THE LATE PILGRIMAGE TO ROME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LATE PILGRIMAGE TO ROME.

POPE SPECIALLY BLESSES FIFTEEN HUNDRED BRITISH PILGRIMS. Rome, October To-day has been the great festival— audience with the Pope. Everyone who could possibly drag himself or herself out attended, and not a few have already shown rather painful signs of strain. At the first pilgrimage in 1898 only ninetyfive attended. In the following year the Catholic Association brought over 105. Tins year the total has been increased tenfold, and for the audience our numbers were swollen by the addition of a lot of the visitors in Rome at the present time, who came independent of either section of the pilgrimage. St. Peter's was reserved for the occasion, and 1130 a.m. was the time appointed. But soon after ten o'clock streams of people were to be seen wending their way to the bronze door of the cathedral from all quarters across the vast Piazza di S. Pietro in Vaticano, or to the general entrance for strangers. In like manner the chapels and even the dome appear to be of not more than an ordinary size, but they hold hundreds of people each. Consequently there was plenty of room for the streams of visitors that were conducted in long processions to their appointed places. The spaces reserved for pilgrims were crowded with about 7000 of a motley throng —English, Irish, and Welsh, the men dressed in orthodox " evening dress" or in suits of - Sunday black, and the women mostly in black silks or dark greys, with black lace veils.

The Holy Father came in at about aquarter to twelve o'clock, borne aloft by a dozen stalwarts, and accompanied by thirty or forty of the giants of the Papal Guard, in their quaint and gaudy uniform. His entry from the Vatican entrance was the signal for a round of cheering from at least 30,000 throats.

The passage up the main aisle was marked by a rolling volume of sound and motion. Women waved their handkerchiefs and men their hats, and all shouted their greetings or bowed in submission as his Holiness went by, bestowing his benisons on either land. The Holy Father himself read the benediction prayer, and then descended for the purpose of holding a short reception, at which the English bishops were presented. The Pope afterwards reascended the throne, and was borne away amid the plaudits and shouts of the congregation, who held up multifarious objects of piety to receive the blessing. To the English he gave a special mark of his pleasure, not alone because of the address presented on behalf of the pilgrims, to which his Holiness had given a reply. Afterwards, at a lunch at St. Martha's, the Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. Whiteside) said : " The Holy Father has shown you a special sense of his joy to-day at the audience. You noted how he turned with special affection towards you as he passed the place where you were assembled. You noticed how, after he ha& given his blessing to all the people as he was being carried back, he stood up on the throne and specially blessed the English pilgrims. •' I noticed on my way down that he did that only once, and that was just as he was leaving the basilica and he wished to give one last blessing to the whole of his children in the cathedral. But he reserved to the English pilgrims that special mark of his favour.

"Well, now, I may tell you that the cheers that went up from the English pilgrims pleased the Holy Father and astonished many who were present. One of the Italian bishops came up to me and said, before the prayers had begun, ' What is .that word that the English people are shouting— that hurrah?' I had to explain that that was the English way of showing joy and pleasure."