CATHOLIC PROGRESS AT INVERCARGILL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 446, 28 October 1881, Page 17

CATHOLIC PROGRESS AT INVERCARGILL.

The steps immediately initiatory to the establishment of a Dominican Convent at Invercargill were taken last week. Such a project has been long contemplated, but for various reasons it has been found impossible to carry it into execution. Within the last few weeks, however, matters assumed a form offering the promise of certain success to the community at Dunedin, and the Rev. Father McEnroe, S.J., pastor of the district in which the new convent is to be situated, and consequently the Very Rev. Mother Prioress, accompanied by another member of the Dominican Sisterhood, proceeded to Invercargill, where she was happily able, aided as she was by the generous zeal of the Catholics of the town in question, to conclude arrangements by which a suitable building has been procured, and where it is intended that a community shall be established in time to open the much-desired schools early in the new year. The following address, made on Sunday last to his people by the Rev. Father McEnroe, will fully explain all that has been done : — " My Brethren.— " Though going to speak to-day on a matter in which you all take the liveliest interest, I must first tell you news received from the Bishop. On Friday evening I had a letter from his Lordship announcing that six ladies— three of them professed nuns and three juniors— for the Dunedin Convent, and four priests for this diocese were to leave Plymouth by the Orient Steamer Cuzco on the 29th September The party are, therefore, at this moment in Southern waters. One of the priests on arriving at Dunedin is to be sent to assist in this mission. His Lordship- concludes by expressing a hope that a site for a convent, which he understood from Mother Prioress had been recommended by me, has been secured. It is a remarkable coincidence that the railway train bearing that letter passed by while the nuns, having just concluded the purchase, were inspecting their future conveat. As the Lady Superior herself told you the other evening it was the Bishop's intention from the date of his appointment to this diocese to establish a convent here as well as m DunI edin, and he told the nuns before they left Ireland, eleven years ago, that they should provide Sisters for a convent in Invercargill. His desire on the subject seems never to have abated, and it was, during his last visit here, the one thing in connection with this mission which gave him concern. . " That the property just purchased has been obtained must be a matter of unmixed delight to every one of us. Or if any regret can find place in our hearts to-day, it would be that a convent had not been established here many years since. The evils .which have occurred here, and which we cannot but deplore, would in that case in all probability never have taken place. There has been some semblance of excue, though of course no real excuse can be found for religious indifference, in tbe difficulty of discovering the note of holiness in the Catholic Church as represented in Southland. The Church of Christ is holy. We profess our faith in this when we repeat the Apostles' Creed : -I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church." And in the Nicene Creed, immediately after its unity, the Church's holiness is proclaimed. "I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. When we are asked to show what special claims the Church we belong to has to this mark of the Church of Christ, we point at once to the religious Orders. They are in the language of a great lope : 'the glory and ornament of the Church of They are tbe choicest fruit of the holy doctrine and sacrament. The members of the religious Orders are those who, having made the greatest sacrifices for Christ, shall receive the most abundant rewards. 'Behold you who have left all things and followed me shall receive in this life a hundred fold and hereafter life everlasting. In a word ,

they do what the young man mentioned in the Gospel had not the courage to do, namely, all that our Lord requires to be done not only for salvation, but even for perfection. ' Good Master,' said he to the Saviour, • what shall I do to gain eternal life?' He hears in reply, llf thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments.' He must have been comforted by those words for he immediately rejoins, ' all these things I have kept from my youth.' ' And the Lord,' says the Evangelist, 'looked upon him and loved him.' The Saviour then, proceeds to point out what, must be done to attain perfection : 'If thou wilt be perfect^ go sell what thou hast and give to the poor and come and follow me.' The youngr man's courage Sails him at this, and he goes away sad. Many chosen souls have, however, at all times been found to follow our Lord's counsel to the letter. The members of religious Orders have every one of them left all things to follow Christ. Some, having left all things, follow Him and ever wait on Him in prayer, as the Carmelites ; some follow Him and minister unto Him in His suffering members, the aged and infirm, as the Little Sisters of the Poor ; some nurse the sick in the hospitals, as the Sisters of Charity ; some, again, labour to bring back the erring, as the Good Shepherd Nuns ;— but far the greater number of female religions give their lives to the education of the young. To these and such like services of their Divine Master tens of thousands of ladies at present in different parts of the world are devoting their lives. It is, however, only with a teaching Order we are at present immediately concerned. And of the Dominican Nuns suffice it to say that they have glorious traditions of over six hundred years to guide them and to cheer them in their onward course. Nor does it seem unworthy of being handed down to succeeding generations with what success they have taught in New Zealand."

The rev. speaker then, after a few more words of testimony to the excellence of the work done by the nuns, and the blessing their presence among his people would confer, explained the business aspect of the matter thus : " How the property came to be purchased, whilst you yourselves knew scarcely anything of it, admits of a word of explanation, though I am satisfied there is not one amongst you but is delighted at what has been done. Your desire to have a convent was well known. The bazaar of last year was undertaken chiefly t j provide necessary funds. The Bishop was almost growing impatient over the matter, and finally the nuns themselves were longing to commence their labours amongst us. It only remained then to provide the necessary buildings. Had this been undertaken by the congregation generally, or even by a committee, the very interest felt by the public instead of diminishing would only nave increased the difficulty. To have the work done as noiselessly as possible, Mr. Callan, of Dnnedin, engaged Mr. Mullany to supply the desired information. He worked on with the skill and energy for which he usually gets credit, and to the end of a long correspondence he never suspected the special object for which the property was sought. He only knew he was acting for a gentleman in Dimedin. Mr. Roche agreed with Mr. Mullany that the property was cheap, the nuns themselves judged it most suitable for their purpose, and every visitor to Invercargill must pronounce it a charming residence. "The price is £1,650. Of this sum £650 is to be paid in December, the remainder to be paid in two years in four half-yearly instalments.

11 That Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch should feel some sadness at the thought of quitting such a lovely home, especially as the buildings and planting were all their own work, is unavoidable. A very pleasing circumstance, however, is that, not only was Mrs. McCulloch most desirous that the nuns should be the purchasers, but also Mr. McCulloch expressed his hap, mess that his house should be devoted to the purpose for which it is henceforth to be used." After detailing instances of such generous contributions as removed any uneasiness about the magnitude of the undertaking, and exhorting all to proportion their contributions to the amount of the liability, the rev. preacher concluded by saying that Messrs. Maher, Roche, and Mullany having been requested by the "Very Rev. Mother Prioress to act as her agents in all financial matters pertaining to the Convent, these three gentlemen kindly consented to do so.

The Czar ia trying hard to come to a settlement with the Holy See in regard to th« Catholics of Poland, and that for reasons best known to himself, for the Catholics are the most loyal and least murderous of his subjects, or, to speak more correctly, the large guild of assassins is not recruited among the Catholics of Russia. Yet it is remarkable how very differently they are treated from members of other Churches. Thus, one of our German Catholic contemporaries states that : — " Catholic priests from Prussia are not allowed to cross the frontier without having a passport vis& by the Eussian ambassador at Berlin, and when they have crossed they are dogged about at every step by policemen. Protestant clergymen, on the contrary, need nothing but a certificate from a local magistrate to officiate in Poland as much as ever they like, to teach and preach, and. to christen and bury people to their hearts' content." So far as that goes, the Catholics of Poland would have no objection to any laws, however severe, so long as such laws are observed ; but the worst of it is that the moment the Russians bear any grudge to any of the Catholic clergy they will pack them off to Siberia without the merest semblance of a trial. The very first demand of the Holy See will certainly be that there shall be an end to such absolute lawlessness. — Universe.

At a convention of dime novel writers held in New York the other day it was uuanimously resolved not to introduce in their works of fiction hereafter any boy as a hero who has not robbed his father of 5,000 dols., tortured his little brother, served six months in gaol, set fire to a neighbour's house, committed highway robbery, and run away from home to exterminate Indians.

Miss Golden, daughter of Mr. Golden, it is announced from Cork, was lately accidentally shot by one of the several policemen who have been for some time past engaged in protecting her f athci , in consequence of disputes between himself and his tenantry. It is feared that the injuries will prove fatal.