ARCHDIOCESE OF WELLINGTON

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 28, 11 July 1907, Page 14

ARCHDIOCESE OF WELLINGTON

(From our own correspondent.) t July 6.. The clergy vhave decided to erect in the Sacred Heart Basilica a memorial worthy of the memory of the late -Very Rev. Father Lewis. - >. The Rev. JVather Bowden leaves shortly on a visit to the ~ South Sea Islands in search of health. On - his return he will do duty at Thorndoi*. His- Grace the Archbishop left on Friday for • Blenheim. He will be away^ a few weeks' -visiting the "Sounds district to adminisler Confirmation. Trie fourth annual social gathering of the St.. Patrick's College' Old Boys 1 ' Association was held in ; the Sydney street schoolroom on Tuesday evening. The ha.ll was tastefully decorated with the college colors, ' and w&s filled by a. representative gathering. The function' was one that did credit to the committee and to the college. - The .Rev. Father Mploney has been appointed Administrator" of the Thorndfon parish:.', Father 'Moloneyf is to be congratulated on this^recogriition of the zeala nd ability he has ever displayed in Church matters. ' , His many friends will be pleased to hear of the appointment. The Rev. Father McCarthy is at present assisting at Thorndon. ' ' ' The announcement that the position of Vicar-Gene-ral, rendered vacant by the death of the Very .Rev. Father Lew's, has been filled by the appointment of the Rev. Father O'Shea, parish priest of Te Aro, will be received with satisfaction. Father O'Shea is a man cf* great business ability, of much zeal, and one deservedly respected and loved 'by his people. To his energy and acumen the, Catholics of the city owe much of the .present prosperity in Church matters they enjoy to-day. Outside the pale of the Church he is held in the highest esteem as a citizen, who takes a keen interest in the common weal. The new Vicar-General is still a young man, having -been born *in San Francisco in 1870. At an early age he was taken by his parents to the Hawera district* He obtained his primary education in the Catholic schools of Hawera and Napier, and- on the opening of. St. Patrick's College, in 1885, he was , one of the first students to enter. Here he was no less distinguished 'on the athletic field than in the ' class-" room. He captained the college football team in -1387, when it won the -junior cup. Next year, he was appointed junior master, and later entered the Marist House of Studies, ! - Meanee, Hawke's'Bay, to prepare for the priesthood. In 1891 he took his solemn vows as a religious of the Marist Order, and , in . December of the following year ,was raised to the priesthood by Archbishop Redwood. The following February he was appointed Professor of Mental Science and of Chu>ch -History at St. Mary's, Meanee. He held the position" for only eighteen months, a breakdown- in health rieoessita^ ting a prolonged holiday in Australia. On his return to New Zealand he was appointed to a curacy in the parish of Te Aro. He was given charge of the parish in August, 1899, and has administered the affairs both spiritual and temporal of his large parish, with conspicuous ability. As a proof of, the esteem in which he is held by his brother priests, he was one of..thetwo representatives elected to the^ First Provincial Council of New Zealand, held in January, 1898. Father O'Shea's selection as Vicar-Genera V has not been by any means a surprise to those who know "his- sound iudement and wiaOom. The archdiocese of Wellington 3 hal m fiim a worthy, successor to the late Fattier Lewis