities became known and his aims better understood, his influence increased rapidly among the Maoris. Better equipped now with men and money, though never really free from anxiety concerning both, he performed prodigies of energy and missionary zeal. At Waitangi he remained absolutely neutral and refused to be embroiled in politics. But once the Treaty was signed and British sovereignty established, then he loyally taught his native flock the necessity of obedience to the lawful civil power. This aloofness from politics and commerce gave power to his name. So great was his prestige even outside his own people that when Kororareka was sacked his house and mission alone escaped completely unscathed. French No Longer After ten years, Wellington, where he had been so cordially received by all classes and creeds, became a separate diocese under Bishop Viard. Making his centre at Auckland, Bishop Pompallier was hard put to it to cope with the increasing demiands of a rapidly expanding population. He gathered more priests, brothers, and nuns in Europe. In 1851 he made the very real sacrifice of his French nation. ality and said to Suzanne Aubert, perhaps the greatest of his helpers: " You are French no longer. The Kingdom of Christ knows no frontiers and his servants distinguish no flag but that of the country where they labour in his service." Failing health caused him to resign in 1869. After a successful life of wonderful missionary endeavour he retired to a small village near Paris, The terrible winter of the Franco-Prussian War found him active in works of charity, but the rigours of the siege and the Prussian occupation proved too severe for the gallant but weary prelate. He died at Puteaux on December 21, 1871. His monument is the Catholic Church in New Zealand.