MILLION WORSHIPPERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21161, 19 April 1932, Page 6

MILLION WORSHIPPERS.

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. DUBLIN'S PREPARATIONS. PROCESSION 17 MILES LONG. A gathering of a million Roman Catholic worshippers, and a procession seventeen miles long, are among the features of the coming international Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, which will provide a spectacle unparalleled in the history of that city. In addition to the presence of the Papal Legate and a host of cardinals anc 1 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, delegates will attend the congress from all parts of the world. It will be quite impossible for all who come to find indoor accommodation during the week, June 20 to 26, when, the congress is to be held, either in the city or its environs, and preparations are being made for a huge openair camp at Artane. For the purpose of tho camp, 2000 bell tents and 6000 beds are being provided. In addition the steamers to be chartered to convey visitors from Great Britain will remain, in Dublin Harbour throughout the week and will serve as hotels for their passengers. While tho congress is on the city will be transformed. The sum of £15,000 is to bo spent on the erection of triumphal arches and other decorative effects. The buildings will be hidden by thousands of congress flags and bunting, and millions of flowers will 1 add their beauty and perfume to the occasion. Choir of 500 Voices. Two altars are to be specially built for the solemn pontifical High Mass on Sunday, June 26. One will be in Phoenix Park and the other on O'Connel Bridge. -7. This is tho service which is expected to attract a million people. The celebrant will be the Cardinal Legate, and a choir composed of 500 men and boys will lead the singing. Following this gathering will come the Procession of tho Blessed Sacrament, which, with the processionists eighty abreast, will fill the city Streets for seventeen miles. Extraordinary measures have been taken to ensure that the hymns and prayers from this multitude shall be synchronised. Scores of loud-speakers will be used. The robes of the High Church dignitaries will add a brilliant touch to the general blaze of colour and beauty 'throughout the week. There will be special services at the Pro-Cathedral and all Roman Catholic churches on Wednesday of Congress week. The city will be flood-lighted throughout the night, and an added charm will be provided to the wonderful scene by the lighted candles that will flicker from scores of thousands of windows of the houses of devout Roman Catholics. , Separate Mass meetings will be held for men and women in Phoenix Park, and Saturday's gathering will be brightened by the presence of a great concourse of " children, the little girls all dressed in white and carrying suitable emblems. Twenty thousand stewards have been appointed to control the crowds. For such a memorable event the city is to be spring cleaned, all the statues and public buildings are to be relieved of the grime of time, and the bridges over the Liffey are to be repainted. Blonouring St. Patrick's Memory. Dublin has/ been chosen as the venue of the thirty-first international Eucharistic Congress because this year Ireland is celebrating the fifteenth centenary of tho landing of St. Patrick on the island. The two events will suffice to bring back home Irish pilgrims from many lands. During Congress week the famous iron Mass bell of St. Patrick, one of Ireland's most treasured r.elics, will bo taken from its home in the National Museum and will be used at the Papal Legate's Mass in Phoenix Park. A small army of interpreters is to bo provided to c°P p with the many languages that will be heard in the city that week. Shopkeepers and others are faced with the tremendous problem of dealing with commissariat arrangements for the influx of visitors, and in an effort to do their share in coping with this task market gardeners for miles around have sown immense quantities of vegetable seeds.