TO VISIT DOMINION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 28 May 1928, Page 9

TO VISIT DOMINION

FATHER MARTINDALE GUEST OF BISHOP CLEARY (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 3rd' April. ■ Last Sunday evening the broadcast religious service was conducted by the . Very Rev. Father Cyril C. Martindale, S.J. It was rather interesting to notice that the order of service was on all fours with any service conducted by a minister of any of the Nonconformist denominations-^-several well known hymns, one or two extempore prayers, and a decidedly evangelical address. Father Martindale is one of the brilliant young men of the Roman Catholic Church in England. That he will be a visitor to New Zealand and the guest of Bishop Cleary in August is my reason for mentioning him. He is due at- the Eucharistic Congress in Sydney at the beginning of September,, but before that he will have a month 's holiday in New Zealand. Ho will go out by the Rotorua on ~Bth Juno. In a conversation which I had with Father Martindale on Sunday afternoon ho told me that Bishop Cleary intends that he should do as'little as possible of public speaking in the Dominion, as he is supposed to need a rest from such activities. Ho added, however: "I shall probably get my rest on board ship," which seems to infer that the public in the Dominion will have an opportunity of hearing him speak. Father Martindale,. who is the son of Sir Arthur T. T. Martindalo (of the Indian Civil Service), became a Roman Catholic after leaving Harrow. At Oxford he had a brilliant ' scholastic career, taking the Chancellor's Latin Verse and the Gainsford Greek Verse Prizes, and honours wi£h his degree. He /became a priest in 1911, and ho is now president of the Federation of Catholic Societies in the Universities of Great Britain. This is an increasingly active body, and is in contact with similar federations in practically every country. It sends Jarge contingents of students, men and women, to foreign congresses yearly, and is t6 welcome this summer, at Cambridge, delegates from every European country and (ho United States. „, ; " . .. , ....'. WRITER OF MANY BOOKS. , As an author Father Martindale has a long list of books to his credit. ."The Life of R. H. Benson, "Life of R. P. Garroia," "In God's Museum," "The Garden of Ghosts," "St. Christopher," "Old Testament.Stories and Now Testament Stories," "Jock, Jack, and Corporal," "Theosophy, thp New Testament, the Word of Life," ''Gospel and Citizen," "Father Bernard Vaughan," "Princes of His People," "Upon God's Holy Hills," and "In God.'s Army" aro some of his writings. "It was during the war," said Father Martindale, "that I made my first acquaintance with Australian and New Zealand soldiers and learned to like, them wholeheartedly." Indeed, Father Martindale's room at the Catholic home in Mount street is lined' with photographs, and many of these are groups of overseas soldiers at various hospitals and military camps in Engr land. Apart from his literary and scholastic activities Father Martindalo is greatly interested in tho working-class man. "When I can escape from writing," he said, "I prefer to spend my time in the poorer parts of the East End, or in military or other camps, or in mining centres, where I find the sort of men of whom I am perhaps fondest. Again I am particularly interested in the men's Retreats, which we hold all over the country, and where wo have men and youths over seventeen years of age from every class of society. The miners, for instance, tako an enormous interest in these Retreats and come every year. One of the important features of the University circles is the development of the intellectual side of Catholicism so as to reconcilo science and religion." MODERN CATHOLICISM. Speaking generally on tho Catholic faith, Father Martindale remarked: "Within tho last twenty-five years, even in ten years, the change of attitude in England towards the Catholic faith has been enormous. There is almost an entire absence of the old venemous antipathy. It would be almost impossible to meet with the opinion that the Church is an exotic introduction occupied with subversive topics like ritual or forms of worship. People are recognising that wo as a Church aro looking at the whole philosophy of life, without excluding such things as economics, art, social philosophy, psychology, and history. They aro recognising that the present generation of Catholics may have their minds quite as well, developed as the minds of anyone anywhere,and at the same time see that far from conflicting with their faith, modern knowledge combines with it to form a noble harmony. "While I personally find a great interest in Very simplo r folk and have a great desire to serve them, I also want to build bridges between them and the more educated and privileged classes. In this department, too, the Catholic Church has developed 100 per cent, in the last fifteen years. For i instance," the educational establishment at Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, has served as a model to all training schools in this country. Similarly the institution for treating defectives at Eersford Court, Worcestershire, is a model from tho philanthropic and scientific point of view both in actual results and in research. Finally, the University movement is doing much to increase an understanding among the nations." One thing Father Martindalo impressed upon mo was that ho left' .-politics severely alone.