Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, FEB. 28, 1938. THE CATHOLIC CENTENARY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 77, 28 February 1938, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, FEB. 28, 1938. THE CATHOLIC CENTENARY

Ox a bright summer’s morning just over one hundred years ago —on January 13, 1838—the first Mass in New Zealand was celebrated in the humble home of Mr and Mrs Thomas Poynton, at Totara Point, Hokianga, by Bishop Pompallier. Since then the Catholic Church has played an important part in the spiritual and community life of the Dominion, and it is fitting that the hundredth anniversary of that first great step should now be recognised in the important gatherings taking place in Auckland at present. Eor ever in the history of the Catholic Church in this country the name of Bishop Pompallier will be linked. A man of unbounded courage and the highest qualities of mind, he was admirably equipped for the great missionary enterprise which he so successfully undertook. It is a great pity that no worthy biography of this first Yicar Apostolic of Western Oceania and Apostle of New Zealand has yet been written. 1 The present great occasion in the history of the Church, serves to draw attention to this omission, which it is hoped will ere long be remedied. Jean Baptiste Erancois Pompallier first saw the light of day in Lyons, Prance, on December 11, 1801, the son of a landowner and member of the lesser nobility. As an official brochure of the Catholic Centenary Committee relates, at the age of 28 he was raised to the dignity of the priesthood and later served as a parish priest, and so great was his zeal that he was subsequently recommended as a candidate for the office of the first Yicar Apostolic of Western Oceania. This was a vast vicariate—the Fijian, Tongan, and Samoan groups, the New Caledonias, the New Hebhides and New Zealand lay within the boundaries marked out by Rome. “Nowhere,” it is related, “within those untamed island countries was the sanctuary lamp aglow.” Consecrated in Rome in 1836, Bishop Pompapallier,, when only 35 years of age, set out on Christmas Eve of that year, with Fathers Servant, Bataillon, Bret and Peter Chanel. Both Father Servant and Father Chanel were to die on the far island of Fa tuna, the lastnamed as a martyr. The perils and adventures of the voyage over three oceans were many, but were faced indomitably in the knowledge of a great Cause. The Bishop reached New Zealand more than thirteen months after leaving France, and on January 10, 1838, the Vicar Apostolic and two companions were welcomed at Totara Point

by Mr and Mrs Poynton and a handful of Irish settlers. It is not difficult to imagine the joy of such an occasion, or the circumstances of it—the humble surroundings, no organised _ settlement, primitive } conditions, rivalry and suspicion prevalent among the hard living section of the community, and a task at hand calling for the highest principles and prudent dealing. From the first the Bishop was active, and within a comparatively short space of time visited important centres in both islands. Within the first five years forty-five members of the Society of Mary were sent to Bishop Pompallier and all had to face a difficult handicap in that they had to master both English and Maori. The Irish element, a writer has ob served, throughout New Zealand proved a vital foundation for the early missionary work, and it grew apace. By 1841 no fewer than one hundred and sixty-four tribes of Maoris had embraced the Faith. It must not be assumed that after the earliest years of work the Church in New Zealand had an easy path; it had not, for innumerable difficulties had to be faced; the Maori Wars paralysed the work of the Missions; distrust of the white man grew. But Bishop Pompallier, when he retired to France, could look behind and see a great living monument of Faith. He died in December, 1871—“ a man of prayer and a man of action,” one whose name will be remmbered down through the ages.