Bishop Denis Browne with Donna Thurston
The death of Catholic bishop Denis Browne earlier this month has brought back memories of a special day for Donna McHugh (nee Thurston).
Bishop Denis Browne
It was nearly 25 years ago that McHugh, then only 10 and in Standard Four at St Peter’s Catholic School, got to try on the newly installed bishop’s mitre.
A mitre is the traditional ceremonial head dress of bishops and cardinals and as Browne revealed at the time the two sides represented the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
McHugh, now 39, and teaching music at St John’s College in Hamilton, lives in Cambridge with husband Philip and their two children Sophia, 5, and Vincent, 3.
Browne, 86, died in Auckland on September 1 and was farewelled at two requiem masses in Auckland and Hamilton last week and was buried at Ōhaupō Catholic Cemetery.
Donna McHugh today
He was Hamilton Diocese Catholic bishop from 1994 to 2014.
As part of getting to know parishioners in the sprawling Hamilton diocese – which was formed in 1980 and covers a huge chunk of the North Island from Whangamatā and Gisborne in the east to Kawhia and Raglan in the west, north to Te Kauwhata and south to Taumarunui and Turangi – Browne visited schools and parishes.
Little wonder his visit to Cambridge in 1995 happened several weeks after his installation, but it was worth the wait, said McHugh.
“Hearing the news of his passing brought back lots of memories from that visit and the times he came and took Mass in Cambridge over the years.
“It was such an exciting visit, and I was very excited to be picked to wear the mitre.”
Evidence of that special moment had to be trawled out of storage by McHugh’s mother Robyn.
The photo was taken by a Cambridge Edition photographer, and it can now be revealed the words were provided by The News senior writer Mary Anne Gill who was working at the Waikato Times.
Her three children Caroline, James and David were pupils at the school but did not get chosen to wear the mitre.
But James has other memories of Browne who used to play golf on a Monday at Cambridge Golf Club, sometimes with Anglican Bishop David Moxon.
David Moxon
The two were playing one day when James – who went on to represent New Zealand at two Eisenhower Trophy World Amateur golf championships and played professionally in Europe – turned up at the course looking for a game.
He asked the two men at the first tee, who he did not recognise without their religious garb, whether he could join them.
They agreed – golf typically pits kings against paupers and youngsters against older people – and they played several holes.
James Gill
“When he got home and I asked him who he had played with, he said ‘two guys called Denis and David’.
“It was only a few days later that I found out it was the two bishops,” said Gill who sought assurance from her son that he hadn’t sworn and said any blasphemies at any time during the game.
“He said no, and Bishop Denis never told me otherwise,” she said.
Bishop Denis Browne lets St Peter’s Catholic School pupil Donna Thurston try his mitre on for size during his visit to Cambridge in 1995.
