MASS FOR WOMEN

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20440, 5 March 1938, Page 8

MASS FOR WOMEN

CATHOLIC ASSEMBLY IMPRE6BIVE BPEOTACLE PLACE OF THE VIRGIN' MARY (By Telegrapn.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Saturday. After a stormy night the weather cleared this morning sufficiently for the big open air Mass for women at the Western Springs Stadium to be proceeded with and again there was an attendance of thousands to take part in the scenes of spectacle and devotion. Associated with the Mass was a gathering of the Children of Mary, many hundreds of women in the blue frocks and white veils of the Sodality forming a big square In faont of the altar. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Simmonds, of Hobart, and an eloquent address was delivered by the Very Rev. Dr. A. H. Ryan, professor of philosophy at Queen’s University, Belfast. Taking as bis text “ Whatsoever He shall say to you do ye,” I)r. Ryan stressed the place of the Virgin Mary in Catholic Devotion. It was alleged, he said, that Catholics gave her too much honour, thus forgetting the Divine Son, that Catholics adored her and through mariolatry, as they called it, the Church had destroyed the pure monotheism of Christianity. Following God’s Example Such charges were due to Ignorance or calumny. The teaching of the Church was for God alone. Mary was always a creature, never divine. In honouring her above all creatures, however, the Church merely followed the example of God Himself. Those who began by separating Mary from Jesus ended by forgetting both. He urged the congregation to mould themselves on the life of Mary In accordance with her words quoted In the text. All were called upon as she was to submit themselves to God’s will—in the duties to the State, in the relations with a neighbour, In health and sickness. In poverty and riches, in joy and sorrow. Above all, Mary should be made the model of purity. That was the greatest bulwark against modern attacks on Christian morality. Those who succumbed to new ideas would he the first to pay the price. Their lot was the degradation of ancient paganism from which Christianity had rescued them.