RETURNING TO THE FOLD

New Zealand Tablet, 12 February 1914, Page 13

RETURNING TO THE FOLD

Mrs. John F. Milbank, wife of the rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Peter, at Freehold, N'.J., has become a Catholic. Lieutenant-Colonel William Gerlach, U.S.A., of Minneapolis, Minn., has been received into the Church by Right Rev. John J. Lawler, D.D. Colonel Gerlach has been a Lutheran all his life. . . * Lady:Elliott, widow of the late Sir Charles Elliott, Bart., is among the latest converts to the Church, having been recently received at St. James’s, Spanish Place, by Right Rev. Mgr. Benson. Baron Johan Liljencrantz, a Swedish convert who holds the degree of Master of Arts from Princeton, has entered St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, to study for the priesthood. The Rev. W. Anderson, 8.A., Cam., formerly curate of St. Katharine’s, Rotherhithe, Clewer ; Holy Nativity, Bristol : and of St. Cyprian’s, Roath, Cardiff, has been received into the Church at Tunbridge Wells. Mr. Ewart E. Swinstcad, former Anglican curate at All Souls’, Clapham, has recently been received into the Church by Dom Bede Camm, 0.5.8. Mr. Swinstead had been for some years a member of the confraternity of St. Benedict connected with Caldcy. Mrs. Alexander R. Lewis, of Mctuchen, N.J., the only living sister of the well-known novelist, Frank H. Spearman, who is himself also a.convert to the Catholic faith, was received into the Church recently, making the third conversion out of the five children of Simon Spearman, o£ Smyrna, Del. On Saturday, 'November 1 (says the Adelaide Southern (Vo**), Miss Catherina Pflaum was received into the Church at St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral. The ceremony was performed by Father Gatzemeyer, and afterwards Father O’Dowling, S.J. A gave a short address. There were present on the occasion a number of relatives and friends of the new convert, and several of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Rev. Henry B. Sanderson, formerly of Milwaukee, has resigned the pastorate of the Episcopal churches at Oakfield and North Fond du. Lac, Wis., and will enter a seminary to study for the priesthood. ■ lie will be accompanied by Rev. Sigourney Fay, who a short time ago left the diocese of Fond du Lac, where he was rector of an Episcopal church, until he entered the true fold. About ten years ago the Rev. Ernest Rich Grimes, a. member of the Anglicans Cowley Fathers and Precentor of their church at Cowley, St. John, Oxford, became a Catholic. Shortly after his ordination, seven years ago, his Bishop sent him to the little Leicester-shire-town of Earl Shilton, to found a mission. At that time there were but half a dozen Catholics there: to-day the mission numbers 300 souls, all converts of Father Grimes. The New York dailies chronicle the reception into the Church of Mr. Joyce Kilmer, the poet and literary editor of the Lite ran/- I)it/esf , and .Mrs. Kilmer. Mr. Kilmer is the author of .1 Summer of Lore, and is a constant contributor to the leading American periodicals. Mrs. Kilmer is £ step-daughter of Henry M. Alden, the author, and editor of J/urper’x Magazine. They live at Suffern, N.Y., and were both advanced Episcopalians. ‘ An interesting book ’ (says Scanned O’Neill, in the Catholic. Citizen) ‘might be made of notices of the ' convert relatives of great Americans. How many of us, for instance, are aware that among the living bearers of the illustrious name of Washington is an Ursuline nun at Arcadia, Missouri? Or that a great-grandson of Commodore Perry is a Jesuit ? Or that the great-great-granddaughters of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin. Franklin are Catholics? We could fill this entire department with names of other descendants of great Americans who are to-day devout Catholics.’

Major Benjamin H. Randall, who was buried on October 3 from the Pro-Cathedral, Winona, Minn., was received into the Church shortly before his death. His wife, who was Miss Wilhelinina Lange,' a n'ative of Philadelphia, and. who died some . years-, ago,' was a convert of many years’ standing, and their ‘ children were reared in the Catholic faith, of them, the ' Rev. W. E. Randall, being pastor of the Church of the Assumption, St. Louis, Mo. v- Major Randall was one of the pioneer settler:* of Minnesota, and . took an active part in the civic and commercial life 'of his v adopted State. > For the first time since its inception, Westminster' Cathedral was the scene on Saturday, December 20, of an ordination service with High Mass. As a general rule ordinations arc held at the diocesan seminary, but on occasion the ceremony has been held in the Crypt Chapel. Much interest was attached to the ordinandi. The dignity of the priesthood was con ferried upon three former. Anglican clergymen, whose names are Arthur Buckle, Philip Valentin, and Arthur Valentin (brothers).- The sub-diaconate was conferred upon Philip Oddio. .The ceremony, performed by Cardinal Bourne, commenced at 8.45 and . lasted nearly three • hours. The Rev. R. Bodley Furley, formerly curate at Sf. Aidan’s Anglican Church, Roundhay road, Leeds, has been received into the Church. The Vicar of St.' Aidan's, the Rev. W. V. Mason, writing in the parish magazine, says:—‘The news that Mr. Furley has decided not to return to/St. Aidan’s came as a great shock and disappointment to many of us. Mr. Furley had acted as one of the four curates of St, Aidan’s Church, Roundhay road, Leeds. After receiving Anglican Orders, he went to Leeds in 1911. His training was received at the House of the Resurrection, Mirfield. Last August Mr. Furley’s health broke down, and he left Leeds to recuperate. He has not resumed duty in the parish since. The Church has many Hebrews among its converts here in America, who have faced racial ostracism be*cause of the courage of their convictions (says the Pilot). Once the light of faith is given.to them they do have the courage to openly confess their convictions. Among those of the Jewish people who have become, priests*are Revs. James Veit, of New York City: Rev. Hilary Rosenfeld, 0.5.8., of Davenport, la., and Rev. Paul Schaffel, D.D. (he changed his first name from Raul to Paul), of St. Rose’s Church, Racine, Wis. Then there are Brother Anthony, of the Society of the Atonement, and Brother Walter, of the Alexian Brothers, and Miss Blanco Elkan, of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Boston. The laity includes Henry Rosgorschek, of the Union Pacific Railway, Omaha; Immanuel Moses Casanowise, Ph.D. (John Hopkins University), assistant curator in the division of historic archaeology in the National Museum, Washington, and formerly professor of Hebrew in the Presbyterian seminary, Bloomfield, N.J. •, Madame Selma Kronold, operatic star ; the Baroness GrefTenrell, of Paris, formerly a member of Temple Immanuel, New York ; Nathali A. Karper, of Galveston, son of Rabbi Joachim Karper, of Prague, Bohemia; Miss Segel, of Newark; David Goldstein, of Boston; Miss Bertha Hoßeuder, of Syracuse, N.Y. ; Miss Mary AVlad’slawa, of Brooklyn ; Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Goldstein, of Baltimore; and Solomon Gottlieb, of North Adams, Mass. -