LENTEN PASTORAL OF THE BISHOP OF DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 19, 26 February 1892, Page 18

LENTEN PASTORAL OF THE BISHOP OF DU N E D I N.

PATBICK, BY THE GBACE OF GOD AND FAVOUR OK THE HOLY SEE,

Bishop op Dunedin, etc. To tbe Clergy and Laity of said Diocese, Greeting and Blessing in

the Lord. DEABLY Beloved Bbethben,— The holy season of Lent begins this year on the 2nd March (Ash-Wednesday), and enda on the 17th April (Easter Sunday). The regulations for the fast and abstinence of Lent this year will be stated in a schedule annexed to this Pastoral. We exhort all to comply with these regulations, and thus obey the Ohurch and act in tbe spirit of our fathers in the Faith, who, in obedience to tbe command of Christ and His Apostles, devoted a part of each year in an especial way to the exercisis of penance and mortification. Hiving often in the past years addressed you in reference to the obligations of penance and mortification, and in particular of fasting, abstinence, and alms-deeds, we may, we think, now pass on to the consideration of another most important, and, indeed, paramount subject. On this snbject, also, we have again and again ad--dressed you, but the subject is so important that no apoljgy is needed for recurring to it again this jear. You will, probably, anticipate what this subject is, and that we intend once more to draw your

attention to the question of education, snd in this anticipation yon will not be mistaken. Our object is, first, to congratulate you on the success tbat has hitherto attended on your efforts to give a trulj^ Christian and Catholic education to your children, to rejoice with you on your having established so many excellent Catholic schools in this diocese, and to emphasise the fact that you have succeeded far beyond yonr expectations in spite of tbe marked injustice with which, in educational matters, you have been treated by the Legislature of New Zealand. Alone you have stood for many long, weary years fighting the battle of Christian education, fighting it at yonr own sole expense, fighting it in the face not only of discouragement, but of fierce opposition. Whi st we regret the injustice with which yoa have been treated, and the unwisdom — nay, the more than criminal folly of the Legislature which has bani bed God from the schools of His own children, we have reason to rejoice in the consequences that have followed for us. We have never had, thank Q-nd, any temptation to make compromises ; the en? mies of Christian education have been so determined to tax us for tbe education of other people's children to the exclusion of oar own, that, fortunately for us, they would listen to no project whereby our schools might become, even to a limited extent, entitled to some aid from tbe publio funds, to which Catholics, in common with their fellow-citizens, have contributed. The result for us is that our schools are thoroughly Catholic, and in them there is not the least thing to hamper tbe exercise of the fullest liberty in the education of our children. This is * great gain, and a blessing which we can hardly appreciate as it deserves, and for which we caa never be sufficiently thankful, We do not write thus because we think or feel that the Catholic body would for any worldly or pecuniary consideration, make any compromise detrimental to the faith and morals of their children, but because we have, through the unjust and impolitic action of others, been saved from even tbe temptation of doing so. We ought to look upon this as a great blessing from Him who taught us to pray " lead us not into temptation." Were our legislators inclined to do justice in this matter of education, and abstain from endeavouring to violate our consciecces, or endeavouring to induce us to violate our consciences, they would imitate the conduct of the Ontario Provincial Legislature and the Canadian Parliament, under whose wise and just and liberal legislation no man's conscience is violated or under stress, and no man iB compelled to provide funds for tbe maintenance of a system of education in the advantages of which he cannot share. And, surely, what is done in Canada, what is done in the province of Ontario, where Catholics are in precisely a similar position to that of Catholics here, could be done here. Where there is a will there is a way, and all that is required for the establishment of a system at once wise and just in this country is tbe will. We need not delay you t ow in describing the Canadian principle and the Ontario system, as this has been done in the leading columns of the New Zealand Tablet, which is and ever has been watchful of your best interests) and ever careful to afford you the moat necessary and carefullydigested information on the question of education, and all its ramifications : and, as we have mentioned the name of the New Zealand Tablet, we desire to avail ourselves of this mention to impress upon you the necessity and the du*y of supporting this newspaper to the utmost of your ability. It is most important for the Catholic body to have an orgin to defend its interests, explain its position, claim its rights, denounce injustice, expose folly, and enlighten the public, so that said public may do longer remain the victim of prejudice the most groundless, and statements about Catholics and their aims and objects the most false. In addition, there is another reason why all Catholics should support the N.Z. Tablet : our children have been taught to read, have been well educated. Such children will, and must read, and nothing can be more necessary or more important than that they should have good, accurate, and untainted Catholic literature to read. The N.Z. Tablet supplies such literature. It is a paper which no man neei fear to allow his wife or children to read, It is truly Catholic, moral, affording useful and interesting information, conducted with great ability and zeal, and written in an admirable literary style. Its tone is high ; in a word, it is a newspaper of which the Catholics of New Zealand may well be proud, and which it is their interest and their duty to support generously. You will be called upon during this year to make the usual efforts to maintain your echools already established » and to establish additional ones, to contribute as usual to the Seminary Fund, to help tbe Holy Father with Peter's Pence, and to do something towards the maintaining of the holy places hallowed by the footsteps of our Divine Redeemer, and the evangelisation of the Aborigines of Australasia. You will, we have no doubt, do your duty in these particulars in the future, as you bave done in the past, with that devotion and zeal for which the Catholics of this diocese have ever been remarkable. In this diocese there have been very fH| indeed, who have not been in the habit of making their Easter dol» and for this we return hearty and grateful thanks to God. But there ought not to be aoy absentees, and we hops that in the future there will be none. All should remember that the precept of Easter communion is, in substance, divine, and that it is only ecclesiastical ia so 1 far as the determination of the time of Easter is concerned. Our

Divine Lord commanded all his followers who had arrived at the years of discretion to go to Holy Communion at least once in the year, and all the Church has done in reference to this is to direct that tbe time for the fulfilment of this precept is Easter time. The law of Easter Communion, therefore, is in substanci divine, and only ecclesiastical as to time. Surely, therefore, no one deserving the name of Catholic will so outrage our Divine Redeemer as to disobey His loving command, or be so rebellious to His Church, which all are commanded to obey, as to neglect his or her Easter duty. The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. f P. Moran. Dunedin : Feast of St Agnes, 1892. The following are the regulations for Lent, made in virtue of special faculties from the Holy See :— 1. The use of flesh meat is permitted at dinner on all days in Lent with the exception of Wednesdays and Fridays, tbe Saturday of Quarter Tense, and Monday in Holy Week. 2. At the collation on fast days the use in moderation of butter, cheese, and milk is permitted, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. 3. On all days the use of butter, cheese, and milk is permitted at dinner, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. 4. By indnlt the use of lard is permitted on all days except Good Friday and Ash Wednesday . 5. Eggs can be eaten at dinner on all dayß except Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fish and flesh meat are not permitted at the same meal. There is neither fast nor abstinence on Sundays in Lent. All who have completed their 21st year are bound to fast and abstain— unless excused by the state of their health or the nature of their employments — according to the regulations stated above ; and all who have arrived at the use of reason, though not bound to fast before the completion of their 21st year, are, nevertheless, bound to abstain from tbe use of flesh meat on the days appointed — unless exempt for a legitimate cause, of which tbe respective Pastors are to be the judges. Subject to the above regulations, every day, except Sunday and St Patrick's Day (when it does not fall on Friday or in Quarter Tenee), in Lent is a day of fast and abstinence. All who have arrived at the years cf discretion are bound to go to Communion within Easter time, which, in this diocese, commences on Ash Wednesday and ends on the octave of the Feast of SS Peter and Paul. A collection for tie Seminary Fual will be made on the Ist Sunday in Lent where a priest officiates, and in other churches and chapels as soon after as possible. The collection for the Pope will be make in each chapel or church some Sunday before the end of September next, and for tne Aborigines and Hoy Places when each rector shall think convenient. The clergy are requested to read this Pastoral at Mass in all churches and chapels where they officiate on Qainquagesima Sunday, and to place a copy of it in a conspicuous position in all churcheH and chapels at the beginning of Lent.