GREAT GATHERING

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 175, 25 June 1926, Page 8

GREAT GATHERING

SECOND EDITION

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. PROCESSION OF*FOUR MILES. MILLION PEOPLE PRESENT 7 (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received June 25, 10.25 a.m. NEW YORK, Juno 24. All roads to-day led to the new Roman Catholic Churph at Mundelein, Illinois, where nearly a million people participated in or witnessed the four mile procession of the Blessed Sacrament. This final event of tho Eucharistic Congresswas marked by all the colour and ceremony of a church procession. It occupied seven hours passing a given point and concluded with the Papal benediction. —Reuter.

REUNION DISCUSSED. Received June 25 12.40 p.xn. NEW YORK, Juno 24. The foremost subject being discussed among the Catholic leaders .attending the Eucharistic Congress is the reunion of tho Oriental churches. It is claimed that the latter are absolutely at one with Rome on the question of the priesthood, Mass and Holy Communion. Interest is chiefly centred on the Russian Church, which is far the greatest separated from Romo, and, having now lost the support of the State, which historically was the main barrier against reunion, is now free to follow its own choice.

In the meantime the congress ceremonies concluded at Mundelein with the greatest religious spectacle ever witnessed in this or any country. A singing,, praying multitude of a million people, gathered from all lands of tho earth, honoured and blessed the Eucharistic in a Babel of tongues, the like whereof has never before been heard in the new world.—A. and N.Z. cable.

WONDERFUL SPECTACLE,

Received Juno 25, 1.15 p.m. NEW YORK, June 24. At Mundelen the gathering was banked along either side of the three milo “Via Gloria,” circling tho beautiful inland lake, and shattered every existing record in sheer magnitude, number of persons, distance from which they travelled, and length of the procession, surpassing any similar ovation in history. All vantage points were so densely packed that it was impossible for-many to sit down so they stood beneath tho scorching sun with heads reverently bowed, chanting and praying until the Papal legate, with the Cardinals and suites, emerged from the celebration of Pontifical Mass, after which the huge procession wound round the lake. A striking feature was the orderly, attitude of the gathering. There were no protests and no demonstrations. The police and traffic experts estimated that 400,000 people arrived by trains after sunrise and 500,000 by motors, while 100,000 camped in tho vicinity all night, and a further 200,000 were unablo to enter the- grounds. The,, programme was disrupted in tho afternoon by the heaviest rain storm experienced for months. —A. and N.Z. cable.