GREAT LOSS TO CHURCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18595, 4 January 1935, Page 4

GREAT LOSS TO CHURCH

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD NOTED PRELATE DIES DEEPLY LOVED CHURCH MAN 'oldest ARCHBISHOP

( Prr Pross A&socintioN. i WELLINGTON, last night. Archbishop Redwood died at 11 o’clock this evening. The funeral will be held at 10 n.m. on Tuesday. The. condition of His Grace, who underwent a major operation on Tuesday morning, was stated on Wednesday night to be "just fair." On Wednesday afternoon it was stated that bis pulse was quite good, and the medical men in attendance were pleased .with bis general condition, lie received and had fong talks with the Rev. Father. Smvtli. parish priest, of Thorndon, ancl his niece, the Rev. Mother Bernard, of the Star of the Sea Convent.

Few men can serve an institution for 60 years without, becoming identified in the minds of their friends with the history of the institution itself. Archbishop Redwood, for whose passing the Roman Catholic Church mourns to-day, stood to the community generally as the type of that church’s finest representatives. By thousands of New Zealanders who did hot share his faith, the deceased was regarded with the deepest of respect as one who. in his connection with religious teaching, had shown the most notable broadmindedness, while maintaining against all assaults the claims of his church and the dignity of his clotb. When be was elevated to the episcopate and consecrated Bishop of Wellington, be was the youngest Bishop in the world. At the time of his death, Archbishop Redwood was the oldest Archbishop, as well ns one of the bestloved leaders of bis church. At 95 years of age bis intellectual strength was amazing, and oven the announcement of his having undergone a major operation did not rob many people of a hope that he would be spared for further service to humanity. A noble upholder of human rights, as well as n great and dignified churchman, passed away in the leader of the Roman Catholic faith in New Zealand, JTis Grace Archbishop Redwood. BORN IN ENGLAND.

Archbishop Francis Redwood, R.M., was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1839, a year before the city of Wellington was founded. Tn 1842 his parents brought him In New Zealand. A call was made at Wellington after a. six nmnflis’ voyage via tlm Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand’s future capital city 1 iion being but a straggling settlement along the waterfront. His family, however, settled' in Nelson where the young hul was brought up with his four brothers and four sisters. On the Waimen Plains, Nelson. Francis Redwood experienced all the hardships and suffered all the privations inseparable from pioneering life of the early days. These, however, had no ill effect on Ihe lad, who became a pupil of Father Garin’s school. Such a promising student ifid he prove himself in be that: Father Garin prevailed' upon his parents to give him a. better education than was available in New Zealand, and, when a lad of 15, he was sent to France. For some years he studied in France, in the Department of the Loire, and then continued his studies for ten years in Ireland. He so surpassed all his classmates and competitors in the various branches of science, literature, and philisophy as to cause admiration and' attract the attention of his professors and superiors. ENTERS THE PRIESTHOOD After a distinguished course, he made his religious profession in the Society of Mary on January 15, 1804. In the same year he received Tonsure minor orders, and snb-doaconship. Tn 18(55 he was ordained deacon, and on June <5 of the same year at Maynooth, County Kildare, lie was raised to the priesthood. He then studied for the degree of Licentiate in Theology. In 1807 a neglected cold caught in the mountains at La Salet-te, in .France, brought on in Dundalk an attack of pneumonia, which almost proved fatal. lie spent the winter in Rome, where he attended the Vatican Council, and returned to

Ireland in 1809, cured of: his chest complaint. Almost immediately lie was made Professor of Dogma to the Marist scholastics removed to Dublin. After the death of Dr. Viard, who was Bishop of Wellington at that t ime, Dr. Redwood was called to the episcopate, lie was consecrated by his Eminence Ihe late Cardinal Manning, then Archbishop, in the 'Church of the Marist Fathers, St. Anne’s, Rpitalfields, London, on March 17, 187-1, and appointed Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand, the land of his love and adoption, lie arrived in Wellington in November, 1874, and took charge of his see.

CREATE I) ARCHBISHOP (.In May 13, 1887, Dr. Redwood was created Archbishop by Papal Biiel, and was I lien constituted 'Metropolitan nl New Zealand. When he was appointed n the charge of the Wellington diocese it extended from Wairoa and New Plymouth in the north to the Waitaki River in the south, so that it then included the present diocese ot Christchurch. In all this immense district there were 31 priests, two ot whom were invalids, and two others were resting in Sydney. There were 24 dis tricts, and about 5(5 churches. 'ihe total number of schools was 31. and at only live of them was the instruction given by clerks or mins; in the others it was given by secular teachers.

The growth of the Catholic institutions in Wellington since that time bears some testimony to Archbishop Redwood’s zeal and ability in .administration. In the arch-dioPese alone there are now well over 100 priests and some 000 religious brothers and nuns. Nearly .130 churches, close on a hundred schools and colleges, as well as several orphanages and homes are now flourishing institutions. Any account of Archbishop Redwood’s career is in effect the history of the Church to which he belongs in the central-portion of New Zealand. As a candidate for the priesthood, the young lad, Francis Redwood, was the first-fruits of the Church’s work in New Zealand, and when he returned to flic, colony as a Bishop there was still much pioneering work to be done. He took an active lead in the preparation of the soil, in the ploughing and' sowing, and has lived long enough to witness the garnering of a, bountiful harvest. His work has nut been in vain, and epitomises over half a. century’s faithful work.

In practically every notable event in the Catholic world in this part of the Empire Archbishop Redwood has taken part. He preached the sermon at the opening of St. Mary’s Cathedral. Svdney, in 1882. and two years later laid tiie foundation stone, of St. Patrick’s College, Wellington. Similar activities year in and year out since then, culminating in the more recent opening of the college at Silvers!,ream, have marked the Archbishop’s connection with the growth of the Church

UNDER. STX POPES Always active, Archbishop Redwood lias journeyed to Europe and back over 20 times. Pilgrimages have been made to Rome and he lias had repeated audiences of lour successive Popes. He has actually lived in the pontificates of six Popes, viz., Gregory XVT, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI. In 1924, when the golden jubilee of his episcopacy was celebrated, Archbishop Redwood had conferred upon him the highest honor, next to the Cardinalate, which it is in the power of the Pope to bestow—that of Assistant, at the Pontifical Throne. Bishops Assistant at, the Pontifical Throne rank immediately after Cardinals; they arc always created Counts of the Apostolic Palace, and belong to the Pontifical family. Towards the Pope they hold much the same relation as cathedral canons do to their bishops. If anyone has ever deserved to be called a pillar of his church, surely Archbishop Redwood more than any other deserves that distinction. He was an eloquent preacher, an indefatigable worker, and his literary abilities and activities are represented by his many pastoral letters, his lectures, pamphlets, and valuable articles, which from time to time have emanated from his pen. And. needless to say, he has always been a stalwart champion of religious educa tion, bolding that edneation without religion is no true education at all.

A VIGOROUS OLD AGE At a gathering in Wellington of the Early Settlers’ Association, Archbishop Redwood remarked that he was proud of the fact that he was a year older than Wellington. To look at him, however, one would not have thought that he .was well over ninety. As mentally vigorous as ever, and physically nearly so, the Archbishop carried his years lightly. He had always been a believer in the old saying, “early to bed and early to rise,” "anu regularity of exercise lie always practised. Since his early youth Archbishop Redwood had been passionately fond of music, and for many years ho iiad been an enthusiastic supporter of, musical societies in Wellington. He was a violinist of no mean accomplishment, and the possessor of a treasured “Strad.” He received his first lesson in the study of the instrument under Mr. Charles Bonnington while a lad in Nelson, and he continued his studies in France under a professor trained at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the first prize at the College of St. diamond, Loire, and liecoining a first violin in the college orchestra.

Although never a public man in the usual meaning of the term, church work having sufficed to occupy all his time, Archbishop Redwood was a figure familiar to all, and he had won the respect of all classes' of the community,' whatever their creed.