RETURNING TO THE FOLD

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1905, Page 3

RETURNING TO THE FOLD

Miss Boynton, eldest daughter of Sir Griffith and Lady Boynton, has been received into the Church at Brighton. Lady Boynton's conversion was recorded in our columns a short time ago. Rev. George Albert Cain, lately a curate of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Innocents at Hoboken, New Jersey, has announced his conversion t o the Catholic Faith, and expects soon to begin his studies for the priesthood. The Dowager Countess of Rosslyn has become a con. vert to the Catholic Church. She is the mother of the Duchess of Sutherland and the Countess of Warwick. Sister Mary Joseph, in the world Miss Elizabeth W. Morley, who recently made her profession at the Poor Clares' Monastery, Evansville, Ind., is a daughter of a prominent lace manufacturer in Nottingham, England, and a convert from Anglicanism. Another recent convert to the Catholic Church is the sister of Mrs. Lyttelton, the wife of the Colonial Secretary. ** Mr. H. Down, manager of the National Provincial Bank, Ledbury, England, and his wife and ontire family, together with a number of other members of the Church of Fngland, were received into the Catholic Church at Ledbury on Christmas Eve by the Rev. Father Eegley, rector of the mission. The Rev. F. V. Reade, grrnl-nephew of Charles Roade, the novelist, and lately curate at St Clement's Anglican Church, Cambridge, has also been received into the Catholic Church. The ceremony took place at the Oratory, Edghaston. Mr. Reade has entered the College of St. Bedc, Rome, as an ecclesiastical student Miss Oliphant, 8.A., Hamilton, has been received into the Catholic Chur. h Wilhelmine von Hillern, the novelist of international fame, who has been living for years at Oberammergau, was recently received into the Church. At about the same time the conversion was announced of the dramatic poet, Martin Unterweger, and of his wife, Ihe wellknown authoress, Rosa Stolle. Another recent oonverEion is tjiat of Dr. Ludwig Seidel, fornieily a Protestant preacher and until a short time ago professor in the gymnasium of Ereslau. He will enter a seminary and study for the priesthood. Cayvtain Copeman, R.E.. who has just born elected at a bye-election to the Maidstone Borough Council, has the distinction of being the first Catholic to be elected to anything in the historic capital of Kent since the Reformation. The captain is a convert. He was received into the Church not many months ago by Father Le Bosquet, the rector of the Maidstone mission. In rolitics he is a Tory. But he is not a typical Kentish Tory, for— as befits a near relative of Mr. Rider Hagcard — he has literary tastes. Maidstone, by the way, has grim associations for Irish Catholic^ for on an eminence outside its walls Father O'Coigley was hanged a hundred years ago. The ' Buxton Herald ' (England) of February 1 says: ' Consternation haraiy describes the sensation felt by the peonle of Buxton generally, and by Church people in particular, when the fact became known that the Rev. A. E. Franklin, who has been curate in charge of the mission church of St. Mary's;, Dale 'Road, Buxton, for about two years, had gone over to the Church of Rome. So well had Mr. Franklin kent the secret of his intended secession that not even his most intimate Church friends were taken into his confidence, and the first official intimation that Tie was about to take such a step waa contained In a letter received by the Vicar of Duxton on Saturday morning, to whom it came as a very gpeat shock. The announcement of the fact wias made on Sunday by the clergymen officiating at the various rhiT^hep, and was received with tfhe utmost astonishment by the congregations. It appears that Mr. Franklin was

away on leave of absence and arrangements were made to fill the pulpit of St. Mary's on Sunday last. On Saturday the Vicar received a letter from his curate stating tJhat -he did not propose to resume clerical duties in Buxton, as he had decided to qwit the Church of England, and seek admission to the Church of Rome.

A consoling and edifying spectacle was offered the faitnf.l of Verdun on Sunday afternoon, January 22 (says the Montreal ' True Witness '), when a family of seven persons renounced Protestantism anHi were baptised and received into the Catholic Church. Rev. Father McGinnis, vicar of the parish, in an eloquent discourse, explained the ceremonies connected with holy Baptism, and exhorted his hearers to rejoice in beholding so m»any of their separated brethren become members of the great Catholic family. The new converts are Frederick Thomas Hill, Elizabeth Hamilton, his wife ; Florence, Amelia, Rowland, John Christopher, and George Arthur, their children, and Mr. Henry Miller. This estimable family came from England some time ago and settled in Verdjun. Impressed by the beauty of the Catholic ritual and the great truths of Catholic doctrine, they asked to be instructed in the faith. This wish was granted by Father McGinnis, whose apostolic zeal is co well known. The late Admiral J. L. Hammet, C.V.0., who died at Florence on February 15, on his way home to England. had for some time desired to enter the Catholic Church (says the Lejr.dion ' Tablet '), and was looking forward to being recei.ed on his arrival in England. He was received by Rev. Father Golding Bird, of the Oratorio Di S. Guiseppe, Florence, and on the same day the last Sacraments were administered by Father John Forest, of the F.M. of the parish church of the Ognisisantl. A despatch from New York under date February 28 states that Mr. Leonard Moqdy, the well known real estate dealer of Brooklyn, who had long been treasurer of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and one of the Rev. Dr. Talmage's closest friends, and who on the disruption of the Tabernacle joined the First Reformed Dutch Church, became a Caiholic a few hours 'before his death. The fact that he had been converted was not generally Known until the funeral took place at the house according to the rites of the Catholic Church. Rev. Edward McCarty, rector of St. Augustine's Church, officiated. Mrs. Moody and two of her daughters have been Catholics for several years. Mrs. Moody said t o a reporter : ' I want all the world to know that Mr. Moody died a Cathclic. He had been a Protestant all his life, and I iiad nraved again and again, oh, so hard, that he world see the truth before it was too late. I regard his conversion as a direct answer to my prayers.' The liOndon ' Catholic Weekly ' publishes a letter s-Jent frtom a Hobart lady to Father Caiey, who is buiMing a school for 400 children at Holloway. In sending her donation she says :— ' I wish I could sen-d you rcore, but there 'are many calls on Catholics in Hobart, and therd are schools of our own to be built and many poor needing help. I can picture the kind of neighborhood " Eden Grove " is (no " grove " and less " Eden " abo^it it '), as in mjy Anglican days I worked swine time as a notice with the Sisters of Bethany in Clerkenwell, and always noticed that the places with the most poetic names were just those with the least poetry about them. Eleven years ago I and another novice came out here to work amongst the poor, and five years ago we hotih had the happiness of being received into the True Fold. I am always thankful that as an Anglican neither I nor any <of the Sisters of Bethany ever had the least to 'do with any proselytising efforts, being always much convinced that the " Roman branch" was at any rate the safer way : but we often worked pretty hard to help straying Catholics back home.'