A DISTINGUISHED VISITING PRELATE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 6, 7 February 1901, Page 18

A DISTINGUISHED VISITING PRELATE.

+ THE ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE.

The Beries of ecclesiastical ceremouies which have taken place or are to take place in the cities of Wellington, Christchuroh, and Dunedin have drawn to this Colony a distinguished visitor in the person of the Most Rev. Dr. Carr, Archbishop of Melbourne. This learned and genial ecclesiastic is a native of Galway County, Ireland, where he was born in 1839. He pursued his early ecclesiastical studies in St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, after which he proceeded to the great national ecclesistical College of Maynooth. His course in the Alma Mater of the Irish clergy was marked with great distinction, and by many evidences of the high promise which has been so amply fulfilled in his subsequent career as professor, bishop, and archbishop. He was promoted to the priesthood on Pentecost Sunday, 1866. For a few years he labored with great zeal and success in his native diocese, being first engaged in parochial work, and afterwards as professor in St. Jarlath's College. In 1873 he entered St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. In that abode of culture and piety he won golden opinions for his wide and varied learning, and was, perhaps, one of the most popular and beloved members of all the professorial staffs of that great peat of learning. In 1880 he was appointed Vice-President of the College, and at the same time began to edit, with marked ability, the well-known monthly clerical magazine, the Irmk Ecchsia.st ical Record, On August 26, 1883, he was appointed to the episcopal see of Galway, and hie consecration was marked by illuminations and every evidence of popular rejoicing in the ancient City of the Tribes. After the death of the aged and venerable Dr. Gould, Archbishop of Melbourne, the Australian Bishopa petitioned the Holy See to appoint as his successor the Right Rev. Dr. Carr. The distinguished prelate was, therefore, appointed Archbishop of Melbourne by Brief dated September 29, 1886. He received the pallium, or symbol of archiepiscopal rank and jurisdiction in Rome on March 17, 1887, and in the following June was welcomed in his new See amidst the greatest enthusiasm. The subsequent career of the Archbishop of Melbourne has been filled with many a blessing for the Church over which he has been called to rule. He introduced into his archdiocese no fewer than eight or ten religious Orders, and under his fostering care, the growth of the Church within the limits of his immediate jurisdiction — as evidenced by the formation of new missions, the erection of new churches, schools, convents, institutes of charity, etc. — has been of an altogether remarkable kind. Among the other achievements of his Grace's career in Melbourne was the completion and consecration of the magnificent temple, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, which covers an area of 35,000 square feet, takes rank as one of the world's greatest cathedrals, and involved an expenditure of some £200,000, all of which has been paid off. The Archbishop of Melbourne will long b 3 remembered as the author of the admirable series of controversial works which include The Primacy of the Roman Pontiff, Reply to Dr. Rentoul, The Origin of the Church of England, The Church and the Bible, etc. The writing of these works was forced upon his Grace by offensive public statements or noisy challenges. But they possess to the fullest extent qualities which are unhappily very rare in writings of this kind : an unfailing courtesy, even courtliness, of attitude towards opponents, and a sweetness and geniality of temper relieved at times by a gentle play of native wit — that were at the same time a revelation and an example to the non-Catholio public, and won golden opinions for his Grace. A signal feature in the books referred to is the deadly and constant use which his Grace has made throughout of the evidence of distinguished Protestant authorities. His books represent what ideal controversy should be ; and this happy combination of great learning and unfailing courtesy, coupled with his Grace's well-known zeal, his accessibility, and his amiable personal qualities, has gone far towards raising the Catholio Church in Victoria to the happy position in the popular estimation which it occupies to-day. We bid the distinguished churchman a hearty welcome to New Zealand.