"A ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 17, 21 August 1885, Page 23

"A ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION."

The report has been written by a " Congregational Minister" in the Christian World, a Protestant newspaper :— On Thursday, June 4, I witnessed a very interesting ceremony in a quiet back street of the parish of Ldmehouse, East Bad. The occasion was the opening and consecration of some Roman Catholio schools by Cardinal Manning. The schools are connected with a mission conducted by the Rev. Father Maples, one of the most devoted and beloved of the clergy of the Boman Catholic Church at the East. The service had just commenced when I arrived. The company consisted largely of children, bright, and many of them pretty to a degree. The rest of the assembly consisted of Boman Catholic clergy and ladies and gentlemen. One exception only. A well-known East-end Congregational minister was there, and received a very marked an! cordial greeting from his Eminence. The. first function of the occasion was the presentation by three children of an illuminated address to the Cardinal. The little. girl who recited its contents did so with much giace and gentle self* possession . They Bpoke of themselves as the children of the Car* dinal, and he certainly talked to them with almost motherly tender* ness and love. The early struggles of their mission wore referred to with a very gracious kindness. The mission in Limehouse was the Cardinal's thought, and he told how he asked the young, good* looking priest at his side to take it up. He was poor, and bis chief had nothing to give him ; many difficulties beset the work ; but " by the blessing of God " they had been overcome, and '• the long looked-for and prayed-for day had come at last." To the children the words spoken were full of tender and beautiful touches, and carried with them the sympathy of the few Protestants present. Purity of life, loviagness of disposition, and true loyalty to their faith and to God, was the burden of the brief address. After the address came the religious service, Tb« Cardinal was dressed in a scarlet biretta, a long cassock, lined with scarlet. He read a few prayers in Latin, and then consecrated the school by the sprinkling of water. After which he offered a very simple and beautiful prayer of consecration, repeated by all present. In a further address the Cardinal called the children's attention to their green ribbons, the badge of the League of the Cross. He urged upon the children prayerful faithfulness to their pledge, and quite touched every heart by calling the faithful boys " his boiy» guard." The children sang some hymns and one or two secular songs. The neighbourhood is poor, but the brightness, cleanliness and intelligence of the children were most notable. After a little interregnum the company adjourned to the infant school, when the same ceremony, the Cardinal seated under a canopy, was in some measure repea'ed. The scene outside was notable ; the poor were gathered in a closely packed crowd, waiting to greet his Eminence. There was much that was most impressive. 'I he secret of the marvellous power of the Boman Catholic cli-rgy seemed in a measure revealed— great devotion, implicit obedience, and a very patient hopefulness in the face of manifold difficulties. There was remarkable freedom in the whole ceremony from anything like bigoted or excessive Boman ism — with just a few crosses removed and one sentence left out of the address, there was little in what was said or done with which Mr. Spurgeon could not have agreed— and the somewhat old-fashioned Anti-Romanism of days pa9t seemed impossible in that little school in the quiet, poor street in Limehouse. The power of Cardinal Manuing not only over his own people, but over many others, is remarkable, Its secret is perhaps complex, but a deep human sympathy, especially with children, and the poor, is part of it. There were many expressions of reverence both by adults and children, which seemed strange to Protestant eyes; but the sincerity with which the children looked, listened, and applauded was quite evident. His children, as his Eminence called them, seemed quite at home with him, and every face was more filled with a kind of truthfulness than with awe or superstitious reverence.