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.