CARDINAL MORAN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1208, 17 August 1911, Page 4

CARDINAL MORAN.

By the sudden death of Cardinal Moran the Roman Catholic Church in Australasia has lost one of its most distinguished leaders—a vigorous and dominating personality, who has probably done more than any other individual ecclesiastic to direct the destinies of his Church in this part of the world. Since he took office as Archbishop of Sydney in 1884, the Roman Catholic Church, both in New South Wales and in Australia as a whole, has shown remarkable progress. There has been great activity_ in ' church-building, from the magnificent cathedral in Sydney down to the more humble church buildings scattered over the face of the country to keep pace with the growth of settlement. Numerous other educational and charitable institutions have also sprung into existence largely as the result of the late Cardinal's personal energy and leadership, and are being efficiently maintained by the great liberality of his, people. Cardinal Moran did not strictly confine his talents to the administration and upbuilding of the Roman Catholic Church in the land of his adoption. He felt that he had duties as an Australian citizen that he had right to neglect, and ho made his voice _ heard I'rom time to; time on questions ;of general public interest. He threw himself • whole-heartedly into the Federation movement and was always a prominent advocate of Australian nationalism, his views on this latter subject being resented by some people as pointing in the direction of ultimate independence of the Mother Country. Cardinal Moran certainly had. the courago of his opinions, and as he seldom hesitated to express them in his characteristically pronounced manner': on the burning religious, social, and political questions of the hour, he naturally provoked hostility in different quarters and often aroused heated controversy in the press and on the platform. Many of- his countrymen belonging to other religious denominations strongly objected to his periodical incursions into what they regarded as the purely political sphere, but he did not permit such opposition, or the fear of.being misunderstood, to put any serious restraint on the scope of his public utterances. A personality such as his was bound to express itself in a manner that was forciblo at times even to aggressiveness, but if he made strong opponents he also made enthusiastic friends, and, whatever may have been the result of his activities in other spheres of Australian life, he certainly exercised a very extensive influence in the development of his own Church and the ' many useful institutions connected therewith.