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Eucharistic Congress-50 Years Ago
(Editors note: Stanley B. Pieza of North
Judson, Ind., was a cub reporter for the old
Chicago Journal 50 years ago when the 28th
International Eucharistic Congress convened
there. This is a first hand account of a story
now a half century old -- but still worth
telling, especially in light of next month’s
gathering in Philadelphia.)
CHICAGO (NC) - More than a
million visitors from all over the world
showed up. Among them were 12
cardinals, more than 300 archbishops,
bishops and abbots, more than 8,000
priests and 8,000 nuns.
The occasion for the gathering was
the 28th International Eucharistic
Congress, held here on the shores of
Lake Michigan from June 20-24, 1926.
To this day, it is considered the greatest
religious demonstration ever held in
North America.
At the closing ceremony, more than
600,000 men, women and children
marched in a three mile procession
around the lake at St. Mary’s of the
Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., a
suburb about 40 miles northwest of
here.
That ceremony, according to James
O’Donnell Bennett, Chicago Tribune
writer, was “the most colossal prayer
meeting and song service in the annals
of Christendom .. . world’s records for
throngs and character have been
broken.”
The man who brought the 28th
congress to Chicago was Cardinal
George Mundelein, who received the red
hat from Pope Pius XI only two years
before.
Considered an organizational genius,
Cardinal Mundelein directed
preparations for more than a year
before the congress convened.
Twenty-five committees of clergy and
laity were organized to carry out the
plans. There were committees on health,
safety, housing and food,
transportation, program, finance,
processions and pageants among others.
The press gave front page treatment
to the event, with four to five pages of
pictures daily throughout the congress.
To get the news from the seminary,
50 pieces of teletype equipment were
set up. One company spent $60,000 to
bring wires onto the seminary grounds
for just one day.
Photographers and reporters followed
the cardinals everywhere. One day,
Cardinal Patrick O’Donnell of Armagh,
Ireland, told a newspaper man who had
disturbed his sleep in quest of a
statement: “I recommend a good night’s
sleep for all newspapermen, and that -
in passing - may give me a chance for
one.”
Covering the congress could be
especially demanding for a Catholic
journalist. One photographer knelt and
bowed his head in adoration while
competitors snapped pictures of
Cardinal Giovanni Bonzano, the papal
legate, hoisting the monstrance during
Benediction. The pious photographer
was fired, then re-hired two weeks later
while his city editor vowed never to
assign another Catholic to cover a
Catholic event.
The congress opened in Holy Name
Cathedral here with a Solemn High Mass
attended by 12 cardinals, including
seven from Europe.
On the following day, 350,000
children attended Mass at Soldiers’
Field, while a choir of 62,000 children
from Chicago’s parochial schools sang.
The Soldiers’ Field ceremonies were
all held at an altar topped with a canopy
modeled after that of the Basilica of St.
Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome.
At the center of the altar stood a
golden monstrance containing the Holy
Eucharist. The monstrance was designed
by a Roman in Baroque style and was
brought to the U.S. by Monsignor
Torquato Dini, rector of the College for
the Propagation of the Faith.
Women’s day at Soldiers’ Field
brought a turnout of 200,000. A choir
of 6,000 nuns from all over the country
and 3,800 singers from Chicago
churches sang at the service.
That evening, 200,000 men attended
a special service in which 100,000 Holy
Name Society members carried candles
in procession.
More than 175,000 attended
students’ ceremonies the next day,
while a 3,000 voice choir sang.
Closing ceremonies at the seminary
drew the largest crowds of all. As the
great procession made its way on the
three mile trek around the lake, a
thunderstorm developed. Hail fell on
canvas and umbrellas. The pilgrims
continued to sing.
When the first of the marchers
returned to the altar, the sun burst
through the clouds. Cardinal Bonzano
held the monstrance with the Blessed
Sacrament aloft, and the crowd knelt in
adoration.
CHICAGO GREETS THE CARDINALS - Fifty years ago, hundreds of
thousands jammed Chicago’s Michigan Avenue near the Art Institute to
greet the papal legate and other cardinals arriving for the 28th
International Eucharistic Congress. (NC Photo)
photomeditation
PAGE 3—The Southern Cross, July 22,1976
Photo and Text By Father Carl J. Pfe‘ter k S.J.
TRUST -- Little Robert rests comfortably between his father’s legs . . .
seemingly at peace . . . calm and confident... as his father looks at
him . . . with pride and love. The sheer size of the father ... in contrast
with Robert’s smallness . . . conveys a sense of power . . . but a power
tempered by tenderness ... a gentle strength that makes possible a calm
confidence . . . within the child . . . who stands on his own feet. . . while
enjoying the secure support of his father’s massive legs. Together, the two
convey such a feeling of peaceful strength . . . and secure affection . . .
that they present a visual ideal ... of what it really means to be a
father . . . and a son. Robert’s sense of at-home-ness ... in the caring
presence of his strong father . .. provides an example, too ... of what St.
Peter encourages us all to do ... in regard to God, our Father . . . “Cast all
your cares on him . .. because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7)
r~
N
Controversial Plank Remains In Platform
NEW YORK (NC) - Efforts by
anti-abortion delegates to remove a
plank opposing a constitutional
amendment to restrict abortion from
the Democratic party platform have
failed, but abortion opponents appear
to have won several lesser victories.
Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter’s
forces, which were virtually in total
control at the Democratic National
Convention, opposed efforts to remove
the plank and to initiate a floor debate
on the subject of abortion.
When the platform was voted on as a
whole, there was a fairly strong “no”
vote from the delegates.
That “no” vote apparently reflected a
coalition of groups, including abortion
opponents, who had earlier been
unsuccessful in changing party rules to
allow floor debate on several issues. The
groups had not had sufficient votes
within the Democratic Platform
Committee earlier to allcw a minority
report and a floor debate.
But abortion opponents, backers of
amnesty for Vietnam war resisters and
women rights advocates joined forces in
support of a motion to allow 20
minutes of floor debate - with no vote
- on an issue if a petition with 300
delegate signatures was presented.
That motion was defeated 1,957.5 to
730.5.
A Carter staff position paper on
proposed Rules Committee changes
opposed the debate effort.
“There is' no reason to create a
process which circumvents the Platform
Committee and initiates debate on,
potentially, those ‘red flag’ issues which
were so successfully dealt with by the
Platform Committee,” the paper said.
Carter staffers were reportedly
especially concerned with avoiding the
floor debate on the abortion issue.
But while Carter’s staff was
concerned with controlling the
convention to preserve party unity and
avoid dissent on prime time national
television, there were several indications
that Carter and other party members
were willing to place some distance
between themselves and the abortion
plank.
Carter said in a TV interview that he
would have expressed the abortion
plank “differently.”
NEW YORK (NC) - An aide to
Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy
Carter, accused of being “seriously
misinformed” about a statement by the
president of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops (NCCB) critizing the
abortion plank in the Democratic
platform, has pleaded guilty to the
charge.
Carter’s issues coordinator, Stuart
Eizenstat, had been quoted as saying
that the NCCB president, Archbishop
Joseph Bernardin of Cincinnati, was not
speaking for the bishops’ conference as
a whole when he made his statement.
Archbishop Bernardin had called the
plank, which says it is “inadvisable” to
amend the Constitution to overturn the
Supreme Court’s decision, overturning
most state restrictions on abortion,
“irresponsible.”
Archbishop Joseph Bernardin of
Cincinnati, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops
(NCCB), said he was “gratified by Gov.
Carter’s statement of disagreement with
the Democratic platform plank on
abortion and glad that he has publicly
reaffirmed his personal abhorrence of
abortion.”
In a message to Sen. Thomas
Eagleton, whose badly split Missouri
delegation voted to withhold support
from the abortion plank, Carter said
that as President he would support
Many bishops, including Cardinal
Terence Cooke of New York, Cardinal
Timothy Manning of Los Angeles,
Cardinal John Carberry of St. Louis,
sent messages of support for Archbishop
Bernardin to Carter or Eizenstat.
“I just stand corrected,” Eizenstat
told NC News. “All I saw was a short
news clipping which quoted
(Archbishop) Bernardin but did not
identify him as president of the bishops’
conference. I assumed he was speaking
for himself.”
“I did not realize he was speaking as
president of the bishops’ conference. I
did not intend to indicate that, as
president, he was not speaking for the
conference.”
Eizenstat said he would talk to
Archbishop Bernardin to clear up the
matter, if needed.
legislation to limit abortion as much as
possible and would oppose the use of
federal funds for abortion.
Carter also emphasized his personal
opposition to abortion in a meeting
with the New Jersey delegation.
But Carter said that he still opposed a
constitutional amendment. According
to William Cox, director of the National
Committee for Human Life, one of
Carter’s closest aides, Dr. Peter Bourne,
was involved in a challenge to a Georgia
abortion law which resulted in the
January, 1973, Supreme Court decisions
striking down most state restrictions on
abortion.
The abortion plank was contained in
the platform section on “Civil and
Political Rights,” but Coretta Scott
King, widow of civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr., made no mention of
the abortion plank in presenting that
section to the convention.
Rep. Mario Biaggi of New York said
he expected a good deal of dissent from
the abortion plank.
“In 1972,” he said, “you weren’t
allowed to disagree with a single thing in
the platform. This year is different.”
The platform committee chairman,
Gov. Wendell Anderson of Minnesota,
may have been thinking of the abortion
plank when he told the convention,
“party unity doesn’t mean we all agree
on every issue.”
Michael Howlitt, a candidate for
governor of Illinois, has also said he
would dissociate himself from the
abortion plank in his campaign.
Members of the Minnesota and
Pennsylvania delegations circulated
petitions expressing dissent from the
plank.
CARTER AIDE: \
4 I Stand Corrected’
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Congress Events Listed
PHILADELPHIA (NC) - Colorful
displays of song, dance and skits will
feature the 41st International
Eucharistic Congress.
A variety of people -- doctors,
lawyers, Indians, senior citizens, youth
- will bring the more than one million
expected congress visitors an assortment
of religious presentations. They include:
- The 300th anniversary of Kateri
Tekakwitha, the first North American
Indian candidate for sainthood, will be
celebrated. The program “Lily of the
Mohawks 1676-1976” will feature
Indian dances, native costumes and an
audio-visual presentation. Mary-Eunice
of Mary Productions, Belford, N. J., will
reenact the Kateri Tekakwitha story and
the McCauley family from Phoenix,
Arix., will give a puppet show depicting
her life.
-- The St. Dominic Savio Club, a
worldwide youth group, will dance,
sing, and perform skits and poetry to
dramatize “Hunger for Peace.”
- Policemen, business executives,
truck drivers, college professors will
share experiences in more than 20
marriage encounter workshops.
- A conference on “Health Care
Priorities in America” will look into the
needs of the elderly, the young, the
alcoholic, the poor, the mentally ill.
- Panelists of theologians, lawyers,
and educators will analyze solutions to
financial and legal problems, welcoming
audience participation and questions.
-- A national women’s organization
will hold workshops on how women and
men together can alleviate the needs and
hunger of the poor and oppressed.
JOHANNSEN HONORED -
Lee Malchow (r), President of the
Aquinas Boosters Club (Augusta)
expresses appreciation to Jack
Johannsen for over twenty years
of outstanding service to the
organization. Johannsen was
honored at the July 15th meeting
of the club. (Photo by George
Champion)
Attention Widows And Widowers!
An organization for Widow and Widower is being formed in Savannah under the
leadership of Father Michael Craig. For more information call - Dorothy Wood
897-1483 or Bernardine Brown 236-6773.
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