A PILGRIMAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 14, 7 April 1927, Page 13

A PILGRIMAGE

Across the Tasman Eucharistic Congress N.Z.’S SPECIAL STEAMER 1928 will witness the greatest pilgrimage ever undertaken from New Zealand shores. New Zealand pilgrims bound for the Eucharistic Congress at Sydney, will participate in the largest religious gathering ever held under the Southern Cross. So large will the New Zealand delegation be that is is quite possible that a special steamer will be chartered. The veteran Archbishop Redwood, of Wellington, the oldest Roman Catholic bishop in the world, will lead the New Zealand “faithful” on this new crusade. Already a special steamer has been chartered from the Matson line to carry the American pilgrims from San Francisco. Other dignitaries will pass through Auckland by the VancouverSydney route prior to September of next year. PAPAL LEGATE COMING The Pope will appoint a Papal legate to preside at the congress which synchronises with the completion of the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, the largest and most perfect specimen of Gothic architecture in this part of the world. So numerous will be the Continental delegation that a steamer will be chartered to bring these pilgrims to Australia. Archbishop Redwood, Archbishop O’Shea, Bishops Cleary, Liston, Whyte and Brodie have issued a pastoral to their New Zealand people in respect to this momentous gathering, which will be on a similar scale to that so successfully held at Chicago last year. “This joint pastoral is intended to bring to your knowledge the great importance of this congress,” said the bishops, in the message read in Auckland churches on Sunday, “and the many advances, spiritual and temporal, you may derive from your presence at it, or by your efforts to promote it and secure its success.” WOMAN’S INSPIRATION The bishops recall how the international Eucharistic Congress arose in a humble manner. It came as a happy inspiration from a woman. Martha Mary Tamisier, who was born at Tours in 1534. “Among the pious pictures shown to her after her First Communion,” they say, “she was greatly impressed by two which represented the loneliness and annihilation of Our Lord in the Sacred Host.” Gazing at the former she resolved to bear Him lifelong company. The other suggested that she should be annihilated with her Lord, and lead a life of obscurity and humiliation. It appeared to this Frenchwoman that frequent great pilgrimages would induce greater religious interest. On appealing to the Sovereign Pontiff, her suggestion was acted upon. As a result the first Congress was held at Lille. The last, the biggest of all, was held at Chicago in 1926. To Catholics it was a great demonstration of world-wide faith to which the superb pageantry was but the outward expression.

SPECIAL BADGE SANCTIONED

Archbishop Kelly, of Sydney, has sanctioned an official badge for the Congress. It has a cross for the central figure, the foot of which rests on the open Scriptures; on the cross is emblazoned the word “Credo,” which is the Latin for “I believe,” indicating the Roman Catholic belief in the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. A chalice stands on the right of the cross, and the Southern Cross forms part of the background. The open Bible at the base of the badge rests on a scroll bearing the words “Eucharistic Congress, Sydney, September, 1928.”

Committees in Auckland, a- in other parts of the Dominion, are already making preparation for the pilgrimage across the Tasman.