Item 5 - Pastoral Letter on the Centenary of Father Mathew by Bishop T. A. O’Callaghan

2 pp; manuscript

Pastoral letter by Thomas Alphonsus O’Callaghan, Bishop of Cork, to be read at the centenary anniversary commemoration of temperance reformer Father Theobald Mathew. Addressing the Catholic clergy and laity of the diocese, the document calls for a genuine spiritual revival of Father Mathew’s pre-famine total abstinence movement rather than a mere commemorative show. The bishop exhorts parents to guide their children from infancy against the ‘vice of Intemperance’ and urges the youth to enrol themselves in the League of the Cross confraternities. It actively calls for clerical co-operation to promote religious societies that foster moderation and daily prayer, while acknowledging that total abstinence may not be adopted by everyone. The text also notes that the primary church (Holy Trinity) associated with Father Mathew’s lifetime campaign has been left unfinished for more than fifty years, concluding with an urgent appeal for a unified financial and generous community effort to complete the building as a worthy physical memorial to the ‘Apostle of Temperance’.