SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 3 October 1918, Page 21

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

General Mangiu, whose name has acquired new renown because of the achievements of the armies under his command in the present ‘Allied advance, has (states an exchange) a brother who is a White Father of the African Missions. Before the first battle of the Marne Ferdinand Foch said to one of his chaplains: “We are to make our supreme effort in arms to-morrow. Do you also make a supremo effort in prayer. All my trust is in God.” After the victory he wrote to the Bishop of Cahors: “Monseigneur, do not thank me, but Him to whom victory alone belongs.’’ Such is the spirit of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies whom we salute to-day. Kev. Chaplain Duffy, of New York’s fighting “Sixty-ninth,” is reported to have been recommended for the French Legion of Honor for 117 hours of continuous work on the field of battle during a recent Franco-American drive. Chaplain Duffy is reported to have worked among the wounded, obtaining confessions, bearing stretchers, and taking last messages. In Stars and Stripes, the paper published by the United States troops in France, is recorded the remarkable fact that the offerings of the American soldiers at the various French churches where the Catholics go to Mass have materially aided the French poor. The American Catholics, trained to offer ten cents, for seat money and to put something on the plate as well, pay their half-franc just as they would at home. As the French Catholics do not have the custom of making an offering of that size for a seat the resulting increase in receipts has enabled many a French priest to give a very much greater sum than would otherwise be possible to the poor of the parish. The charity thus distributed is the result of American Catholics, none too well off themselves, being in France to fight for France and the United States, and in their own way relieving the wants of the needy in France by a channel that few of us have ever thought of as ,possible or of any size whatever. The Basilica of Montmartre, the big votive church that rises above Paris, has been since August, 1914, the scene of many gatherings, but seldom has it been so thronged as was the case on the feast of the Sacred Heart. During the whole of the night devout worshippers kept watch before the Blessed Sacrament, and both at High Mass and at Vespers thousands of pilgrims filled not only the church but the adjoining squares and streets. They came not from curiosity, but from an ardent desire to win God’s blessings for our soldiers. Those who remained outside prayed and sang as fervently as the more favored people who found places within the basilica. Among these the Government was, of course, not officially represented, but members of the Senate, of the Chamber of Deputies, and of the French Academy were there individually, "besides thousands of officers, soldiers, and refugees. Many of the fighting men were wounded, and their halting steps and pale faces bore witness to the sufferings they had undergone. K. OF C. CLUB IN LONDON. On. the Saturday following the Fourth of July his Eminence Cardinal Bourne blessed the foundation stone of a Knights of Columbus Club which is to be