EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 7

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS.

GREAT CATHOLIC GATHERING. CARDINALS' SPECIAL TRAIN. NEW YORK, June 17. Cardinal Bonzano, of Rome, the Papal Legate, with Cardinals Charost, of Rennes, Faulhaber, Dubois, of Paris, Casanova, Pift'l, Czeinoch, Hayes and O'Donnell, Primate of Ireland, left New York to-day by a special train called "the Cardinal special" for Chicago to attend the 2Sth International Eucharistic Congress. The cardinals had spent several day.in New York. They were given a formal civic reception and features of their visit were some colourful processions. The carriages for the train were specially built and decorated. They were painted a brilliant cardinal red.

Unusually elaborate precautions were taken to safeguard the prelates throughout their journey. These included special detachments of police along the route, careful inspections of food and examination of the railway tracks. Thousands of people thronged tbe station to witness the departure, of the party. The congress will be formally opened on Sunday and will last four days. Preparations have been extraordinarily elaborate. The matter of accommodation alone lias necessitated 1,000,001) reservations of rooms being made at hotels, etc., for the delegates and visitors. Nuns and others have been working for a long time in preparing Communion wafers, vestments, paper flowers and other articles. The Coliseum has been converted into a shrine for Masses, which will be celebrated at half-hour intervals from dawn until noon on each day of the congress. The largest altar in the world habeen erected in the "Soldiers' Field" for tbe Papal delegate. Four hundred other shrines have been erected elsewhere.— (A. and N.Z.)