CHURCH PROCESSION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 766, 15 March 1910, Page 5

CHURCH PROCESSION.

A QUESTION IN' PARLIAMENT. CONSECRATION OP WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL. By Telegraph—PrcßS Association— Codyri^hL London, Marcli 13. The Home Secretary (Mr. Winston Churchill), replying to questions by Mr. AT Arthur (Conservative member . for Kirkdale, Liverpool) concerning a probable ecclesiastical procession, in the streets, adjacent to Westminster Cathedral, 011 the occasion of the consecration of the structure next June, said the subject would .receive timely and', careful consideration.

THE EUCHARISTIC CONFERENCE,

On. the occasion of the Eucharistic Conference in September, 1908, the Protestant Alliance sent a protest to the Commissioner of Police against the proposed . procession . of the Blessed Sacrament as a violation of the law. The Catholic Emancipation Act; of-1829, while it allows Roman Catholics to enter Parliament, provides: "That if any Roman Catholic ecclesiastic, or any member of any of the Orders, Communities, or Societies hereinafter mentioned shall, after the' comntenceinent of this Act, exercise any. of the rites or ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion,' or wear the habits of his Order, save within the usual places of worship of the Roman Catholic religion, or in private houses, such ecclesiastic or other person shall, being thereof convicted by due course of law, forfeit for every such offence the sum of fifty pounds." ; ' - A private meeting of the London Council of 51 United Protestant societies adopted a petition •to the King, which, after, giving particulars of the procession, stated: "Xour petitioners most humbly and' earnestly beg that your Majesty'will follow the' example of her late Majesty Queen' Victoria, of blessed memory, .who forbade by lloyal. Proclamation on Juno 15, 1852, the holding of a Roman Catholic ceremonial procession in the streets, thereby preventing the creation of a precedent which must prove but the beginning of a. stirring up of religious strife, quite gratuitously and wantonly, among your Majesty's peaceable and law-abiding subjects." 'Archbishop Bourne made a statement in which he said nothing could be further from the minds of.the congress than an intention to hurt any one's susceptibilities. He.-did not , give his consent to the procession until he learned that no objection of. any kind was raised to it by the police, and he was convinced that there would be no. disorder. - The Archbishop added that the prohibition of the procession at that stage would be .an indignity, to the :Catholics of England, and a dishonour to .the Government of the country. He said:. "Of course thero is no question of there being still unrepealed, on the Statute-book disabilities imposed; on Catholics in years long gone by, but . a law' may. cease to be operative just as much; by desuetude as by revocation. ,: Numbers, of Catholic processions have; taken place out of doors all over England.; In many parishes in London such a procession.is a yearly event; and m it sacerdotal: vestments are worn by the priests, and-images and • religious devices are displayed.. No attempt has ever been made,. .within my- memory, to prohibit these processions by law; and as for the argument that they tend, to tile disturbance, of the-peace, they are objects J l ,-: 01 ®; deepest interest,, always respectfully displayed, by the non-Catholic population. lhere never has been' the slightest disorder ' at these processions."Archbishop Bourne , agreed, at the suggestioirof the Government, to make considerable modifications in the procession, and it eventually took place through the streets of Westminster, -but shorn of its most striking; ceremonial.