Thames

New Zealand Tablet, 11 October 1917, Page 31

Thames

(From our travelling correspondent.) October 2. The Rev. Father Dignan, pastor of the district, who has been suffering from a very severe chill, is, I am glad to state, well on the way to recovery. After devotions on Sunday last the Right Rev. Mgr. Gillan, V.G., addressed a very representative meeting of the Catholic Federation on the general work of that organisation, and referred especially to the work in connection with the Women's Hostel and the field service fund. The Right Rev. Mgr. Gillan, V.G., attended at the 8 o'clock Mass on Sunday last when there was a very large congregation. He made the annual appeal for donations to the seminary fund, which, owing to a heavy expenditure last year, greatly needed aid. The appeal was generously responded to. The Catholic schools, which are so ably conducted here by the Sisters of St. Joseph, are busily preparing for the examinations next month in religious knowledge, and also for the ordinary annual examination in accordance with the general school syllabus, which is to be held in December. The present church building has now been in use for 49 years, and in February of next year the Rev. Father Dignan hopes to suitably celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening. A fund has already been established for the erection of a new church estimated to codt at least £SOOO. The Rev. Father Dignan has already about £3OO in hand, which he hopes to considerably augment by a collection to be made next Sunday. He would also be pleased to receive donations fteom: any ex-Thames u residents, . many of whom no doubt entertain fond recollections of the, old; church which is now quite inadequate for its sacred purposes. It is hoped that at the jubilee celebrations Father

Dignan will be able to announce that he has sufficient funds in hand to commence the work of erecting a church that will be a monument to the zeal and generosity of the Catholics of Thames.