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JANUARY 31. 1936
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC L AYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
FIVE
Bishop O’Hara’s Sermon at the Installation
Rights and Responsibilities
of Episcopal Office Traced
His Excellency Pays Beautiful Tribute to Character and
Achievements of Bishop Keyes
The Bishop of Savannah
In his response at the installa
tion Mass at the Cathedral at Sa
vannah, Bishop O’Hara paid an
eloquent tribute to Bishop Keyes
“who leaves behind him a pre
cious heritage of Episcopal devo
tion”, outlined the origin, rights
and responsibilities of the Episco
pacy, expressed confidence in the
loyal support he said he knew the
priests and people will give him
in his labors, asked God’s richest
■blessings for Georgia and prayed
to the Queen of Angels and men
ever to “be a mother to, me, and
to my priests and people.” Bishop
O’Hara’s address follows:
“Take heed to yourselves and to the
whole flock wherein the Holy Ghost
h .th placed you Bishops to rule the
Church of God which He hath pur
chased with His own blood.” Acts
20:28.
May it please your Eminence, Your
Excellencies, Rt. Rev., Very Rev., and
Rev. Fathers, dearly beloved of the
laity.
The ceremony of this morning is
essentially a simple one and can be
explained in a few words. In sub
stance it is the formal presentation
of his credentials, as required by the
Canons of the Church, on the part
of the one who has been appointed
Bishop of this diocese.
BISHOP KEYES LEAVES
PRECIOUS HERITAGE
The beloved Bishop Keyes, over
taken by illness, and no longer able,
on account of the condition of his
health, to bear the burdens of his
office, has seen fit to relinquish them.
He has governed this diocese with
honor and fruitfulness. Under his
leadership and guidance the diocese
has grown and religion has flour
ished. His labors have been crowned
with success and have won for him
the deep respect and genuine affec
tion of his priests and people. The
testimonials of filial love and the ex
pressions of keen regret that marked
the announcement of his resignation
three months ago, tear witness to
these facts. Bishop Keyes leaves be
hind him a precious heritage of Epis
copal devotion, and I know that he
will never be forgotten by those to
whom he ministered so unselfishly
for more than thirteen years. I say
unto you dearly beloved in Christ,
in the words of St. Paul: “Remember
your Prelates who have spoken the
word of God to you; whose faith fol
low, considering the end of their con
versation.” (Heb. 13-7.)
Another has come to take up the
burdens laid down by Bishop Keyes.
Your new Bishop comes, not by Iris
own authority nor in his own name.
He comes because he has been sent
to .you by the highest and most sacred
authority on earth, and in the name
of the Lord God Himself.
The voice of that supreme au
thority that I have mentioned you
have heard this morning through the
Papal documents that were read here.
Peter, the Fisherman of Galilee, has
spoken through Pius, the Bishop of
Rome, and in obedience to that voice,
which represents for us and is the
voice of Christ. I have come- here
today to take up the shepherd’s staff
to rule, guide, nourish and protect
this portion of the flock of Christ,
which, from this day forward, will be
dearer to me than life itself.
SIMPLE CEREMONY
DEEPLY SIGNIFICANT
This ceremony, simple though it
be in substance, possesses for you
and for me, dearly beloved in Christ,
the deepest significance. For both of
us it is of surpassing importance. It
is freighted with grave consequences
because it has to do with interests
that over-reach time and penetrate
eternity, that concern not this world,
but the next, and that involve the
eternal salvation of immortal souls
yours and mine as well.
Today’s event is importa t for you
inasmuch as you are called upon to
receive as your Bishop the one who
has been sent to you; to render him
religious obedience; to hearken to
his voice; to give him the support
and comfort of your loyal co-opera
tion with him in all that concerns
the good of your souls, and the wel
fare of the church in this diocese.
Conversely, you are given the right
today to exact of your Bishop an
ever-solicitous care of you in all that
concerns your spiritual welfare and
the spread of the Kingdom of God
in Georgia.
For me this ceremony is of the
most serious import because it im
poses upon me duties and obliga
tions of the gravest character. Today
I must begin to stand watch and
guard over this flock with a vigilance,
fortitude and fidelity that dare never
be relaxed. Like Timothy, I am
charged before God and Jesus Christ.
Who will judge the living and the
dead by His coming and His King
dom, to preach the word of God; to
be constant in season and out of sea
son; to be vigilant; to labor in all
things; to do the wor of an evan
gelist, to fulfill my ministry; to show
myseK in all things an example of
good works in much patience, in
sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in
Charity unfeigned, in the word of
truth, in the power of God. (2,
Tim. 4-).
Today, unworthy though I know
myself to be, I am given a divine
right to exercise that jurisdiction
v.hich is proper to and inherent in
the Episcopal office, the Episcopate
being of divine origin, having been
established by Jesus Christ Himself.
This jurisdiction is spiritual inas
much as it concerns interests that
are not of this world; it has to do
with immortal souls destined to sur
vive time, souls that must be instruct
ed and directed in the things of God
and fortified in their journey through
this world to their true and lasting
home beyond the skies.
At the same time this jurisdic
tion is exercised over all those tem
poral things that are necessary for
the proper conduct of the Church's
religious, charitable and educational
work, and no power on earth may
lawfully deprive the Church of the
right to the free exercise of this lib
erty of action.
Episcopal jurisdiction must be ex
ercised in strict accord with the mind
of Christ and of His Church, whose
direct concern is the honor and glory
of God through the sanctification and
salvation of souls. This phrase sums
up a Bishop's work, and provides the
reason for the jurisdiction that is
vested in his person, a power, which,
as St. Paul tersely warns, “has been
given to us unto edification and not
unto destruction.” (II Cc . 13-10.)
A Bishop is, like St. Paul, a “ser
vant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel
of God.” Separated or segregated unto
the Gospel, he is called to a task as
difficult as it is sublime, transcending
as it does natural modes of thought
and merely human ways of acting.
A Bishop’s vocation is to teach
that Gospel. His office is primarily
a teaching office, for to him together
with his colleagues in the Episcopate
just as to the original Twelve and
with the same force now as then,
that divine command: “Going there
fore teach ye all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded vou.”
(Matt. 28-19.)
The Bishops of the world, in
union with the Chief Bishop, the
successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of
Christ on earth, enjoy the prerogative
of infallibility in matters of faith
and morals. Collectively they have the
special guidance of the Holy Ghost
and when as a body they speak as
religious teachers their voice is clear,
constant and unerring. “As tire Father
hath sent Me, I also send you . . .
behold I am with you all days, even
to the consummation of the world.”
(Matt. 28-18.) Their voice is the
Voice of Clirist, for Christ Himself
has said of the Apostles and their
Successors: “He that hearetli you,
heareth Me, and he that despiseth
you, despiseth Me; and he that de
spiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent
Me.” (Luke 10-16.)
BISHOP TEACHER AND
DISPENSER OF MYSTERIES
The Bishop is not only a teacher
who illumines the mind with the
pure light of divine truth: he is also
a “dispenser of the mysteries of God”.
He teaches the observance of all
things whatsoever Christ has com
manded. Not only does he offer up
sacrifice himself, but also, in virtue
of the plentitude of priestly power
that he possesses, he ordains priests
to offer up the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, so that Christ’s command at
the Last Supper, after He has insti
tuted the Blessed Eucharist, to “do
this in commemoration of Me," will
be observed until the end of time.
He ordains them also to administer
the divine Sacraments which purify,
strengthen and console the faithful
from life's beginning even unto its
ending.
Being the center of unity in his
diocese, the Bishop in his person and
in his office binds up his priests and
people with the center of w'orld re
ligious unity, the Pope of Rome.
It is the Bishop who imparts life
and vitality to every religious work
in his diocese; in union with him it
grows and flourishes. Apart from him
and separated from him it is doomed
to languish and eventually to die as
the branch that is cut from the vine.
In view of the divine nature of
the Episcopal office and the sacred
character of its functions, we readi-y
understand why an exceedingly high
standard of life is demanded of him
who holds that of'ice and exercises its
functions. If Baptism, for the Chris
tian, means a call to exalted virtue,
what, think you, must be the heights
of virtue that he is called upon to
scale who is vested with the very
plenitude of holy orders and is
made a ruler in the House of Israel?
St. Thomas tells us that the Episco
pate is the state of religious perfec
tion. A Bishop's vocation, therefore,
is not only to be proficient in virtue,
but to excel in it in order that he
may be made a pattern of the flock
from the heart.” (Peter 5-3.)
BISHOP MUST BE
FEARLESS YET GENTLE
In their Bishop the flock must be
hold the true Paster — the Good
Shepherd—so touchingly described by
our Lord Himself. The faithful right
ly expert him to be a kind father, and
a friend and counsellor sympathetic
and generous. The Bishop must be
a champion of justice and right with
out being a taskmaster; gentle, but
not indulgent; fearless in proclaiming
Tills picture of Bishop O’Hara was taken by Maikiervicz, staff photogra
pher of the Baltimore Catholic Review, ar.d appears here through the cour
tesy of The Review whose editor, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Albert E. Smith, LL. D.,
attended the installation.
the truth and in denouncing error and
evil, but ready to forgive; alert and
quick to sense a moral danger and
to warn Iris flock of its approach or
presence, yet thoughtful and not has
ty in his judgments.
Preaching the Gospel to others in
season and out of season, he must be
the first to take to heart the truths
that he proclaims and the first to live
by them. Holding the first place in
the diocese, he must see in himself
one unworthy even of the last; called
upon to govern, he must be the first
to obey; a ruler by his very office, he
must spend his life in ministering to
others, known by his position to all,
he must love to be unknown. A debt
or to all. he must die to himself in
order that he may live solely for oth
ers. Assigning to others their tasks,
he must never allow himself to be
outdone in laboriousness.
Holiness of life, therefore; tireless
energy; boundless zeal; utter un
selfishness; a consuming love for God
and for souls, these must be the
characteristics of a Bishop. “Give me
souls and take, away the rest" must
be the program of a Bishop’s life, just
as it was the heart-cry of the Great
Apostle of the Indies.
Small wonder, then, that our Holy-
Mother, the Church, unerring inter
preter of the mind of Christ, should
exact of her Bishops a sublime degree
of virtue and impose on them xrnt
strict and sacred obligations. Her
mind in this regard is manifest in
the volume of her laws. That Code
crystalizes twenty centuries of rules,
instructions, admonitions, counsels
and exhortations addressed from the
very beginning to those called upon
to rule the Church of God. Its lan
guage, clear and terse, reveals the
heart of Christ, the Divine Shepherd
of souls. There, in the Canons that
treat of the Episcopate, and guide
Bishops in the discharge of their pas
toral office, we find, as it were in a
palimpsest, the commands, exhorta
tions and counsels of Jesus Christ.
ST. PAUL GIVES
COUNSEL TO BISHOPS
There, too, we can read, as it were,
between the lines, the vigorous lan
guage of St. Paul: “Take heed to
yourselves and to the whole flock
wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed
you Bishops ... be an example to
the faithful, in word, in conversation,
in charity, in faith . . . attend to
reading, to exhortation, and to doc
trine . . . neglect not the grace
which is in thee . . . meditate on
these things, be wholly in these
things, that thy proficiency may be
manifest to ail . . . keep the good
deposited in trust to three by the Holy-
Ghost . . . labor as a good soldier
of Christ” (St. Paul Passim). And St.
Peter's words: “Feed the tlock of God
which is among you. taking care of it,
not by constraint, but willingly, ac
cording to God.” (I Peter 3-2). The e
too. is the exquisite language of the
Beloved Dis iple: “Love not the
world nor the things which are in the
world.” (I John 2-15). And lastly.
’'In this we have known the charity
cf God, because He hath laid down
His life for us, and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren.” (I
John 3-16.)
Sacred and exacting ns are the
duties of Bishops, it is the glory of
the Catholic Church that she has pos
sessed from the beginning faithful
prelates who have lived up to the
sublimest ideals of their holy office,
saintly men who have been the li-wt
of the world and the salt of the
earth; good shepherds who have
nourished, refreshed, protected and
defended the flock of Christ, some-
limes even at the cost of their lives.
Towers of spiritual strength, they
have upheld the Church in every
age by their learning, their piety, then-
zeal, their example, their prayers.
1hcir sufferings and the holiness of
their lives.
CENTURIES ILLUMINATED
BY GLORIOUS FIGURES
One cannot contemplate the leng
history of the Church without admir
ing the Providence of God. Who
raised up the Apostles, and after them
so many sainted and saintly succes
sors in office who have lighted up
20 centuries by the refulgent splen
dor of their teachings and example,
and who have faithfully handc.. down
to us. the sacred deposit of revealed
truth in all its beauty and with all
its power.
No one can stand unmoved before
the majestic figures of SI. Peter, St.
Andrew. St. Paul and the rest who
glorified the nascent Church by their
Apostolic labors and who made this
earth of oux-s precious and beautiful
because it drank in their life's blood,
shed in defense of the truth that they
preached. After the Apostles came
the Clements, the Gregorys, the Lens,
the Pius’, worthy successors in the
Chair of Peter; and tluoughout the
world the Basils, the Chrysotoms, the
Augustines, the Martins, the Patricks,
the Bonifaces, the Fishers, the Bor-
romeos, the de Sales—oh blessed com
pany of worthy Pastors who will shed
eternal luster on the Church of God!
The pure light of their teaching
pierced the black night of paganism,
superstition and corruption, and un
to the end of time wi 1 forever hold
at bay the forces of darkness. Shin
ing brighily even in our own day and
destined to illumine men's minds for
all time, they are like so many suns
ASKS THAT HEAVEN’S
RICH BLESSINGS MAY
DESCEND ON GEORGIA
A Sacred Bond Unites Bishop
and People, He Says, to Be
Strengthened With Years
that never set—the very light of the
; world!
1 Every age has known them; every
land has been the theater of their
Apostolic labors and sacrifices, for, as
the Royal Psalmist foretold: “There
are no speeches nor languages where
their voices are not heard. Their
sound hath gone forth into all the
earth; and their words unto the ends
of the earth.” (Ps. 18:4 and 5.)
j AMERICA’S CONTRIBUTION
OF HEROIC FIGURES
! Here in our beloved America the
Church has been indeed blessed, and
j those heroic men, who built up the
| City of God in our country—the Car
rolls, the Flagets, the Kendricks, the
Neumanns, the South’s own great
I Bishops, England of Charleston,
i Gartland, of Savannah, Bishop Lynch,
j Cardinal Gibbons, and so many others
I have left behind them examples of
: apostolic zeal and fortitude that are
not the least among the glories of our
dear land. Oh how wondrous is God
in His servants, who have exalted the
: Christian name as faithful Bishops!
: What splendid monuments have they
not left behind them in the temples
and schools that they built and in tL'e
marvelous works of charity and
benefi-ence of all kinds that have
been the fruit of their faith and zeal!
What dangers have they not re-
nelled! What salutary reforms have
they not inaugurated! How often
have they not risen up to preserve,
even at the cost of their lives. Catho
lic Orthodoxy and Catholic Unity!
Such, then, is the office of a Bishop,
and such the types of men who have
exercised it. Little wonder that learn
ed. able and saintly men have re
coiled from accepting an office so
exacting. I. too. should shrink from
it. were I not consoled by my faith,
which teaches me that God. Who in
the designs of His mysterious ways,
often chooses the “weak things cf
this world” to perform tasks that in
volve His honor and glory and the
salvation of souls, will not abandon
me in my weakness. I am comforted,
too, by the words of the Angelic Doc
tor. who says: “Those whom God
elects for a certain work He Himseli
prepares, so that they may be fit to
do that for which they are chosen.”
It is. therefore, in the comfort that
these words give that I take upon
mvself today the task of governing
the diocese of Savannah as Us Bishon.
May God be good to me in this work,
and may He inspire my priests and
people with a sense of their own
responsibility in Ihe knowledge that
without their loyal support rev labors
will be in vain.
SACRED BOND UNITES
BISHOP AND PEOPLE
In God's holy Name 1 audio s you
now, my beloved priests and people.
t sacred bond unites us. to grow
stronger with the years. I count on
your help. I am sure of it. May it
be granted to me to be able to say in
the words of Christ Himself: “Of them
Whom Thou has given me. i have not
lost anyone” (John 18-9). And as 1
utter these words, there come to me,
clear, penetrating and strong, span
ning an arch of 20 centuries of time,
words that were spoken by the Son
of God when He went up to Jerusa
lem to celebrate the Feast of Taber
nacles for the last time—words that
carry the weight of a special signif
icance because they were spoken
shortly after His rejection by the Sa-
lnaritans and immediately after the
healing of the man born blind—words
of the Good Shepherd, expressive of
a _ divine . wistfulness and eloquent
with a divine yearning as He gazed
with His great eves into the future
and exclaimed: "Other sheep I have
that are net of this fold: them, too, I
must bring, and they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and
one Shepherd.” (John 10-16.)
God grant that Heaven’s richest
blessings may ever descend upon this
diocese and upon all the people ol
the great State of Georgia. May our
labors for Christ, our prayers and
supplications be acceptable in the
sight of God to the end that His Holy
Name may become ever more widely
known and loved, and that Ili’s
Kingdom on earth may receive incre
ment. May this land, irrigated by the
sweat of our brows, and watered, too,
perhaps at times by our tears, show
ever the blossoms and the fruits of
virtue, so that all may possess, in the
words of St. James, “the fruit oi
righteousness that is sown in peace.”
(James 3-18.) -
O Mother of God, Queen of An
gels and men, glorious patron of these
United States. chosen protectress of
this diocese under the title of Our
Lady of Perpetual Help, Immaculate
Mother enshrined in every Catholic
heart, be thou always a mother to me
and to my priests and people. Pray
for me because I have recourse to thee
in this solemn hour. Obtain for me
the grace that every step I take, everv
word I utter, every breath 1 draw,
may be all for the honor and glory
of thy Divine Son through the sanc-
" fr ation and salvation of those who
today are committed to my pastoral
care. Amen.