Archbishop Mannix: An Impression

New Zealand Tablet, 22 September 1921, Page 11

Archbishop Mannix: An Impression

"Eye-Witness” writing in the Brisbane Worker says of Archbishop Mannix ;—• “He photographs himself on the mental and spiritual retina of his audience as a man of transparent, unselfish, clean-minded uprightness—an irrepressible, determined, persuasive, alert, unswerving personality, exuding sincerity. Big in every way; no trace of anything small about himnothing petty. He handles big subjects easily. He gets his oratorical effects without effort. He thinks in big areas. The man is always bigger than the thing or the individual he is discussing. He seems to stand on an eminence and looks down on men and matters. And he takes the man in the Street and lifts him up to the same exalted height, and shows him how ridiculously futile are the efforts of the little, self-seeking marionettes of the moment to. whom the guidance of the destinies of mankind are entrustedthe Lloyd Georges, the Billy Hugheses, and the Joe Cooks! Yon feel that he has accurately measured these fellows and sized them up for what they are. And yet he never says a personal word against any of them. He Speaks easily and clearly. He has the rare gift of oratorical suggestion and of eloquent silence, so that you follow his thoughts and not merely his.words. He employs simple, homely language, with plenty of pauses between his phrases. No highfalutin! He wields an oratorical dagger of refined, burnished steel. Cultured to his finger-tips, and yet withal a simple, earnest, truthful man, seeing things with a clear eye and earnestly endeavoring to let you see the truth as he himself sees it. An artist in humorous oratorical satire, he doesn’t laugh nor even smile at his own sallies, but you seem to hear the echo of Herculean laughter away down in the depths of his being somewhere.”