Denzil Meuli

Early life

Meuli was born in New Plymouth. He was the son of Perry and Patricia Meuli (née O'Leary) and has one sister, Deirdre. He was educated in several parish schools of the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth. He received his secondary education at Sacred Heart College, Auckland, St Peter's College, Auckland and St Kevin's College, Oamaru. From 1943 to 1945 he served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in New Zealand. He studied for the Catholic priesthood at Holy Cross College, Mosgiel and later went to Rome to complete his studies at the International College for the Propagation of the Faith and where he was awarded the degrees of S.T.D., U.J.D., and Ph.L.. He was ordained as a Priest of the Diocese of Auckland in Rome in December 1956. After ordination, Meuli spent 18 months in Germany preparing for his doctorate and was a chaplain in the Occupation Army of the Rhine. He also held chaplaincies in several parishes in France (including Neuilly-sur-Seine, Charleville-Mézières, Armentières) and at the Walburgeschule in Menden, Germany, while collecting material for his doctorate. He obtained his doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1959 and then returned to New Zealand where he served in the parishes of Three Kings, Avondale, and Glen Eden.

Dismissals

Zealandia was closely controlled by its founder and owner, Archbishop Liston, who did not attend the Vatican Council and expected his authoritarian management style to continue into the late 1960s. In 1962 he appointed Father Ernest Simmons as the editor. Simmon's main preoccupation was the implementation of the decrees of the Vatican Council to which he was very favourable. He criticised the Cuba blockade and the war in Vietnam. He also published a range of opinion (including dissenting material) on the Papal encyclical on contraception, Humanae Vitae. This all (but especially the last matter) displeased the archbishop who dismissed Simmons as editor and transferred him to parish duties in January 1969. Father Patrick Murray who was already involved with the paper and who continued Simmon's approach, was appointed as editor. At the end of July 1969 he too was dismissed.

Appointment

Meuli was then appointed editor. Meuli's editorship marked a sharp return to a conservative, pre-Vatican II, editorial outlook. Meuli said that he was "not interested" in dissenting views, and that, in attempting to "render more profound Catholic knowledge of the faith", editing a Catholic newspaper could be likened "to preaching or administering the sacraments". These views were reflected in his first editorial page where he dismissed talk of the Rights of the Press as "so much cant and claptrap", and urged readers to "think of Zealandia" as "simply an unusual kind of parish and yourself as its parishioners". Meuli's editorials were more traditionally apologetic and less concerned with social issues. He took more combative positions on issues like abortion. At the same time he reactivated the anti-Communist crusade and used publications including those of B. A. Santamaria given to him by Liston.

Reaction

Reports in Zealandia, under Meuli, attempted to describe Murray's assignment to parish duties as "ordinary clerical change". But this was not the way that the Catholic community viewed the situation, especially following so closely the dismissal of Simmons. Murray publicly denied that his resignation was voluntary. There were unprecedented, and widely reported, scenes of protest. Catholic university students, led by Brian Lythe, organised a "Pray-in" at St Patrick's Cathedral to protest at Murray's dismissal. 120 people, led by the lawyer M E (Maurice) Casey, demonstrated outside the archbishop's residence in New Street, Ponsonby. (One of the placards read 'Simmons, Murray, Meuli?'). Across the street from them a counter-demonstration of about 80 people, led by Dr. H. P. Dunn, supported the archbishop's action.

Consequences

Most of the editorial staff of Zealandia and most regular contributors resigned. One of the departing staff (Pat McCarthy) spent his two weeks' notice instructing Meuli (who had no experience in journalism) in the mechanics of production. Meuli stated that he expected the "walls to cave in" when McCarthy left. Without the regular sources of copy, at first Meuli had to use "padding" such as commercial "advertorial" material. Clerical speeches were printed in full, as were ecclesiastical documents. Slowly Meuli rebuilt the staff. Paradoxically, because of the absence of informed Catholic staff, the newspaper began, amidst the prevailing conservative editorial outlook, to address lively social issues outside the church. Mueli also instituted a correspondence column from 28 August 1969, the first such column the paper had ever had. The newspaper suffered a major drop in circulation in late 1969. But by mid 1971, the situation had improved and Zealandia had regained much of its old readership.

Replacement

Archbishop Liston submitted his resignation to the Pope at the age of 88 in December 1969, on the 40th anniversary of his succession as Bishop of Auckland. He stepped down in early 1970 and was replaced by his auxiliary bishop, Reginald John Delargey who on 27 May 1971 announced the appointment of a new editor for the newspaper, Patrick John (Pat) Booth.

Lawyer and traditionalist ministry

In 1977, Meuli obtained an LL.B. from the University of Auckland and was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.

In 1987 he studied the work of Patrick Henry Omlor and his questioning of the validity of the Catholic Mass using the all-English Canon, particularly the replacement of the Latin "Pro multis" ("for many") with the English "for all" in the rite of consecration. Omlor argued that a deviation from the earlier wording resulted in the new Mass not constituting a proper sacrifice. Meuli was influenced by Omlor's arguments and resumed the celebration of the Mass in Latin. In 1989 Denis Browne, the tenth Bishop of Auckland, made a small church available to Meuli and this became the centre of the Mount St. Mary "non-geographic" parish, Titirangi, where the "traditional Latin liturgy" is followed. His congregation comes from all over the greater Auckland region to worship in the pre- Vatican II manner. Meuli has published an English translation of a sermon by Don Stefano Gobbi, an Italian priest and visionary. He has taken a public lead on some moral issues.