THE LATE CARDINAL MORAN

New Zealand Tablet, 31 August 1911, Page 1683

THE LATE CARDINAL MORAN

TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF A GREAT PRELATE Our Sydney contemporaries of August 17, in their account of the death of Cardinal Moran, contained very little beyond what we were able to publish in our last issue. Sydney, and subsequently the whole Commonwealth and New Zealand, had not received so great a shock for many years (says the Catholic Press). There had been no alarming reports about his Eminence's state of healthindeed, during the past weeks his health seemed to be as excellent as at any time during the last quarter of a century, and his vigor in carrying out the many works in which he was engaged was really remarkable. His last appearance in public was on Sunday afternoon, when he went to Chatswood, one of the latest parishes he had created, to bless the foundation stone of a new presbytery. His step was elastic, and he bore himself youthfully, his eighty-one summers resting on his shoulders as lightly as though they were but fifty; and his subsequent address was delivered with the old-time fire.

No sooner was it known that he had passed away in Manly than all the local flags were lowered half-mast, and the big Irish banner that flutters from the tower of the great white seminary that stands on the other side of the road from his palace also drooped half-way down the flag-pole. Throughout the city flags were flown half-mast on the public buildings and business places, and most of the shipping paid similar tribute to the illustrious dead.

Although to the outside world his Eminence’s health was good, the fact was that for several days he had been suffering from acute dysentery. ‘On Tuesday morning the staff at St. Mary’s first became aware that all was not as usual. It had been his Eminence’s custom to celebrate the 8 o’clock Mass and to give Communion to the First Communicants in the Cathedral on the Feast of the Assumption, However at 6.30 he

gave word to the priests that having been severely attacked by dysentery'during the night he would be unable to give Communion to the' children, but offered Mass for them in his private oratory at the hour he was due in the Cathedral. In the afternoon, shortly before 3 o'clock, he left for Manly, arriving at the Palace at 4.15. He was then in a very weak state, but neitherhe himself nor those about him anticipated that there was any danger at all— looked on the illness as a passing one, which would soon be cured by rest in the beautiful surroundings of his seaside home. By: the same steamer Archbishop Kelly travelled to Manly, but went to stay at St. Patrick's Ecclesiastical College.v His Grace was with his Eminence the same evening, at 7 o'clock, and did not notice anything unusual, though the Cardinal told him he was unwell'. The Cardinal retired to sleep as customary, but, as he did not pre-1 sent himself for Mass yesterday morning at the same time he was wont to, the Archbishop and the Very Kev. Fathers H. McDermott (President) and T. Hayden (Vice-president of St. Patrick's College) went over to the Palace at 9 o'clock, and, entering the bedroom, were shocked to find the Cardinal dead. He had evidently made an effort to prepare for Mass, but sank, owing to syncope, which followed the sudden weakening of the' constitution, as a result of the dysentery. Dr. Thomas, a local medico, was summoned urgently, and later Dr! Chas. W. McCarthy, who. had been the Cardinal's medical attendant for years, arrived from Sydney. i \ v . During Wednesday the .bells of St. Mary's Cathedral rang ou% 81 peals, each, peal representing a year m the life of the Cardinal, who would have completed his eighty-first year had he lived until September 16 next; while the bell of St. Patrick's College, Manly, tolled constantly and solemnly. . WELLINGTON. (From oar own correspondent.) August 25. At the Sacred Heart Basilica on Tuesday morning a Solemn Pontificial Requiem Mass was celebrated for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Moran. There was a crowded congregation, including many representative citizens, fifty bluejackets from H.M.S. Challenger, and a number of school cadets. His Grace Archbishop Redwood was celebrant, Ven. Archdeacon Devoy (St. Anne's, Newtown) assistant priest, Very s Rev. Dean McKenna (Masterton) deacon, Rev. Father Holley (Wanganui) subdeacon, and Rev. Father Hickson, Adm., master of ceremonies. There were also in the sanctuary Very Rev. Father O'Shea, V.G., Very Rev. Dean Smyth (St. Mary's Seminary), Very Rev. Father Lane (Hutt), Rev. Fathers Costello and Kehoe (Palmerston North), Moloney (Wanganui), Duffy (Patea), T. McKenna (Pahiatua), Kelly (Foxton), Bowe (Carterton), McDonald (Napier), Creagh, C.SS.R., and Hunt, C.SS.R., Venning (2), Mahoney, Herring, Hurley, " Barra, Peoples, Maples (Petone), O'Reilly, Gilbert, Gondringer, Eccleton, Bowden, Bartley (St. Patrick's College), Daly (Upper Hutt), O'Dwyer (Feilding), and J. Goggan (St. Mary's, Boulcott street). " The sanctuary of the church and the pulpit were draped in mourning. In the body of the church, close to the altar rails there was a catafalque. The solemn music was rendered by a choir composed of the professors and students of St. Patrick's College, under the conductorship of the Very Rev. Dr. Kennedy, Rector of the College. Father Schaeffer presided at the organ. -After Mass his Grace the Archbishop preached on the life of the departed prelate. Cardinal Moran death, he said, caused a great void and it would be difficult to fill his place. His death was a loss to Australia, to Ireland, and the world. All ranks of society in the Church and State were the poorer by his departure. The Archbishop then sketched the career of Cardinal. Moran from his earliest school days in Ireland up to the time of his death. He had shown great energy in the acquirement of languages. He was a perfect scholar of Latin and Greek, and of the difficult Hebrew language. He could speak Italian with ease ancf

fluency, and he knew enough of French to understand French: literature. He was an expert in Church antiquities and Irish antiquities. / He had written many . books concerning Irish antiquities,, heroes, and saints, which ' showed great erudition and conscientious research. ... Cardinal Moran led a strenuous life—never for a moment idle or useless. Hard work, indefatigable activity and untiring zeal were; his characteristics as a public man. Could the clergy have a, better model to follow or the laity a better pattern to imitate? ■

• , CHRISTCHURCH. ' \>« (From our own correspondent.) A Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the late Cardinal Moran was celebrated in the Cathedral at 9 o'clock on last Tuesday morning, in the presence of a very large congregation. On the catafalque, within the, sanctuary was placed a cardinal's red hat, and before it hung the late Cardinal's coat-of-arms. : _ ,

The celebrant of the Mass was the Very Rev. Dean Regnault, S.M. (Provincial), who was assisted by the Rev. R. Hoare, S.M., and the Rev. E. Drohan, M.S.H., as deacon and subdeacon respectively. The Very Rev. Father Price, Administrator, was master of ceremonies. Among the other clergy present were the Rev. C. Graham, 5.M.,M.A., the Rev. A. McDonnell, the Rev. J. Hanrahan, and the Rev. L. Dignan, S.M. The music of the Mass was Gregorian plain chant. The Very Rev. Father Price 'preached from the text, ‘ And the spirit of the Lord shall , rest upon him. He shall judge with justice and' reprove with equity and .faith shall be the girdle of his reins.’ He said that these sacred words had been spoken of . One greater than man, yet they might be rightly used to describe a follower of the great Master. If the Master had sent His Spiritif He had gone up to the heavens , and had been taken from mortal sight for the very purpose that His spiritthat is, Himself, the very Godmight more effectively be with us and remain with us, it must be true of many men, as the world rolls on, that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon them. He had to speak of such a man. His earthly life was over: his career was finished. The world was nothing to him now. He could speak to them no longer, nor they to him; but they were prepared to reverence the memory of a Prince of the Church, to thank God for a priest, to rejoice in the thought of a great teacher and gently to sorrow for a father and friend. . It would be impossible to give from that place a biography of Patrick Francis Moran, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Susanna, and Archbishop of Sydney; and, happily, it was altogether unnecessary, ‘ There are few Catholics, whether priests or laity, who read at all,’ continued Father Price, ‘ who have not to some extent followed the interesting life of this great man, who was remarkable alike in character, in mental power, and in action. To his biographers will be left the fruitful and pleasant task of enumerating to the full Cardinal Moran’s manifold virtues. No matter how .bulky these volumes may be, how emblazoned with his glories, how appreciative in their comments, they will not adequately describe the deep and lasting niche he has carved for himself in the hearts of the Catholics of Australasia. Born on the 16th of September, 1830, at Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, he was in his eighty-first year when Death came to his bedside at Manly to lead him over the threshold of life

eternal. - As a boy of twelve he accompanied his uncle, Cardinal Cullen, to Rome, and as a student and vice-rec-tor of his college, he resided in the Eternal City for 25 years. There are few men who during their whole life have read more persistently. He was as far as possible from being a book-worm. But there are minds which feed and grow on books. There are characters to whom books are not so much information as development. Other men read for facts, for views, for the interest of the panorama which the printed page unfolds ; they read to use their reading, they read for curiosity, they read that they may for an hour forget their troubles. But the former read chiefly in order

to recognise and make sure •of their own thoughts. For men of this order of mind have a serious strain of thought, which goes to the root of things; active thought, with a/ keen point, which pierces through disguises, tears away coverings, and strives after the principles of the wise man and the views of the philosopher. Many a time did those constant readings bear fruit in the practical utterances of his life. We all know how Habitually his words came out with the unmistakable brand upon them of some ancient doctor. During his young priestly life he had that training which is derived from the teaching of boys—a discipline which in every man who is worth training develops two invaluable ■ powers, the control of temper and the secret of holding the attention of others. But when, in March, 1884, he succeeded Archbishop Vaughan in the Primacy of Australia, it was then that every faculty of his mind and body began to be stimulated to the utmost. He had to preach, to labor, to travel. He had to make public protest against deep-seated abuses. He had to conciliate bis own priests and fellow-workers. He had to take up the cause of the Faith in speeches and publications. In all his history there is nothing so full of interest, of energy, of generous self-sacrifice, as the record of the years during which he ruled over the great Australian Church. Cardinal Moran was essentially a spiritual man. All came under his influence. His clergy, as he sat with his pastoral staff in his hand in the chair of his Cathedral Church; his seminarists, in his familiar conferences ; men and women of every rank in private and touching letters ; his flock at large in broad and graphic pastoral letters; nay, all English-speaking Catholics in those wise and grave books which he was happily spared to give to the world. His spiritual character displayed itself externally in every branch of his duties, in all the details of his office. It was very marked in his dealings with his' clergy and never was he seen to speak, or act, or command, or reprove, in temper, in self-asser-tion, or in bitterness. He was never small, nor mean, nor selfish. Those who came in contact with him felt that they had met a real man, rooted and founded in unmistakable solid earth—a man who might rebuff you, but would never pass you false coin. Although not overfond of social activities he was nevertheless a most entertaining guest and a prince among hosts. The geniality of his disposition and his total lack of affectation made him the centre of an interested circle wherever he went. He was always opposed to any ostentation which tended to magnify his interesting personality. ' ' * ‘ And now, after his life-long labors, he "rests at last where he ever longed to rest, in the heart of his own people, within his Cathedral walls, nigh unto the Sanctuary, whose splendour he so loved. That church will be so much the richer by his presence; it will be more of a home to his people, gathering up into it, as it does now and ever will, so many hallowed memories of the past, reminding them for how much they have to be thankful. From before his tomb the incense of many a silent prayer will ascend unto God, of fervent gratitude for the past, of hopeful intercession for the future. Archbishops will bend before it, and will be fired with a new love of their apostolate. Priests will there re-kindle their zeal, the heart of the religious will warm there towards their fatherly protector. As long as that princely pile towers over Sydney, his loyal people will go there to venerate the remains, if not of a saint, of one at least who followed nigh in the saints’ footsteps. Let us pray for his soul ; for there are very few who do not linger for a time in the suffering land of expectation. Let not this be forgotten. In other ways, forgotten he cannot be. As the slow years and the mighty waters have in days gone by fashioned the hills which stand unmoved while the world lasts, so the turmoil of human strife and the fire of the Spirit have shaped and s perfected a spiritual man; and whatever monument we build to his memory, his soul lives on for ever, and his name will be cherished by his children’s children for many a generation yet to come.’ At the conclusion of the service, the organist, Mr, A. W. Bunz, played the Dead March from ' Saul/