BRITISH UNEMPLOYED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18236, 3 November 1933, Page 2

BRITISH UNEMPLOYED

PILGRIMAGE TO POPE SPECIAL FUND RAISED LONDON. Sept-. 36. J A shabby army nf 420 unemployed Catholics recruited from the street corners of all parts of the British Isles left London for Rome during the week-end on a pilgrimage to the Rope to win special Holy Year indulgences and pray for work. Their journey has been paid for by a fund of £7OOO raised on the initiative 1 of -Mr. Oegrorv MacDonald, a wmer for one of the British Catholic weeklies. His idea was that Catholics who c%»ld not afford to go to Rome themselves might like to subscribe to the fund to send some of the destitute and unemployed—men who have little left except faith in prayer* and trust in the Pope as their friend in time of trouble’.- ' The idea spread like wildfire Until it reached the remotest corners of Britain. The first pilgrims left, the Hebrides oh Friday, and others started from Aberdeen, Galway and the Isle of Man. Glasgow pilgrims left on Friday night amid the singing of hymns and playing of 'brass hands. The Belfast contingent sang hymns as their ship started across the Irish Sea, and 150 more from Lancashire marched through London on their way to the boat train. The, majority of. the travellers are miners, dockers, engineers and cotton workers, but there are also actors, painters, musicians, journalists and school teachers all out of work and all hoping for better luck as a result of their journey. This is believed to be unique among all pilgrimages to Rome during this Hcilv Tear and is reported to have caught! the imagination of the Italian people. After a mass in "Mayfair’s fashionable Farm. Street Church the pilgrims march-' eri to Victoria Station, where banners were blessed before the train left. Thirty helpers and priests are accompanying them.