THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5, 1 February 1900, Page 20

THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

JlEyi'lEAf MASS IN CHRISTCHURCII

(By telegraph from our own correspondent ) AT ten o'clock this (Tuesday) morning at the Pro-Cathedral a Solemn Jti-quiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of the souls of the faithful who have fallen in the Transvaal War. There was an immense congregation, the sacred edifice being filled in every part. The ceremony was most impressive, evidently affecting a great portion of the congregation. Amongst those present were members of the War and Patriotic Fund Committees, officers of the North Canterbury Battalion in uniform, the Mayoress and City Councillors. His Lordship the Right Rev. Dr. Grimes was celebrant, the Very Rev. Father Le Menant des Chesnais assistant priast, the Very Rev. Deans Foley and Carew deacons at the throne, the Very Rev. Dean O'Donnell and Rev. Father Regnault deacons of the Mass. the Rev. Fathers Bowers and Richards masters of ceremonies Among those present in the sanctuary were the Very Rev. Canon Franklin. Very Rev. Dr. Pestre, S.M , Provincial ot the Marist Order, Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy. Very Rev. Dean Martin, Very Rev. Fathers Binafeld, Chervier, Ginaty, Rev. Fathers Tubman, Fauvel. Galerne, McDonnell, O'Connell, Cooney. Hyland, Pri< c, Crotty, Higgin9, Aubry, Goggan, Chastagnon, Malone, Marnane, Gallais, Le Petit, Bogue, O'Hallahan, and King. His Lordship Bishop Grimes, who preachpd, took for his te^t. 1 It is therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.' After referring to the battles fought by Judas Maccabeus, a warrior as pious as lie was brave, Bishop Grimes said that the words of the text came home very forcibly to them at that moment. A few weeks a»o a cry hud rung through the Colony telling how their brothers had gone forth to the battle field to risk their lives at the jail of duty. The call had come here, and we had given the world a grand object le^-on which had surprised and terrified some nation*. The cream of the colonies, unsolicited, had gone forth at tbe call of duty, had given spontaneously, bidding farewell to home and country, ami sacrificing the feelings of nature and the promptings of human affection. They had gone because their brothers were in danger and their rights were outraged. There were in the sanctuary at that service priests who had relations fighting in South Africa, and there were others who had volunteered to go as chaplains-. Were he able and were he permitted by Rome he would be glad to go to share the lot of those brave men, and to do what he could to relieve their -uffeiings. It was no burst of oratory that had made him say that, he said it because he felt it. Men who were at variance in all else had merged all into one noble feeling of patriotism. He would read them something from a paper which he had just received. from Australia. A young priest there had been accepted as a chaplain to the troops from Australia, and the Mayor and councillors and leading citizens and the volunteers had turned out to give him a great 'send off.' In the course of his remarks that brave priest had said that the previous week a Catholic paper had stated that he was an Irish Nationalist. Well, that was true, but j as an Irish Nationalist he proclaimed that it would be one of the greatest disasters to the world if our Mother Country were to go down before an inferior people. He did not want to indulge in jingoism, but no matter what differences the Irish hal at Home in that poor little isle which was his own Mother Country, he would contend that they were all better off under the British flag than under the flag of Russia, or any other country. Continuing, Bishop Grimes said that there was no one who deprecated the war more than the sovereign who ruled over these realm?, aid they also deplored it, but once the call had gone forth was it not their duty to pray for the success of the country that ruled over them ' lie thanked the priests who, at his wi->h, had remained behind at the close of the Retreat to take part in the service, and he thanked those members of tbe War Fund Committee and officers for attending, and the people who were present in such large numbers, That service would show that they cherished the memory of those who had gone, and would assure those who were going that they had the good wishes of the congregation He quoted the words written by the late poet Laureate, words spoken by Arthur to hia companions in arms 'If thou shouldst never see my face again, pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day ; for what are men better than sheep or goats that

nourish a blind life within the brain, if knowing God they lift not h..nds of prayer, both for themselves and those who call them friend ? For po the whole round earth is every way bound by gold chains about the f> ct of God. But now farewell, lam going a long way, where I will heal me of my grievous wound ' In the word* of the Church may eternal rest Ijo given to those soldiers who had fallen, and to another soldier of the Church, their late Vicar-general, the anniversary of whoso death it was by a coincidence that day. The sanctuary was draped in black, with white facings and Ma!t"*e cv-r."-..* whilst the hiVh altar was stripped of ornaments and bore signs of symbols of mourning. A catafalque was placed in front of tho aHtr and «hrnuded with a Union Jack. At the termination ot the ceremony the organist, Misa Funston, played the Dead March.