CATHOLIC CENTENARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 76, 26 February 1938, Page 13

CATHOLIC CENTENARY.

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS. < Per Press Association. -- AUCKLAND Feb. 25. Tlie arrival at Auckland to-morrow of thousands of visitors from other parts of the Dominion and abroad will see the beginning of the celebrations associated with the centenary of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand. Many months of preparation have gone into its organisation and the opening gatherings will be of a strikingly picturesque character. The major item on the first day’s programme will be the arrival of the AVanganella, with the Apostolic Delegate for Australia and New Zealand. Archbishop Panico, and a delegation of overseas prelates, priests ail'd laymen. These will number several hundred in all. including among the most notable figures Archbishop Gilroy (Sydney) Archbishop Mannix (Melbourne,), Very Rev. Father Neruey S.J. (Melbourne) director of the Children ot Mary sadolity in Australia aiid New Zealand, and Rev. Father McEvoy, O.P. (Melbourne) director of the Holy Name Society in Australia and New Zealand. The AVanganella will also bring Bishop Brodie (Christchurch; and Bishop Whyte (Dunedin) who arb returning from the eucharistic coin gress meetings at Newcastle. Special' arrangements have been made for the greeting of these distin guished travellers. Aeroplanes will fly in salutb over the AVanganella, and fishing vessels of the Catholic Yugoslav community of Auckland will assemble to accompany the vessel in. AVlicn the Apostolic Delegate and other members of the party disembark about 10 o’clock, there will be a procession to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The route will be lined by children of the Catholic schools. At St. Patrick’s, an official welcome will be given by Archbishop O’Shea, S.M., Metropolitan of New Zealand, following the singing of a Te Deum by the centenary choir. In the afternoon, a garden party will be held at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Remuera. mid at night the Catholic schools' centenary concert will be held in the Town Hail. Throughout the day, special trains will be delivering visitors from all over the Dominion to the city. SUNDAY’S CELEBRATIONS. FORMAL OPENING. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Feb. 25. The Catholic centenary will formally open at 11 a.m. on Sunday with solemn Pontificial Mass celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Most Rev. Thomas O’Shea, Catholic Archbishop of AA’ellington and Metropolitan of New Zealand. Flis Excellency the apostolic delegate will preside. The preacher will be Bishop Liston. On account of the limited accommodation this service will be attended only by some 1000 representatives of the parishes throughout New Zealand. In the afternoon in the Town Hall the opening session of thp first national congress oi New Zealand of St. Vincent de Paul Society, a world-wide Catholic organisation engaged in charitable works, will take place. Solemn vespers will be held in the cathedral at 7 p.mi The apostolic delegate will preside and the celebrant will be Right Rev. Dr J. AVhyte, Catholic Bishop of Dunedin. The sermon will be preached by A r ery Rev. A. H. Ryan, professor of philosophy, at Queen’s University, Belfast.