A Tasmanian Catholic Editor

New Zealand Tablet, 22 October 1908, Page 22

A Tasmanian Catholic Editor

At the request of the Archbishop of Hobart, the Holy Father has (we learn) conferred upon the Rev. John O'Mahony;, of the Launceston Monitor, the title of Doctor of Divinity, honoris' causa. This is the second of the well-merited honors . which the Holy See has, bestowed upon "the brilliant and lovable priest who has done so much for the faith in Tasmania, for the late Pope Leo XIII. of happy decorated our esteemed confrere and friend with the Cross pro Ecclesia et Pontif.ce. ' For some twenty years Dr. O'Mahony has wielded an able ,and vigorous pen in the Catholic journalism of the ' tight little is>nd.' His best known work has, however, been, associated with our bright contemporary, the Monitor, which was. founded in 1894 as an ' amalgam ' of the Catholic Standard of Hobart and the Morning Star of Launceston. Since then his ready hand has turned to practi;ally every detail of the production of a paper. Parochial duties and the perennial and wearing cares of manager and editor, have at times been varied by turns ' at case,' or at the lever of -the printing press, or at the score of other operations connected with the mechanical side of jdurnalism. In the face of a thousand difficulties and-discourage-ments, Dr. O'Mahony raised the Monitor to a position of real influence in Tasmania, and, by the merit of its clear and crisp and virile writing, secured for it a place and a reputation even on the Australian mainland. Time does not wither the freshness, nor stale the versatility, of his pen; ingratitude for a perennial flow of benevolence has not soured the milk of human kindness in him ; or diminished the irrepressible optimism of his faith in the reformability of the. wayward ; and the long years of toil and struggle have not alone failed to make the hard, lugged bark grow ground his heart— they have left him the brightest, cheeriest, biavest, and altogether most lovable soul that is engaged in the work of weekly Catholic journalism : i Australasia to-day. Dr. O'Mahony adorns his new title Viva! !