A WW1_
• No. 3352.
PERTH, THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1968.
(Registered at the G.P.O.. Perth for transmission by post as a Newspaper.)
ARCHBISH01P FIRENDIVILLE
1933
Price 8c.
1968
ARCHBISHOP REDMOND PRENDIVILLE, the fifth Bishop of Perth and its Second Archbishop, died on June 28; he was 67. Archbishop Prendiville entered St. John of God Hospital on June 6. He suffered a stroke on Wednesday, June 26 which paralysed his left side.
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ONSECRATED on October 22, 1933, as Coadjutor with the right of succession to Archbishop Patrick Joseph C lune, he succeded to the See on May 24, 1935. He has been Archbishop of Perth for 33 years in which, despite difficult times, there was extensive development of the Archdiocese. Archbishop Pren divil le was away from Perth when Archbishop Clune died. He was in Ireland recruiting priests for the Archdiocese.
edral most evenings as he made the Stations of the Cross. I t was only in the last couple of years that he would not be in his usual confessional whenever possible. People used the expression / /a wonderful confessor" of him on many occasions.
MEMORY Blessed with a fantastic memory for names and faces, the Archbishop would del ight many a person on his extensive country and suburban visitation with their name readi ly used. Parents to sons and daughters; this personal touch was never lost to him. In his latter years, bad health forced the Archbishop to curtail a lot of his external activities. Country visitation was taken over by his auxil iary bishops—first by Bishop L. J. Goody, now Bishop of Bunbury, then by Bishop J. J. Rafferty, whose death in Ireland while on a holiday was a great personal loss to the Archbishop, and since 1962 by Bishop M. McKeon.
PRIESTS This was to be a task which preoccupied the Archbishop for his 33 years in office, to have enough priests to cope with the expansion of the archdiocese in paris hes and special works . In 1935 there were 51 Priests, and in 1968 there are 1 24 diocesan and 83 Rel iious priests. Another Archbishop isaspect of the statistics. Inpointed out by 1935, there were 27 parish es, today there a re 98, an increase of 71 in his episcopate. The erection of these parishes meant in nearly every case the bui lding of a churc h, school or schools, presb ytery, and in sorhe cases parish hal ls. These statistics do not ine the diocese of Bunbury, which was established in 1 954.
TWO NEPHEWS AMONG THE CONCELEBRANTS
CONFESSOR
These figures show him be a mon of courage in to his convictions of the wa y the State need ofwould grow and the to copethe Church to be able However with that growth. this was not the side of the Archbishop which 'los most effec tive and appreciated by the peop le. T hroughout the 43 years ef his priesthood the number °tkf People W ise who benefited from counsel of the Archfl If lust be the confessional ornilicir legion. He was a figure in the Cath-
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al, two Archbishops, six Bishops, concelebrant. With him were Archbi shop M ONEoneCardin Abbot and two Priests concelebrated Beovich of Adelaide, Archbishop J. Knox of Mel
the Solemn Requiem Mass for Archbishop Prendiville on Wednesday morning at 11 o'clock.
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St. Mary's Cathedral was packed with invited guests, official representatives of the Crown, Federal and State Governments, other countries, other Churches, Civic dignitaries, the Armed Forces, representatives of Catholic organisations and personal friends and relatives of His Grace the Archbishop. There were representatives of all the Religious of the Archdiocese and members of the East Perth section of the Cathedral parish where the Archbishop first served when he came to Australia in 1925. His Eminence Norman Thomas Cardinal Gilroy, Archbishop of Sydney. was the principal
bourne, Bishop M. McKeon, Vicar Capitular Perth Archdiocese, Bishop L. J. Goody of Bunbury, Bishop B. Gallagher of Port Pine, Bishop J. Jobst of Broome, Bishop F. X. Thomas of Geraldton, Bishop J. Freeman, who replaced Archbishop P. M. O'Donnell of Brisbane, who was present in the sanctuary, Abbot Gregory Gomez, 0.S.B., of New Norcia, Father Thomas Prendiville, parish priest of Gosnells, and Father John Prendiville, S.J., both nephews of the late Archbishop. The concelebrants entered St. Mary's Cathedral for the Solemn Requiem after a procession of the priests, secular and religious, of the Archdiocese, visiting Bishops and their rep-
resentatives.
His Grace attended the f irst session of the Second Vatican Council in October, 1 962, and found that he was the twelfth most senior archbishop present. I t was at the second session that he became affl icted with hepatitis. He returned f rom this session showing obvious strain and loss of weight. Recurrent bouts of hepatitis kept him in hospital for several long periods. In December, 1967, he was stricken wi th pulmonary oedema, and even thou:* he was able to leave hospital, his attempts at recovery were unsuccessful. He was readmitted to St. John of God Hospital, Subiaco, on June 6 and suffered a stroke on Wednesday, June 26. His condition deteriorated until death came at 2.30 p.m. on June 28, 1968