BISHOP MORAN'S LENTEN PASTORAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1160, 21 February 1874, Page 8

BISHOP MORAN'S LENTEN PASTORAL.

Bishop Moran's Lenten Pastoral for 1874 was read at second mass at St Joseph's Church on Sunday by the Rev. Father Crowley. The following are the points of general public interest in the pastoral :—

On previous occasions we called your attention to the all-important question of education, and urged on you the necessity of providing Catholic schools for Catholic children. It is consoling and encouraging to be able to bear witness to the docility and zeal with which you have responded to this call. Although comparatively few and poor, you have established and maintained many excellent schools for both sexes, and, in most places, at your own sole expense. But though much has been done, the work, it may with truth be said, has only commenced. Nothing like adequate provision for even the most elementary education of our children has yet been made. Renewed exertions, therefore, will be demanded of all ; and the faithful of these dioceses will have to prepare themselves for great sacrifices, in order to hand down to their children the faith once delivered to the saints, |and without which "it is impossible to please God."— Heb. xi., v. 6.

You must trust in God and your own exertions alone ; from the Governments — Provincial and General — you can expect nothing. In some of the smaller provinces, an attempt is made to do justice to Catholics, and to give them some share of the taxes they pay tor the maintenance of schools, by granting us subsidies in a few instance. |But in the larger, such as Otago and Canterbury, the Government refuse us all aid. It must be said, however, that everywhere the system of education supported by the State throughout this Colony is anti- Catholic. So far as we are concerned, all Government schools in these Dioceses are Godless and hostile to the Catholic church. Catholics cannot frequent them without exposing themselves to grievous dangers to their faith and morals. Of these schools, therefore, Catholics cannot avail themselves except in cases of very great necessity, and when — such necessity being supposed — every possible precaution is taken to ward off all dangers to faith and morals. Parents and guardians should bear in mind that they are responsible for the children under their charge, and often reflect on these words of the Apostle : "He that neglests his own, particularly those of his own household, has lost the faith, and is become worse than an infidel ;"' and again on these words of our Divine Master : " What will it avail a man to gain the whole world if he lose h ; s own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul ?"

We, therefore, most earnestly exhort all to exert themselves to establish and maintain efficient Catholic schools wherever it is possible to do so ; and we call upon the clergy — who, indeed, have not been wanting in this matter — to exert themselves with the greatest zeal and perseverance in the great cause of Catholic education. Nothing but such an education can save the rising generation from the baneful influence of the infidel systems of education so characteristic of this century, and so fashionable in this Colony. Our Holy Father is still a prisoner in the Vatican, and dependent on the alms of the I faithful for the means of carrying on the Government of the Church. It is our duty to aid him in every way in our power. Whilst, therefore, we supplicate the Throne of Mercy in his behalf, let us be generous in our alms on next Good Friday. For we ordain that on this day — the Anniversary of the Crucifixion of our Divine Redeemer — a collection be made for His Holiness in all the missions of the two Dioceses. The amount thus collected is to be forwarded to us as soon as possible for transmision to Rome. You are aware that not only in Italy, w here the work of spoliation and plunder g^ill progresses, but also in other lands, as in .• ermany and Switzerland, Catholics are subected to a fierce persecution on account of their faith. Our enemies in these countries

ye determined to uproot the Catholic ha ith, and utterly destroy the Catholic fahurch. For this purpose they have banished Catholic bishops and priests, closed Catholic Cchools, forbidden the education of priests, intruded suspended and immoral ecolesiasitics in defiance of the sacred canons and the indignaut remonstrance of the faithful, and seized on Catholic property. Nothing, almost, that wicked legislation and tyrannous administration can do, has been left undone to break up the ministry of the Churoh and impede her action. Those who endure such terrible wrongs are our brethren members with us of the one universal fold —the mystic body of Christ. Let us give them our sympathy, and at least the aid of our fervent and persevering prayers. , . . . Pray also for our Holy Father, and the liberty a*nd independence of the Church j and that a merciful Providence may send us a sufficient number of good priests, and enable us to provide a Christian! education for our children.

The Cosmopolitan says :— " We have jasfc conversed with a gentleman from Peru who came to England to purchase about £100,000 worth of sugar-making machinery, but on arriving here finds that he can buy it in tha United States about 40 per cent, cheapen than in Eagl&nd <."