Demonstration of Faith

His Eminence, John Cardinal Bonzano, carried himself in Chicago last week as the most solemn man alive. He was the "most eminent Lord Cardinal Legate," chief deputy of the Vicar of Christ, come to Chicago for the XXVIII Eucharistic Congress.

The purpose of these Eucharistic Congresses is to give Catholics opportunity to proclaim their faith in public demonstration, to show openly their devotion to the Holy Eucharist (TIME, June 7). Not only do these meetings stir the hearts of Catholics, call them closer to their religion but they are also a means of international amity, emphasizing as they do the superiority of Catholicism to natural boundaries. Another fruit they bear is the strengthening of faith of the wavering. Mass, Communion, Lord's Supper, Mystery, Sacrifice, Love Feast--the Eucharist has many appellations according to its different aspects* it is at the very centre of Catholic belief. It yields nothing to the allied mystery of the Trinity. The very body and blood of Jesus are in both the consecrated wafer and the wine. Catholics can think of no means too simple or too subtle to honor it.

Overture. This 28th Congress opened officially June 20. But the preceding Thursday the scarlet "Cardinals' Train" (TIME, June 21) bearing Cardinal Banzano, Cardinal Hayes and seven foreign cardinals had reached Chicago. (Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia traveled alone, joined them the next day. Cardinal O'Connell of Boston, who took the boat trip from Buffalo, arrived Sunday afternoon.) Friday night Governor Small of Illinois, Mayor Dever of Chicago and Secretary of Labor Davis whom President Coolidge has sent welcomed all the prelates at a great gathering in the Coliseum.

Prologue. Cardinal Mundelein had promised his Pope a "spiritual bouquet of a million communions" (TIME, May 31). He furnished them, and more, by skillfully organized work. The communicants were not lacking. But the archdiocese contains only 353 churches. So on Sunday, the first day of the Congress, hundreds of priests began to celebrate mass at 5:00 a. m. and repeated every half hour thereafter. The churches accounted for 5,195 masses. Enough services were held in private chapels to make the total pass the 6,000 mark.

To keep score on communions, the wafers issued to each organization were counted. Then the number unused at the end of the day was reported to the Congress headquarters at Cathedral Square in Chicago. The offices there resembled a newspaper plant on election night. Sunday evening Cardinal Mundelein knew that he could report more than 1,000,000 communions to the Holy Father.

The events of the Congress proceeded with scheduled pageantry.

On Sunday Bishop Thomas Louis Heylen, of Namur, in France, for 20 years the president of the Permanent Committee of the Internation Eucharistic Congresses, celebrated High Mass at Holy Name Cathedral, decorated for the occasion by green, scarlet, gold and silver drapes. Eleven cardinals heard him. (The twelfth, Cardinal O'Connell, who had promised to assist, was still aboard ship.) Two thousand lesser prelates and priests and a very few laymen were there also. After Mass, Cardinal Mundelein officially welcomed Cardinal Bonzano to the Congress. Cardinal Bonzano responded.

Next day fully 200,000 people crowded into the stadium at Soldiers' Field on the Lake Michigan waterfront, heard addresses by Cardinal von Faulhaber of Munich, the Honorable David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts, Cardinal Dubois of Paris, Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne, Australia. (The next, 1928, Eucharistic Congress will be at Sydney, Australia.) Cardinal Bonzano himself celebrated solemn Pontifical High Mass. A choir of 60,000 children sang the "Mass of the Angels."

Tuesday and Wednesday were similarly days of prayer and speech. On the last day of this Congress religious fervor was to be at its highest. Every cleric not incapacitated or ordered elsewhere was to go to the Seminary of St. Mary of the Lake. Hundreds of thousands of laymen were to follow by train and motor car. The greatest religious spectacle ever produced in the U. S. was to be consummated.

After a solemn Pontifical Mass to be celebrated by Cardinal Bonzano and a sermon by Cardinal Hayes of New York, the thousands of priests were to form in procession to pass myriads of the devout who lined the Seminary pathways. At the end of the line would come Cardinal Bonzano carefully holding high a huge gold monstrance in which rested the Blessed Sacrament.

The priests would circle the grounds back to the altar--then the pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament by Cardinal Bonzano--his papal benediction to the throng, Adeste fideles!

* The following conversation was reported in Manhattan a fortnight ago when hundreds of thousands were watching the processions of cardinals there: "Are you going to the Eucharistic Congress?" Sincere answer; "No. I don't play."