Death of Archbishop Croke.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 31 July 1902, Page 3

Death of Archbishop Croke.

a. cable message received l*st week announced the death of the Most Rev, Dr. Croke, Archbishop of Cafhel. His Graoe had been ill for some months, and when the last mnil left Home there was little hope that the distinguished Prelate would recover. Some time ago his Graoe asked for a Coadjutor, and on that occasion the Cork Herald said: 'This is an impressive sign that another striking figure in the Irish Church is passing into the shade. Always and without equivocation he was a friend and father of the people. " I preferred," he said himself, " the smiles of the poor to the blandishments of the rich, because I was for emancipating the serf and asserting the just rights of labor, for lifting np the old land generally, and making it as it might be, the fairest island in the sea, with hor ports teeming with trade end her ships sailing in every ocean." What grander impulse could animate the priest or the citizen ? and that impulse has guided him from first to last. It is now when he is seeking that period of rest which the fulness of time calls for that we can realise the magnitude of the work which this devoted Churchman and. patriotic Irishman has accomplished. Half & century has flown by since he entered the service of the Church which he lived to adorn. Commencing his missionary career in his native Charleville, and having labored in subsequent years under the Southern Cross, he rose in due time to fill the ancient and historic See of Cashel of the Kings. That was just more than a quarter of a century ago, his consecration as Bishop dating back five years earlier. He is, therefore, to-day not only the ecclesiastical head of the province of Cashel, but the senior of all the bishops of a group of dioceses which contain over a million Catholics. 4 Long years, however, before the venerable Archbishop reached the high position in the Church which he has now filled for 20 years the name of the Rev. Thomas Croke was familiar throughout the land. Young, ardent, and independent, he was one of the very few priests who took the lead in the great Tenant Right movement in the early fifties. That movement was the first organised effort made to secure for the farmers of Ireland the right to live in their own land. Under the title of the League of the North and South, it grew until it justified its own name, though unhappily the union did not last. The time was not ripe for the bitternesses which were then so keen to die out ; but, nevertheless, the movement was not a failure, nor the efforts of men like young Father Tom Croke wasted. More than a quarter of a century passed — a period of trouble and turmoil in Ireland — and the old movement was revived under a new name. Tue curate of Charleville had become Archbishop of Cashel. but the heart of the Archbishop was the same sympathetic, fearless otic that beat in the breast of the curate. He gave the movement the full strength of his support. This, as he Baid in after year?, brought down on him •> the maledictions of not a few, but the blessings of many." lie was still the " unchanged and unchangeable," who never •■ turned his back in fear upon an enemy." 1 Yes ; the farmers of Ireland owe more to Archbishop Croke than they will ever realise. His friendship for them was a matter of principle and duty which, likewise, dictated his political action through life. The aim he set out in life to accomplish he always kept before him. To make young Irishmen manly and self-reliant, to teach them to be proud of their country, and to act so that their country may be proud of them — these have been the zealous cares of his old age. Of his work as an ecclesiastic we will not speak here. His name will live in the annals of the Church as one of her brightest ornaments. It is as the patriotic Irishman we regard him to-day — an Irishman whom all classes and creeds honor, and a noble man who, we all fervently wish, will enjoy for many years to come the rest which the toil of a long life has so richly earned.'