PAGEANT OF FAITH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 51, 7 September 1928, Page 9

PAGEANT OF FAITH

WORSHIP IN OPEN AIR

EUCHARISTIC FESTIVAL

MEMORABLE SCENES

United Tress Association—By Electric Tclecrapb—Copyright. (Received 7th September, noon.) SYDNEY, This Day. Battalion after battalion of young men of the Roman Catholic societies marched into the Royal Show Ground to participate in the most colossal religious demonstration ever held in Australia. A solemn benediction under the open sky was given by Cardinal Ceretti to a hundred and thirty thousand men. Onlookers on this simple pageant of faith will never forget the sight of over a hundred thousand human arms holding lighted tapers, as the deeptoned responses of the worshippers preceded the triumphant thunder of the "Adoremus." SINGING OF HYMNS. The huge congregation sang the hymn "0 Sacrament Divine," and then, 1 before the Benediction, the rolling Latin of the "O Salutaris" and the "Tantum Ergo."' Tho service ended with the grandest of the Catholic hymns, "Faith of Our Fathers," and "0 Queen of Heaven." A vast sea of faces looked towards the Papal throne at the far end of the ground, and the official stand was crowded with inter-State visitors. Cardinal Cerretti yesterday laid a heartshaped wreath on the Cenotaph in the presence of Returned Soldiers' League officials. An excited crowd gathered when they observed the Cardinal's arrival. Archbishop Cluue, of Perth, also placed a huge floral cross on tho Cenotaph on behalf of the chaplains who served in the war. GREAT CONGREGATIONS. Fifty thousand people congregated outside the packed St. Mary's Cathedral to hear Pontifical High Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Namur, in tho presence of the Papal Legate. The Mass was heard by crowds in the park outside by means of amplifiers, many in the waiting throng dropping to their knees and praying. From an early hour the Cathedral was the scene of great activity, the congregation of over nine thousand assembling long before the Mass commenced, including members of the Consular Corps and the Chief Civic Commissioner. There was a most impressive and magnificent sight as the procession entered the Cathedral, headed by the Knights of St. Gregory and St. Silvester and the wearers of the Crown of Leo, all in dress clothes and wearing orders, Monsignors of the Papal Household, vicar-generals of the diocese, and the master of ceremonies, in a long line of purple-clad bishops. The colours of many different nationalities and orders made a brilliant spectacle. It was by far tho most brilliant sight of the congress proceedings.