SECRET OF THE MOULDY CELLAR..

'CH.' Liverpool Correspondent ADOCUMENT of considerable interest has recently been unearthed in a mouldy cellar in Lancashire.
It is an autograph message in Italian written by Pope St. Pius X and dated March 21, 1908.
The discovery was made at the Jesuit Retreat House, Loyola Hall, Rainhill. It has now been framed and occupies a place of honour in the main entrance.
The Jesuit Fathers took over Rainhill Hall, the ancestral home of the Stapleton-Bretherton family, in 1923. By then, of course, the lay retreat movement had got over its teething stage.
It was in 1908 that Fr. Charles Plater, a Jesuit scholastic, inspired the establishment of the first retreat house for laymen at Compstall Hall, near Manchester. This followed the successful experiment of a retreat for the Catholic working men of Accrington, held at Stonyhurst College in the previous year.
Fr. Plater saw this work as ancillary to the study of the Papal encyclicals, in which the Catholic Social Guid had its real beginning.
A total of 108 men attended retreats in 1908, but by 1914, at Oakwood Hall, which had supplanted Compstall, the average had risen to 400.
In the current year over 3,000 men have made retreats at Loyola Hall. Here are also promoted Leadership Courses for the Royal Air Force, Industrial Leadership Courses and day retreats for school leavers.
When the work was beginning the English Jesuit Provincial wrote to the Holy Father asking his blessing. Pope Pius X wrote his reply at the foot of the letter. He said: "We welcome this salutary enterprise and, whilst we tender sincere thanks to its beloved author, we affectionately grant to all promoters of this holy work, the Apostolic Blessing." As further evidence of his interest the Pope sent a chalice and paten, which is in regular use at Loyola Hall.