IN MEMORIAM

New Zealand Tablet, 20 February 1919, Page 26

IN MEMORIAM

Seldom was it our lot to assist at a more moving ceremony than the Requiem held at St. Joseph’s, Wellington, for the dead priests. From all parts of the archdiocese the clergy came to pay this last tribute of respect and esteem to their deceased brethren, recognising the quiet heroism which inspired them, and eager to bear witness to it in this solemn manner! Forty-eight priests and the Archbishop were present. We were reminded by the sight of so many clerics, in soutanes and surplices, of the assemblies, held in the same church when all met together in synod, and of retreats in the same place, before the same altar, which we formerly attended in the company of two of the young priests for whom we came now to pray. And old scenes and old memories would come, recalling the friends whom we shall see not again on earth, and whom we hope to meet in heaven one day. It would be presumption on our part to allude to the exquisite taste of the sermon delivered by Archbishop O’Shea, who was visibly affected when he told us of the silent, devoted lives of the three whom the cruel trial of the epidemic found pure gold. Theirs, as his Grace said, was not the glamor of facing danger in the battlefield, where so many of their brother-priests so bravely faced it ; the danger these men had to encounter was no less grave and even more likely to cause terror in the hearts of those who would pause to think of it at all. But Fathers Kinkead, Cronin, and Lewis did not weigh it nor think of it when the call came for them. The archdiocese feels their loss deeply ; but we cannot help emphasising the Archbishop’s thought that great as the loss was the gain was still greater. The example of these three must infallibly have a powerful effect on us all— on priests and people ; and their sacrifice will surely bring untold blessings on their brethren in the ministry and on their flocks. Wellington, from a human point of view, was sorely stricken •by the loss of the five priests who died recently; but was it not also greatly honored and largely, blessed. God, with Whom are now the souls of His just, ordains all things to final good, and we who feel the loss of dear friends now bless His Holy Will.