Obituary Bishop Owen Snedden

Press, 18 April 1981, Page 3

Obituary Bishop Owen Snedden

The Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington, the Most Rev. Owen Snedden, died in Wellington yesterday. He was 64. Bishop Snedden, who was born and educated in Auckland, began his religious training at the Holy Name Seminary in Mosgiel in 1934 where he remained until transferring to Rome in 1937. He was ordained a priest in 1941 while at the Urban College, Rome, and gained a doctorate of divinity there in 1944.

In 1945, he was awarded the M.B.E. for the help he had given during his student days in Rome to prisoners of war and refugees, and also the many broadcasts on Vatican Radio giving news of missing servicemen to anxious relatives. •'

On returning to. New Zealand in 1945, he served at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland until 1962 and between 1947 and 1962 was also editor of the Auckland-based Roman Catholic weekly, “Zealandia.” On August 22, 1962, he was ordained bishop and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington. He • served with Archbishops McKeefry and Delargey, both of whom became cardinals, and with the present Archbishop of Wellington, the Most Rev. Thomas Williams.

A vigil Mass at St Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington will be said on Tuesday evening, followed by a Mass on Wednesday morning, celebrated by Bishop Cullinane, of Palmerston North. A Requiem Mass for the burial ceremony will be celebrated on Wednesday afternoon by Archbishop Williams.