VISIT TO ROSS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 105, 1 May 1875, Page 7

VISIT TO ROSS.

The Right Reverend Dr. Redwood, JBisliop of Wellington, accompanied by Father Goutenoir, and escorted by a cavalcade of horsemen who went to meet him on the road, arrived in Ross yesterday afternoon, about four o'clock. Arrangements had been made to give Dr. Redwood a fitting reception. At the gate of St. Patrick's Chapel an arch had been erected, on which was inscribed "Welcome to our Bishop," and trees were placed in appropriate positions; and the school children were drawn up in line.- At the door of the Chapel Father M'Guinness read an address to the Bishop, which was signed on behalf of the congregation by the Pastor, and Messrs. Healy, Moran, and Daly, as follows : — " To the Right Reverend Francis Redwood, D.D., Lord Bishop of Wellington — May it please your Lordship — We, the Catholic Pastor and people of Boss, heartily welcome your Lordship to this remote corner of your vast spiritual domain, and offer a welcome with all the more warmth, as it is the first time we have been visited by a Bishop that we might call our own. Whilst anxiously awaiting your Lordship's nomination to this See, the Right Rev. Bishop of Dunedin kindly attended to our immediate wants : but our late deeply regretted Diocesan Bishop, your Lordship's venerable predecessor, though having visited more distant places, never afforded us the pleasure of seeing him here, owing, first, to the newness and unsettled state of the district, when making his visitation, and next to the decline of his health, when Ross assumed a more settled form. For this reason your Lordship's presence amongst us this day makes us doubly joyful, and fills us with a sense of the deepest satisfaction. Your Lordship's priest and servant has other reasons to rejoice besides this general one. He saw your Lordship years ago tried in the crucible of the religious state, witnessed your triumph in study and in science, knew you to possess ever a sacerdotal virtue in an eminent degree, and fancied he beheld lowering over you brow the mitre that adorns it to-day. Even your Lordship's Mood relations could not appreciate your worth and excellence as he could ; and consequently his first motive for rejoicing on the occasion of this visit is to see well trained virtue and well trained talent receive the ample and seasonable reward they have so justly deserved and duly merited. His second motive, though personal,, your Lordship will, I am sure forgive, for it iB the pardonable pride with which your Priest and servant regards the presence of a former friend and intimate now vested in the purple of sacred authority emanating from the shadow of St. Peter's throne. As your Lordship lately visitrd the shrine of St. Peter, and there listened to the Oracle of the One Holy Church, your arrival amongst us reminds us forcibly of what we have learned of the sufferings of his Holiness the Pope. To say tliat we sympathise with our Holy Father upon his weighty

grievances, and especially upon his cruel imprisonment, would be only irrelevant, for we should not bo Ms children if we could not feel With him — we should not be Catholics at all if we could be indifferent to the persecution of Christ's immediate Vicar, and our own infallible guide. But we are not as those without hope. Let still worse come, and the world will find that our hopes, strange as it Bounds, will not wane, but brighten, for then we shall know that the hour is at hand which, we partially await. And now, most reverend Lord, we all, Priest and people, join in tendering to your Lordship our profoundest respect and heartfelt submission, and whilst praying that God may favor your Lordship with a long and happy life to reign over us, and imploring of him for ourselves tbe necessary grace to be always obedient to your salutary counsels, we humbly crave a blessing upon our heads from that hand which inherits the sanctifying virtue and power of the first Apostles. We have the honor to subscribe ourselves your Lordships faithful and obedient servants." Dr. Redwood acknowledged the address and the cordial reception given to him, and paid high tribute to the sterling worth of Father M'Guinnesß, to whom he wasjtenderly attached.