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New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1911, Page 873

Eleven years ago a young Protestant belonging to a prominent family of Christiana, Norway, and a student of the university of that city, found himself amid a throng of other Lutherans who were respectfully watching a Catholic procession through the streets of the capital during the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi. The long double file of the laity, the ranks of the children, the splendid canopy, borne by men of distinguished social position, the clergy robed in cassock and surplus, the clouds of incense the lights and flowers, and then the Bishop in cope and mitre reverently bearing the jewelled ostensorium that enclosed the Blessed Sacrament—all made a profound impression upon the mind and heart of the young man. 1 1 have been deceived,’ he said to himself; *1 have always been told that Catholics honor chiefly the Blessed Virgin and the joints and neglect to pay homage to our Saviour. Now' 1 see how profoundly they worship Christ in the Eucharist ’ Hie next day the priest of St. Olaf’s parish received a letter from this earnest student, who begged to be received into the Catholic Church. .. The following year Thorlief Engel son, robed as a cleric, carried the Bishop’s cross in the Corpus Christi procession. In the autumn of 1899 he entered the Urban College of the Propaganda at Rome and six years later was ordained to the priesthood On the feast of St. Olof he celebrated his first Mass, his parents and relatives being present, although they were still Protestants. Since that time he has devoted all his energies to the extension of the Catholic faith in the isolated regions of the far north of Europe, : ; • - ■ B *