TREMENDOUS SUCCESS OF MISSION EXHIBITION IN LONDON
TO-DAY, FRIDAY, THE TWO MOST EXHAUSTED BUT HAPPIEST PRIESTS IN ENGLAND SHOULD BE MGR. GEORGE TELFORD AND FR. HERBERT KELDANY. FOR IT WAS THEY WHO CONCEIVED, PLANNED, ORGANISED AND RAN THE " HELP THE MISSIONS " WEEK AT WESTMINSTER, WHICH CLOSED YESTERDAY.
The Week was to celebrate the centenary of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith.
The proceedings included a centenary sermon preached in Westminster Cathedral by Mgr. Telford, National Director of the A.P.F., a display of native and missionary exhibits in the Cathedral grounds, a missionary. play, and an exhibition of Native Art, organised by the Grail.
All the missionary orders had their stalls, in which was shown something of their work in far-off lands.
Interest was aroused by the presence of a black priest and a native Indian nun, a Franciscan Missionary of Mary.
The keynote of the proceedings was struck by Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, when in his inaugural address he said: " In the Dominions and Colonies we have scope for missionary work which no other people in the world can enjoy."
CARDINAL HINSLEY ON BRITAIN'S TOLERANCE
" I want to express my joy at the freedom which the Catholic missions enjoy in the binds under the British Flag. In the Dominions and the Colonies we have scope for missionary work which no other people in the world can enjoy."
Cardinal Hinsley made this tribute to the tolerance of the Empire Governments amidst great applause when lie was speaking at the opening of the Missions Exhibition in Westminster Cathedral grounds last Saturday.
Seven bishops were present during his speech, as well as many missionary priests. They sat on a raised platform before a giant portrait of the Pope.
The Cardinal described the history of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, since its beginning a century ago in the France that
was just recovering from the ruins of the Revolution.
" His Heart is in Africa " One great change happened during the nineteenth century, "the initiative for the support of MISSIOns missed from
the monarchs and the powers to the people."
Pauline Jaricot, silk worker of Lyons, brought to the people a new sense of responsibility for the missions by inducing her friends, workers like herself, to pray for the missions and to give one halfpenny a week towards their maintenance. Her ideas spread across the world.
" To-day we in England must realise that it is our duty—your duty and my duty as Catholics — to support the missions."
Archbishop-Bishop Amigo, in replying to the Cardinal's speech, said: " In spite of all that the Cardinal has to do here in London his heart is in Africa still." The Archbishop described all the work which was done by Cardinal Hinsley during his years in the mission countries, "He was a man who could not be fatigued—almost an American."
Model Clinics, Villages After his opening speech the Cardinal with the bishops made a tour of the exhibition. They saw in all the sections controlled by the missionary orders: the Jesuits, Salesians, Holy Ghost Fathers, Mill Hill Fathers, White Fathers, and Fathers of the Divine Word; the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Helpers of the Holy Souls, the Catholic Medical Missionaries, the triumphs and the difficulties of the Church in the Congo, in North Africa, India, China, Burma. .
Members of the missionary orders explained to them and to the people who came after them the characteristics of the districts they evangelised, the way in which their schools and clinics were run, the manner in which their churches were built, the customs and superstitions, enmities and friendliness of the people among whom they preached.
In Cathedral Hall was the exhibition of native Christian art, arranged by the Grail.
From China, Annarn, North America, Africa, Japan, India, Russia, Java, had come paintings and sculptures and carvings and embroideries done by the Christians of those places, and in the traditions of those places.
In the North American section there were copies of the Hail Mary in the languages of some of the Indian tribes.
In the languages of the Crec Indians, of the Apache Indians, of the Blackfoot, and the Assinabain, the Cheyenne, the Choctaw, the Dakota, Flathead, Kootenai, Iroquois, Menominee, Penobscot, Pima, Yucatec and others.
Angels Carrying Lanterns
From China had come paintings on silk: one of the Holy Family in Winter, by Lu Hung-Nien, unbearably cold in grey and white and blue, the only warmth was in the robe of Our Lady, which was crimson. The picture of the Queen of Angels, by the same artist, was a jolly affair, with angels in flowered robes clustering round the Virgin like children at a school treat, and carrying lanterns and flowers.
Most of the delicate pictures in the Japanese section were lent by the Missions Museum at Aachen, as also were the pictures by Angelo da Fonesca —an artist looked upon as the founder of the new Christian Indian school of painting—in the Indian section, and two of the pieces in the Java section.