CARDINAL MANNING ON THE FAITH OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 242, 21 December 1877, Page 9

CARDINAL MANNING ON THE FAITH OF IRELAND.

Ij^his eloquent sermon at the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of St prick's Church, Liverpool, his Eminence Cardinal Manning said •— " Perhaps some one would ask. 'Why should we keep the jubilee of St. Patrick's Church ? ' Is there auything strange or singular in a church fifty years old ? They who know the undying life of the Catholic Church know that there is nothing strange in a Catholic altar or a Catholic church living for fifty years. Nevertheless, there are reasons distinct and strong why we should pray and celebrate with great rejoicing the Jubilee of St. Patrick, in Liverpool. It was opened and dedicated fifty years ago—years when the penal laws were even then on the statute books of England. There wore then laws against the Catholic Church and faith still in vigour, and the remnants of the most refined and cruel legislation the world has ever seen, save only Ireland. That supplied one reason which never can return It is also the first jubilee since the cancelling and blottin^ out from the statute books of the laws of our country of those laws against the holy faith of Jesus Christ. Now we have liberty spreading on every side. Twenty-five years ago the Church in England, which till then had no hierarchy, no diocesan. noin<ernal jurisdiction no apostolic authority, received once more that full and perfect order of the Church, with all the plentitude of apostolic authority which Jesus gave to Peter, and which passed from Peter to the Apostles whose successors our Bishops are. Ireland has never lost her faith She has never wavered or faltered through all manner of persecutions \\ itn the Divine assistance, coming from the Holy Ghost, the people of Ireland have remained faithful to Jesus, their Lord and to his Vicar on earth in His world-wide Church. St. Patrick's is an inheritance which has never Ixvn cut off, and though he was no prophetic

made bold to Bay he never would be. For his inheritance is not seen in Ireland alone, bat through the world-wide Church of Gocl. la the great new world of Australia, on the continent of America, and scat-, tared through the Eas\ the sons of St. Patrick, pastor and priests spring from his ordinaMon. spread the word of God, and gather soul 8 into salvation. There is no family or progouy in all the Church of God so great as {Lai" which sprang from St. Patrick. That one solo apostle of the nation has at this day an \nhcritance in the Catholic Church which is not exceeded, nay. he would say, equalled by any other apostle of tbe nations. St. Augustine was indeed the apostle of England, but where is the inheritance of the first Archbishop of Canterbury 1 Patrick, the first archbishop and primate of Ireland, has his inheritance in full and undiminished, multiplied and expanded throughout the world at this hour. In the groat Council of the Vati. can, when the Catholic Church met together by representative, there was no one saint or apostle, save only thoso saints or apostles who had laid the Church in the beginning, who had in that august council, that synod of the intellect of tbe Church, so many mitred sons as the Apostle of Ireland. This is the reward which God, in His generosity, gave to them who served Him in the law of liberty. The names inscribed on the walls of the Church showed that the children of St, Patrick would never forget, living or dying, the priesthood. Here, around him, he conld see the names of thoso who laid down their lives by the fever-stricken bed. and went like soldiers of Jesus Christ to fill up the vacant gap. There is no people throughout the world so united to their pastors, so ready to be the helper, the friend, tho brother, even the, defender of the priest, as is the Irishman. He would say to them : Pray God to mako them understand the law of liberty. He would not say be faithful to the creed which St. Patrick gave, for where is the Irishman who is unfaithful ? Even while he is acting contrary to the law of God, and giving scandal to himself and neighbour, he holds his faith as the most precious of all inheritances. There was no apostle of the nations whose life was more marked by penitential exercises than St. Patrick. He denied himself in order that he might be a time servant of Jesus Christ. Therefore, for the glory and sake of God and His blessed Mother, and for the honour and glory of St. Patrick, practise your religion, and let the world see by the light of your lives, and by the generosity of your actions, that you are a true descendant of the great apostle. For by our hearts we shall be judged by our Divine Master when we stand before Him."