DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, 24 July 1913, Page 25

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) , July 21. A successful social gathering was held in one of the city halls on last Wednesday by St. Patrick's branch of the H.A.C.B. Society in aid of the furnishing of a Hibernian stall at the carnival in November for the Cathedral debt extinction fund.

Good work is being done by the committee, and especially by the heads of stalls in connection with the carnival, which is to run a lengthy season during November in aid of the Cathedral debt extinction fund. The arrangement of the spectacular display has been entrusted to Signor Borzoni and the ample room provided by the Olympia Rink should enable the carnival to completely outclass any similar event yet promoted in the Dominion. The Very Rev. Chancellor Price, Adm., characterises this as the supreme effort in aid of the object; and he may with certainty rely upon his faithful people to leave nothing undone to help him to make it so. . --'' ;

On next Friday evening, in the Alexandra Hall, the Rev. Father Hoare, S.M., the popular assistant priest at St. Mary's, Christchurch North, is to be entertained at a . complimentary conversazione by the parishioners to welcome him home after a round trip of the South Sea Islands and Australia. Rev. Father Hoare is well deserving of recognition, and the best the Catholics of this city can offer him.-' Since almost his ordination, a good few years ago, he has labored with the most commendable zeal in the spiritual and temporal intervals of a grateful people in a widely scattered district, and at the same time discharging the duties. of chaplain to the military forces. For a young priest, Father Hoare's experiences have been in many respects unique and trying in the extreme. The assistant of two successive rectors of St. Mary's, both of whom he had attended in sickness, and both of whom passed away. On each occasion he assumed control of, and administered the parish temporarily to the satisfaction of his superiors and to the benefit of the people. Family bereavements, too, have intervened, but in the face of all Father Hoare has worked on with thoughts only for the noble duties of his sacred calling, and largely imbued with the apostolic spirit of the pioneer missionaries of his illustrious Order. The holiday,

Father Hoare is now returning from, is, I believe, the first, at anyrate, of any duration, he has taken since his ordination, and the universal wish is that he is so rested and strengthened that for a great many years we will have the benefit of his services in the cause of religion.