The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-08-29
Catholic and Protestant Preachers.

The able correspondent of the Savannah
Republican, in his letter of the 18th August
gives n sketch of Protestant and Catholic
pulpit orators He says, that with the excep-
ton of DR.. Magee, an Irishman-the English
Church has no pretensions to commanding
eouuence. Outside of the Established Church
there are some men of note, but no one who
will be remembered half a century. He con-
tiuues
There are five writer's learned and
brilliant scholars, but there is not in the
English pulpit at this time one who, in pulpit
eloquence can compare with Father Hyacinth,
of the French Catholic Church, is he
solitary instance of French superiority in
this line. Twenty years ago Father Lacordalre
eloquence at Notre Dame, even by those
in the daily habit of hearing Lamartine
and Ledrue Rollins To him succeeded Father
Ravingnon, whose sermons are classed along
with those of Bossuet by his admirers, and at
this time there is, besides Father Hyacinth,
Father Felix, whose sermons fill during the
winter Notre' Dame with immense audiences,
composed of the most eminent men from all the
learned institutions ofParis. These two priests,
Father Felix and Father Hyacinth, have made
oTatory special study, and gone through q
course Of discipline severe as that to which
Demosthenes is said to have subjected himself
In the summer they go OIL, II not TO the sea-
shore into some retired monastery, and devote
themselves to the composition Of series of ten
or twenty sermons on q particular phase OF
Christian life of Gospel truth, which in the
winter they preach during some one of the
great festivals of the Church at Notre Dame.
TO give greater dignity to these occasions, the
whole body of the Cathedral, capable of holding
about six Thousand persons, is reserved
especially for males, and females assigned
to remote seats in the side aises and galleries.
As they the designated champions for the
time of Christian truth, and their discourses,
besides being listened TO by the learned and
the curious, who attracted by their
eloquenee, are published the day after delivery
and subjected to criticism from all the intidel
writer's and journals of Paris, they have to be
prepared with the greatest attention to accuracy
of statement of fucts as well as of logic and
expression.
The Archbishop of Paris and the chief
ecclesiastical digntares have seats Immediate
~ fronting the pulpit, and the preliminary mass
aud choral service are performed by the best
singers and musical performers Paris. The
seats i'll the body of the building free to all
males, but such is the eagerness to hear, that
it is by no means uncommon for persons to go
several hours in advance aud sit quietly
reading until two T. NJ. when the orator always
enters the pulpit. Whether one is Influenced
!. by the desire of fame or of doing good, it is
difficult to conceive II greater stmulant TO eX-
ertion than the French Catholic Church thus
offers to its priesthood. 1t is not surprising
/ under these circumstances that, even by the
consent of the English press, pulpit oratory in
France should be superior to that ct England.