The main Catholic opportunity for participating in the Coronation with soul as well as heart and body will be by attending in person or in spirit the Pontifical High Mass of Thanksgiving at Westminster Cathedral during which the Pope's representative will intone the Te Deutn. Opportunities also of being present in person at Masses of thanksgiving throughout the country will be plentiful.
Some disappointment, however, may be felt at the nature of the public reception to meet the Envoy on Thursday night in London. The Papal Envoy is to meet not representatives as such of the Catholic laity of this country, but only members of a diocesan society whose purpose it is to sustain the fund for the upkeep of the Archbishop's official residence and thenfriends, as well as invited overseas visitors.
The opportunity might have been taken to invite not only representative Catholics in Catholic societies. politics, industry, literature, etc., hut also representatives of the vast army of Catholic workers throughout the country.
Catholics among Empire representatives at the Coronation include three premiers (Australia, Nova Scotia and Tasmania), and below is a list of a few important
The fact that Mgr. Pizzardo is at the head of the Pontifical Mission to the Coronation of King George VI may be taken as yet another sign of the keen personal interest Pius XI has shown for everything that pertains to England during his long teign. It is not forgotten that the present Pope is one of the few Popes who have visited these shores.
In 1900 the Pope (then Mgr. Ratti) visited the John Rylands Library in Manchester and later he worked in both the Bodleian and the British Museum. In 1914 he delivered a Latin speech at Oxford during the celebration of the centenary of Roger Bacon.
These visits, as he has often told his visitors during audience, notably at the time of the canonisation of SS. Thomas More and John Fisher, have specially endeared Eng
land to him. And the fact that he has chosen one of his closest attendants to represent him is a sufficient indication that the Pope's affection has not waned.
Second to Cardinal Pacelli
Mgr. Joseph Pizzardo, titular Archbishop of Nicea, is one of the most influential prelates in the Pontifical Court. In his cap