great
event
Fr. Bernard Basset, S.J. THIS comes from East Point, Gloucester on the northern tip of Massachusetts bay. Fifty yards away the Atlantic pounds beneath the retreat house windows and the men may go out on to the rocks to pray. Boston has another retreat house for men, Campion House at Andover, set on the shore of a most lovely lake. Campion House which has a copy of the Decent Rationes in the lounge and a fine picture of the martyr, will soon be opening a new wing to house 90 men. A third retreat house is planned and could be filled tomorrow so active is the support for retreats. In Southern England a day of recollection is about the limit while in Boston the normal retreat will last two or three days. Many parishes in London have never had a retreat while in Boston the annual retreat is one of the great events of the parish year.
Retreat League
TWO days ago 1 visited a most unusual institution, the St. Joseph's retreat league for working men. Every night from September to May the doors of St. Joseph's House are opened at six-thirty to admit 70 to 100 working men. These come straight from work and I saw firemen, bus conductors, night watchmen, ice cream vendors who were attending a Friday course. Another group would come every Thursday, another every Wednesday. There were two lecture rooms beautifully equipped and two chapels and the evening was divided into two sessions, one a lecture on papal social teachings, the other a conference in chapel, ending with Benediction. Five priests attend to run these evenings for nine months without a break. One thousand and seventy-eight men attended the evening lectures last May.
Lively Roston
BOSTON, which was once the heart of the most Puritan of States is now more than half Catholic; indeed experts claim that in the population of greater Boston. Catholics total 70 per cent. It is strange that more is not known in England about this astonishing city, still so English in atmosphere, which must be one of the most Catholic cities in the world. The Church there is governed by Cardinal Cushing, whose work for the city makes him one of the greatest figures in the United States_ In England we hear of Bishop Sheen and Thomas Merton, but the Cardinal is scarcely known. In New England everyone reveres Cardinal Cushing and one cannot move in the city without evidence of his astonishing drive. I saw the hotel which he
has converted into a home for old people, the fine new buildings at Boston College High School which he has erected,
him. At the time of writing His vent at Danvers, a gift from him. At the time of writing His vent at Danvers, a gift from party of handicapped children. and a wonderful Carmelite ConEminence is in Lourdes with a Pat-HMI's day TO-DAY Boston is enjoying a National holiday to honour the famous ride of Paul Revere to warn the minute men of Lexington and Concord that the English redcoats were on their way. The first shot of the Independence war is remembered in various processions with Paul Revere at the head, Is this an embarrassment for an Englishman? Not for me at any rate for everyone is so friendly and they keep on saying: "Do go on talking, your English sounds 'so cute". Obligingly have given eight addresses in seven days. Friends took me out to Concord to see the bridge at which the redcoats turned about. One can take a melancholy pride in the beauty of the New England townships, more beautiful, I think, than any village left in England to-day. They arc quite unspoiled. And in the graveyard in Concord I saw what is now very very rare in England, hundreds of headstones carrying English names and going back to 1683. Stoke Pages seemed modern and vulgar next to Concord.