DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1912, Page 43

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(By Telegraph from our own correspondent.)

May 27. Rev. Father O'Malley, of St. Benedict's, is at present at Te Aroha. In about a month's time he returns to this city. His Lordship Bishop Cleary, who had been attending the celebrations in connection with the jubilee of his Grace Archbishop Redwood, returned from Wellington on Saturday morning. >;' At St. Benedict's, last evening after Vespers, a procession in honor of the Blessed Virgin took place, in which the statue was borne by the Children of Mary. Rev. Fathers Tigar, Finn, and Forde took part. The Right Hon. Jas. Bryce, British Ambassador at Washington, and formerly Irish Chief Secretary, is expected in Auckland this week, and a reception is to be accorded him. The distinguished visitor is a native of Belfast, and a staunch friend of Ireland. - A conference is to be held next Tuesday night to consider the. advisability of amalgamating the Celtic Club and Celtic Athletic Society. Rev. Mr. Hall, Unitarian, gives a lecture on Ulster in the Town Hall on June 28, the proceeds going to the Celtic Club's funds. The lecturer is a Belfast man.

An interesting discussion is proceeding in the local Protestant pulpits and secular press on the existence of hell, and the advisability or otherwise of praying for the souls of the departed. An endeavour was made to draw Bishop Cleary into the discussion, but he declined, stating that he preferred the controversy to proceed further;

Rev.' Father Doyle addressed the Holy Family confraternity last week on the ‘ Reformation and its effects.’ He showed in a most interesting manner the progress of the Church in England at the present day, and gave figures in proof of the number of converts from all walks of life —clergymen, noblemen, army and naval officers, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, men eminent in the legal, literary, and musical professions. In the last fifty years over three thousand returned to the Fold, of whom 612 became priests. In America the number of converts each -year was astonishing.

The Marist Brothers’ Old Boys’ Concert Company returned yesterday morning by express ' train, after their tour in the south. They were loud in their praises of the hospitality shown them, particularly on the West Coast, which one of them said ‘ was another Ireland.’ Rev. Father Holbrook also returned at the same time. He said the progress made by the Hibernian Society and Catholic Club in Greymouth was most remarkable. The jubilee celebrations in Wellington were greatly admired by him ; they were so genuinely Catholic and spontaneous, it made one feel proud of the Catholic people. He was particularly impressed with the fine muster of the male and female branches of the Hibernians of Wellington. Their attendance in such large numbers evinced the right spirit.