PROGRESS OF CATHOLICISM IN ENGLAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 144, 4 February 1876, Page 7

PROGRESS OF CATHOLICISM IN ENGLAND

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the re-establishment of the hierarchy in England was celebrated by a solemn thanksgiving in the Catholic churches and chapels of that country on Sunday the 13th inst. At the pro-cathedra in London, Cardinal Manning preached to a crowded congregation. His sermon is thus summarized by the ' Irish Times:' — His Eminence said it was about this time twenty-five yearathat the Holy Father set his hand and seal to one of the greatest acts of his life, whereby he established once more the Catholic Episcopacy of the Church in England, and re-united it again to the great body of pastors who were throughout the world the successors of the Apostles. When this act was done it was received with an outburst of human fear and animosity which could not have been if the English people had not been misled, if those in whom they trusted had been wiser in their judgment and calmer in their words. He might say that on Wednesday last, the Feast of St. Michael, the Bishops of England laid before the Holy Father a letter of thanks for his act, whereby he restored the hierarchy of the church in our land. What was the effect of the restoration of the hierarchy ? It gave back to England thirteen dioceses, and in place of these honorable names, dear in their history, other names were selected for the sees in the charity of prudence, lest needless offence be given, and so as to avoid all rivalry and collision. After three hundred years the Church met once more in council, and the Catholic Church in England at this moment was a living body, united with its universal organization. He would only say now that the restoration of the hierarchy had doubled the Church schools, classes, colleges, and every kind of ecclesiastical organization and spiritual work. A quarter of a century had done a work which twenty-five years ago any one would conceive would be the work of one hundred years. Seventy years after Augustine planted the See of Canterbury, Christianity had spread over the whole of Saxon England, Twentyfive years after Pius IX. restored the hierarchy to England, the action of that hierarchy had spread itself over the face of the whole land, and had doubled the resources of the spiritual work. Again he suid that the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy was a great benefit to England itself. Why did he say the restoration of the Catholic hierarcy had been a benefit to England ? Because in the midst of confusion it had restored once more the visible authority of the universal Church of God. Ho believed the time would come when people would say they wore tired of these contentions. They had been wandering until they had lost themselves in tho dark ; and he believed those who came after them would see the heart and intellect of England turn back again to that Christianity, to the divine witness which never wavered. In conclusion his Eminence asked tho congregation to pray for the Holy Father Pius IX,