Pope Delivers Message for Marian Reception Day

POPE RADIOS MESSAGE OF HOPE TO MARIAN MEET

The Catholic Northwest Progress

Seattle Washington

Friday June, 27, 1947

200,000 Pilgrims throng Congress in Canada Capital

Holy Father says Consecration of Canada to Mary

Was Crowning Event of Great International Meeting.

By J. Frank Williams

(Canadian Correspondent , N.C.W.C News Service)

Ottawa, June 22 - Canada’s Capital became a City of 400,000 twice its normal

size, as a tremendous throng of Catholics, led by members of the Hierarchy from

five continents, assisted in the consecration of the Dominion to Mary the Mother

of God at the five-day Marian Congress here.

Highlight of the ceremonies was a direct broadcast to the Congress by His

Holiness Pope Pius XII speaking from Vatican City. The Pope’s message was

carried across all the major radio networks across Canada.

The Pontiff, in extending his greetings to the Ottawa Catholics on the success of

the Congress and on the 100 th Anniversary on the erection of their diocese, said

that the meeting was a memorable event in the proud annals of Canada “and

described the consecration of the country to Mary as its crowning act.

(This act of consecration was recited before a great crowd at the 155-foot- high

Landsdowne Park outdoor altar during Sunday’s closing Pontifical mass. Louis

St. Laurent, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs read the Act in

French and Dr. J.J. McCann, Dominion Minister of National Revenue, read it in

English.

In his closing remarks the Pontiff said. “Take courage and know that the

Immaculate Mother of God had appealed to her Divine Son so that the

repentance of the world will bring redemption

The Holy Father recalled that Canada had been the home of intrepid missionaries

since the days of Jacques Cartier and he called on the people of Canada to

continue their traditional work of charity to other countries and to maintain their

traditions of faith against all who would seek to undermine these traditions.

This Congress was not the first time that Canada’s skies had been rent by paeans

of praise to the Blessed Mother, he noted. From the earliest beginnings of

Canada’s History this country had given Mary’s sweet name to a river, a lake and a

mountain and had a chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin

Mary. The Blessed Mother, he said was “creation’s incomparable glory.”

“Let the sin laden soul take courage and know that a mother’s heart filled with

mercy is pleading with her divine Son for the needed grace of repentance and

forgiveness. Let growing youth of both sexes know that loving mother’s eyes are

always on them.

No path of circumstances is hidden from her anxious care. Go forward, then with

determination, o dear young men and young women, vindicate the glory of your

Immaculate Mothe. In the face of a vicious world prove that young hearts can still

be chaste. And oh, how much depends on the genuine active Catholicity of the

home!”

AS the direct representative of Pope Pius XII, his Eminence, James Cardinal

McGuigan, Archbishop of Ottawa, was accorded every civil honor befitting his

office as Papal Legate. Prime Minister MacKenzie King welcomed him on behalf of

the Government of Canada and Stanley Lewis, Mayor of Ottawa, extended the

welcome on behalf of the city.

The Message of the Marian Congress: Intercession with the Mother of God to

obtain from her Divine Son, a lasting world peace was the keynote of all the

addresses delivered by world known prelates during the Congress

“The story of Catholics’ faith in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin was told

visually in colourful floats, and fireworks, pageants, as well as in the various

religious ceremonies.

A statue of our Lady from Cap-de- la-Madeleine, Que. was installed in the Peace

Chapel at Landsdowne Park and a series of masses – day and night – without

interruption began. There were 48 masses each 24 hours, one every half hour.

There were 250 different priests who said the masses, most of the priests being

members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who also direct the Marian Shrine at

Cap-de- la- Madeleine.

The chapel was open at all hours to anyone who wished to enter, and there were

thousands who entered for a Holy Hour of devotion or even shorter periods of

meditation. In addition to the general public there were organized groups in

attendance and the system of dialogue masses was followed with priests leading

in prayer and explaining the various Parts of the Holy Sacrifice. This was especially

appreciated by the crowds of non-Catholics entering the Coliseum

Five of the Major buildings of the Ottawa Exhibition Association, centre of many

of the Marian Congress ceremonies, housed the displays of many of the religious

orders in the world.

In 140 booths was shown the work of religious communities of priests, brothers

and nuns in the mission, educational, charitable and hospital fields.

In his sermon, a high point of the congress, Archbishop John D’Alton, of Armagh,

Irish Primate, said that in this age “of moral anarchy” the world had great need

of Mary’s example. She was the ideal mother in the Ideal home.

Today, he said “the home has been invaded by the modern spirit of restlessness

and indiscipline which helps to weaken parental authority. ”Then there were the

self-styled progressive thinkers who were continually deriding the Catholic ideal

of marriage as out of harmony with the trend of modern civilization and who

clamored for companionate marriages, easier divorces and birth control.

In many countries, the State, against its own best interests, seems bent on joining

the conspiracy to hasten the disintegration of the family. It steadily encroaches on

the rights and responsibilities of parents in the training of their children and

exercises the functions which in God’s design properly belong to them” the Irish

Primate declared.

The spirit of cooperation extended to the Catholics of Ottawa by non-Catholics

to assure adequate accommodation for the thousands who attended the

Marian Congress drew warm praise by authorities of the Congress.

There were only one or two “incidents” during the Congress, these being minor in

nature. A one-man picket outside the Marian Congress Centre at Landsdowne

Park passed out tracts but did so quietly and was allowed to remain at his post on

the street. In one or two small church halls there were anti-Congress speakers,

one being known throughout Canada for his consistent anti-Catholic declarations.

The Canadian Capital, while it has a large French language population, actually has

a slightly larger non-Catholic population that Catholic. Mayor Stanley Lewis,

Members of the Board of Control and the City Council, majority of whom are non-

Catholic gave the fullest co-operation as did all merchants and citizens generally.