IMPRESSIVE SIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1940, Page 6

IMPRESSIVE SIGHT

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

OPENED IN WELLINGTON. PROCESSION OF CLERGY. (By Telegraph—Press Asociation.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Eucharistic Congress opened in fine /weather and was welcomed by a huge attendance which gathered on the large assembly ground in front of St Patrick’s College. Everyone of the thousands of seats were occupied long before the mass began. Hundreds more stood round under the fierce sun.

An impressive sight was the procession of the clergy which preceded the Papal Legate and the bishops on the way to the altar. Every person on the ground heard every word of the service through an efficient loud speakei' system. The Papal legate said that through an exalted commission he had the honour to fulfil the holy father united himself with them in the celebrations. By an apostolic brief on July 3. 1860. Wellington received from bis Holiness its first bishop. Eighty years later a Papal Legate heard with a heart filled with joy their proclamations of veneration and homage to the supreme pastor. “These affirmations of your firm allegiance I will make known to the holy father, and they will give him great solace in these difficult days of his pontificate,” he said, "again you have built and are sustaining the church which stands so close to the busy pathways of life and movement, a silent symbol of things that are eternal. Its open doors welcome the pilgrim. Within those portals is hidden from view the tired wayfarer in the presence of his Eucharistic Lord. He can kneel in prayer and implore the lord of light to illumine his soul amid darkness of the infidelity of Ihe modern world." ' Their colleges and halls for higher education had long since won their renown, and were a monument to the saintly labours of the present as well as of post generations. Schools were being maintained and developed with a generosity which would turn material sacrifices into deep spiritual joy. Magnificent institutions for the orphan, the sick, the infirm, and the afflicted stood as testament to their everlasting credit. He offered heartfelt congratulations on their great achievements during the past century praying that God might deign to bless them abundantly in the years that were to come. He gave the wish expressed by the holy father in his autograph letter —“As the result of this great celebration in honour of the most Holy Eucharist may a floodtide of piety and fervour surve over New Zealand stimulating all ranks and phases of Christian life. - ’ The legate then read the letter which is dated November 20, 1939, and in, which his holiness congratulates whole-heartedly the hierarchy of New Zealand and associates himself most intimately with the celebrations. His grace. Archbishop O’Shea, remarked that they wanted the Congress to be a crusade of prayer for an early and just peace —a prayer that God might bring this about and save civilisation from one of the most frightful blows that had ever been aimed against it.