RETURNING TO THE FOLD

New Zealand Tablet, 2 January 1913, Page 22

RETURNING TO THE FOLD

The 'Yorkshire Evening Evens announces that Mr. Leonard 11. Peyton, lay reader at All Saints’, North street, York, has become a convert to the Catholic Church. A recent notable convert to the Faith is Mr. Hugh Law, M.P. for West Donegal. He is the second son of a former Lord Chancellor of Ireland-, and was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford. Dr. 0. C. Hollister, one of' the oldest and bestknown physicians of Portland, Ore., whose death was recently announced, was received into the Catholic Church a few days previous to his passing away. The Rev. A. E. Caldecott, M.A., Anglican rector of Drewsteignton, Devon, was received into the Catholic Church on Saturday, September 28, by the Very Rev. Canon Higgins, at St. Augustine’s Priory, Newton Abbot. On July 29, in the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York, Mrs. Walter F. McEntire, wife of Attorney McEntire, was received into the Catholic Church by Rev. M. J. Scott, S.J. Mrs. McEntire is a daughter of the late Gerard 0. Kalb, of St. Louis. After studying for three years to become an Episcopal clergyman, Mr. Malcolm Ayres, son of Representative Stephen B. Ayres, of the Bronx, New York City, has renounced that faith and is preparing to become a priest in the Catholic Church. The New York daily papers chronicle the withdrawal of three students Messrs. Charles Danford, Raymond Lawrence, and Graham Reynolds- from the Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Chelsea, for the purpose of entering a Catholic seminary to study for the priesthood. . ,Mrs. Macnamara, wife of Dr. J. T. Macnamara, Parknasilla, Lewisham Park (one time County Councillor for Rotherhithe on the L.C.C.), was recently received into the Church at Holy Trinity, Dockhead, by Father E. Murnane, assisted by Father W. P. Hallett, of St. George’s Cathedral, London. ’

Rev. Curtis J. Hornsby, recently ordained at Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis, is a convert to the Church. He, with his entire family, including his father,-three brothers, and a sister, were baptised by Rev. Thomas Mullen, formerly of Pptosi, Mo., and now pastor of St. Malachy’s, St. Louis. The Hornsby family were Presbyterians. /

Four, converts to the Catholic faith have been received into the Church at Fort Augustus since the beginning of Sepember (says the Glasgow Observer). Among them was the Rev. A. J. Wetherell, sometime minister in charge of the Episcopalian Church at Forfar. The ceremony of Mr. Wetherell’s reception at St. Benedict’s Abbey was attended by three ex-Anglican clergymen, all themselves converts to Catholicism, namelyßev. Dom Martin Wall, 0.5.8., M.A., Cantab.; Mr. J. F. Scholfield, M.A., Cantab.; and Mr. J. C. Thompson, 8.A., Cantab. Mr. Walton Lockyer Merewether, for many years Crown Prosecutor and acting-Judge in New South Wales, died at his home at Double Bay on November 18. His father, Mr. Henry Alworth Merewether, was one of the last Sergeants-at-Law in England, and the son, who was educated at Eton and Oxford, practised for some time at the English Bar before coming to Australia in the early seventies. The late Mr. Merewether, who was in his 66th year, was received into the Church at St. Ignatius’ College, Riverview, many years ago, and to the end of his days he was a most practical Catholic.

Rev. William Jurney, for two years assistant pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, South Brooklyn, N.Y., has resigned and has been received into the Catholic Church. Public announcement to this effect was made recently at St. Paul’s by the Rev. William Wilson, the pastor. Mr. Jurney’s intention is to become a priest, and he will take a six years’ course of study. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. The conversion was brought about by the Rev. John G. Fitzgerald, pastor of St. Stephen’s Catholic Church South Brooklyn. It began many months ago. While both clergymen were doing missionary work among the poor of the district they met and discussed religion. Mr. Jurney was impressed, and decided to embrace Catholicism.

Rev. Cyprian Marchant, 0.P., has been ordained by Bishop Foley, of Detroit, acting for the Bishop of Cleveland. . Father Marchant is a convert from. Episcopalianism. He was studying for the Episcopal ministry at Kenyon College, when he chanced to attend Lenten services in the Catholic church in Glenville, Ohio, and was so impressed that he sought an interview with the pastor, Rev. Thomas F. Mehan, who afterwards baptised him, and who preached at his first Mass in Cleveland. He at first met with strong opposition from the members of his own family, but soon had the great happiness of seeing his parents and his brothers and sisters all converted. One of his brothers has entered the Dominican Order, and was deacon at the first Mass.

Many people (says the Catholic Times) will deplore the death and the closing days, of Mr. Richard Temple (a Catholic), the famous Savoy actor, who passed away recently at Charing Cross Hospital, whither he had journeyed a fortnight before to undergo an operation. The late Mr. Temple, as soon as he realised the serious nature of his illness, expressed a desire to receive the ministrations of a Catholic priest. His wish was soon granted. He was instructed and received into the Church some weeks before the end by Father McKenna, of Westcliff-on-Sea, in whose choir he had often sung at High Mass. The last sacraments were also administered to him, and one of his last conscious acts was a profession of his firm belief in the Holy Catholic and Roman Faith. J

• l r ‘ ii k- Wharton Hcwison, 8.A., was received into the Church on September 24, at the Dominican I nory, Haverstock Hill (says the London Universe) Mr. Hewison was given deacon’s orders in the Anglican Church in 1898 by Bishop Browne, of Bristol,

and was licensed to the curacy of St. Simon, Bristol. In the following year the Bishop required his consent to certain opinions of his own on ecclesiastical matters, in addition to the requirements of the Prayer Book. Mr. Hewison refused to consent to any of these, and in consequence was debarred from Orders. The controversy attracted considerable public notice. This position continued till June, 1903, when ill-health compelled Mr. Hewison to leave Bristol. He was ordained by Bishop Gore, and became senior curate for two years of St. Jude's, Birmingham. • In 1905 he joined the staff of St. Augustine's, Stepney, under Mr. Richard Wilson, a church at'which Father Cocks formerly worked. He left Stepney in 1910, and has since held curacies at Holy Innocents’, Hammersmith, W., and St. Andrew’s, Haverstock Hill, N.W.

Dr. Emilio Gouchon, who died in this city on August 9 (says the Buenos Aires Southern Cross), at the comparatively early age of 52, was a man of more than mediocre talent. He took an active part in Argentine politics with voice and pen. In Congress he was a tireless worker and was the initiator of several Parliamentary Bills. He occupied several public posts from time to time, and was a facile writer. Dr. Gouchon was almost a monomaniac on the subject of religion, or rather irreligion. During his active career he was an uncompromising and relentless opponent of the Catholic Church, and was one of the most determined advocates of divorce. One of the reasons why certain Masonic rites favor divorce is that they imagine it would strike a mortal blow at the Church which has ever been opposed to it. Dr. Gouchon was grand master of the Freemasons. His character was courteous and genial, and his private attitude towards Catholicity . often differed so widely from his public speeches and policy that one might think he never absolutely renounced the old faith. Be that as it may, it is a fact that he had his children baptised in the Basilica of Lujan, and when the end was near he renounced Freemasonry and sent for a priest to absolve him, and administer the last rites of the Church against which he had striven so persistently and yet so hopelessly.