APOSTOLIC DELEGATE

New Zealand Tablet, 23 August 1917, Page 35

APOSTOLIC DELEGATE

THE HIERARCHY'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. Publication has just been given to the following address presented to his Excellency the Apostolic Delegate by the Australian Hierarchy on his departure from Sydney : * St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 20th May, 1917. May it please your Excellency, —On the part of my brother Archbishops and Bishops of Australia, I beg to approach your Excellency to express their sentiments upon the occasion of your recall by the Sovereign Pontiff from the charge of our infant Apostolic Delegation, to a post of world-wide importance beside his own throne the very Chair of St. Peter. Since February, 1915, when all alone you were welcomed warmly as Australia’s first Apostolic Delegate, we have had cause to rejoice in the fruits of your —regular and harmonious concentration of effort in promoting the Kingdom of God amongst our flocks and fellow-citizens. Your eminent ability and the wisdom gathered during your years of official service, to' the Holy See, joined to your familiarity with our tongue, and your well recognised affability, secured at once the public confidence and goodwill. All, especially the heads of Church and State, rejoiced to hold you among the citizens of Australia as representative of the Pope ; and now we all rejoice that the bonds of esteem and affection formed during close acquaintance may be strengthened all through life oy mutual remembrance in prayers. Thus, future re-union will come around the feet of our Divine Master when we. bring home our sheaves of spiritual harvest. Meanwhile, we press upon your acceptance a joint viaticum-cheque. We know the depleted condition of the treasury at the Vatican. We know, too, the expensiveness of your journey, and the requirements appertaining to your new establishment at Rome. The war-risks in crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans so courageously faced by your Excellency will be looked after by a higher Divine Providence, through the special intercession to the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and of St. Bonaventure, so that we may hope, ere very long, to learn of your safe arrival at the feet of the Holy Father, Benedict XV., and of your having procured for the Hierarchy, clergy, religious, and faithful of Australia the blessing of the Prisoner of the Vatican, , , . Your Excellency, I beg to subscribe myself, on the part of my brother Archbishops and Bishops, Yours affectionately in Domino, Michael, Archbishop of Sydney. To Most Reverend Bonaventure Cerretti, ' ' Apostolic Delegate, Australasia.

THE APOSTOLIC DELEGATE’S REPLY. (Translation.) Apostolic Delegation of Australasia, 40 Edward street, North Sydney, N.S.W., v-s - 23rd May, 1917. Venerated Archbishop,—l prefer to reply in Italian to your esteemed letter of 20th inst., so as to express more suitably my mind. But even my mother tongue fails me in words adequate to the full statement of my grateful feelings towards your Grace, and towards the whole Australian Episcopate. If it has been in my power to accomplish any good during my stay in Australia, I am indebted to the valid co-operation, unwearied zeal, and unlimited charity which I have at all times found in each member of the Hierarchy. Of the courtesy shown to my person I do not speak. Therefore, I feel that never shall I be able to repay the enormous debt of gratitude due by me to the Episcopate of Australia. The considerate wish to facilitate my journey by a most generous offering, adds another claim to my endearing thankfulness. Still, Ido regret that the Most Rev. Archbishops and Bishops have been at such trouble, and made such a sacrifice in my regard. At the feet of the Holy Father I shall lay the filial homage of the Episcopate, clergy, and people of Australia, and I shall assure his Holiness that his children in far-off Australia are not second to any in love and veneration for him. V . "Oremus ad invicem.” From my very heart I wish to your Grace and to all the members of the Episcopate every blessing, happy in signing myself anew. Most devotedly and most obliged, B. Cekretti, Delegate Apostolico. Most Rev. M. Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney.