Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 40, 11 October 1923, Page 37

Here and There

i; Belgian Clerical Senator —One of Belgium’s most . notable churchmen, Mgr. E. Keesen, has just died at the pj ripe age of 82. Elected to the Senate in 1894, Mgr. Keesen was the oldest member of that assembly. During his eccle- > siastical career Mgr. Keesen was honored with the confidence of Church and State alike, as well as being held in the highest esteem by all classes in Belgium. Ordained i’i: in 1864, in 1898 he was appointed honorary Canon of I-aege. Leo XIII. appointed him a Domestic Prelate, and f during the later years of his life Mgr. Keesen acted as chaplain to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Brussels. In the days before the regular diplomatic representative of Belgium was appointed to the Vatican, Mgr. Keesen carried out several important missions at Rome on behalf of his Government. Three Knights for Glasgow.—Glasgow has been singled out for special honor by the Holy Father, who has conferred knighthoods in the Order of St. Gregory the Great on three of the city’s most prominent Catholic citizens. The three new knights are Dr. Thomas Colvin, Mr. Charles Byrne, and Mr. D. J. Mitchel Quin —all three of Irish parentage. Dr. Colvin is a distinguished member of the medical profession, and for four years has been President of the Catholic Medical Guild of St. Luke. This year he was elected President of the Confederation of Catholic Young Men s Societies. Mr. Byrne has for many years been on the board of the Glasgow Education Authority, as has Mr. Quin, who is also managing editor of the Glasgow Observer, one of the chain of journals published by the Catholic Herald proprietors. That the three knights have deserved well of their country, as also of their Church, is seen in the fact that all three are justices of the peace and members of the Glasgow bench of magistrates. Author of O’Donnell Abu. —July marked the centenary of the birth of a remarkable .Irish poet, whose name will for ever be associated with the lyric, “O’Donnell Abu.” k Michael Joseph McCann was born in Galway on July 28, WL 1823, and having received a good primary education, was taken up by Archbishop Mac Hale, who had him appointed as junior professor in St. Jarlath’s College, Tuam, in September, 1841. His famous song of “O’Donnell Abu” was contributed to the Nation of January 28, 1843, previous to which his “Soliloquy of O’Guire” had appeared in the same paper on November 19, 1842. After several literary ventures he accepted a professorship at St. Peter’s College, Wexford, in 1862, and edited a magazine called The Irish Harp, but he left Wexford in 1865, and went to America, returning to Ireland in 1875. He died in poor circumstances in London on January 31, 1883, and was buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. His grave was unmarked until 1906, when, through the zealous efforts of Bishop (now Archbishop). O’Donnell and the late Monsignor O’Riordan, a fine Celtic cross was erected to his memory. ’ Beatification for Pere Muard.—The monks of Buckfast Abbey, the only abbey in England that has arisen from its rums to its former splendor, are hoping that the founder of their Congregation may at no far distant date be raised to the altars. Buckfast is but one house of the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance, a branch of the great Benedictine Order that approaches in many respects to the Cistercian ideal of monastic austerity. The founder of this Congregation, Per© Muard, who died in 1854, was a French priest, one of those heroes who, in the face of overwhelming odds, fought to overcome the religious devastation that followed on the French Revolution. Buckfast,represents the only foundation of this Congregation m England. There was another in Wales, but during the war the monks were called up for military service as French citizens, and ultimately the abbot found himself Without a community, so that the abbey has been closed. An interesting sketch of. the life of Pere Muard has been > published, in which the grounds are advanced for the bea- , ification of this French founder, whose Congregation has ~ now spread out to many parts of the world.

Rev. Father O’Byrne Honored There was a very large gathering of parishioners at St. Mary’s Hall, Onehunga, on Wednesday, the 26th ult., to say good-bye to the Rev. Father O’Byrne, who has labored here during the past four years (writes a correspondent). The Right Rev. Mgr. Mahoney, V.G., presided, and on the platform were Rev. Father Finn and Mr. J. Shaldrick. The chairman paid a very great compliment to the guest of the evening for the excellent work done in the parish, particularly during the speaker’s absence for 18 months when he visited Ireland to recoup his health. He wished Father O’Byrne the greatest success in the new parish he had been appointed to. Mr, Shaldrick, on behalf of the parishioners, read the following address and presented Father O’Byrne with a substantial roll of notes: Rev. J. J. O’Byrne, B.A. Dear Reverend Father, —God has put it into the power of all men to help each other in many ways: sometimes by deeds that lift away burdens; sometimes by words that inspire courage and strength; sometimes by sympathy that halves sorrow; sometimes by intercessory prayer that brings rest to tired souls. If such be true of all men how much more true it is of one ho has received the Divine call to the priesthood. During the four years you have labored amongst us you have endeared yourself to young and old by the unwearying manner in which you have discharged those God-given qualities of charity and zeal. Now that the time has come when you are to leave Onehunga for your own parish we feel how inadequate are words to express the affectionate gratitude which we feel towards you ; but we wish to place on record our deep appreciation of your sterling priestly qualities and to assure you of our sincere good wishes for your happiness and success in Epsom. We desire to heartily congratulate you on the solid parochial work you have already accomplished there, and trust that what has been so well begun may be effectively finished in the near future. Such earnest endeavors as you have already put forth cannot fail to claim the energy and support of devoted parishioners who are ever ready to assist an untiring pastor. We pray God to bless your labors with abundant fruit and to grant that they for whom you labor may be, here below, your joy and consolation and in heaven your everlasting crown. We trust in your kindness of heart, you will remember in your prayers the parishioners of Onehunga. (Signed) James Shaldrick, Frank Hotchm (Sacred Heart Society); Ernest J. Higgins (H.A.C.B. Society); Joan Kearins (Children of Mary)Alice Leahy (choir), * After a musical programme had been gone through Father O’Byrne thanked all those present, as well as those absent, for the consideration he had received during the four years he had been amongst them. To him the time was a happy one, as he knew he was helping their beloved pastor, Monsignor Mahony. While he was leaving to take charge of a new parish he stressed the point that he would have been well satisfied to have continued to labor under Monsignor Mahoney. The people of Onehunga would (he said in conclusion) be remembered in his prayers.