CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 8, 22 June 1894, Page 19

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From an Occasional Correspondent.)

June 18tb, 1894. Laboe congregation attended the Masses aad Vespers afc the proCathedral on Sunday, and were deeply impressed with the addresses on the subject of the African Missions, delivered by the Bee Father O'Sullivan (of Egypt). Iq introducing his subject the reverend gentleman Baid tht.t it was not his intention to seek to interest hia hearera with tourist descriptions of that strange mysterious part of the world which was his adopted country. The nature of the mission with which he had been entrusted was difficult and disagreeahle, but it was also one which the necessity of circumstances and the salvation of soula in distant Africa none the less urgently required. He had beeo deputed here to make known the needs and the importance of that most necessitous and most deserving work of charity in which the society he represented had been so long and so successfully engaged, and lo enlist the sympathy of the benevolent in its behalf. The Society of African Missions (of which he is a member) was an association of missionary priests who bind themselves by the most solemn obligations to devote their labours and their lives entirely and exclusively to the civilisation and conversion of the most abandoned of God's human creatures— the negro races of the dark continent Tbe central houst of the society is at LyoDs, in France, and the two fi-lds of the labours of the missionaries are Western Tropical Africa and Lower Egypt. In th se western regions of the African continent which bear tht well-known names of Dahomey, Ashantee, Guinea, etc., there was not to be found forty years ago a single vestige of Catholic Christianity. The religion of soms thirty millions of negroes who peopled this apparently God-forsaktn part of tee world was simply this : they bowed down and worshipped as their God almost everything except God Himself. To-day these oegro kingdoms of the Guinea Coast, notorious as they have been for their deadly climate as well as for the awful custom of human sacrifice, are, comparatively speaking, dotted with Catholic missions, churches, convents, schools, dispsnaaries for the sick and

Buffering poor as well as with the graves of the priests and the nnns of the Society of African Missions who, during all this period of ■well nigh forty years, unnoticed and unknown by the world, have been leaving home and friends and country, dooming themselves to a certain and an early grave and consuming their young lives in the most deadly climate nn Onri's Parrh, Tn thp cnmßp nf « n impi-p^ive address in which the raverend missionary drew a striking contrast between the ancipnt s?rratne«s and early civilisation of the Africa of the past and the barbarism and ignorance of the Africa of the present day ; the fervent ieal and faith of the early ages of African Christianity and the Fr>tichism and MabnrnprAni«rn whirh smwortert bringing so many debasing and blighting it fluences in their train ; the efforts of thoße heroic missionaries during the past forty yeara to es'ablieh Christianity along the Guinea Coast, in the valley of the Nile and on the Niger, and the success obtained in the face of the most frightful difficulties of a murderous climate and a savage race, together with the fearful loss of life and suffering at which those enccesßes have been obtained, were all clearly shown by factsiand figures of the most telling significance. It may be doubted if the following can be surpassed by anything of the kind recorded in the early history of the Church :—: — From 1878 to 1888 the deaths among the priests and Sisters in Euqatorial Africa and in Egypt numbered 60. The cbue?s of death ia nearly every instance were malarial fever, heat, apoplexy, or want of resources to procure proper treatment and proper sustenance. Of these 60 missionaries 20 died a few months after their arrival, 20 within one year, and only eight survived four years. Their average life on the mission was two years and eight months and their average age thirty years. Father O'Sullivan then proceeded to read the following particulars, giving the names of the places of birth and death together with the ages, etc , of the Irish priests and Sisters whose names occur in this extraordinary record :—: — Key Father Dornan (Belfast) died at Lokoja, Niger, Augus f , 1886 ; age, 28 years ; length of mission life, 7 months. Rev Father O'Oarroll (Dublin) died at Tanta, Egypt, February 1881 ; aged 29 ; length of mission life, 5 months. Rev Father Henneberry (Kilkenny) buried at sea. July 1885 > aged 24 ; length of mission life, 18 montha. Rev Father Connaughten (W. Meath) died at Lagos, Apiil, 1887 ; age 33 ; length of mission life, 17 months. Rev Father Moran (Tipperary) died at Dahomey, August, 1887 ; age, 33 ; length of mission life, 2 years 11 months. Sister Felacite (Miss Kirwan, Dublin) died at Lagos, October, 1878 ; age 24 ; length of mission life, 5 months. Sister Dominic (Miss Riordan, Cork) died at Lagos, April 1878 ; age, 23 ; length of mission life, 4 months. St Cecilius (Mies O'Riordan, Limerick) died at Slave Coast, July, 1887; age 30 ; length of mission life, 4 y ars. Sister Silvius (Mies Murphy, Cork) died at Porto Novo, March, 1888 ; age, 29 ; length of mission life, 4£ years. Brother Jerome died at Slave Coast, December, 1880 ; aged 32 > length of mission life, 1 year 11 months. Brother Alpbonse (Cork) died at Slave Coas', October, 1880; age 27 ; length of mission life, 7 months. The bare exposing of thoso stern facts produced a deep impression and there should be no hesitation in s.iying that a cause of charity and humanity such as this, which commands the devotedness and Belf-sacrifice of so m<my noble lives df3erves the sympathy and support from persons of every creed and class which it has received in the Australasian colonies. The Rev Father concluded with a touching appeal explaining the circumstances which necessitated it 3 being made. Not only are resources for the general work of the missions sadly wanting but in many instances the missionaries themselves, situated as they are, thoimnda of miles away from the civilised world and among savages who cannot supply them with even the necessaries of life, stand in need of aid. The following letter from the Most Rev Dr Grimes was read in th« course of the evening discourse and will speak for i self Greymouth, April 15th, 1894. My Dsar Father O'Rulhvau,— You are engaged in a noble, a holy work ; and I shall be delighted to know that any of my devoted priests and people will have enjoyed the privilege of helping you in the same. It is indeed a privilege to be allowed in any way to co-operate in the great work (or whic'i oui Divine Lord came npon carth — the salvation of immortal souls. The privilege is still greater when it ia a question of co-operating in the salvation of those who are oo long seated in the darkness of ido'atrj and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Hence I most gladly give you the permission which you asked me, and in the way in which yon asked it. Wishing you every success, I am, my dear Father O'Sullivan, yours faithfully in J.C., | J. J. Gbimes, S.M., Bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand.