THE DUTIES OF A BISHOP

New Zealand Tablet, 6 April 1911, Page 615

THE DUTIES OF A BISHOP

ELOQUENT ADDRESS BY THE BISHOP OF QOULBURN One of the distinctive features of the consecration of the Right Rev. Dr. Chine as Bishop of Perth (says the West Australian) was the sermon delivered by the Right Rev. Dr. Gallagher, Bishop of Goulburn. This added appreciably to the impressiveness of the occasion, and by it Dr. Gallagher's reputation as one of the finest orators among the Catholic clergy of Australia was abundantly maintained. Bishop Gallagher took for his text, 'Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. . I know that after my departure ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock' (Acts xx., 28). The sacred ceremony in which they were engaged, he said, was'not merely an occasion of religious joy, but of instruetion also. A Bishop had just been consecrated; a fresh sentinel had been placed on the watch towers of Israel; a new successor of the Apostles had been given to the .'Christian. Church. A new link had been added to that golden chain which bound them to the hill of Calvary, to the upper room of Jerusalem, to the Rock of Peter, to the venerable hierarchies of the ancient Catholic world. The important and progressive See of Perth having become vacant by the voluntary resignation of its laborious, self-sacrificing, and venerated Bishop, Dr. Gibney, those priests of the. diocese to whom the Supreme Pontiff had granted a consultative voice in the nomination of their chief pastor, had commended their future prelate to the Bishops of the province as the one whom in their opinion the Lord had chosen— the one whom, after deep reflection and prayer, they considered for his learning and piety and zeal, his prudence and good works, most worthy to rule over them. Bishop ! What name was there that could justly claim the esteem and gratitude of mankind? What order was there amongst men that had done so much for the enlightenment, the elevation, the true progress of their fellow-creatures. What region in the world that was not full of their beneficent and unselfish labors? To the bishops had been given in their corporate capacity in union with their Supreme Head the authoritative voice in defining doctrines of faith and prescribing laws of universal discipline. Invested with the plentitude of sacerdotal power, it was the bishop alone who perpetuated the ministry of Jesus Christ by the ordaining, of priests and consecration of other bishops. It was the bishop who _ in the solemn dedication of churches gave as it were a living soul to the house of stone and The Blessing of Heaven to the works of the hands of man. To him, as representative of Christ, was committed the care of the consecrated Virgins and the reception of those vows by which they bound themselves with the triple bond of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the service of their eternal spouse; to moulding on His Divine model the character of infancy and childhood to relieving the miseries and praying for. the temporal and eternal wants of their fellow-creatures. Shepherd of the flock, he must nourish his sheep with the food of sound doctrine, and warn them off from poisonous pasturage; he must not, like the hireling, flee, but grasp firmly his pastoral staff when the wolf of error or corruption came to seize or scatter his sheep. Sentinel on the watch tower of Israel, he should always be ready to cry out and give the alarm when the enemy was openly attacking the gates or covertly undermining the walls. Laboring incessantly as a good soldier of the Divine Lord, attending to reading, exhortation, to doctrine, he must strive to be an example to the faithful in word, in conversation, in sobriety, in charity, in chastity, and in —meditating on those things and wholly occupied with them, he must save himself and those sheep and lambs whom .God had committed to Lis spiritual care. But not to the sanctuary alone had the cares of the bishop in any age or country been exclusively confined. /'. Salt of the earth,' they took • possession of the empire of the Caesars, when falling into

decay, and rescued it from corruption. Light of the world,' they entered into the tents of the barbarians and led them from the bondage and darkness of paganism into the bright light of Christian civilisation. It was the schools of the bishops which, reposing under the inviolable shelter of the consecrated temple, imparted to the ingenious youth of the middle ages, with enthusiasm of faith and nobility of sentiment, a love of letters and a fine spirit of exalted freedom. When, for example, the hearts of the barons quailed at Runnymede, was it not the bishops who, led by Cardinal Laughton, urged them on to win from a despotic sovereign the charter of their liberties When in France and Spain the courage of the bravest grew faint did not the bishops on many an occasion even exchange the mitre and pastoral staff for the helmet and sword, and lead their discouraged people to final victory over Saracen and Moor? Never perhaps did the Germanic Confederation enjoy so much of glory abroad or freedom and happiness at home as during those long centuries when her princebishops wielded the double sceptre of temporal and spiritual sway, created the municipal institutions of the free cities, and exercised a controlling influence on the destinies of the empire. Ireland during generations of untold sufferings never allowed the iron of slavery to enter into her soul. If amid persecutions that had never been equalled she always preserved a love of learning, unblemished morals, and an innate spirit of freed nn that had never been surpassed, was it not because in great measure

She had Bishops Who were Patriots

as well as prelates, who loved country and liberty none the less because they loved religion more, because, in a word, the succession of her Pontiffs was never interrupted, but was bound in one unbroken chain through Patrick, Malachy, and Lawrence, and Oliver Plunkett to the "Rock of Ages"? # Times had altered. The old order had changed, giving place to the new. The Catholic bishop might no longer he called upon, like Ximenes and Richelieu, to take upon his shoulders the destinies of a great nation. Stripped of earthly splendor, set free from the odium which fell upon him from too close an alliance with the State, standing on no other ground than that of Apostolic authority, the bishop of the twentieth century was all the stronger for the change. Like St. Augustine, Bossuet, Wiseman, he could illustrate and adorn eternal truth by triumphs of eloquence, or enrich the domain of both secular and divine science by the labors of his mind. With Cardinal Lavigerie, he could bring the glad tidings of freedom, of enlightenment, of Christian grace and truth to the enslaved races of the Dark Continent, and restore the land of Cyprian and Augustine, rescued from Moslem bondage, to the Empire of Jesus Christ. Taking Cardinal Manning for his model, he could with noble courage, even if not crowned with immediate success, defend the cause of oppressed laborof toiling, suffering, sad humanity, and the submerged twelfthat one of the great commercial centres of the world. Or, like Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland, in America, he could strive to fashion the highest civilisation that the earth had over seen on the lines of the ancient faith, and inform the brute mass of its material progress with the soul — vivifying principles of religion. But if this were true of almost every nation on the earth, nowhere did it apply with so much force as in this fair southern —this land so well worth fighting for — own beloved Australia. Never was there An Ampler or Nobler Field for the activity and enlightened zeal of a true bishop than was presented in the Commonwealth of Australia. How youthful were the States, and yet how great. Their origin was but of yesterday, yet how rich in glorious promise? Now was the time and here was the place for the Catholic bishop. Deputy of Him to Whom all power was given in heaven and upon earth, he alone, like the palms of Palmyra among the ruins of the desert, stood erect amidst the debris of political, of intellectual, of social, and even of religious systems thtft were passing away. Let their new Bishop take courage. . Let him lift up 'his heart, trusting not in his own worth, or learning or ability, but in the power of Him Who had sent him. He had been ordered to a post of labor, and cheerfully he had taken up the burden. In these new States, where to be a successful bishop one must be a many-sided man, fruitful in resources, endowed with exhaustless latent energy; where he had so much to create, to organise, to develop,' so many conflicting elements to harmonise; where it was expected of him that he should be the best theologian, the most reliable financier, the safest counsellor in things spiritual and temporal, and at the same time the most strenuous worker in the whole diocese. Concluding, his Lordship said that he who desired the office of a Bishop under circumstances such as these desired a work that was exceeding good. Courage, then he said to the new Bishop, and with diffidence but high and holy trust in God, let him enter upon the duties of his sacred office. Let him take heed to himself and to the whole flock over which the Holy Ghost had placed him a Bishop to rule the Church of God, which He had purchased with His own blood.