BERNARD VAUGHAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18757, 10 January 1923, Page 6

BERNARD VAUGHAN

ORATOR A'NID CRITIC OP MAYFAIR. FRIEND OF THE POOR. Two months ago Father Vaughan, who was 75, was taken ill while staying with Viscount Fitz Alan at Derwent Hall, Derbyshire. He was removed to a nursing home in Sheffield, but recovered sufficiently to be able to trovel to Putney, where, until three days before his death, he was able to move about in a bath-chair. HIS LAST WORDS. Father Vaughan’s last words were: I am not very well, but I am in His hands, as I have always been. It was at the college at Roehampton that he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and when he arrived there after his illness he said: I went to finish where I began, and I have come back to the nursery. He was given a room near the chapel, and it gave him pleasure to be able to be wheeled into the pleasant grounds of the college. Early on the day of his death Father Vaughan told the chaplain of the college that he had not been sleeping very well. At 6.15 he received Holy Communion. _ Then he went back to his room, and almost immediately became unconscious. He died at 8 o’clock. Father Vaughan, son of Colonel Vaughan, of Courtfield, Herefordshire, belonged to one of the oldest Catholic families in England. Intended for the Armj', he showed at Stonyhurat those leanings which later were to make him a priest. No man of our times held a more remarkable position in and outside the Catholic Church than Father Bernard Vaughan, writes Marie Harrison. He was the friend of King Edward, who occasionally heard him preach. Loved by the very people in society whose shortcomings he fearlessly attacked, ho was as much at home in poor, grey streets of the East End as - he was in the drawing rooms of Mayfair. There are those who believed this famous priest and preacher to be proud. He had the aristocratic bearing of his brother Cardinal Vaughan, and he had the face of a fighter. liet those who ate best able to judge know how profound was his humility. An intensely loyal Englishman, he was always ready to help any cause which sought to serve his country and his Empire; his deep interest in ever;, - problem of the day brought him into touch with'men and women of every religious and political belief. London knew Father Vaughan best as the famous Farm Street preacher, whose sermon* from 1901 onwards were heard by tens of thousands. Few of those who listened to him, however, knew at the time of the lovingand enthusiastic service of the ppor which engaged every moment of the time he was able to spare from his ministry in the Westend. An austere little parlour in the presbytery in Mount Street was a shelter for many not of his faith. Here it was that Father Vaughan was sought at all hours of the day, by men and women, who took their broken souls to him to mend. ' CONFESSOR, OF HUNDREDS. His knowledge of human nature, his tenderness, and, his high idealism made him the father confessor of hundreds who today mourn his death. Those who have ever been to the beautiful Church of the Immaculate Conception on a Friday afternoon will not forget the picture of the crowded benches near his confessional. He who has been called the Savonarola of our times had an enormous power of bringing to penitence those whose sins ho had condemned in words of fire. FRIEND OP THE POOR. After a period of incessantly hard work in Mayfair he would visit the East-end, a welcome friend in the cramped homes of the poor, whom he loved. He was not afraid to denounce the sins ™ poor ao he had denounced those of the rich. Yet somehow one knew that he judged them very tenderly, and the most eloquent words he ever spoke were directed against neither rich nor poor, but to employers who underpaid their employees. To him sweated labour was one of the major sms. Although Father Vaughan was an honoured guest in some of the most famous houses of the land, I think he was happiest when living in, the East End cooking a chop for hi# supper in an attic in some crowded street, or taking to some poor woman a meal prepared by his own hands in that bare room in Commercial road which was his habitation for ao long. . FATHER VAUGHAN'S EPIGRAMS. * Before he came to London he had spent 20 years in Manchester, where his sermons at the Church of Ihe Holy Name drew congregations of two thousand. Father Vaughan had made some notable tours, especially tc- Canada'ani the United States. A message to America mice included these epigrams: To Politicians.—Lire above the snowline and refuse to be dragged down into the mud. To Wedded Polk.—Live up to your marriage vows, and prepare to rock the cradle for many years to* come. To the Average Merchant.—Live on a level with your samples, and shun dishonesty. ss you do shoddy. Instant in repartee, Father Vaughan made a delightful companion. During one of his American visits he was asked by a Suffragist of the militant type, “Where would you be * but for a woman?” "Madam,” came the quick retort. “I should, on a sultry evening like this, be eating ice cream under an apple tree in the Garden qf Eden.' Once he was aak-sd for his opinion on the hobble-skirt habit. “It’s no good my .telling you. because before I speak it will be out of fashion,” he whimsically replied. “What I went to speak about is the habits that women won’t give up—the bad habits.” On another occasion he offered a cigar to a Nonconformist minister, who refused it with the remark that lie had not been sent into the world to smoke. “Quite so,” said Father Vaughan, “but s« I belong to an old-fashioned Church Vhich prefers to get its smoking done in this world, you will excuse me if I light up.”