TRIBUTE TO A FINE MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1923, Page 7

TRIBUTE TO A FINE MAN.

THE LATE DEAN THOMAS McKENNA. (Contributed.) The death of Dean Thomas McKenna, New Plymouth, on Sunday, the Bth inst., has robbed the archdiocese of one of its most amiable and devoted priests, He was one of Nature’s gentlemen, whose qualities were ennobled by grace. To the priests who loved to visit him during the last thirty years he wap a perfect host, while as a guest hig cheery manner brightened many a presbytery. By the priests he will be long missed, and most by those who knew him best. His devotion to the people was self-sacrificing to a marked degree, and many acknowledgments of this have been forthcoming from the parishes in which he labored. Succeeding him in one of the parishes of Taranaki thirty years ago, the writer of these notes found a chain of eight Christian doctrine classes stretching through the parish. This was Dean McKenna's first work in that parish of which he was founder. These classes he visited once a week without a single break, as the parish records show, with the result that the children, even in the remotest places, were as well instructed in their religion as those in the favored towns and cities. His zeal for the religious education of the young was a characteristic of his whole priestly life. In this he lived up to the dictates of St. Paul. To the poor also he was devoted. He had little opportunity of coming into personal contact with them until his appointment to the city of Wellington a few years ago, but during his time there he loved to visit the homes of the poor, and many stories are now told of how, after giving the sacraments and the spiritual consolations of the Church, he would, with ft simple grace that could not offend, leave something to procure those material comforts that mean so much to the sick poor. His obsequies were begun at Ne\v Plymouth on Tuesday with lUquiem Mass, which was sung by his brother, the Right Rev. Monsignor McKenna, V.G., Fathers O’Dwyer, Pheland and Lynch being the other ministers. His Grace Archbishop O’Shea presided, and with him in the saneLus was the Right Rev. Monsignor Power; in the choir were Fathers Maples, Hartnett, Meynard, J. Moore, N. Moore, Forrest al, Outram, Dillon, Carmine and Father O’Shea, of the Chinese Mission. The music of the Mass was beautifully sung by the parish choir, and the priests under the leadership of Mr. Clarke. The Archbishop spoke very touchingly of the zeal and labors of the deceased priest. He conveyed the sympathy of the Archbishops and priests to Monsignor McKenna, his brother, nad other relatives. He reminded them that death was not the end of all things, that Christian sorrow for the dead is not like that of the pagan, without hope; for Christ, the head of the mystic body, rose from the grave as the first fruits of them that sleep. He recounted his first meeting with the Dean, whom he had met thirty-five years ago—a splendid type of manhood. He traced his labors in Masterton, Hawera, Patea, Pahiatua and Wellington; he commented on his true spirit of ecclesiastical obedience which led him, at the call of the Archbishops, to leave a parish which he had founded, and in which he had spent more than a quarter of a century, to undertake more arduous duties in an important parish in a big city. After three years’ labors here, he was appointed to New Plymouth, but owing to a severe and lingering illness, which gradually but surely carried him to the grave, he was unable to take an active part in parish work. His Grace was confident he would be remembered in the prayers of all. By the law of the Archdiocese each priest would qffer three masses for the repose of his soul, and he knew many of them would not be contented with this. The faithful, too, by their Masses, Holy Communions, and prayers, would obtain for him many a season of refreshment, light and peace, and help him to pass quickly from the cleansing prison of purgatory to the eternal abode of the saints. The body will be taken by mail train this day (Wednesday) to Pahiatua, where the funeral takes place. The Rev. E. H. Strong, of St. Mary’s, New Plymouth, and the Rev. J. M. Beaufort, of Holy Trinity Vicarage, Te Henui, called at the Presbytery to express their sympathy with those associated with the late Dean, and were present at thg obsequies. <