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now producing them at the rate of two a week.
Out of this Katholikentag is corning a small settlement of workers' houses with a church or so in the non-Catholic "Diaspora." These will arise as a result of the offerings of 250,000 Catholics.
This, however, is only a side issue. What is important is the spirit of prayer and devotion which one sees.
Loudspeakers at every street corner have been blaring forth a Catholic service from one end of Fulda to another. This technical achievement sets a tone and note; that tone is one of prayer and devotion.
Unforgettable are the torchlight processions of the relics of St. Boniface and other saints; unforgettable the Pontifical Mass with some 250.000-people present on the "Festplatz" outside the town.
Unforgettable, too, is the final public gathering this afternoon with a quarter of a million people singing those wonderful German hymns; but equally so the churches crowded daily throughout the town with communicants and people waiting for con fe,,ion; and—for such gatherings have their hardships the crowded camping places and the emergency lodging arrangements.
Over all has stood the motto, "Ye shall be my witnesses," and the gigantic figure of St, Boniface.
Witness to the Catholic Faith, founded upon the Rock of Peter, the centre of Unity. was the thread running through every speech, every manifestation.
"We must witness to the whole Catholic Faith," declared the Archbishop of Paderborn at this morning's great Pontifical Mass, "even it some things. such as the consecration of Germany to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, do offend, as that has offended our separated brethren.
Co-operation
"We have in recent years learned to work in co-operation with our separated brethren, and those who wish to make political capital out of our differences will not succeed.
"Rut the days of religious conflict were at least a testimony to the fact that men thought religious truth was important. We must beware of an interdenominationalism based on indifference."
Public and private witness to the Catholic Faith, declared Prof. Dr. Siewerth, of Aachen, involves public and private witness to the Catholic Church. its Hierarchy and its organisation.
"Only he can have God for his Father who has the Church for his Mother."
If we take a "neutral" attitude in our public and business employment, we help to build up systems under which human dignity and freedom are due to be broken, and that at no distant time.
Our witness, declared Dr. Siewerth, begins in our own homes. with our family prayers — the family Rosary has evidently not penetrated the German home — and our readiness to talk on religious matters with our own children.
Dr. Sicwcrth struck a note, never indeed silent in Catholic Germany but perhaps in recent years somewhat obscured : "We cannot be satisfied to 'coexist' in a friendly way with our 'separated brethren.' We must bear witness to the one indispensable Catholic Church."
But St. Boniface stands for something else, too—the missionary work of the Church exemplified by that series of speakers from Asia and Africa who called upon the Catholics of Germany to give the help they so sorely needed,
Dr. Adenauer. the Federal Chancellor, absent from Fulda owing to the present political crisis, sent a message of warning against the menace of Communism and the destruction of personal freedom and of all Christian life which must follow its vietory.
Christians must be more active and more watchful in political matters than ever before, he declared. Yet politics were not enough, and the individual could he touched only by the Christian charity of individual Christians.