The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1915. BISHOP CLEARY'S ILLNESS

New Zealand Tablet, 19 August 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1915. BISHOP CLEARY'S ILLNESS

r£L?/^<v3 wjn T37W HERE is courage and courage. There is ni M the animal courage which, as ‘Mr. Dooley’ ll jL says, ‘ ain’t a question iv morality, Hinnissy, but “a question, iv how the XV the blood is pumped”the courage that is at its best on the “field of fame, fresh ' iy* ' aud gory,” and that “makes a man’s face ** flame an’ his neck swell an’ his eyes look like a couple iv ilicthric lamps again a cyclone sky,” and nerves him “to lead a forlorn hope acrost th’ battlements iv hell.’ And there is that much rarer and higher type— courage, the courage of the spirit, the quality which enables its possessor to bear up with unbroken bravery and indomitable endurance and cheerful and uncomplaining serenity against repeated set backs, even when the physical forces are at their lowest ebb. It is the true courage, of which the poet sings; ‘ To slight a life in misery Is nothing; but he that can be Contentedly distressed is truly brave.’ * It is to the display of this fine spirit by the beloved Bishop of Auckland that we desire in these few lines to pay our modest tribute of admiration. During the last few weeks Bishop Cleary has-been in the arena wrestling, if not with death,' at least with grave prostration and weakness. Through the weekly messages in the N.Z. Tablet the Catholics of the Dominion by proxy have been looking on, with sympathetic and solicitous interest for the gifted prelate who has done such wonderful work and made such splendid and ungrudging sacrifices for the Church which he adorns. Two months ago, Bishop Cleary underwent an operation, which took place in a private hospital in Sydney and lasted nearly three hours. The patient rallied splendidly, and made excellent progress until towards the end of July. About that

time he * was allowed to leave his bed and sit :in an easy chair for a couple of. hours, but the effort proved too much for him, and since then there has been a serious relapse and marked retrogression. On July 26 he experienced the first of a series of severe and extremely exhausting nerve shocks; and during this first attack the patient was unconscious for nearly an hour. In twelve days Bishop Cleary suffered eight such attacks; and our latest message informs us that he has now had in all seventeen of these violent nerve storms. The attacks are particularly distressing, compelling the patient to struggle desperately for breath, and causing him to tremble like a leaf from head to foot. Naturally they are followed by complete exhaustion and prostration, and leave the patient utterly weak and helpless. Yet through it all he has kept up his courage and spirit in a truly remarkable manner. The sufferer who, after attack following upon attack, and with vitality almost gone, can yet think of his friends and people, and keep his faculties sufficiently clear to dictate succinct and in some cases lengthy messages to them, is a man of rare mettle and of lion heart. Bishop Cleary never showed a finer fighting spirit or more unflinching bravery in the thick of his wordy frays in this country than he has shown during the last few weeks on his sick bed in Sydnejn * It is one of the compensations of sickness and suffering that it draws the members of a family nearer and closer to one another, and strengthens, as nothing else can do, the bonds of affection between them. Bishop Cleary was always the idol and the beloved of the Catholic people of the Dominion ; and the knowledge that his present heavy trials are being endured for us and for our sakes has rendered him at this moment doubly dear to us. If he should be spared to see these lines —and fervently we trust that he may ! may they serve to assure him that he was never more deeply enshrined in the hearts of the people lie has loved and served so well, and that his name is over affectionately remembered in prayer, in the suppliant hope that, if it be His Holy'Will, our _ Heavenly Father will graciously and speedily restore him to- us.