AN GAOḊAL.
815
HONORING A PATRIOT PRIEST.
'Tis up to forty years or more
Since you reached our western shore ;
The more we know you ev'ry year,
The more we love you and revere !
The celebration of the 25th anniver¬
sary of the ordination of the Rev. Pat¬
rick Hennessy, [St. Patrick's Church,
Jersey City ] to the priestood was the
occasion of bringing together thousands
of his admiring friends from far and
near, bishops, priests, and laics of all
denominations, on May 30th.
Bishop O'Sullivan, of Mobile, sang
the solemn high mass, in presence of
Bishops Wigger, of Newark, and Con¬
roy, of Curium, about a hundred priests
and a large assemblage of laics of diff¬
erent denominations.
The Rev. John Mackey, of Cincinn¬
ati, preached the sermon, after the first
gospel, and at the conclusion of high
mass the Very Rev. Den McNulty, of
Peterson, read an address from the pul¬
pit on behalf of the clergy of the dio¬
cese, after which the Revd. Thomas J.
Fitzgerald, Brooklyn, ascended the pul¬
pit and said, —
"I have been requested to read a few
lines to you in honor of your worthy
pastor. These lines are written in the
soft and sweet old Celtic language
which he loves so dearly and studied so
faithfully, and which he knows so well,
and which was a great help to him in
the discharge of his sacred duties a¬
mong the old people of his native
land,"
During the pause which generally
follows such prefatory remarks you
could hear a pin drop at the
farthest end of the church, so anxious
was the vast concourse assembled to
hear the old sweet tongue of the bards,
the saints and the sages, resound thro'
the beautiful edifice in words of praise
of its builder, and that by a master of
the language and its idiom, for Father
Fitzgerald is not only a master of the
Latin and the French but also of his
mother tongue.
[Parenthetically, is any one able or
willing to explain this strange anomaly
which, by its uniqueness, forces one to
draw attention to the fact that an edu¬
ated Irishman is able to speak his own
native tongue?]
This was not the first occasion on
which Father Fitzgerald addressed the
parishioners of St. Patrick's in his na¬
tive speech. Hence the congregation
were well aware of his ability; and
naturally suspecting that the lines
which he was about to read were his
own composition, and knowing his ad¬
miration for Father Hennessy, and his
genial disposition, they knew that the
words which he was about to express
were not to be taken as the mere per¬
functory expletives of an ordinary pro¬
gramme but that every sentiment
which they breathed proceeded from
the innermost recesses of a candid, no¬
ble and an admiring mind.
Father Fitzgerald then, in a clear,
distinct, eloquent tone, and with that
pathos and feeling suitable to the oc¬
casion and the subject alike, read. —
