BISHOP CROKE IN THE PULPIT

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1784, 21 September 1874, Page 2

BISHOP CROKE IN THE PULPIT

We-copy the concluding portion of ; a sermon preached by the most Rev. Bishop;. Croke of Auckland, in the Catholic Cathe- ; dral of Dublin, on 22nd June, on the occasion of the celebration 1' of the 28th anniversary of the coronation of the Pope. The passage opens with an eloqueiit I reference to the late General Councifheld,, in Borne:—" Of these Episcopal gathering there is one that stands out prominently beyond the rest, the last of them all, the ; General Council of the Vatican, the, most remarkable ecclesiastical 4?eitt of our epoch, and the greatest glorf^cf the reign of Pope Pius the Ninth. About 800 bishops attended that Council, • They came there from the coral islands of the Pacific, from cities and churches unknown to the ancients even by name. They came there from Newfoundland, and the two Canadas ; from the plains of New England, the fertile valley* of the Mississippi, and the golden shores of California; from Chili arid La Plata, and the free Republics of the South; from the classic Isles of Greece, as well as from the sacred plains of Palestine and Syria;, from the shattered remains of the great patriarchates of the East, from Antioch and Byzantium, arid from jthe sites of the fallen Churches of Africa/ and Asia.' JPftan tfro ;Ka'st'a^d| from ;fchq .Westjthey came.^ Th^'TeutM and the Dave, the Cell and the Saxou ;

Wthe descendants of 4ho Northern Pirates ■ and of the Latin Kings,, were alike asscm- ■ bled there. There where 200'-Italian ■ Bishops or more; say 50 French, 48 Gerw man, a like number from the United I States, nearly as many from Mexico and 1 South America, 11 English; 21 Irish, and ' above 40 Spanish Bishops, to say nothing of the Bishops of the rising Churches of . Australia and New Zealand that IV aye literally sprung into existonceyduring ihe . Pontificate of the prosent I*ope.} And for j what purpose was this great .Council i, summoned ? Was it, as it was maliciously I alleged by some, to disturb Slates, to giv? offence to Statesmen, to set upland, jf possible, sustain ctaitas to^unive>saLdomiiupni or.toipterftjre in aiiyWiso ijrith.tho , legitimate powers and pririlegesof "secular princes ? No, brethren, but to contrive remedies against the manifold evils by which modern society' is afflicted, and which threaten alike the destruction both, of the alter and the throne. On the continent of-Europe and elsewhere a school of evil teaching was, and is, notoriously open, and doctrines the most pernicious wore preached and propagated by it, in defiance of all shame and reason, and to the Mre detriment of law, • order, and' . morality. The existence of God. the ' divinity of our. Lord, the immortality of the soul, human accountability—in fact, all the fundamental truths of Christianity —arc'not only fearlessly canvassed by \ many of the rising youth of this genera- ■ tion, but are openly scoffed at and contemptuosly rejected. At a banquet given, a couple of years ago, on a. Good Friday, j in one of the chief capitals of Europe, the first toast that was proposed and drunk was to the memory of the men who crucified Jesus Christ; and it is only a few months ago since I read, in another quarter of the globe, that, ©n the occasion of the installation of a famous French revolutionist into what is called the "Lodge-of Light," he was asked, as is usual, what were the threegreat ends whichheproposed to himself on entering the fraternity; and his answer was, to advance human freedom, to spread; the doctrine of universal fraternity amongst men, and to wage war against God.— >D.S. Cross.