MO 0 MISSION'S EPIC WORK

Van rings Mass
To Outposts
Since its foundation in 1928 the Southwark Travelling Mission has founded and passed on 14 Mass centres. It visits once a quarter 20 other centres. It is about to open two more. It is a stirring example of the mission at our door of which we ought to be mindful before turning our attention to the mission field abroad next week, on Mission Sunday.
" I am afraid our work is not very spectacular and does not lend itself to a story" —so said the Superior of the Southwark Travelling Mission to the CATHOLIC HERALD.
But there was a challenge behind the laconic announcement, " the centres to be visited this week are :" which appeared so regularly.
But the attitude was admirable, the work was necessary, therefore it was done; there was no story.
34 New Mass Centres
The Southwark Travelling Mission is two priests and a motor van, which from a centre at Croydon go week by week to one or other of twenty centres to say Mass, hear confessions, give the sacraments, visit sick, the waverers and ought-to-be's, and instruct the children, in districts removed from priest and church, There are twenty such centres scattered over the diocese of Southwark. Each centre is visited at least once a quarter.
Fourteen centres have grown sufficiently in Mass attendance to justify a resident priest or weekly Mass. Fourteen places opened by the Motor Mission have since the opening of the mission in 1928 been put permanently on the Catholic map.
No wonder that Mgr. Amigo writes: " I am 1 ery proud of having started the Travelling Mission in our diocese; it has clone a truly apostolic work."
The Centres
What are the " centres "?—well, they are just the opposite of what they are called—they are the outskirts of large parishes, out-of-the-way places and corners of some of the huge tracts of land called parishes, miles from the nearest church, miles from the nearest priest, where it is impossible even for the earnest to get Sunday Mass.
Usually at the invitation of the parish priest, sometimes at the suggestion of the missioner with his permission, sometimes at the instance of an earnest Catholic family, the Travelling Mission is invited to make a village or house a centre.
In a few of our villages we have chapels more or less completely furnished, writes Fr. Fincham. To others we have to bring all that is required: altar, vestments, sacred vessels. Then in hired hall or a room in a private house, the chapel is Net up for our stay. Usually this is from Thursday to Monday. There is daily Mass and, on Sunday, Benediction. During the visit the missioner visits every known Catholic and searches for any others in the district.
Canon Fennessy, writes Fr. Fincham, 'parish priest of Sutton Park, asked us to assist him at Send in 1936. He was able to provide a good list of names, and he took the missioner round the district himself.
We were extremely fortunate here in having an existing small chapel placed at our disposal at Ashburton House. In November, 1936, the first visit was made, and out of a total of about forty, twenty attended the Sunday Mass. Since then the regular quarterly visit has been made, and the attendance has improved greatly.
And Another
In the summer of 1936 the Rev. I. Phillips, of Sevenoaks, approached us with a view to starting a Mass centre at Dunton Green, a growing village about two and a half mites north of Sevenoaks. There were no prominent Catholics in the district to whom we could look for help in the way of providing a room or suitable place for Mass, and so we had to look elsewhere. With the help of Fr. Phillips, we were able to hire Donnington Hall.
On Thursday, December 17, Fr. Phillips and the Missioner set out to visit the Catholics of Dunton Green, most of whom could not or did not go to Mass, We visited about fifteen families, some of whom promised to be present on Sunday, some of whom would give no definite answer, and one or two of whom refused.
The first Mass was said by the Missioner on Sunday, December 20, in Donnington Hall; there were thirty-one people present.
The second visit followed in about a month's time, as is customary with new centres, but was not such an encouraging one. "What, are you here again? We thought you were coming every three months!" was the greeting accorded the Missioner in two or three houses when visiting.
The Cost
Unfortunately, those who benefit most
from it cannot fully support it. This equally applies to all missionary work and in consequence appeals have to be made to those, who arc zealous for the salvation of souls.
The diocese, the Knights of St. Columba, and the Association of Friends of Mission all help—but more are needed to further this heroic pioneering work, aptly described by a Catholic contemporary as a Modern Epic.
The Southwark Travelling Mission (C.T.S. pamphlet) by the Superior, the Rev. H. C. Fincham, tells the story fully, and to him at " The Mount, Duppas Hill Road, Croydon, those interested should apply for further information.