International Eucharistic Congress

New Zealand Tablet, 17 September 1908, Page 24

International Eucharistic Congress

The nineteenth International Eucharistic Congress, for which arrangements had been in progress for several- months, was opened in London on Wednesday of week. Among the members of the Sacred_ College present were Cardinals Vincent Vannutelli (Papal Legate), Gibbons, Fischer, Logue, Lecot, and Mercier. The Albert Hall had ,been secured for the principal meetings on Thursday and Friday, in addition to which there was to be a monster meeting there on Saturday evening. When the last mail lpft Home there was no official notification that a public procession was to be held. Since then it is evident that it was decided to hold one,, and that the Home Secretary and police authorities' had» given permission to do s . Of . - decision seems to have stirred up the opposition of certain religious bodies. A cable message received on Thursday stated that two Bishops met the Papal Legate at Dover, and that the Archbishop of Westminster (Most. Rev. JDr. Bourne), the Bishop of Dunedin (Right Rev. Dr. Verdon), the Duke of Norfolk, and a larfe and enthusiastic ' gathering welcomed him at Charing Cross. The delegates included eight Csidinals, fifteen Archbishops, seventy Bishops, twenty-eight ■ Abbots, and many other Church dignitaries' from all parts of the world. , - Sectional meetings were held at the Horticultural, Caxton, and Buckingham Halls, at which papers on various aspects of the history and development of the Church were read. The leading visitors were the guests of the Catholic peers. Eight thousand membership tickets were issued, and sold days before the opening of the Congress, there being many hundreds of fruitless applications. _ . The following is a list of the principal papers" read at the Congress :— ' The Holy Eucharist in PreReformation Times,' by the Right Rev. Abbot Gasquet; ' The Reformation and the Mass,' by the Right Rev. Mgr. Canon Mpyes ; ' The- Royal Declaration Against Transubstantiation,' by the Right - Hon. Lord Llandaff; ' Eucharistic Bequests,' by the Hon. Frank Russell, K.C. ; 'The History of Daily "Communion, * by the Very Rev. Canon T. B. Scannell, D.D. ; ' Th^ Recent Pontifical Decrees on Daily Communion,' by the Rev. H. Lucas, S.J. ; < The Orthodox Church and the Blessed Eucharist,' by the Rev. A. Fortescue, Di ;j; j 7 t. Teachm c" of St. John Chrysostom on the Blessed Eucharist,' by H.R.H. Prince Max of Saxony: Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament,' by the Rev H. rhurslon, S.J. ; 'Eucharistic Literature,' by the Rev. V. McNab, O.P. _• ™\ .A s °lemn serv ice in Westminster Cathedral on Wednesday evening inaugurated the Congress. - • tv • u Ca !^ inal Vannutelli was received in state by Archbishop Bourne at the door and was conducted, wearinga scarlet cappa magna, under a lofty canopy of white silk and gold, to the high altar. Apostolic letters appointing Cardinal Vannutelli as the Papal Legate T-? v% d v Y h(frein _. t ! ie x °P e P aid a ttribeu *c to the British Empire, which was famed for the liberty extended to its citizens and to whose authority and laws so many millions of Catholics rendered faithful and dutiful obedience. The Legate then entered the pulpit. Speaking in Latin he acknowledged Britain's hospitality,' and offered an expression of respect to the wise ruler of - her destinies and his acknowledgments to those Jn fni ™ £ r THe PP ° Pc 'T^ that S° od results would ™w the Congress, and that the Blessed Eucharist would be the ultimate means of uniting all in -one The service, wherein music by modern Enilisn composers was played, concluded with the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Papal Legate.. Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, who represented the Holy Father at- the Congress, is well known in he United Kingdom. He was the Papal Legate, at- the

rc-opemngr of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, which took place about four years ago. He "must be distingmshed from his elder brother, Cardinal Serafino Vannutelh. Born in 1836, the former, after a course at tne Gregorian and Roman Universities in the Eternal City, was ordained priest in* iB6O. He was for some years Professor of. Theology in the VaticanSeminary,- after which he served in the Papal Nunciature both in Holland and Belgium. From" 1867 to i»9o he became in succession Assistant Secretary of btate, Apostolic Delegate to Constantinople, when he . was consecrated Titular Archbishop of Sardi, Apostolic Delegate to Moscow, and Nuncio at Lisbon. In ' 1890, upon- his . return to Rome, he was proclaimed Cardinal Priest— he had been named - ' in petto ' the previous year^and ten years later he was made Ca**^ dinal-Bishop of Palestrina. Viscount Llandaff read a paper, and the Duke of INorlolk, m the - subsequent discussion, described the royal declaration in taking the coronation oath as an insult to the King and the good sense, of the nation, besides being -a travesty on- the Catholic doctrine. The announcement was made that the in 1909 would be held at Lourdes, and in 1910 at-Mon-treal. . - -i. Cardinal Vannutelli, the Archbishop of. Melbourne, and the Duke of Norfolk amongst the speakers at a-^rowded meeting in the Albert Hall Viscount Llandaff (Right Hon. Henry Matthews, .P.C.), who read a paper on 'The Royal Declaration against Transubstantiating was Home "Secretary from_iBB6 to 1892 in the Marquis of Salisbury's cabinet. . He was Conservative Member for Dungarvan from 1868 to 1874, arid represented West Bitmingham during the time he was in the Cabinet, lie became a- Bencher of Lincoln's Intwforty years ago,and.had a distinguished career at the Bar. He paid a flying visit to. New Zealand some years ago. , The following cable messages appeared in Mondays papers :— A voluntary guard of honor accompanied the Catholic procession of the Blessed Sacrament, numbering 12,000. Many small windows were let^ at jo guineas each. There were 800 police on After^tvvo days' telegraphic negotiations between Mr. Asquith and Archbishop Bourne of Westminster, a t f. O^ 6 ; Ministei ' deprecating the procession and Archbishop Bourne requiring Mr. Asquith to make a public request for its abandonment; the Prime Minister - intimated that it would be better in the ' interests 'of • order and good feeling that the ceremonial (of which he questioned the legality) should not take place. Archbishop Bourne decided that all ecclesiastical cereS°^?i S r° Ul i b< ? eHfTlinat ed from the procession, and ? a l 5C5 C , a f dinals and - Bish °P s should proceed to the : Cathedral along the, proposed route in full court dress but the ceremonial procession would be held within the Cathedral, -and the Legate's benediction bestowed-, rrom the balcony. ♦i, cable" message in Tuesday's papers states that the Catholics were intensely disappointed over the pro- ' cession > decision. Many special trainloads of visitors had arrived from all parts of the country. Archbishop Bourne, amid a ' storm of howls and mssing, announced the in the procession ,it T " a mass meeting held, in the Albert Hall. Fifteen thousand children met on the Victorian Embankment and marched to the Cathedral to receive Cardinal Vannutelh 's blessing. ; -•V1??V 1 ?? D ? il y panicle remarks that Mry Asquith wished to give_the Catholics an opportunity to abandon the procession as if they were acting spontaneously " The paper says it is unconvinced that any Govern. oTlUeTa^seSoT r^ *"^ ***** The Daily Telegraph condemns the Government's weakness, irresolution, susceptibility to pressure and XtT SS to ™ ke cessions Va few extiemists w , clamor It says the result will be to needlessly excite animosities. Mr. Asquith endeavored to induce Archbishop Bourne to act as if The had changed h5 mmd and quailed before the Protestant Alliancl ™