THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, 31 October 1918, Page 43

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

:: . HISTORICAL NOTES. It , was the \ privilege of a recent . writer to, in his boyhood, witness some of the labors of Bishop Pompallier . and his devoted, priests; to realise their great struggles against, poverty or insufficient means to carry on the glorious work of their apostolate, and records his admiration for the French missionary— admiration which has been enhanced by the experience of later years. When Bishop Pompallier and his companions landed in New Zealand they were obliged to learn two languages at the same time. They came primarily to win the Maori people to the Fold of Christ, and made the Native language their first study; at the same time, in order to minister to the Catholics from Europe, and to conduct business in an English colony, they had to master that tongue; and the good Bishop, so that the Irish Catholics and others speaking English might have the benefit of priests and Sisters conversant with their own language, determined to bring back some Irish priests with him upon his first visit to Europe. So it was that in 1850, when Dr. Pompallier returned to New Zealand, he was accompanied by three intrepid Irishmen— Clery, O’Rourke, and James McDonald —and by the irony of fate as it were, the last-named priest, from being in charge of the European Catholics was for the greater part of his missionary life in sole charge of those Natives and their descendants in the north of the diocese who were originally evangelised by Bishop Pompallier and the French priests. Though the French Bishop had sown the seeds of Faith among those worthy Maoris of Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, it was the devoted Irish priest who tended the young plants, who cared for the neophytes and their children from the baptismal font to the grave. Dr. James McDonald was the only one of the original trio to end his days in New Zealand; the other two returned to Ireland, but the devoted doctor remained with the Natives to the end, becoming a very Maori of the Maoris, for so devoted was he to the ‘ poor Natives,’ as he loved to call them, that he always, in his later years, preferred their society to that of the people of his. own race. Among the second batch of Irish priests who came to the Colony were some whose names and whose memory will be imperishable in the history of the diocese of Auckland. Foremost of these in point of popularity was the younger brother of Dr. James McDonald, the very beau ideal of a sagfirt a run, and whose name for years was a household word both among Catholics and non-Catholics. No matter what other titles he received, there was none so dear to him and his legion of friends as ‘ Father Walter.’ Not every one knew who Monsignor McDonald was, but almost the youngest child of any denomination whom you met on the street could tell you who ‘Father Walter’ was. Monsignor McDonald and his brother were students of the famous missionary college of All Hallows, Dublin, whose pupils are to be found in every diocese in the world where the wandering Celt is also to be found. He had the distinction of being the first Irish priest ordained in New Zealand, and when he died, in 1900, his popularity was shown by the attendance of the public at his funeral, which was the largest ever seen in Auckland. He came to New Zealand in 1856. In the same year arrived in Auckland also Father James .aaL*. *.

Paul,'- another genial and well-beloved priest, who came from County Carlow, bordering on. Kilkenny, the home of the McDonalds.- He spent , almost ..the whole -of his priestly life in one parishthat of Onehunga—where he succeeded Father Edward Clery, and over which parish he ruled from 1857 till 1905, a period of 48 yearsa record surely: not : only of New Zealand, but most probably for Australasia. During all those years he was working silently and unostentatiously for the glory of God and the advancement of the Faith, and a material evidence of how well he succeeded is to be seen in the beautiful brick church, the convent, the schools, the parish hall, : and the Catholic club rooms, all of which he left quite free of debt at his death; and how he raised all the money to pay for these is a mystery known to very few. The secret of his success was his popularity. He, like ‘ Father' Walter/ had been raised to the dignity of Domestic Prelate by his Holiness the Pope, and like ‘Father Walter,’ preferred to be known and called by the homely title of ‘ Father,’ rather than that of Monsignor. A tribute to his abilities lay in the fact that he was nominated as Vicar-General of the diocese by both Bishop Luck and" Bishop Lenihan. ‘