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 Mt. St. Mary’s Greenmeadows. Sat. Night 29th April ’72. Dear Mum & Dad, Enclosed is a copy of the latest ‘Vinculum’ I wrote. Any suggestions for improvements? Yesterday we had the day off because it was the Feast of St. Peter Chanel. We did not have Anzac Day off though. Last Wednesday I showed my C.C.D. class some slides on St. Peter Chanel. It went off very well. I had some coloured slides of some palm trees in the Solomons, so I used those for palm trees on Futuna Island where he was killed. A palm tree is a palm tree where ever it is! The actual martyrdom was described in vivid detail, with lost of blood and flashes of lightning, etc. I told them how when he was a school teacher in France he couldn’t control his class, & when he came to the Islands he made no converts at all. One boy said, “But Brother, if he never did anything, why did they canonize him?” I got all excited, and said, “Hold on, I’m coming to that…” It was only this morning that I realized that I forgot to tell him why! I’ll have to make sure I let them know next Wednesday. Fr. Flannagan is here at present. He spent all the last week attending the Anglican Synod in Napier. Fr. Arbuckle has also called in. He has returned from New Guinea to give a Seminar in Auckland. On the day he finishes, he’s due to start another Seminar in Tonga in the evening… So he’s very busy. He then goes back to New Guinea until the end of the year, then he will probably return to N.Z. I got a letter from James Northcote-Bade the other day. He finished his Masters Degree in German last year, & hopes to go overseas to get a Doctorate. At the moment he’s working in the Ministry of Defence – actually writing speeches for Mr. McCready! This is what he says:- “Mr. McCready’s been accepting far too many invitations to speak lately – at the moment we’re working on 7 speeches. I wrote the speech he gave at the Auckland Anzac Dawn Ceremony, & at present I’m writing a speech for Levin Rotary on his impressions of Vietnam! Having never been to the country I find that difficult – I just have to use my imagination & am relying mostly on an article I read about Saigon!...” Tomorrow the Napier C.W.L. are coming out & I’m playing the piano in a short concert we’re giving – ‘Polichinella” by Rachmaninoff. Well, I think that that’s all the news. Love from Bruce |