FAITH MANIFEST

Southland Times, Issue 22450, 10 December 1934, Page 7

FAITH MANIFEST

MEMORABLE SCENES EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION THOUSANDS LINE ROUTE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) Melbourne, Dec. 9. Midnight Masses in all the churches on Saturday night prepared the Congress visitors for the great Eucharistic procession this afternoon with which the Congress virtually ended. The day was dull but fine. From an early hour crowds began to swarm towards the city. Special trains and trams were run and all roads were packed with motor traffic. When the procession was due to begin, it is estimated that 300,000 were lining the twomile route, beginning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

A procession comprising 600 prelates and priests and 60,000 laymen followed the principal city streets, ending at Mount Stevens Hospital, the city’s principal Catholic hospital where, from a platform on a facade high above the street, Cardinal Macßory pronounced the final Benediction.

Elaborate preparations were necessary for handling such a vast march and 12 amplifiers were installed at various points on the route so at no time any part of the procession was out of range of the singing and directions from the control point tower at St. Patrick’s. Cross-bearers holding aloft a replica of the cross of Congress led the march, followed immediately by 6000 white-veiled Children of Mary, clad in white with blue capes. Carrying symbolic banners, they were the only women in the march. Marching 10 abreast, there followed 40,000 laymen from metropolitan and country parishes, monks and friars in their sombre habit singing hymns and chanting the Rosary. Colour was provided by the brilliant vestments of the hierarchy. Silence fell upon the throng as the Host approached under a canopy, preceded by 100 flower girls scattering blossoms. The spectators dropped to their knees as the Host, carried by the Cardinal, went by. The great event, which was the largest procession ever seen in Melbourne, taking more than two hours to pass a given point, went off without any untoward incident. Efficient organization marked every phase of the final scene in front of Mount Saint Wins, where 200,000 people heard the Benediction. It was a spectacle which will live long in the memory as the closing event of a memorable week in Melbourne’s Catholic history. . TRIUMPH OVER DISCOMFORT WOMEN KNEEL IN RAIN. REMARKABLE DEMONSTRATION OF FAITH. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) Melbourne, Dec. 9. Fifty thousand women knelt in the rain at Mass at the showgrounds on Saturday morning. The ceremony was a counterpart of the men’s eucharistic night on Thursday. Of the many remarkable demonstrations of Catholic faith this week, none displayed so much triumph of spirtuality over discomfort. The colourfulness of the scene was spoiled by the rain, but significant pageantry prevailed. The sermon was preached by the Most Rev. Richard Downey, discussing the new morality which he described as the old immorality with the thin veneer of respectability. He described a valiant woman nowadays as one who stood up against the current views and was not swayed by lax conventions and not dazzled by the glitter of the smart set and not seduced into frivolous behaviour. The old portrait of the female homewrecker had lost none of its actuality. It seemed that fashions in folly varied little in 3000 years. When people spoke of broadmindedness in religion, it should be borne in mind that error is broad and truth is narrow.