The Church and Art

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 27, 6 July 1922, Page 13

The Church and Art

DR. MANNIX ON AUSTRALIAN CULTURE. In moving a vote of thanks to the Very Rev Prior Power, 0.0.0., who lectured in the Cathedral Hall, Fitzroy, Melbourne, recently, on "The Church and Art," his Grace the Archbishop, Dr. Mannix, touched on the visit of the Sistine Choir as a proof, if proof were needed, of the great interest taken by the Catholic Church in music. When the announcement of the visit of the choir was made (said Dr. Mannix) very many people were concerned about the success that might be expected for the Papal Choir. It was recognised that the choir would give a perfect rendering of ecclesiastical music, but people "feared that the modern ear might not appreciate old-world Church music. The choir came, and you know the success achieved then, might have been a little aloofness or even hostility at the beginning in certain quarters-I do not know if there was-but after the first night or two the atmosphere .cleared, and the Sistine Choir, with music from Rome that had come down from the mediaeval centuries, captivated the modern ear of Melbourne. That, I think gives us reason to hope that if we in Australia had some of the old models in architecture, in painting, in sculpture, and in art generally, we should certainly be able to admire and to value them. Who can say but in time we may even be able to copy them? It has been said that Australians have some of the artistic temperament of southern Europe, continued his Grace It ,s a pity that the treasuries of European art are so far from our reach. Optimists say that Australians want nothing but the best models in order to attain the highest artistic culture. Australia is too young to have much artistic work to her credit. But I think we Catholics can boast that even here the Catholic Church is vindicating her claim to bo the foster-mother of art We are only a fraction of the people, and not the wealthy or leisured section; but the inspiration of the old Catholic days, or at all events some suggestion of it, seems to live again amongst the Catholic body in Australia, That accounts for St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, for example. St. Patrick's can safely stand comparison with anything that Australia has to boast of. The men .who planned and built it are not altogether unworthy of those who did even greater things in Catholic lands in the olden day*.

Wo gather from the lecture that Christian art flourished when the Church was flourishing; it declined when the Church wan sundered. The so-called Reformation destroyed a civilisation which it has never been able to re-build 1 his does not prove directly that the Catholic Church is all that wo claim for it. But it does surely prove that the Church of the Popes is, and was, something very different from what it is represented to be by hostile outsiders.

Paeroa (From our own correspondent.) June 14. ncc missioll conducted b y Very Rev. Father Whelan, C.SS.R., at Paeroa, Waikino, Karangahake, Netherton, Komata, and Hikutaia, during the last three weeks, was brought to a close on Sunday, the 11th inst. In each instance there was a very large attendance, and terminated with most gratifying results. Father Whelan left Paeroa for Thames on Thursday morning, where he will remain for a few weeks. This will bring to a close his missionary labors in the Auckland province.