DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 14, 2 April 1903, Page 6

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND.

(From our own correspondent.)

March 26,

A good picture of St. Patrick's Day celebration committee, taken on the ground after the sports, appeared in last week's issue of the 'Weekjy News.' Mdllc. Antonia Dolores sang ' Anima Christs ' at the 11 o'clock Mass at St. Patrick's last Sunday morning in a most devotional and exqHiisite manner. This gifted singer has given two concerts here, both of which were crowded to excess, hundreds being turned away. She is certainly a great artiste, and worth going far to hear. It is worthy of note that immediately she landed in Auckland from Sydney she drove straight to the Cathedral and engaged in prayer. Upon a corner section of our cemetery in Symond street there is at present located a firm of monumental masons. For this privilege the Cemetery Board derives no rental, the Government having informed the Board that the occupation was contrary to the terms of the g,rant. We have in our city a nest of bigots who imagined they had discovered a ' job,' hence one of them wrote to the City Council asking why the section was not valued for rating purposes by the city valuer. Though the answer given did not convey the true situation, yet it was sufheient to show the mouthpiece of the bigots that he had over-reached himself. The District executive of the N.Z. District, H.A.C.B. Society has forwarded the following letter to Mr. John Gavan Duffy, Melbourne : — ' Dear Sir, — The District Executive of the N Z District, No. 3, of the H.A.C.B. Society, on behalf of its members, desire to join in the universal i egret of the Irish race at Home and abroad at the sad and irreparable loss we have sustained by the death of your illustrious father, Sir Chailcs Gavan Duffy. His demise recalls to us his struggles m the stirring days of the Liberator and the ' Nation ' for the emancipation of dear Ireland. We recognise and appreciate the disabilities and sacrifices under which Sir Charles Gavan Duffy labored. Three times he was placed in the felon's dock, and, despairing of his country's just cause, we find him in the exalted position of Prime Minister of Victoria What a commentary upon the Government of Ireland His whole life was one act of patriotism, and shall c\er leinain as an example and a beacon-light to his sorrowing and giateful countrymen and countrywomen the world o\cr. Kindly conAey to your family the groat sorrow felt by the members of our Society in New Zealand at the death of our valiant champion— Sir Charles Ga\an Dufty — and we earnestly pray that God, in his infinite mercy, may grant him perpetual light and happiness ' At, St. Patrick's on last Sunday evening the Rev. Father Gillan, of St. Benedict's, delivered a very fine discourse on a subject which has been brought before the public lately, through the actions of the Methodist Conferences in Australasia over the alleged Bible-burning in Viu". Father Gillan dealt with the Bible, and in a scholarly and most convincing manner showed to whom the world and Christianity were indebted for the preservation and propagation of the Holy Scriptures. The rev. preacher, as an instance of the evils of private interpretation, showed that every church and chapel had different doctrines and practices. The Catholic Church, while encouraging her children to read and study the Bible wisely, ;is the repository of truth, does not permit them to evolve from it all sorts of doctrines at their own sweet will Jt was not until the fourth century that the Bible was to be had in anything like a complete and collected form, and then it was only by the action of the Catholic Church, which determined what was Scripture and what was not. It was preserved to posterity solely through the patient and persevering toil of the monk copyists of old The Church is infallible. It is one in its teachings and beliefs The rev. preacher instanced the celebration of Pentecost throughout the world when men of various nationalities and of different' characteristics were assembled together, yet upon the question of faith and its practice they were as one. Fnglish-speakmi> people may go to any part of the "iobe and, if Catholics, they can perform their religious' duties publicly as if they were in their native. Hnd All this showed that splendid unity which comes from the abiding spirit of God in the Church. The Key. Father promised upon a future occasion to resume this important topic.