ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, ST. LEONARDS.

Evening Star, Issue 7362, 7 November 1887, Page 2

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, ST. LEONARDS.

The Roman Catholic Church of the beautiful suburb of St. Leonards was opened" yesterday by the Most Rev. Dr Moran, assisted by the, Rev. Messrs Vereker, Donelly, and Burke. The green regalia of," the members of the Hibernian Society, who" attended from Dunedin, by the side of the white and gold vestments of clergy and acolytes gave a pleasing appearance to the ceremony. The congregation, increased by contingents from Port Chalmers and Dun'' edin, numbered about 200. Mr Vanini, of Mosgiel, presided at the organ. Mrs Angus, the Misses Conway, Cantwell, «*nd Woods, and Messrs Rossiter, Smith, and Cantwell sung a mass, consisting of selections from various composers; Mrs Angus taking a notably excellent part in Gounod's " Benedictus" and "Santus." The collection T towards the building fund made yesterday, taken in conjunction with some contributions" previously handed in, amounted t0L227155. This leaves a small debt still owing upon the church. The Bishop and Mr M. O'Donnell, of St. Leonards, contributed respectively L7O and L3O. Other subscribers gave sums from LlO to 10s.

The Bishop, in an address of considerable length, congratulated the congregation upon the erection of the church. Be said the number of Catholics living in the district was small, but, notwithstanding that, their faith and piety and zeal had enabled them to erect that church. As they could see for themselves, the inside of the church was - even more handsome than the outside, and that was as it should be, for all the glory, or at least the greater part of the glory, of the House of God should he from within. The House of God both withont and within - ought to be such as would be calculated to . promote faith and piety and zeal; and when' the circumstances of that neighborhood were taken into consideration, he thought it would be admitted that the congregation had done their duty, and done it well. He explained that as the district was called St. Leonards, it had been thought well to dedicate the church to the service of Almighty God in the name and in the vocation of the saint of that name. He went on to give a short history of the life of St. Leonard, who was born at Port Morris in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Then, he said, there were two or three other subjects upon which he wanted to address them. They had dedicated that day their little church to the service of Almighty God. If they read in the Old Testament that passage in the Book of Kings descriptive of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, they would learn to Bet a high value on their church and to have a great veneration for it. Now, the permission given to Solomon to erect a temple to the service of Almighty God was a great privilege and a great favor. His father, King David, had desired to build this temple, but he was not permitted to do so. That was a punishment upon him because he . was a man of blood, and had committed' some other sins. Though Almighty God -r had pardoned those sins, He could not allow him the privilege and glory of building: this temple, and He told him so. He told him also that He would reserve that privilege for his son Solomon. Well, the temple was completed by Solomon, and a glorious structure it was. It was the only temple.in the world erected to the service of the true God. The dedication of the 'temple lasted eight days, and innumerable victims were offered to the sacrifice of God; and so well, pleased was Almighty God with the erection of the temple that He descended in the , form of a cloud into it By a miracle, therefore, Almighty God had placed His Beal upon that which Solomon had done, and " He promised to dwell there for ever. Now.. all this showed how holy a place a temple raised to the service of God was. He proceeded to speak of the contrast between the Temple of Solomon and that little church. In point of glory of design there was no . comparison, and yet their church was a far holier place and more acceptable to Almighty ■ God. Solomon's Temple was a place of prayer; so was that. Solomon's Temple was a place of sacrifice; so was that. But let them consider the vast difference between the sacrifice in the two places. The sacrifice in Solomon's Temple was a mere creature—a ram, an ox, or a goat—and sometimes only incense. That was not the sacrifice of their' little church. The victim of the sacrifice of the mass shortly to be said there was not a creature, but the Creator and Lord of the universe—their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the God-made Man. That sacrifice was not to be i compared for a moment with the victim of .. 4 the sacrifice of the mass. If the Jewish people had had such a sacrifice as that in their Temple, how great would have been their effort, how surpassing their joy and thanksgiving. Thus they would see that their little church was immeasurably more holy and more pleasing in the sight of God than the Temple of Solomon, and he would dwell personally with them in the Holy _ Sacrament of the Eucharist. In conclusion, he made a strong appeal to them to get the church out of debt. There was still , a debt of about LIOO upon it. : He always felt a little humbled in coming to open a church upon which there was a debt, and he believed that when they built a church they should imitate the example of Solomon, and pay for it. He mentioned that when St. Joseph's Cathedral was finished there was a debt of L 2,100 on it. He had by the time of his starting for Melbourne managed to reduce, that to L 1.466, for which he was personally responsible to the Bank, and now, having devoted his recent testimonial as far as it would go to the clearing off of that debt, there only remained to he paid L 466 19s Bd, and it would not be long till that was paid off. He had now given-away all ' thoflroney tetoad-except a little, and yet he . was prepared to give LlO towards the collection that day. He hoped they would follow his example. If they did, he promised them ' that Almighty God would be more generous to them in return.

A collection was then taken np, and the sum of LSO was realised. Father Bubke, in reading over the list of subscriptions towards the church, mentioned that the Bishop had now given L7O and Mr O'Donnell L3O.