DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 39, 24 September 1903, Page 5

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) September 21. The Chapter of the Order of Our Lady of Missions met recently in France for the election of a Mother Provincial in New Zealand, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Key. Mother Teresa, a few months ago. The religious here have not yet been apprised of the result. The handsome addition in buck and stone to the monastery of the Sacred Heart, fronting Lower High street, is expected to be completed and ready for occupation by the Sisters of the Missions in about a fortnight's time. The names of any pupils of the Sisters of the Missions do not appear in the musical examinations' list recently published. This is explained by the fact that at time of the examinations the late Rev. Mother Provincial was so seriously ill that it was decided to withhold candidature until the December examinations, for which a number of pupils are being prepared. At a well-attended meeting held on last Thursday evening, of the ' Polyorama ' executive committee, his Lordship the Bishop, the Very Revs. Vicar-General and Dean Foley and Rev. Fathers McDonnell and O'Connell were among those present. The principal business transacted was the allotment of stalls. All sub-committees reported that excellent progress was being made. The Very Rev. Dean Foley returned from the West Coast last week, and was with the Bishop at Lyttelton on Sunday. The site of the new church on the Coast, recently acquired and indicated in last week's ' Tablet,' is at Blackball, in the vicinity of the State coal mine. Mr. Hugh Doherty, a very old Catholic resident and colonist of many years, passed away last week at the ripe age of 80.— R.1. P. The devotion of the Forty Hours' Adoration will commence in the Pro-Cathedral on the first Sunday of October and continue over the two following days. During the devotion the ' Te Deum,' in thanksgiving for the elevation of Cardinal Sarto to the Pontificate as Pius X., will be sung in union with Montmartre, in Pans, with which the local Cathedral is affiliated. His Lordship the Bishop made an episcopal visitation of Lyttelton on Sunday last. He celebrated Mass at eight o'clock, and at the eleven o'clock Mass, celebrated by the Very Rev. Dean Foley, administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 52 candidates. The Bishop preached morning and evening at St. Joseph's Church, and a sum of £80 was subscribed to the Cathedral Building Fund. At Lyttelton on Sunday his Lordship Bishop Grimes was presented by Mr. Joyce on behalf of the parishioners, with a beautifully engrossed and illuminated address suitably framed, the illuminating and embossing being the work of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Joseph's Convent. The Bishop expressed his great appreciation of the handsome gift, and later on in the day thanked very sincerely the people for their generosity in regard to the Cathedral Building Fund.

The Sunday school at Woolston was opened in the Druids' Hall by the Very Rev. Father Le Menant des Chesnais on Sunday afternoon, with an attendance of 40 children. Mr. E. O'Connor, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Pro-Cathedral Conference, was present, and other members at once assumed charge of the classes. It is contemplated in the near future to acquire a site for the erection of a much-needed church and school, a good congregation being already located there. As s chaplain of the H.A.C.B. Society the Rev. Father O'Connell thought it necessary at the meeting of the local branch to comment on some published statements recently made by a prominent member on the amalgamation of friendly societies, with the result that a paragraph appeared in the daily papers wherein the opinions expressed were repudiated as emanating from the Society, but were the acknowledged individual ideas of the member alone.