COMMONWEALTH NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1920, Page 30

COMMONWEALTH NOTES

NEW SOUTH WALES. , . : Speaking recently at the opening of a bazaar at Mascot , in aid of funds for the erection of a convent his Lordship Dr.. Whyte, (Bishop-elect of Dunedin) said he was sure that not much publicity would be given in the daily press to the fact that the nuns at Mascot were going to “escape” from their present residence to live in a beautiful building that the parishioners were now erecting for them. (Laughter.) It would be a great surprise to the Orange bodies, too, to find that in spite of their outbreak against convents and nuns, the Catholics were still resolved to take an interest in those convents and nuns. The Sydney daily papers,” continued Dr. Whyte, “recently published day after day paragraphs and letters and interviews. regarding a recent; case. Like a frugal, perhaps stingy, boardinghousekeeper, they dished it up day after day, and ttiey boiled it and fried it; and gave stew and curry, and kept on dishing it up until at last they had to drop it, as it was acquiring a flavor which resembled the odor of some of the factories in the Botany district, (Laughter.) Then they invented something else. It would be bad enough to see the Orange Lodge and the daily papers pronouncing anathema against convents, but one would think that a body of clergymen should be above all that. It was a great surprise a couple of weeks ago to find the Baptist ministers in conference demanding inspection of the convents. They should have been above that. Besides, it would be of advantage to the people of that denomination for their clergy to mind their own business. We are not accustomed to meddle with the business of other people. They can hold their deliberations regarding the union of churches: they may sink their differences, or swallow their principles, as they like, but we do not. We say it is their business, not ours, and so, too, we say to them, mind your own business, and leave our convents alone. Hands off our convents! We demand and insist upon that. (Applause.) You have not been influenced by what the Orange people and the Sydney dailies have said against nuns and convents in the past couple of weeks and months. You have rallied round your pastor to help to give them a comfortable convent, and you deserve great credit for it.

At the Communion breakfast of the A.H.C. Guild on Sunday, October 10, his Excellency the Apostolic Delegate confessed (says the Freeman’s Journal ) that he did not know at the proper time they were celebrating their diamond jubilee, on account of being away in the West, otherwise he would have asked the Supreme Pontiff for a memorial of the historic event. However, this would be now done. He would do his best and write a strong letter to the Pope and make his wishes understood. {Applause.) Perhaps a medal or something else would be appropriate in honor of the seventy-fifth year of the foundation of the Guild, and he looked to the receipt of something in that respect before the end of the year. The Delegate was certain that Heaven rejoiced in the celebration of that day, and he hoped that the Guild would continue its grand work with continued l vigor and activity. For that he would pray. The jingo Sydney Bulletin, for some reason not quite apparent from its history or its surroundings, sighs for Catholic priests and Bishops named McDougall. The “Mannix” variety turns its imperialistic stomach (says the Catholic Press of October 14). The Bulletin cannot forget that it would have won the conscription campaign if it were not for Archbishop Mannix. But if the renegade democratic paper only remembered the story of its birth, it would realise that a Vaughan, whose ancestor was knighted at Agincourt, came to be looked upon by the previous generation of its present jingo frien&s as “a surpliced ruffian,” and that a Ullathorne and a Folding were ■ quite as repugnant to the jingoes as a Moran and a Mannix. The '" ■ V • ‘ ' • ' • ' ,''' •; ' if

Bulletin sighs for . the French-Canadian ; variety of priests and prelates , but if it were in Montreal, 'holding its present views; it would ■■ be as - antagonistic - r to - the French-Canadians ,as it now is ito the Australians. The Bulletin’s theological editor has something' to add about the independent Catholic Church of St. ’Patrick and St. Columba, but some allowance must be made for the perturbation of race week. .When one backs a winner, and meets his friend, the world soon gets to look somehow different. - VICTORIA. _ Very Rev. Father J. Barry (Adm., St. Patrick’s, Melbourne), speaking the other day. on the occasion of the opening of a bazaar in the parish hall, Ripponlea, said that at a recent meeting of the Education Council a motion was brought forward recommending the Minister for Education to insist that all "aspirants to the teaching profession should be asked to take 'an oath of loyalty to the Throne. He had never heard of such a regulation in any country, and if it did exist doubtless there were grave and adequate reasons for its introduction. Had it been proved, added Father Barry, that disloyalty had been or was being taught in any of their schools ? He could not answer for the State schools. He could only answer for the Catholic schools of Victoria, and he knew that, no disloyalty had been taught or was being taught in them. Their schools had no reason to be ashamed of the war record of their pupils, and he thought all would admit that no greater test of loyalty could be demanded. (Applause.) The loyalty of their teachers should be taken for granted, just as the loyalty of any other citizen was. If it were proved that individual teaehers had been guilty of teaching disloyalty to the children, would it not be much more reasonable to cancel the registration of those teachers than to submit the whole body of teachers to the insult implied by casting a doubt on their loyalty? He trusted that the Minister for. Education would prove his common sense in that matter, and not become infected with the loyalty Hug, that -seemed just now to have obsessed the brains of a few extremists. QUEENSLAND. The late Mr. William Naughton, of Queensland, who died last week (says the Catholic Press of October 14), _ was probably the greatest benefactor of Catholic institutions in Australia. He was a Limerick man, and was 79 years of age. He gave all his income in charity, amounting to £BOOO or £9OOO a year. On himself he spent little. Once we reproached him for travelling scond-class on the railways, arid he replied :■ “I feel that I would deserve punishment from God if I wasted money while there are so - ' many poor creatures in need of it. Why," he added, "I am at home on a log of wood in the bush.” On another occasion, while ill in Dr. O’Brien’s hospital at Rockhampton, he was _ worrying lest he should die leaving more than enough to bury him. He was a squatter, and he had to keep a certain 'amount of money in the bank to carry on his business. 1 - While walking with him one night near St. Mary’s Cathedral, he said: “Would it not be a terrible thing if a man were abandoned by God, and left to his own resources Yet you could not ask for a more cheerful companion. He led a happy life doing good. He was a close friend of the Archbishop of Brisbane. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Rev. Father J. A. Gatzmeyer has been appointed Administrator of St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, Adelaide, and priest-in-charge of the finances of the city parishes in succession to the late Right Rev. Monsignor Nevin. Father Gatzmeyer was a student of St. Patrick’s College, Manly, from which he was ordained in 1914.