The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-08-16
aornI1g Star and Catholic Messenger.
sSw ORLEANS, SUNDAY AUGUST 49, 1874.
Pilgrims Returning.
From the Freemans' Journal, August 8. ]

Pilgrimage TO Rome, some nave aTeaoy
returned. First came Messrs. Nelson III.
Baker, of Suspension Bridge, N. Y; Alfred
Cooney, of Edna, Mo-, and VIM. O'Conner,
of Guelph, Canada West. We are grieyed
not to have been in our Office when they
called but, like the rest, they called on
Major Kelley, to thank him for his disin-
terested and efficient labors, in organizing
the Pilgrimage and rendering it success.
After these, came Father George A. Hamil-
top,rof Lafayette, Ind, and James b.
Falley, of the same place. Father Hamilton
avas SO DESTROYS to reach his home, and his
Pastoral charge, that he made no stay in
New York. ----
Last week,the Very Rev. Father Benoit,
the Venerable Vicar General of Fort
Wayne, and the Very Rev. Father Sorin,
Superior General of the Congregation Of the
Holy Cross, of Notre Dame, Ind, arrived in
New York on Tuesday, the 2sth of July.
Father Sorin was COMPELLED to proceed i'm
mediately to Notre Dame, and, to -onr
exceeding great regret, we could not see
him, or thank him, for all his disintsrested
acts of kindness to us, and to our friends,
while he was on this holy Pilgrimage. We
offer him, instead, the homage OF our heart;
and commend to the grateful prayers OF all
our friends who contributed to the Lamp
for Paray le- Monial-this valiant and true
Apostle of our Crucfied Lord; who not
only in Northern Indiana, or in the United
States, has done brave things for God, but
General of his Congregation, has hourished
as the palm tree, and sent forth his shoots
as the cedar of Libanus, ct mdhuc multipH
cdbuntur in senecta ubert.
The Very Rev. Father Benot found
y himself obliged to wait some hours in New
York, though he, too, desired to speed away
home. Homs"-how strange that word
seems for one like Father Benoit! Is not
Franche Comte your home, Father Bonoitf
Were not fortune, and favor, and glitteriDg
gems of this earth at your disposal, in that
paradise of France, when, more than thirty
siopary duty in what were then the wild
regions of Americaf Never from Father
Benoit did we hear this, but, long ago,
from those that knew who he was. You
did we'll, Father Bepoit, and we are in no
danger of hatterng you. You could have
been eloquent, but you choose to make your
sporks, not your cords, eloquent.
We spare you the torture of our poor
feeble words. Your sacrifices are all re-
corded-up above. Oh, you are not alone,
Father Benoit. If there is hope for this
country, as we still think there\is, one
men like you-who, following your Great
High Priest, have given yourselves up to
be counted as nothing, that you may make
the Name, and the Religion, of the Cross,
accepted on this otherwise accursed earth.
Some of our trends may be disappointed
that We have not, before now, spoken more
particularly of the placing of our beautiful
Banner of the Immaculate Conception in
the Sanctuary of Lourdes, or the Lamp
that ia to be kept burning at the Shrine of
the Sacred Heart, ut Paray -le- Monial, to
plead for increase of Faith, and Hope, and
Charity, in our poor country.
Our friends who contributed to the one
and to the other, desired no fret, or puff, or
pretension. Shams come and go, make
their fictitious brag, and die out in their
own folly and emptiness. Our friends
wanted no part in ostentatious and vulgar
parade. Theirs was an offering of sipcerest
devotion. In solemn procession, and over
whelmed with the holy influence of the
Sanctuary, our pilgrims accompanied the
Banner, carried by it's chosen bearer, Mr..
Patrick Farrely. 1t was given q fitting
place. And impartial and critical observers
said that, of all the multitude of Banners
offered in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of
Lourdes, there was not one richer, or of
tenderer devotion, or more appropriate,
than the one that hangs there, with the
perpetual supplication for them and their
country. that our friends through the Free
mans Journal, sent to our Immaculate
Lady of Tourdes, by the hands of the First
Pilgrimage from America.
Friends may wish to know what has been
done about the Lamp TO burn at Paray lie
Monial. We committed that matter to
Father Bonoit, and he, for urgent reasons,
committed it to the Very Rev. Father
Sorin. Through tho excellent care of the
Very Rev. Father Sorin, a Lamp is prepar-
ing, exquisite in design, and fulfilling the
wishes of the pious contributors towards it.
1t will not be ready till about the first of
September. As the design has been ap-
proved by Very Rev. Father Sorin, we are
altogether contented, and we are sure our
friends, with US, will thank him for tho
pains he has taken-if not for us, directly,
then for the Sacred Heart, in which we are
all united.
The Pilgrimage has done great work.
The returned Pilgrims, as we have heard
of them, have their hearts full of charity,
and their mouths full of thanksgiving.
The result of the Pilgrimage has shown
til at it was a grand act Of fdith, and not an
exhibition of the vanity and sham of human
folly.
1.-THE United States" says the New York
Tribune " would perhaps do we'll not to ccm-