ARCHBISHOP MACHALE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 191, 24 November 1876, Page 14

ARCHBISHOP MACHALE.

The well informed writer of the Irish articles in the London 'Tablet' supplies the following notes on the services of Archbishop Mac Hale during the active years of his long episcopate : — The appointment of a coadjutor to his Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Mac Hale, the venerated Archbishop of Tuani, now about to take place, is an event suggestive of touching and memorable recollections. Of nearly 1,100 patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops in the Church his Grace is believed to be one of the very oldest, being now advanced in the fifty-second year of his episcopate, yet he has so far discharged all the weighty duties of his vast diocese with unbroken regularity and unflagging zeal. Tuam is considerably the largest diocese in Ireland, and ranks next to Dublin in point of Catholic population ; while it is three to four times larger in area, and before the famine had a greater number of inhabitants. The diocese includes nearly a quarter of a million of Catholics, scattered over 2,167 square miles of country, a very large portion of which is mountainous, with a sinuous coast line of considerable extent, numbers of ragged paninsulas, and ssveral populous islands, difficult at tiine3 of acce33, yet having churches and demanding episcopal visitation. Dr. MicHale was consecrated Coadjutor Bishop of Killala, on the sth June, 1825 ; and on the death of Dr. Kelly, in 183 1, was promoted to the Archiepiscopal See of Tuam, whose mitre he has worn with exalted dignity for the long period of forty-two years; while the next senior bishop of Ireland is only of twenty-nine years standing. No district in Ireland, and scarcely any in the world p.issed through more varied and severe trials than Western Connaught during the long and memorable episcopate of the Archbis'iop. The poorest and most populous locality in the country, education was very backward there, the population isolate!, and their habits simple and primitive, Irish being spoken by all classes. Even so early as fifty years ago, organisations existed to seduce the people from their faith, through proselytizing schools and itinerant missionaries. The appearance of the famine stimulated the hope that, through impending starvation and the sickness and terrible afflictions that followed, the evangelising harvest of the We&t Connaught Mission was at hand. Exeter Hall rang with plaudits at the marvellous report of legions of conversions ; gullible old ladies and gentlemen fanatically flung their notes and guineas to snatch the brands from the Popish burning on the sea-boxrd of Connaught ; flying brigades of parsons, many of them of questionable antecedents, scoured the country ; while Bible-readers and mission agents of various grades laden with food, clothing, and bribes, paid constant visits to the wretched cabins of the sick and famishing poor. Connemara and Joyce's country were parcelled out into mission districts; churches were erected, and clergy located in them ; endowments for permanent livings were provided; relief depots, schools and orphanages were founded; lucrative employment was secured to all who desired it ; while tempting offers were held out of comfortable service in England to all who would listen to the insidious inducements to apostasy. Protestant archbishops and bishops, and leading public men of England, with travellers froii various countries, thronged to the Connaught sea-board to verify with, their own eyes the reports of the conversion of the vast mass of the population from Popery. With slight intermission, this nefarious conspiracy against the faith of the poor continued until 1861, when the creed census then taken exposed to the world the infamous lying of these impostors. Never was conviction more complete and crushing than that supplied by the census that famine, pestilence and bribes were unable to shake the faith of the most wretched peasantry in Connaught. The collapse of funds and the total discredit of the West Connaught Mission immediately followed; in a few years came the Disestablishment of the Church; while the census of 1871 reveals that the relative numerical status of Catholics is higher in Galway and Mayo than it had been at the close of the previous decade. The intrepid and able Archbishop had to provide against contingencies so singular and trying as to be without parallel, at least in modern history. His name and station, his piety and patriotism attracted the generous alms of Christendom for the relief of his afflicted flock who, with unswerving fidelity, have nobly defeated the satanic machinations to lead them to apostasy. The dangers of the coast of Connaught were never able to deter the devoted Archbishop— although sometimes weatherbound in islands for weeks — even since he became an octogenarian from following his flock to see that they were in safe pastures. He has built at least 100 churches, completed a splendid cathedral, founded an admirable college, founded ample parochial schools, and established religious houses of men and of women all over the diocese.