THE COADJUTOR-BISHOP OF SYDNEY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 26, 27 June 1901, Page 6

THE COADJUTOR-BISHOP OF SYDNEY.

Referring to the reported appointment of the Right Bey. Mgr. Kelly, Rector of the Irish College at Rome, as Coadjutor to the Cardinal-Archbit-hop of Sydney, the Rome correspondent of the Sydney Freeman * Jaurnal, writing under date May 8, says :—: — Until about 10 days before the recent Private Consistory, it wa3 expected by many that a Coadjutor would de appointed to Sydney, at the request of his Eminence Cardinal Moran. This appointment, however, was not made in Consistory. It was only on April 22 that the matter came up for consideration at Propaganda. The names were studied, and it was decided that the Right Reverend Monsignor Kelly, D.D., Rector of the Irish College, should be recommended to his Holiness. This news has leaked out in some quarters since that date, and considerable wonderment has been felt even among prelates and high ecclesiastics as to a delay which has ensued before the appointment has been ratified by the Pope. But the wonderment excites wonder in turn — first, because it should have been remembered that the Irish hierarchy had to be consulted aa to the removal of its Rector from its national college ; and, secondly, because of a fact which concerns the anti-chamber of the Vatican. This fact is that the ' tabella ' of audiences is no longer in me. The Pope gives two kinds of audiences — the one official, the other extraordinary. The official audiences of the routine kind —for there are other audiences which a Pope gives at his own call or on special request about Roman business — are those of the secretaries of the Roman Congregations. The extraordinary are those granted to bishops and other persons making requests for his favor. Tne official audienoes of the routine kind are granted by the Sovereign Pontiff according to a 'tabella,' or printed form, by which the secretary of this Congregation goes to audience at such an hour on such a day, and bo on. The prescriptions of the ' tabella ' bad fallen into desuetude. Then it was revived. The Holy Year, which wrought changes in

other matters— such as the change by which foreign Bishops were received in a body instead of separately— caused it to lapse again. I ne Fope was determined to satisfy the pious exigencies of so many thousands of we kly pilgrims. Owing to the great age of the pontiff the ' tabella' is not now followed, and the Secretaries of the Congregations mast make requests for audiences just a« mußt Bishops and others.

I am {authorised to tell you that any announcement made is premature. Such announcements do often occur, and the delay in every cane makes this easier when, aa in the present, there has been a long period of popular expectation.