EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 71, 15 June 1927, Page 15

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

GREAT CATHOLIC FILM Pageantry and ceremonial, vast crowds in gorgeously magnificent settings, world figures moving with dignity through rituals, a drama of reality —such is the picture of the XXVIII International Eucharistic Congress. The great Catholic film will be screened at the Auckland Town Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday next, June 21 and 22, in the presence of the Coadjutor Bishop of Auckland' (Dr. Liston) and under the patronage of the clergy of the Roman Catholic diocese of Auckland. A great pilgrimage of the Roman Catholic Church, this epoch-making series of events transcends creed and sect and becomes a national and international symbol of all religion. Human, as well as magnificent, it brings to the screen an intimate touch —the sense of the purpose and devotion that permeated the hundreds t>f thousands of people who took part. This film is the first great effort to bring to the screen an epoch of history as it is being lived. As one sees unfolding the beginnings of the story —the departure from Rome, of the saintly-faced Cardinal Ronanzo, special Legate of Pope Pius XI. his short visit in Paris and his departure for America—one is hardly prepared for the sudden magnificence of his welcome in New York, as with Cardinal Hayes he rides through streets crowded with eager, enthusiastic people, or the crowds at City Hall where he is welcomed, nor for the splendour of / the procession that throngs Fifth for his first service in the New World. On the famous Cardinal train, the Princes of the Church depart for Chicago. And then comes the first hint of tho thing that is the key to the whole picture. For at Albany the train pauses and there thousands upon thousands crowded in the streets, drop to their knees as the Papal Legate appears.

Through the days such services and through them names of world-famed men—Cardinals Bonanzo, and Piffl and Dubois and Reig and and Charost and O’Donnell and O’Connell and Daugherty and Hayes a.nd Mundelein. Names of arch-bishops and bishops, of world famous men in all walks of life. In the congregation the saintly faces of ten thousand nuns. A night session—nothing like it ever photographed—2oo,ooo men in the amphitheatre—each holding aloft a lighted candle—emblems of faith. And Mundelein, 46 miles from Chicago, where 1,000,000 people assemble for the last great pageant of the Congress—where Mass is said by the Cardinal Legate before an altar reared in front of the beautiful chapel of the Seminary of St. Mary-of-tlie-Lake. Where Cardinal Hayes preaches before the greatest audience in the history of the world. Then comes the climax—3o,ooo devout followers of the church move forward on a three mile circuit of the lake in the Procession of the Most Blessed Eucharist. Last comes Cardinal Borvnzo bearing before him the Ostensorium with 11 cardinals accompanying him as a guard of honour.