BISHOP BRODIE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 50, 28 February 1916, Page 7

BISHOP BRODIE.

■. = a '. <T CONSECRATION CEREMONY" PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH. (By Telegraph—(Tress Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. The Rev. Dr. M. J. Brodie was consecrated Catholic Bishop of Christchurch at the Cathedral this morning. The '■ ceremony, which was long and impres- • sive, was attended by a crowded congregation, and a notable gathering of visi- ! tors was present. The consecrating prelate was bis Excellency the Most Rev. Bonaventure Cerretti, Titular Arch- ■ bishop of Corinth, and Delegate Apostolic to Australasia. The assisting pre- , lates were Archbishop Redwood, of Wellington, and Bishop Verdon, of Dun- : edin. Other prominent ecclesiastics were , present. The sermon was preached by Dean Power, of Hawera, on "The Papacy." The dean said the triumph of Papacy during the fifteen centuries that had passed since the Edict "of Constantine was graphically summed up in one pregnant, picturesque phrase by the most remarkable figure in English public life during the 19th century, the late W. E. Gladstone, who wrote: "Since its first 300 years of persecution, the Roman Catholic Church has marched for 1,500 years at the head of human civilisation. It has driven and harnessed to its chariot —as horses to a triumphal car — the chief intellectual and material forces of the world; its learning is the learning of the world; its art the art of the world; its genius the genius of the world; its greatness, glory, grandeur and majesty, almost all the world can boast of." Dean Power referred to the chief difficulties in the progress of the Church, including the English divorce law, which he said opened the door to the most imperious of all passions and the most degrading when freed of moral restraint. With it, for its greater license, went national severance from the Universal Church. Dean Power also mentioned the destruction of the temporal power of the Pope, which, he said, had been brought about, on the part of one country, by an exhibition of meanness without parallel in history, and by the gold of another that proudly boasted that it was the ' wealthiest in the world. Those two nations were . now at the feet of Pope Benedict, using every inducement to win him from his honourable neutrality, and to secure his moral force to help their own cause. The net result was that- all the dangers and difficulties had accentuated the triumph of the Papacy. : marching along its destined course, and shining by its own splendour, captivating the hearts of all lovers of law, order, and stability of government, j Rome's first great contribution to Christian civilisation was the liberty of the , common people, who had ever been St. Peter's special care. In these unhappy days, when the fiercest war in history was scourging the human race, they could only recall the Truce of God to estimate what benefactors to men and nations the Popes had been. Men now looked to him who sat in the Chair of St. Peter to point out to the belligerents the way to speedy, just, and abiding peace. The Hague Conference had failed, the world's balance of power had failed, and must fail so long as it was not confirmed and held in trust by him who was made the guardian and defender of morality by the world's Creator. Archbishop Cerretti opened the new Lewisham Hospital, in Bcaley Avenue, this afternoon.