Bishop Luck and Father Walter.

Poverty Bay Independent, Volume II, Issue 172, 13 July 1886, Page 3

Bishop Luck and Father Walter.

In remarking upon the suspension of the Freeman’s Journal, the Rationalist makes the following pertinent remarks which have much bearing upon local matters in connection with “ Mother Church” :—

The majority of the Catholics of this Colony are either of Irish birth or extraction. They, or their fathers, brought from the Green Isle their love of independence, and their love of their Church and her clergy’, as they had learned that love under the good parish priest at Home. They troubled themselves little about bishops or cardinals, but attended to their duties and populated the the new country. Here in Auckland they were particularly fortunate in their parish priest. Father Walter McDonald, who, for twenty-seven years, has occupied the position of curd to the worshippers ol St. Patrick’s, the oldest, and for many years the only Catholic Church in this city, is a fine example of the Irish secular priest. We have no respect for priests as a class ; they are in the main cumberers of the ground, but now and again we come in contact with one in whom there is so much of the man that we forget his craft and are ready to do honor to his manhood ; and such a one is Father Walter. For-more than a quarter of a century has he toiled at his task of building up the Church in New Zealand, and he has seen his work grow under his hands until his people had become strong and rich, and had erected a monument to him in the shape of a new and hardsome Cathedral in this city. Happy Father Walter ■ beloved by his parishioners, honored by his superiors in the Church, respected by the entire community, it seemed as if he had about all that a priest could ask or expect in this vale of tears ; but the demon of jealousy, which is said to have broken up that otherwise exceedingly respectable community known as Heaven, and caused the expulsion of several of its prominent citizens to the depths of Sheol, appears to have entered into the breast of the Right Rev. My Lord Bishop Luck, with most direful results to the peace and happiness of the congregation of St. Patrick’s. Some time since Leo XIII. concluded to try the experiment of sending out a batch of conventual bishops to the colonies, and Mr Edward Luck, of the Order of St. Benedict, was appointed to Auckland.

Now, a convent-bred priest is, as a rule, about the must contemptible of his class. Educated without knowledge of the world, his superstition is of the darkest and most degrading type, while his talents for scheming and dissimulation are the only ones which are at all cultivated. To make a bishop of a young convent-bred cleric, with nothing to recommend him except that he is in some way related to a good English family, and then to force that bishop upon a community of Irish Catholics could scarcely help making mischief. The Irish want nothing of Continental conventual systems or men, and they regard the appointment of such men as an invasion and infringement of their rights. They are unaccustomed to it, they don’t like it, and they don’t mean to put up with it. Rome would never think of sending a man like Mr Luck to be a bishop in Ireland or America, then why should New Zealand have such an infliction ? Still, as Father Walter held the keys, z.e., was financial administrator of the Diocese by a commission direct from Rome, which antedates the appointment of Luck, bis deveted parishioners dissembled their true feelings, and gave Bishop Luck a cordial welcome. t By the rules and usages of the Church, the bishop is the parish priest of his

Cathedral, and thus Luck ousted Father Walter from the position he had so long occupied, nominally only, however, for to all intents and purposes Father Walter was the priest of the people if not of the parish, and Luck soon found that he was a mere figure head. Was money to be raised? Father Walter alone could do it. Were wandering sheep to be reclaimed and brought back to the fold ? Father Walter alone could accomplish it. Was public or Protestant opinion to be secured ? The estimation in which Father Walter was held by the Protestants pointed him out as the only man whose influence would be of use. In short, Mr Luck, who had come all the way to New Zealand under an engagement as leader, found himself reduced to the position of playing second fiddle.

A generous priest would have rejoiced at having the assistance of so valuable a coajutor, but not so Mr Luck ; he determined to be rid of Father Walter, and bided his time. As a matter of course, the first step necessary was to obtain his resignation as financial administrator of the diocese, and true to the instincts of a conventual friar, this was to be obtained by the foulest treachery. Upon the arrival of the diploma conferring upon Father Walter the title of Monsignor, Bishop Luck laid it before him together with a written resignation of the office of Administrator of the Diocese, to which his s : gnature was required. Upon the priest demurring, the Bi hop said, “You will either sign that paper or you will not say mass to-morrow.” To be deprived of saying mass on the day of his investiture as a Right Reverend, was more than Father Walter could stand, and in a moment of weakness he affixed his signature to the fatal document which was to pave the way for his removal from his beloved Church and people, and his practical banishment to a charge far beneath his merits and standing ; for, after the ceremony of investiture, the Bishop, with his tongue in his cheek, made the startling announcement that in future the priest who was connected with the parish by so many ties, would be banished to the wilds of Panmure. No sooner had the announcement of this charge been made from the episcopal throne, than murmurs of dissent, both loud and deep, arose from the parishioners. A delegation was appointed to wait on Mr Luck and protest against the proposed action, but these representatives of parish sentiment met with but small courtesy at the hands of their Bishop. Like Pontius Pilate, he informed them : “What I have written, I have written.” One of the committee who, it is said, had inbibed a modicum of Dutch courage before approaching the holy Lord, is reported as saying, “An ye say ye’ll not reconsither this matther ? then by God, me Lord we’ll starve ye. Divil a fut will I ever set in a church again ’til Father Walter’s back where he belongs !”

Of course the rebellious member was promptly fired out of his episcopal presence, but strange to say that did not help matters. An evening journal which characterises the matter as an Irish promotion, was boycotted by the Bishop as to advertising, and the Freeman’s Journal also felt the effects of 0.5.8. wrath for exercising the privilege of free speech. Still, Mr Edward Luck is not altogether happy. His exertions in the cause of despotism have so seriously undermined his health, that there are whispers, eagerly caught up and repeated, that he will be translated to another see. For his own sake, it is to be hoped this is true, for his will not be a bed of roses as pastor of the outraged people of St. Patricks, and the sooner he carries the news to Rome that our Irish colonists have much of the independence of their American cousins, and can best be managed by suasion and not force, and that they want no conventual bishops, the more use he will be to the diocese. In the meantime, we, as Freethinkers, can only remark : “ Behold how the priests love one another.”