Intercolonial

New Zealand Tablet, 19 September 1912, Page 59

Intercolonial

His Grace Archbishop Duhig administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to over 800 children in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane, a few Sundays ago. At a recent meeting of the Australian Catholic Federation in Melbourne, the secretary of the organising sub-committee reported that 364 branches of the Federation had been formed in Victoria, and that the present membership was over 20,000. The annual meeting of the friends and subscribers of St, Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, which was presided over by Sir John Madden, was of a very representative character. On the motion of Sir John Madden, the following resolution was carried;— That this meeting pledges itself to assist a special effort to reduce the overdraft now standing against the maintenance account of St. Vincent’s Hospital.’ The ceremony of opening the new Catholic church at Devenish was performed on a recent Sunday afternoon by his Lordship the Bishop of Sandhurst, in the presence of about 800 persons, including a large number of visitors from Benalla. The building, a spacious and ornamental structure, is built of brick, and, with furnishings, cost £2600. After the opening ceremony, a collection was taken up, the contributions amounting to over £9OO. With , money previously donated, the amount now in hand is £1521. The annual movable meeting of the Brisbane District of the H.A.C.B. Society was held in Dalby recently. The conference was opened by his Grace Archbishop Duhig, and the occasion was marked in a generous manner by the society handing his Grace a cheque for £SO. The executive officers’ report showed the capital value of the funds of the District and branches to be £49,999 17s 6d. The disbursements for the year were: Funerals, £460; mortality allowance, £1040; sick pay, £3302 9s Id; medical attendance and medicine, £4831 14s 9d; total, £9634 3s lOd, as compared with £B3OO 4s 6d paid away during the previous, year. Of the sixty priests who stood by the side of the white-haired Archbishop Folding at the laying of the corner-stone of St. Mary’s Cathedral on December 8, 1868, only one remains— Very Rev. Father P. Birch, who is living in retirement at Bungendore, and who is now in his 93rd year (says the Catholic Press). Until Saturday morning, August 31, three were two survivors of that gallant band of pioneers of the faith in this southern land. But then it was that the Right Rev. Mgr. John Joseph Carroll, Vicar-General of the archdiocese of Sydney for these many years, passed away at the Sacred Heart Presbytery in the very same room, and in the very same bed as Archbishop Folding breathed his last on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day in the year 1877. Monsignor Carroll, who enjoyed the singular distinction of serving under four Archbishops— Vaughan, Moran, and Kelly —was one of the most striking figures at our big ecclesiastical gatherings for many years past. Monsignor Carroll was 77 years of age, being born on June 24, 1835, at Garvaman, in the parish of Grange, four miles from the city of Kilkenny. He was a child of five years when he arrived in Australia with his parents. The family settled first at Windsor, afterwards going to Campbelltown, and finally settling on a farm at Appin, which, by the wish of the Monsignor, was to become ecclesiastical property' on his death. He made his preliminary studies at old St. Mary’s Seminary and at the Benedictine College, ‘Lyndhurst,’ Glebe. He had decided to join the Benedictine Order, and for a time he was a novice. He changed his plans, however, and went to Ireland to study for the secular priesthood. This was in his 25th year. He entered Mount Melleray, where he stayed for a while, later, going to All Hallows’ College, Dublin, where he completed his course, and was ordained priest on June 24, 1868.