DR. CROKE ON CATHOLICITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 92, 30 January 1875, Page 9

DR. CROKE ON CATHOLICITY.

The following ] is the conclusion of the eloquent address of the Lord ™°P.™ Auckland, a portion of which appeared in our last issue: The hillside on which this substantial church is built may be looked on as a fair type of what has occurred everywhere else in Cloyne lam old enough to have seen it a wilderness. The rankest weeds were its only product ; and vice and folly claimed it as their fitting domain. It now blossoms like the rose. The studious scholar and the saintly recluse, have fonnd there a much loved restino-.place • and the stranger entering your town from the f urther side of the Blackwater, cannot fail to admire the long array of magnificent buddings by which this rising ground is adorned. By whSse hand influence was this transformation principally achieved? Upwards of seventeen years ago, while yet young and inexperienced, it was my fortune to occupy in this church the same spot I stand «a to-day. I was engaged in preaching the panegyric of a holy Bishop whose mortal remains lay coffined before me— the last but one of those who have hitherto held and illustrated the bee ol Gloyne. I need not remind you of his venerated name, or recall even the leading features of his life and character Dr Murphy was essentially a man of action. Shrewd, yet self-sacrifi-cing; of resolute purpose and indomitable will ; easy of access, but by no means easy of beiDg unduly influenced; faithful to his friends, but unwilling to bestow his friendship except on those who had really laboured to deserve it; abounding in that strong comnion sense, far more serviceable than ostentatious talent, and which a French moralist has so fitly defined "the equilibrium of the faculties, his episcopate of little more than seven years forms quite an epoch in the history of this diocese. I believe he never attempted anything until he had assured himself of success, and St. Cohnan s College over the way, and the Presentation Convent, and the splendid schools and establishment of the gifted Ladies of Loretto beside it, would of themselves be quite enough to perpetuate his memory, and establish Ms claims to the lasting gratitude of all classes in Cloyne. Of his saintly successor how caS I brino- lny . self to speak ? To me, personally, as many of you know, he was *i Tf *h fsienf s iend ~ he was a parent and a protector. To you, inhabitants of this parish, he was a loving and devoted pastor; to the clergy of Cloyne he was a model; to the- laity a source of legitimate pride; to the Irish cause a tower of strength; and to the Church of Gcd a Bishop as well without fear as without reproach. Of his life and labors I need happily say but little. His praises have been sounded within those walls by worthier lips than mine. Whatever of lustre could have been imparted by speech to his honored name and character- whatever a scholar's aM friend's enthusiasm could haye effected towards illustrating his virtues and making his memory for ever dear to a nation's heart-all that ™2 doneandsupassmgly well done, by the gifted and accomplished Prelate who preached Ins funeral oration here. To-day we coinnSt to other hands the pastoral staff he so well and so wisely wielded • and I esteem it one of the highest privileges of my life/that I can preach, and be present at the consecration of his successor. It is not often that a living bishop is honestly told, or that others are told in his presence, what people say and think of him. Once and perhaps, only once, in a man's life is it given him to do so without fear; and for me that rare, and, indeed, solitary occasion is the present I trust I shall not be found unequal to it. As Tttle prone to flatter the living as to unduly praise the dead, I am! £ tins instance at all events a competent andimpartial witness ; and to no one that breathes, I believe, are the character and capabili- ¥? S 'wn lT ei "t *YOlY 01 1 h ' and spedal wttthineßß, of the Most Rev Dr. M'Carthy, better know than they axe to me. In proof of this lean refer to seven-and-twenty years freest intercourse and un broken friendship. For a time we were fellow-laborers in the same parish, under the pastoral guidance of one scarcely less £ved and respected by me, my Lord of Cloyne, than he was by ydu-the good the £itted,the generous, the high-hearted, and well know? parish priest of Mallow, the Very Rev.* Justin MacCarthy. SmS then our regions have not been substantially altered. Our thoughts on the passing events of life, both in Church and State have at all times, been frankly interchanged. In times of tSS and trouble, we found in each other a solace and a support and when Providence guided me across the waters to do the wwk allotted to me in another hemisphere, the present Bishop of Cloyne undertook to represent me at home, cheered me by Ms com W f T 6 walks of my distant mission, and thS fedCd fostered the friendsMp of our earlier years. I know weU, then,Se man of whom lam permitted to speak. Combining in Ms ow£ person the practical good sense, the business habitsfthe resoluS .ness to do what is right, and the utter absence of all needless -pomp and pretension, of Dr. Murphy, with the suavity of maW S! SSKT i £ Per ' Z\ re< l ti^ e of P ur P° se ' the Piety! the prudent zeal, the ardent patriotism, the varied knowledge^ and the refined scholarship of Dr. Keane, Dr. MacCarthy is a ma^ f X I up to the requirements of Ms age, and will prove hhnself a bisW ' ot whom any diocese may be proud. He will be flexible, yet firm His rule will be gentle, but it will be judicious. He will foiW to strike as long as possible ; but he will strike, when he deems Tt necessary to do so. He will encourage the young be resuPPffni £ the oW, support the feeble, pity the°frail andlaUen and b *£ once the friend and father of Ms priests and people. Hiuielfa acObu^urbeTriU pota. premium upon all priestly Lowledg^iad! while giving to the humblest laborer in the vineyard all due rewai-d he will reserve the best places for those who combiae the gifts of nature with those of grace, and who exalt the CISSS ministry no less by their blameless lives than by their menial c^ tare and refinement. Such, brethren, I believe, is the bishS> whom God has given you to-day. Faithful people of Cloyne obe? respect, reverence and sustain him. Faithful priests of Clovne I' operate mth ham aud make Ms administration easy. Ma^Vod

grant Mni health, and grace, and length of years. May the crozier of St. Colnian be grasped by him with steady hand. May he be loved and respected as bishop of this great See, just as he was when assistant priest or pastor ; and, when the day comes, as come it must, when he shall be called to give an account of his stewardship, and lay down the sceptre of his Mgh office, may he be prepared to do so, as his saintly predecessor did, at peace with God and with all men, midst the sorrows of Ms own immediate flock, and the regrets of a whole people. Amen. " The Mass was then continued, and at the Offertory the elect, kneeling, offered the loaves, lighted torches and vessels of wine, doing reverence to the consecrating bishop who sat mitred. After that the elect joined with the consecrating bishop in the celebration ot the Mass, both partaking out of the same chalice at the Communion. The blessing of the mitre took place immediately afterwards and with appropriate prayers the bishops set it upon the head of the Elect, who was next invested with the gloves, and then conducted to the throne prepared for him at the Gospel side of the high altar, where the crozier was placed in his hand, and the consecrating bishop entoned the Te Vetm, the choir performing the canticle in Gregorian chaunt. During the hymn, the the newly consecrated bishop was led pontifically by the assisting bishops through the church, blessing the people as he passed. The scene at tnis moment was extremely solemn and beautiful. The bishop of Cloyne, in full pontificial robes, resplendent mitre on head and and crozier in hand, passed for the first time amongst his flock, who were struck by his stately and venerable bearing, and bowed reverently to receive tliis his first episcopal benediction. Having returned to the high altar, and the liturgy being concluded, the voice of the new bishop was for the first time heard in the church wliile he lifted up Ms consecrated hands and gave the the concluding blessing. Lastly the consecrating bishop and assistants stood mitred at the Gospel side of the altar, while the new bishop advanced from the Epistle side, making three reverences, to the feet ot his consecrator, singing each time, "Long years of health." Then he received the kiss of peace from the tM-ee bishops, after which they conducted him away, and the last Gospel having been read, the Mass and the consecration service concluded. During the Mass, the choir, under the direction of Mi-. Murray, organist, sang music selected chiefly from Haydn's Imperial Mass No 3 "