Commonwealth Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 7, 25 February 1925, Page 43

Commonwealth Notes

tNiiW SOUTH WALES. i Jjjt His .Lordship Dr. Carroll, of Lismore, leaves on his ad limina visit to Rome, to'ffwvards the end of the month. s Rev. Brother George takes the place of I' the Very Rev. Dr. M. J. O’Reilly (Rector of St. John’s College) on the Bursary Endow'i ment Board (says the Freeman’s Journal). | He is one of the best-known educational ex- | perts in the State. He is an M.A. of the | New Zealand University, and holds the Dip- „ lonia of Education of the Sydney University. | For many years, Catholic students in the t Marist colleges have benefited by his tuition. | For over ten years Brother George was at- { tached to the staff of the Sacred Heart 2- College, Auckland, and for three years was | director of St. Ildephonsus’ College, New Norcia (W.A.); while for a similar period he' was director of St. Joseph’s College, Hun- | tor’s Hill and is to-day director of the Marist Brothers’ College, Darlinghurst. Rev. Mother Provincial Xavier, of the i Nursing Sisters of the Little Company of f Mary, Lewisham Hospital, is a passenger on the s.s. Ormonde, expected to reach Sydney j; on Febraury 12. Rev. Mother Provincial is I returning from Rome, where a General Chapter of the Congregation was held last No- * vember for the purpose of electing a new Mother-General. VICTORIA. In moving a vote of thanks to his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne at Yarraville at a function the other Sunday, Mr. J. Lemmon, M.L.A., said that no ecclesiastical head in Australia had ever Avon the people’s affec- : tion to such a degree as Archbishop Mannix. i The Australian democracy could never forget the courageous and self-sacrificing service rendered by his Grace in a time of national crisis. It won for his Grace the esteem of the Catholic people and many thousands outside the Catholic body. His Grace was also to be warmly commended for encouraging an Australian sentiment in the j community. As an Australian native, I wish | to express appreciation of the motto given to the-citizens of the Commonwealth by his Grace of “Australia first.” By the practical adoption, of the motto we can do much to i advance the interests of this country. We have every reason to value our democratic franchise, and we should see that none of our • privileges are filched from us. His Excellency the Apostolic Delegate, accompanied by the Rev. Dr. Gilroy (private } secretary to the Apostolic Delegation), arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday, 3rd inst. His | Excellency presided at the Month’s Mind for the repose of the soul of the late Bishop I of Sale, which took place on Wednesday fol- > lowing at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. During I . his stay in Melbourne his Excellency was the I guest of his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne at “Raheen.” c The Sisters of the Presentation Order, I, ' Windsor, have recently purchased two splen- | did properties in Grey Street, St. Kilda, adt jacent to .the Church of the Sacred Heart, consisting of two fine two-storey residences, | surrounded by s nearly two acres of land. The

estate was the property of Mrs. Goodall, and is most conveniently situated, being within a few minutes’ walk of the St. Kilda station, with trams passing the door. One of the houses will foe used as a convent, and the other for a college. Up to the present, the Sisters of the Presentation Order from Windsor Convent, have supplied the teaching staff for the primary school, and the additional advantages of a college and convent being established in the parish will be a. boon to. the Catholic people of the popular seaside resort. His Lordship Right Rev. Dr. Coppo, S.C., of the Kimberley Vicariate, is at present in Melbourne as the guest of his Grace Archbishop Mannix. His Lordship has come from Broome to be present at the opening of the new Agricultural College near Melbourne, which will be conducted by the Salesian Fathers. He will also assist at the coming jubilee celebrations of St. Mary’s, West Melbourne, and will preach the occasional sermon. Quite recently Dr. Coppc established a branch of the Holy Name Society in Broome. This admirable religious society is not as yet established elsewhere in Australia, the Broome branch being the first. It is very popular and rery successful in America. In the parish whe.’e he worked in New York prior to his coming to Australia, Dr. Coppc had a flourishing branch of the society. His Lordship has also established in his Vicariate the Church Unity Octave, and had th* consolation of receiving into the faith a number of Japanese divers. Before his setting out for Melbourne, a cyclone destroyed one of ‘the mission churches at Roebourne. The loss is felt severely by the Salesian Fathers, who, in very hard circumstances and with very poor financial resources, work this vast vicariate. Among the Victorian priests who will take part in the Holy Year Pilgrimage are the Rev. T. Quinn (Oakleigh), the Rev. J. Scanlon, O.C.C. (Port Melbourne), the Rev. J. Gleeson (Flemington), the Rev. H. Bakker (Ascot Vale), the Rev. P. A. Vaughan (Wer■ribee), and the Rev. P. Kavanagh (Nagambie). The Month’s Mind for the late Right Rev. Dr. Phelan, Bishop of Sale, was celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday, 4th inst. His Excellency the Apostolic Delegate (the Most Rev. Archbishop Cattaneo) presided. There was a distinguished assemblage of prelates and priests, including his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne (the Most Rev. Dr. Mannix), the Bishop of Sandhurst (the Right Rev. Dr. McCarthy), the Bishop of Goulburn (the Right Rev. Dr. Barry), his Grace the Archbishop of Brisbane( the Most Rev .Dr. Duhig), the Vicar-Capitular of the diocese of Sale (the Very Rev. Dean Coyne). There were some 150 priests, parochial and regular, and a large congregation. The Right Rev. Dr. John Barry (Bishop of Goulburn) delivered the panegyric. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Memories of Mother Mary of the Cross, the distinguished foundress of the Australian Sisters of St. Joseph, were revived last week (says the Catholic Press for February

12), when it was learned that her brother, Father Donald MoKillop, S.J.,' had passed to his reward in the private hospital of the Blue Nuns, at North Adelaide, on Monday, the 2nd inst. Apart from the reflected light shed upon him by his historic sister, Father McKillop, during his 50 odd years in religion, saw more of Australia than most priests, or even most missionaries, and knew the charms and difficulties of his native land, from the loneliness of Daly Waters, in the NeverNever country to the busy centres of the south and east. Donald McKillop was born 72 years ago, in Portland, the western seaport, where the Hentys founded the first white settlement in the State afterwards called Victoria. His father was a fine old Scotch Highlander of good Catholic stock, who, in his youth, thought of entering the priesthood, and studied for a time at the Scots’ College, Rome, with that object in view. But Providence decided otherwise, and Alexander McKillop became a migrant to early Melbourne. He was there when Father Geoghegan, the pioneer priest, began his mission by building the first church in Melbourne, dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi,' and the first trustees of the property were the then Bishop Folding, Father Geoghegan, and Alexander McKillop. Young Donald McKillop spent his boyhood in Portland, and at the age of 19 entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Seven Hills, South Australia. This first Jesuit Mission in Australia was founded by members of the Austrian Province, in 1849, and they remained in , charge of, it for upwards of 50 years, when it was transferred to the Irish Province, which had established a house in Melbourne in 1865, spreading thence to other States. Donald McKillop made his preliminary studies at Seven Hills, and at the end of about five years he was sent to Innsbruck, in the Austrian Tyrol, for his three years in philosophy. He then studied theology for five years in the French House at Mold, North Wales, and later with English Jesuits, at St. Beuno’s, Wales, afid Roehampton, England. In the early eighties, after his ordination, he returned to his native land, and was sent by his superiors to the Austrian Mission, on the Daly River, Northern Australia. The work on this mission entailed great hardships, and in Father MoKillop’s case, especially, left its mark on the health of his subsequent years. But his apostolic zeal was equal to the test. He remained at that arduous post for ten years, during the most part of- which period he held the position of Superior of the Daly River Mission. Those who knew him in that region, both his religious brethren and the various settlers, spoke of him in the highest terms. When recalled from the Northern Territory, Father McKillop did much distinguished work in the Jesuit churches and schools of Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. A man of gifted attainments and of exceptional knowledge in scientific matters, he was much admired jas an eloquent preacher, and revered as a zealous and devoted priest. In addition to Mother Mary of the Gross, another of his Sisters entered religion, and was for many years a member ,of the Good Shepherd community at Abbotsford, Melbourne. A third sister, Miss Annie McKillop, I survives him. . w