APPALLING SACRILEGE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9127, 23 April 1908, Page 8

APPALLING SACRILEGE.

SHOT AT THE ALTAR RAILS. A crime which has scarcely a single parallel in all the centuries of Roman Catholic history was perpetrated at Denver on February 34th, when a Sicilian Anarchist named Giuseppe Guanaoote, in the presence of a crowded congregation, brutally murdered Father Leo Heinrichs at the communion rails. Guanaoote was kneeling at the altar rails of St. Elizabeth’s Church with the consecrated wafer of the Holy Sacrament in his mouth. On either side of him were women Suddenly, as the priest laid his hand on the Anarchist's head and administered' a blessing, the Italian rose to his feet with a dreadful curse, pressed a revolver against gins victim’s breast, and pulled the trigger. The priest, with a cry of agony, fell dead, shot in the heart. • The assassin, firing his weapon aloft, dashed through the dazed, crowd of - worshippers and reached the doors. Women shrieked and fainted, while a number of- male worshippers attempted to seize the murderer. A terrible struggle occurred at the church door, but the Italian wrested himself free and hurst into the street, where, however, he was overtaken, captured, and 'dragged to goal. Guanaoote, with cynical calm, explained that he shot bather Heinrichs, not because he hated him personally, hut because he had a grudge against all priests, who, ho said, opposed the rights of working men. “I went to the communion rail,” the murderer added, “so that I could get a better shot. It is just possible (says the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph) fthat Father Heinrichs will he canonised. Father Heinrichs was a saintly young priest, and it is stated that he died as a martyr of the Church. He was well known and greatly respected, and tens of thousands of the faithful will flock to see his remains before burial. The more reliable witnesses say that his last words were: “Deo gratias! non sum dignus, O Domine’’ (“Thanks he to God I am not worthy, O Lord”), and then, just before he breathed his last,, the young priest, with a seraphic smile over-spreading bis face, opened his eyes, looked around as if .to say farewell, then closed them, and murmured faintly: “In manus tuas” (“Into Thy hands”). The Murderer’s Confession. —

Meantime the Sicilian, who is fifty years old, in his confession, says : “I could not sleep on Saturday night because of my troubles and the priests—always the priests who took money from the poor. Towards monring I dozed a little, and then the church hells woke me. I went to the church with the rest, and I did as they did -dipped my hand in the water, crossed myself, and knelt, but I did not pray. Then I sat down and waited. A priest came out to the altar, and the Mass began. I had never seen that priest before. I knelt, and when they stood up I stood. Soon a few people went np and knelt at the altar rails. I went too, because I wanted to get close to that priest. I opened my month, and the priest placed something on my tongue. It burned me, and 1 jumped up and spat it out, and with xnv left hand I drew the revolver, so, and when the priest turned toward me I fired, and he fell, and I’m not sorry. ’ ’