A Tribute to the Priesthood.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 4

A Tribute to the Priesthood.

FEOM Julian Hawthorne's account of the funeral nervices for the late Archbishop Corngan, published in a New York daily, we iSaored Heart Review) take the following noble tribute to the Catholic, priesthood. The writor's imagination and heart were evidently, greatly moved by the solemn scenes he witnessed ; and as though carried out of himself, he has written words that deserve morethan passing attention. Occasional mistakes in the long description only indicate more plainly that the glowing tribute comes from a non-Catholic pen. We copy, however, only the followmfi: words on tht priesthood :—: — 'It was a marvellous sight to see the profile of these priestly heads passmg successively one after another, bowed and serious. Endless was the variety of typea ; inexhaustible the diversity of oharacter ; they were old and young, high and low, noble and plain, dignified and awkward, stern and mild, humble and proud, strong and weak ; none was like another in all that multitude ; and yet all had in common one look— the look of mingled authority and obedience. There is no other look that could be mistaken for it in the tribes of mortal men ; it told of such a training and discipline as no other men are called on to sustain. It was the look worn by those who spread the doctrines of the Church over the face of the earth ; who worked and suffered and died to save souls in the primeval^wildernesses ; who have built up in their fellow men this mighty faot of the Catholic Church. It allied them one with another and brought them into unity in one stupendous organism, the body of Christ. ' • They constitute one of the greatest forces created on earth • quiet, subtle, omnipresent, well-nigh irresistible. Behind them lies a history of deeds unparalleled. And after two thousand years they T ¥ ttoWB, as compact and purposeful as in the days of the early Fathers. f a" l^ ate the i men L who overthrew paganism, and who rule to-day the larger part of the Christian world. From them emanated the holy army of martyrs and the company of the saints ; from their ranks were chosen the Popes who governed Europe and turned the tides of history Their outward temporal power is no longer what it was ; but the power of no temporal monarch equals theirs. JiXST^ T-^ o^ l6llo^ mingle in their as P ect : theß e are the virtues to which the world succumbs.'