UNSECTARIAN SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 110, 26 January 1918, Page 5

UNSECTARIAN SERVICE

CATHOLIC PRIEST'S COMMENDATION. Speaking in regard to the ivork of the Y.M.C.A. at the front, a returned soldier said the value of the organisation was enhanced by its unsectanon nature. .One Sunday after the Battle of Messines he had seen in a Red Triangle lint a Roman Catholic niß6s in the early morning, followed by a service for Jews. Then followed the Church of England chaplain, and later a, Presbyterian padre ministered to his flock In a letter to his father, written from London, a well-known business man now in khaki says: "We went on Sunday to a Jesuit church in Farm Street, wliero Father Bernard Vau.ihan is still in charge. It is a very beautirul church with about sixteen small altars, eight on each side. Mass started at 12 o'clock; and church came out about 115 p.m. There was an appeal in tho e»rmon for funds for huts for the soldiers which tho Catholic Women s League is running. I have heard many a good sermon and many a aood appeal, but this was certainly the finest [ have ever listened to. I don t know the priest's name, but lie was a tinelooking man, with great style, a beautiful voice, and used fine language. Most of the appeal was an eulogy of the Y.M.C.A. and their work. He said tmu the old idea of the Y.M.C.A .was that it was a body iiurby old gentlemen of some wealth and very narrow views, as a hobby and strictly evangelical but at the present time tho thing had outgrown all that, and any man who saw their work and did not recognise that it ivas a noble effort done by. gentlemen in the greatest Christian spirit and doing incalculable' good was a bigot; and he for one was delighted at the chance of recognising from tlie pulpit their great worth. He said the Y-.M.CA. often lend their huts to. our priests at the front to say Mass m, and it certainly opened my eyes when he said their bill for Red Triangle stationery alono for the soldiers was over £1500 per week." _____