DIOCESE OF WELLINGTON

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 32, 6 August 1903, Page 4

DIOCESE OF WELLINGTON

(From our own correspondent.) July 30. The largest congregation yet assembled in the Church of the Sacred Heart was present on Tuesday morning on the occasion of the celebration of the Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the late Pope. Amongst the congregation were the Chief Justice, the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, the Hon. C. H. Mills, lion. A. Pitt, Mr. J. Duthie, M.H.R., several members of both branches of the Legislature, and many leading citi7ens, irrespective of class. There were also present Captain Addington and Lieutenant Evans, of H.M.S. Phoebe, and a large number of the men of the Catholic faith from that Aessel The decorations of the church were on a most elaborate scale and were carried out by the Sisters of St Mary's Convent. High over the altar hung the Papal arms, surmounted by a gold cross, with the triple bars emblematic of the Chair of St. Peter, and at the foot, clear cut ;n large silver letters, the words 1 Lumen in coelo ' (light in heaven). To the right and left of the altar were suspended two inscriptions in Latin ; one, ' Petri annos in Romana sede secundus superavit,' referring to the fact that his Holiness occupied the Papal chair for a teim longer than any of the C 59 occupants but one , and the other, ' Optimi principis nomen et famam est meritus,' eulogising him as having

merited the name of the best of the princes of the Church. References in a similar strain were inscribed above the side altars—' Omnia Leo Omnibus ' (Leo, all things to all men) and ' Fidei Vindex non Flexus ' (Vindicator of the faith, unswerving in principles). His Grace the Archbishop pontificated, the assistant priest being Yen. Archdeacon Devoy, the deacons at the throne \ery Rev. Father Lane and Rev. Father O'Shea deacon and sub-deacon of the Mass Very Rev. Fathers Keogh and Smythe, master of Ceremonies Very Rev. Dean McKenna (Masterton). The following priests were present in tiie sancludiy .—Very Rev. Father Lewis, V.G. Very Rev. Dean Binsfield (Meanee), Rev. Fathers' Cahiii (Carterton), O'Meaia (Fielding), Dufly .(Paliialua), Walsh (Hutt), Melu (Otaki), McNamara (Te Aro), J. Tymons and O'Reilly (St. Patrick's College). Rev. Fathers Power (Hawera), Tymons (Palmerston North), Maples (PetoneO, Holley, Hills, Ainsworth, Moloney, assisted by male members of the local Catholic choirs, sang the Gregorian music of the Mass, Rev. Father Kimbell acting as organist.

During the Mass his Grace Archbishop Redwood delivered an address on the late Pontiff, taking for his text Ecclesiasticus i., 7 : ' As the sun when it shineth, so did he shine in the Temple of God. 1 A great and saintly Pope, a great statesman, a great scholar, a great Christian, a great man in every respect — the foremost man in Christendom, nay, in all the world —has gone to his eternal reward, said his Grace, and has left the world vastly poorer by his loss. Unquestionably, he was one of the grandest figures of the last and present century. The venerable representative of the Divine Founder of the Church, the vicegerent who administered His kingdom with consummate skill and unrivalled success for a term of yeaxs exceeding that of almost all his predecessors, the valiant captain and standard bearer of the army of Israel, has been called away by the Divine Commander, who strengthened his head and hand in his long conflict for truth, justice, peace, and liberty. Yet we must not forget that the same Divine assurance which guaranteed to us His sublime office and prerogatives gives us the emphatic pledge that even his loss shall be repaired. But for the hour grief rules supreme. Other Popes, in other centuries, have been taken away at the close of their career— great men, saints ; but it may be questioned if ever Pontiff so filled the wide world with fame and his name, and his influence for every species of good to the human race and true civilisation, as did Leo XIII. A considerable time must elapse before we can form a just estimate of his wonderful Pontificate. He was truly a pastor after God's Own heart. Without armies, or fleets, or material power of any kind, his moral power was immense, with results which alternately delighted and amazed the world, and throughout the course of history, we may look in vain for his equal in wielding the sword of the Spirit. By the beauty and strength of his character, by the calm sunlight of his genius, by the sweet example of his holiness, and by the world-embracing benovelence of his heart he has been an eminent and enduring benefactor of humanity. His numerous masterly encyclicals show how perfectly he has grasped in one comprehensive view all the evils and needs of his century, and how, with incomparable clearness and eloquence he stated the means to meet or redress them. His mastery of economic pronlems was marvellous, and his social influence simply immense. He has done more than any man in Europe or the world to conciliate labor and capital, to bring justice, peace, and happiness to the sons of toil. He will go down to posterity as the working man's Pope, and his immortal encyclical on the conditions of labor will alone suffice to canonise him in the minds and hearts of the toiling masses. He closed his eventful and glorious career in the midst of the affectionate College of Cardinals and of other ecclesiastical dignitaries— while all the world stood by that sublime deathbed in deepest concern and smypathy— he expired fortified by the prayers of the Universal Church and all the help and consolations of religion. And while we supplicate for pardon on behalf of him who is gone, let us fervently pray to obtain for the Church and mankind a worthy successor to our beloved Pontiff, Leo XIII., the Great and the Good.

At St. Joseph's Church a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated by Rev. Father Smythe on Wednesday morning. Yen. Archdeacon Devoy was deacon, Rev. Father Tymons (Palmerston North) sub-deacon, and Rev. Father O'Shea master of ceremonies ; Very Rev. Dean Binsfield, Rev. Fathers McNamara, Cahill, Walsh, and Dadah were present in the sanctuary. The impressive Gregorian music was rendered in a most devotional manner by the visiting and local clergy. Mr. D. Kenny presided at the organ, and played the Dead March in ' Saul ' at the end of Mass.

On Sunday last in the churches of the city * special tributes were paid to the memory of the deceased Pon-

tiff. Speaking from the text, • Give an account of thy stewardship,' the Very Rev. Father Lewis, at the Church of the Sacred Heart, pointed out that the Pope whose death they mourned had been, unlike the figure in the ? ar , a^^, c ? J just steward > and that in his long reign he had fulfilled his high duties with lasting benefit to the Church. Father Holley, at the 10.30 o'clock Mass, also spoke of the death of his Holiness. Father McNamara in the course of a sermon at the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, said that Leo XIII. was one of the greatest Popes who had ever occupied the Chair of St. Peter In passing, he said that the secular press deserved praise lor the way in which it had spoken of the late Pope. The \en. Archdeacon Devoy, preaching at this church gave an interesting sketch of the life of his Holiness, and in speaking of the conflict with Bismarck, said that the latter, in seeking to crush the Church, had first adopted tne means sought to be used in other countries— namely, he had attacked Catholic education. But Bismarck had to submit, and afterwards appealed to the Pope to arbitrate in the Caroline Islands dispute. Archdeacon Devoy mentioned the Pope's love for Ireland, and his interest in the welfare of the working man, and said that Leo XIII in all he did, worked for the greater glory of God and the good of his neighbor. A personal impression of the k ope as Archdeacon Devoy saw him on his visit to Rome three years ago was a subject of a touching tribute to the venerable Pontiff. At. St. Joseph's Church Buckle street, Father Keogh, Rector of St. Patrick's College, preached an able panegyric on the late Pope. He said that the grief of Catholics at the death of Leo XIII . was lessened by the hope that he was now enjoying the eternal recompense for a good life, by the noble character 1^ had left behind him, and by the widespread sympathy of non-Catholic friends. Father Keogh, in a sketch of the life of the deceased Pontiff, showed that his character had been formed by his mother, and that its further development, in his love for the Church and for prayer, in his fove for the poor, and in the manliness and straightforwardness of his whole hfd, was based upon his early training, He spoke of the interest which the Pope had shown in the cau&e of education, and of the work which he did on its behalf when he was Archbishop of Perugia, and afterwards when he became Pope. At a general meeting of the Jewish congregation the Rev. Mr. Van Staveren was directed to write a letter of condolence to Archbishop Redwood expressing the sympathy of the Jewish people in the province of Wellington at the loss suffered by the Catholic Church in the- decease of the Pope.