Bishop Moran at Riverton.

Southland Times, Issue 4483, 22 November 1882, Page 2

Bishop Moran at Riverton.

. .*. The Most Reverend Dr Momn, S.C. Bishop of Dunedin, arrived at Riverton on Friday evening, and on Sunday his Lordship celebrated High Muss, assisted by the parish priest, Father Kehoe ; the Invercargil! choir supplying the music, which was remarkably good and duly appreciated by the large congregation. The Bishop delivered an impressive sermon on the duty which parents owed the children, to see that they received a Christian education. Immediately after the celebration of the Mans, Mr F. P. O'Reilly read the following address : — To the Mo3t Reverend Dr Moran, Bishop of Dunedin. My Lord— On behalf of your faithful and devoted children in this portion of your dioce3B, we hasten to welcome you, on this your first visit since your return from Rome ; and to tender you the expression of our most grateful thanks for having undertakea a long journey in the cause of our spiritual welfare, and to maintain that close and treasured union which bnds us and the whole Catholic world to the See of Saint Peter. We welcome you as the representative of that spiritual government, whicb, in peaceful order and just gradation, descends from our holy Pontiff, through the princes, bishops, and clergy of the universal church, whose gentle sway is felt by every rac? and blessed in every language to the utm ">st ends of the earth. We have seen the head of that government a sepptred monarch, seated oa the throne before which, a thousand years ago, Charlemagne bent the knee. You, my Lord, found the Visar of Christ a prisoner in the Vatican; you saw the sacred soil of Home, which even Athla and his barbarians respected in the fifth century, desecrated by the infidel* of the nineteenth ; but we rejoice to know, my Lord, that you found Leo the Thirteenth animated by the same undaunted spirit which Leo the First displayed when, armed with the Cross alone, he vanquished Athla and the Vandals — animated by the same spirit as Pins the Sixth, the prisoner of Napoleon, who, restored to hi^s thi'oiie.eaw thd conqueror of Europe in the dust, and his empire passed away. We rejoice to see, my Lord, thai; you dis« play the same spirir, ; for, as fraudulent force in the qld world has, in every age, found faithful and fearless soldiers of Chri6t to oppose and to break it, sncbJ soldiers are tot wanting in this new world ; and, a% we hope at no distant day to see the Supreme Pontiff restored to the patrimony of Saint. Peter-^rtie territories of which onrhdly church has been sacrilegiously despoiled ; so, ray Lord, we hope under your guidance to obtain the ro3ti. tution of our civil rights. - We pray that the universal and imminpnt dangers created 1 and iostered by Godless sys-tems-of education will awaken 'the Christian:' world to look in time to the foundations of Christian society ; and- that your Lordship ' may seethe. day. rwhen the Rock oLßetev, ■&&&;. Bu'iTounded by the turbulent waves.of human, passsion and the clouds of h.ucaan error, will gbed a broad and tender Jight^and. a be.o,es.

cent influence over peaceful, happy, and united rialapns.f IniploriDg the Apostolic benediction, ; &^\ We remain, my Lord, • 'Your attached and obedient children. ; <(Sjg?'ed on behalf of the congregation.) CglHfs Lordship, in reply, said he had seen linauy addresses, but lew like the beautiful and eloquent address just read. He conand Catholib spirit displayed in its composition. He then gave a most, interesting address on the present state fofT Italy -atid of thel; Church. He said" the ' people of" • Italy were^far from being^atisfetH9ith >their present posijjpn, t Tjie- taxation which lunder the former 5 government, had been :]los,^vas, no^, 50s ,pe^ head. There was b^it'paperrinoney i|u the -country; iFiye-stiths of the people; werejopppßed to jthe* pteseiit government ' of the- foreign; [house of .Sftyoy, ,bnt they werekept down iby^forge of :;arms 4; He. agree"©! with theltti jthat the Pope would b'e restpred to the terX? ■ritories of^theyGhurchi^'Attthe^eyening service the'TMshqp ;l agawi; preached to a crowded congregatipn. ..... t „