The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-08-26

Magnificent Roman Catholic Shrine
In Southern France-Attribute
y of Miraculous Powers
L. M. Grist in YcrAviiie Enquirer.
Il Pride Of every French village a
bove everything else is in its church
or cathedral. Proud of his religion
above everything else is the French
man. Most of the French people are
Roman Catholic in their religious be-
lief.
Protestant in religion largely l
guess; because my father is before
me and his. father, before him and his
before him back to the beginning of
the tribe l reckon, ] never dreamed
couple of years ago that | would
ever become interested the least bit
in Roman Catholicism and would
come to be thrown with Catholics a
great deal, would visit a Catholic ca
thedral and become curiously inter
ested in the creed.
S. / am still Protestant and will be
all my life and l do not propose to
discuss creeds in this article, but
rather to tell of a beautiful church
and little visit to the Spanish bor-
r,a,. x,h;1o nverseas
y But before I start that: Before /
got into the army had thea'idea
somehow that Roman Catholics did
hot believe in God, that they were a
wild, reckless sinful class of folks
who had no regard for anything, who
believed that they could commit muir
der if they chose, tell the priest a
bout it, give him dollar and twenty
three cents to say prayers of forgive
mess and 60 about their business sat-
isfied that it was remembered no
more against them.
But / learned soon after getting
into the army, that taken as whole,
the Catholics are mighty fine people ;
certainly the majority of the soldiers
of Catholic faith with whom was
thrown in contact, were. There were
] exceptions of course; but there were
likewise as many exceptions among
the Protestants. Yet, / found that
the Knights of Columbus would hand
you out pack of cigaretts or a piece
of chocolate if you we're Protestant
and they knew it just as readily as
the "Y' would do if you were Roman
Catholic and they knew it, Most OF
the men in my outfit were Catholics
and Z could borrow five franks off
one Of them just as easily as | could
from one of my Protestant buddies.
s@ But we had started to the Roman
Catholic cathedral: Getting a few
days leave and wanting to 60 some
where, several friends and myself
decided to take little trip over into
Spain. We thought we might run
oh a bull fight or a bunch of brig
and or something to break the mo-
notony Of the quiet little French vii
lage in which we were quartered. So
to Spain we started on one of those
little winky-dink French trains that
! run SO slowly and are 50 very un-
( comfortable that you wish the rail-
roads might adopt the Plumb plan
or any old plan that might improve
the service.
Pyr.nees the Border.
The beautiful Pyranees mountains
are the border lire between France
! and Spain. At the foot of these
mountains in France lies the pretty
village Of Lourdes, and the only
thing that distinguishes that village
from thousands of other French vii
l-ges is it's magnificent cathedral.
The erection commenced more than
a thousand years ago. It is a Won
derful structure, beautiful in it's de-
sign, perfection in it's Workmanship.
i don't know it's dimensions but do
know that all of the churches of
Yorkville could be put into it with all
their members and then after an in
vitation had been extended to all who
do not belong to any church in York
vile to come in and had been accept
ed, there would be room for a few
more neighboring congregations and
I all would have sufficient standing
room.
The numerous windows of the ca
thedral are of beautiful shades OF
stained glass including paintings OF
Bible characters and those who are