Consecration of a Church.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 49, 5 December 1901, Page 27

Consecration of a Church.

Lourdes, which has seen so many impressive solemnities, has seen few more impressive than those which attended the consecration of the new Church of the Holy Rosary, Lourdes, on Rosary Sunday. The whole of the French episcopate had been invited to attend, and 25 Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops responded to the invitation. The number of clergy and laity who crowded into the famous Pyrenean town was well-nigh innumerable. Foremost among the foreign guests was Bishop Macdonnel, of Brooklyn, U.S.A. The new church contains 15 altars, in memory of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, and 15 bishops were entrusted with the consecration of those altars. Cardinal Langenieux, wko was formerly Bishop of Tarbes, in which diocese Lourdes is situated, and who in that capacity laid the foundations of the new church years ago, had been delegated by the Pope to preside at the ceremony. For some reasons, which it is not easy to understand, a rumor was circulated to the effect that the Government had placed its veto on the Lourdes festivities, and some newspapers had even announced that they would not tako place. The rumor \v.i=;. however, without foundation, and both Cardinal Langenieux and the Bishop of Tarbes stated that they had received no communication of any kind from the Government with regaid to the matter.