RETURNING TO THE FOLD

New Zealand Tablet, 20 September 1906, Page 33

RETURNING TO THE FOLD

4 Mayor Moore, of Omaha, Neb., whose death was recently announced, became a Catholic on his deathbed. He had governed Omaha for nine years. The conversion of a Jew, a rather rare event, has just taken place at Venice. The convert, Forti Felice, is twenty-four years of age. He was baptised by the Patriarch of Venice. Three Catholic Archbishops and seven Bishops of the American hierarchy in t/he last fifty years were born Protestants. The Anglican Prelate, Bishop Ives of North Carolina, divested himself of his Episcopal office and became a layman in the Catholic Church. During the lifetime of the late Bishop Thorold Winchester, two of his children became Catholics. His eldest daughter has now been received into the Church by Father Maturin, the well-known preacher and former Cowley Father, Bishop Thorold's wife was a sister of Mrs. Henry- Labouchere. It will give great pleasure to many of our readers to learn (says the 'Catholic Times') that Mrs, Katharine Parr has been received back into the Church. The ceremony of reconciliation, which was of a practically private nature, was performed at Buckfast Abbey, on the Feast of the Precious Blood, by the Abbot Dom Boniface Natter, assisted by Father Winfrid Rechsteiner, 0.5.8. The ceremony took place at the Lady altar containing the famous pre- 1 Reformation ' statue of Our Lady of Buckfast, and Mrs. Parr's daughter was the only other person present. Mrs. J. D. Weaver, Dallas, Texas, widely known throughout the State because of her prominence in charitable and philanthropic works, was received into the Catholic Church by Rev. J. M. Hayes, of the Cathedral, a short time previous to her death which occurred recently. Mrs. Weaver had belonged to the Protestant Episcopal Church, but for some years she had shown a strong attraction for the Catholic faith, ■having been brought into closer touch with its workings in the pursuit of her own benevolent efforts. She was president of the Federation of Women's Clubs and was associated with the educational enterprises of her native state. Our readers (says the Ceylon ' Catholic Messenger ') will learn with pleasure of the - return to t>he true I'aith of Mr S. DTenha, lately one of the most influential adherents of the ''Independent Catholic' schism. This happy event took place in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Hope, Bombay. Mr D'Penha's re-ad-mission to the Church was preceded by a retreat conducted by the Very Rev. Father Aloysius Gyr S J Vicar of t-he Cathedral. Mr D'Penha desired that the news of his conversion be published in the Catholic Press of Ceylon, for as the schismatics gave great publicity to his unhappy lapse into the errors of their sect, he now wishes it to be known that he no longer belongs to them, and hopes that by the public announcement of his return to Holy Church, the public scandal which his apostasy caused may be removed. •Sermons in stones assuredly there are, if we may judge by the number of architects who have joined the Catholic Church (says the London 'Tablet'). Some of the most illustrious names of the profession are on that list from the days of Inigo Jones, fined as a recusant, to those of Pugin and Scott. One such eminent architect, a convert to the Church, was Mr Garner, whose death we now deeply regret to announce JH ormerly a partner, in the firm of Bodley and Garner, he had of late years devoted a large portion of his time to work at Downside, and at Downside his ashes will appropriately rest. He bought and admirably restored Fritwell Manor House, near Souldern, Banburv. some yea^rs ago* ; and it was here that this devouti Catholic passed away, after only a short illness reviving the last rites of the Church at the hands of Father Glossop.