The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1909. A CARDINAL'S JUBILEE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 13, 1 April 1909, Page 501

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1909. A CARDINAL'S JUBILEE

fILLATJRI has well said that the names and memories of great men. are the dowry of a nation. And one of the assets of Australia — and, no "doubt, its strongest, most picturesque, and most striking personality — is the great purpled Prince of tlie Church, the silver - jubilee of whose translation to the Mother See of Sydney has just been celebrated by our co-religionists beyond- the Tasman Sea. In March, 1884, Bishop (now Cardinal) Moran was transferred by the Holy See from the diocese of Ossory, Ireland, to the archbishopric of Sydney, in succession to the Mos;b Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan, 0.5.8. In the smaller sphere of his Irish See the distinguished churchman was known as a wise and active administrator. He joined with this a depth and range of learning — especially

in the fields of history and archaeology — which placed him in the foremost ranks of the scholars of our time, made his episcopate in the Green Isle a memorable <me, and added,. a fresh lustre to the Catholic hierarchy of .his coxintry. During the twelve years of that fruitful episcopate, this great ecclesiast gave a new impetus to the study of Irish archaeology, and, in addition to the work of a busy episcopate, sent out from the press works — dealing with such widely different periods as the -early Christian and the post-Reformation days in Ireland — that still remain standards in their diverse themes. V « It was, however, in the "wider field, and in the newer conditions, of the Southern lands that the first Australian Cardinal's powers have been most widely exercised and. deeply impressed. He still continues to enrich Catholic literature with .apologetic and historical works — his most memorable achievement in this line being, thus far, his monumental History of the Catholic Church in Australasia. Still true to his old love, his studies in Irish archaeology and hagiology have never ceased under the Southern Cr.oss, and great stores of literary and monumental lore have been added by him to his already rich treasxiry of earlier and later Celtic knowledge, including the life-story of the martyred Archbishop of Armagh, the Yen. Oliver Plunket — a subject in which he is acknowledged to be the foremost living aiithority. "With administrative gifts of a high order, the great See over which he has rxiled for a quarter of a century has advanced all along the line in what must^be described as a remarkable way. Perhaps in no English-speaking land are what may be termed the machinery of the Church, and its varied and beneficent activities, more thoroughly organised and co-ordinated — Catholic education better equipped, Catholic charity broader, more varied, or more energising. In those five-and-twenty years a nation's ransom has been expended \ipon the work of organising and consolidating, and God's good work has gone triumphantly on. As a citizen and patriot, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Sydney is an Australian of the Australians. 'In the early nineties,' says the Sydney Freeman, 'he gave the word of advice which ended the maritime strike ; in the late nineties he pronounced the word at Batluirst which led to the Commonwealth ; and since and all the time he has been with the people.' In the recent naval scare he struck the note which has been accepted as the Federal policy in the matter of Australian defence. The distinguished churchman stands, as a leader, abreast of all that is best in our age and day ; neither time nor toil diminishes his robust and generous sympathies; and he retains ever the simplicity that adorns greatness. We wish him ad multos annos to lead his people \xp the gleaming heights.