Owen Snedden
Roman Catholic Church | |
|---|---|
| Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Wellington |
| In office | 1962 to 1981 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 December 1917 Auckland, New Zealand |
| Died | 17 April 1981 (aged 63) Wellington, New Zealand |
| Relatives | Cyril Snedden (brother) Nessie Snedden (brother) Stanley Snedden (cousin) Colin Snedden (nephew) Warwick Snedden (nephew) Martin Snedden (great-nephew) |
Owen Noel Snedden,
Early life
Snedden was born in
War-time Rome
He was still studying in Rome in 1940 when
In mid-1943 (after the
As New Zealand servicemen and women found their way to the city the two acted as guides and on occasions helped visitors arrange audiences with Pope Pius XII. Among these notables were Prime Minister Peter Fraser and Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyberg, then commanding the New Zealand Division. The latter commissioned them as military chaplains and they were repatriated on a troop ship early in 1945 before the end of WWII in Europe.[4]
Editor
In Auckland, Snedden was appointed to the staff of St Patrick's Cathedral and became assistant to Peter McKeefry, editor of Zealandia. In 1948, on the appointment of McKeefry as Archbishop of Wellington, Snedden took over the role of editor and held the position for 14 years until he too was transferred to Wellington.[5] In Auckland he also fulfilled the function of commentator accompanying the radio broadcasts of Catholic liturgical events.[3]
Bishop and the Council
On 23 May 1962, Snedden was appointed
During the session Snedden was appointed to a committee planning common liturgical texts for all the English-speaking world. This continued in the subsequent council sessions and eventually he was appointed to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. [8] After the council in the late 1960s and into the 1970s Snedden, with the help of Dom Joachim Murphy, the Abbot of the Trappist Southern Star Abbey at Kopua, and his team of priests, painstakingly criticised and commented on draft English translations of various liturgical books as they were translated from Latin into English.[9]
Wellington
During this interregnum, in August 1978, Snedden signed the integration agreements for the first Catholic Schools in New Zealand (
Death
Snedden died on
Notes
- ^ a b c "Bishop Snedden dies", The Dominion, 18 April 1981, p. 1
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 237.
- ^ a b c Fr. Ernest Simmons, "Talents for others to see", Zealandia, 26 April 1981, p. 7
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, pp. 272–273.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 274.
- ^ "Achelous", Catholic Hierarchy (Retrieved 18 January 2020)
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 273.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 275.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 259.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 280.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 281.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 284.
- ^ O'Meeghan 2003, p. 63.
- ^ "Bishop Snedden Remembered", Evening Post, 22 April 1981, p. 4
References
- O'Meeghan, Michael S.M. (2003). Steadfast in hope: The Story of the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington 1850–2000. Wellington: Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.
