Commonwealth Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 25 May 1922, Page 30

Commonwealth Notes

.. . & NEW SOUTH WALES. Very Rev. Father M. F. McAuliffe, 8.A., the worthy Administrator of the Newcastle parish- for many years, has been appointed by the Bishop of Maitland a member of the Diocesan (punch. . The people of Newcastle and of the suburban parishes are gratified at the announcement. The compliment paid Father McAuliffe has been well deserved. As a very zealous priest, he labored in West - Maitland for many years, and later as Administrator of the important parish of Newcastle, where his,works in the cause of religion speak for themselves. Father McAuliffc’s literary attainments are of a very high quality. The friends of Father McAuliffe in the district, both clerical and lay, extend to him their heartiest congratulations, and wish him many years to enjoy his well-deserved honor. The other Sunday morning the boys in the Sistino Choir attended the Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghnrst, went to Confession to Monsignor O’Haran, who speaks Italian like a Roman, and then went in a body to Holy Communion. It was an edifying sight. The boys go to Mass every morning. St. Gabriel’s Institute for Deaf Mute Boys at Castle Hill has been added to by the purchase of a cottage adjoining Southleigh House. This purchase will give a completeness to the property, and will enable the Christian Brothers to make an earlier start with the school than was anticipated. In Southleigh House there are 12 large rooms —six upstairs and six downstairs. In the cottage there are five rooms, so that with the two buildings the Brothers will be able to make a start with a small number of boys immediately the Brother Superior arrives. The property may be described as the finest in the Castle Hill district, and commands a view of the whole of Sydney and suburbs and the country around Windsor, Richmond, and away to the Blue Mountains. There are three acres surrounding the cottage, which, with the Southleigh property, will make a total of 41 acres. The Archbishop and Rev. Brother Barron are to be congratulated on the site they have chosen for the institute. The Brother Superior of St. Gabriel’s is now on his way from Dublin to Australia, and the school for deaf anti dumb boys at Castle Hill, Parramatta, will be started as soon as he arrives. The foundation-stone of the Mother M. Cordula Memorial, as the new novitiate at the Ursuline Convent, Armidale, is to bo known, was laid and blessed by the Right Rev. Dr. O’Connor (Bishop of Armidale) on Sunday, the 23rd nit., in the presence of a large gathering. The new building will form an annexe to the old, and will cost about £12,000. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop, attended by his clergy, the Children of Mary, the alumnae of St. Ursula’s, A.H.C. Guild, and others. The mallet used was made and presented by Mr. O’Connor. The wood in the handle was taken fro,m the staircase of the old novitiate, and that in the mallet from the staircase of the old cathedral. Mr. Nott presented the foundation-stone, also the trowel, which was the tool used by the late Cardinal Moran when laying the foundation-stone of the cathedral. “We Catholics of Armidale (said the Bishop) -have spent over £62,000 in buildings alone during the last 11 or 12 years, and we are not including in that sum £12,000 or £13,000 which the Rev. Mother and her community are spending on this memorial to Rev. Mother Cordula.” His Lordship itemised the total as follows: Cathedral £33,000, Orphanage £17,000, the Girls’ School, the Boys’ School, and extensions to The Bishop’s house. It was almost incredible, he added, that that amount should have been collected'and expended during the last 11 ox--12 years. They had spent more money in that time than the municipal authorities. They had done their share to make Armidale what he would like it to be—one of the most beautiful towns in the State. VICTORIA, The Sistine Choir has done more than supply Melbourne with a musical feast (says the Melbourne Tribune). ; It has been an' excellent illumination to many people, both of the Catholicity of the Church, and of the foremost position of the Popes in history in the encouragement of

the highest forma of art. While the Church frowns upon the debasing forms of musical art that are to bo met in so-called modern light operas and comedy, its ardent blessing and encouragement go with music that is worthy of the,, name. The sensuous music of our modern music halls and low level of inspiration leave, indeed, nothing worthy in their train; the Sistino Choir lifts the soul to heaven. Listening to the purple-robed choristers, olio thought of angels chanting in heavenly harmony. The “Alleluia,” with its answering choirs, had a most inspiring effect. The praise of God and His worship filled the hearers, and no one could listen without a sentiment of deep religion. Music, one of God’s best gifts from heaven to earth, makes atonement in the Sistine Choir for many of the sensuous sacrilegious parodies that are committed in its holy name. Many people will bo lifted by this heavenly visitant to Australia to a deeper religious sentiment. Catholic people in Australia will feel a glow of pride that the Church and her 'priest composers and artists have so elevated and purified music in our Commonwealth. We owe the Sistine Choir our profound admiration and our deepest gratitude. Touching on Irish affairswhen speaking the other Sunday at a Communion breakfast, after Mass at St. Mary’s Church, Ascot —his Grace Archbishop Mannix remarked that it was not his purpose to speak about Ireland at the present time. He did not believe one-tenth part of what ho read in the newspapers regarding the position of Irish affairs to-day. He had not changed his views by one iota. He believed now —as he had always believed —in the incontestable right of Ireland to selfdetermination. She had the right to choose her own form of government. The form of government freely chosen by the Irish people—whatever that form of government may hewill be the only one with moral right to rule Ireland. He had no sympathy with force', unless it was used to resist aggression; and he hoped that Ireland’s problems would bo solved without force or bloodshed. It was said by Englishmen and others that Ireland had now been offered a settlement of which 90 per cent, of her people approved. That can be readily tested. They heard a. good deal about the operations of the so-called gunmen and of the impossibility of getting at the real mind of Ireland as long as “the reign of terror” lasted. They hear nothing, however, about the fact that England offers the so-called Treaty with the threat that, if it be not accepted, the “Black-and-Tan” hostilities will be renewed. That was not the way to secure self-determination for the small nations. But, if the Irish people, free from threats of force or agression from the one side or from the other, calmly and deliberately and with full knowledge, vote for this Treaty, or against it, that would end the matter so far as ho was concerned. But, the English politicians, who were telling the world that 90 or 99 per cent, of the Irish people were ready to accept the London so-called Treaty, showed no disposition to have the will of the Irish people tested under the conditions that he had mentioned. Difficult as the situation was at the moment, he hoped that justice and right would triumph, and that Irishmen, without bartering their honor, could bo friends among themselves and with their neighbors among the nations. (Applause.) Few things are more perilous to the soul than to profess a belief which the life makes no effort to practise. That way moral disasters come.