MEMORIAL UNVEILED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20959, 24 August 1931, Page 10

MEMORIAL UNVEILED.

LATE FATHER GONDRINGER. SERVICE TO EDUCATION. A memorial to the late Father B. J. Gondringer was unveiled by Father K. I. McGrath before a largo gathering of parishioners in the grounds of the Monnt Albert Roman Catholic Clinrch yesterday afternoon. Father Gondringer was killed in the Hawke's Bay earthquake when the seminary at Greenmeadows collapsed. Before going to Greenmeadows Father Gondringer was stationed at Mount Albert for six years. Prior to the unveiling ceremony, a procession moved to the base of the memorial through the church grounds. The ceremony was then performed by Father McGrath, assisted by the Rev. J. Taylor. Father McGrath, reviewed the late Father Gondringer's life from his childhood in Luxembourg. He said it was owing to the expulsion of religious orders from France that Father Gondringer's life ministry was set in New Zealand. He spent 18 years in the cause of Catholic education and his work was of a particularly brilliant character. From the foundation days of the Mount Albert Church he was the parish priest and was responsible for the enlarging of the church and other buildings and the requisition of a considerable part of the fine parochial property. Later, the children of the conventschool formed in procession and placed flowers at the base of the statue. The ceremony concluded with a benediction service in the church. The memorial to the late Father Gondringer is a replica of the original Our Lady of Lourdes. A tablet at the base is inscribed " to the memory of the Rev. B. J. Gondringer, founder of this parish."