BISHOP OF CHRISTCHURCH

Evening Star, Issue 16049, 28 February 1916, Page 7

BISHOP OF CHRISTCHURCH

CONSECRATED YESTERDAY. The Rev. Dr M. J. Brodie was yesterday consecrated as Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. Tho ceremony was long and impressive, and Christchurch Cathedral was crowded. The consecrating prelate was the Most Ret', Bonaventure Cerretti, titual Archbishop of Corinth, unci delegate Apostolic In Australasia, the assisting prelates being Archbishop Redwood "(Wellington) and Bishop Verdon (Dune-din). Other prominent ecclesiastics were present. The sermon was preached by Dean Power, of Hawera, on ' The Papacy.' Dean Power said the triumph of the i'apacy during the 15 centuries since Ine edict of Constantino was graphicaill.' summed up in one pregnant and picturesque phrase J>y the most re- ' ";:.''rk.ible figure in English public liiV the nineteej.th century—the iate Mr W. E. Gladstone—who wrote that since the first 300 years of per-. .Edition the Roman Catholic Church nnd marched for 1,500 years at the head of human civilisation. Its learn- ! ii:g was the learning of the world, its .'rt the art of the world, its genius the Junius of the world, and its greatness, giory, grandeur, arc! majesty almost all the world boasted of. Dean Power : referred to the chief difficulties in the j progress of the Church, including the English divorce, which he said opened the door to the most imperious of all passions, and the national severance I from tho universal church. He also j mentioned the destruction of tho tern- j poral power of the Pope, which he said ' brought about in part of one country! an exhibition of meanness without i parallel in history, and another that proudly boasted the wealthiest in the world. Those two nations were now at the feet of Pop« Benedict, using every inducement to win him from an honorable neutrality and to secure his moral force to help their own cause. The net result-of all the dangers and difficulties had accentuated the""triumph i of the Papacy, marching along its destined course, shining bv its' own splendour. The liberty . of" the , common people had ever been St. Peter's special care. In these unhappy days, when the fiercest war in history was scourging the human raco, they need 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 for a speedy, just, and abiding peace. The Hague Conference had failed, and the world balance of power had failed, and must fail so '■ long as it was not confirmed and held in trust by him who was made tinguardian and defender of morality lithe world's Creator.