Widnes Examiner. — 1904-06-11 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

CREED OF HOPE AND JOY."  Sunday morning was gloriously fine. It was indeed pleasant to be out of doors, but the beautiful new Church of St. Mary at Latchford was well filled. Although the sell-denying efforts .of the congregation recently saw their culmination in the opening of the fine, lofty church to supersede the small mission room, the incubus of heavy debt—several thousand pounds—has yet to be faced. The people had another opportunity of contributing to the building fund on Sunday, when the Very Rev. Anselm Poock, D.D., of Manchester, preached the annual sermons. High Mass was celebrated in the morning, with ornate ritual and elaborate music, the Rev. Father D'Arcy being the celebrant. Mr. Peter Bate had gone to no little trouble in arranging a musical programme worthy of the occasion, and he and the excellent choir are to be complimented • upon the really creditable rendering of S. Moorat's " Messe des Anges." The soloists—one and all of whom acquitted themselves well—were :—Sopranos, Mrs. Bate and Miss Hazlehurst ; altos, Misses Fell and Turner ; tenor, Mr. J. Rabbitt ; bass, Mr. J. W. Bibby. Mr. B. Bate gave an expressive interpretation of Neukomm's " Veni Sancti Spiritus." A full orchestra, under the leadership of Mr. R. H. Pearson, rendered valuable service. Mr. W. H. Kendrick ably presided at the organ, and Mr. Peter Bate conducted.  Of a pleasant, open countenance, Dr. Poock is a fluent preacher, and he held the attention of the congregation for nearly an hour. He speaks extempore, hits straight from the shoulder, and relieves his sermon with hap humorous touches. The morning subject was "'rhe life beyond "and the text eight verses of the 21st chapter of the Revelation. Having alluded to his delight as a boy in making riddles and acrostics, the rev, father said he thought the most stupendous riddle he had come across was to consider how the mass of men and women passed through their lives without thinking of the great future. "At the present time," he went on, "you will find business men who are absorbed absolutely in the one consideration 'ls the Ship Canal going to pay?', and they would consider a thought of that kind to the exclusion of everything else. You will find other men, of apolitical turn of mind, who would discuss all day long and' far into the night as to whether the present Government in power is going to crumble and dissolve in the next six months. Other men, who look upon political economy, not as a dismal science but as a very charming science, will be discussing with great beat and vehemence the pros and cons of Mr. Chamberlain's colonial policy and fiscal reform, of Mr. Arthur Balfour's retaliation, and of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman's and Mr. Winston Churchill's absolute Free Trade."  While not deprecating --the-ciiscussion of these subjects, Dr. Poock pointed out that many people were absolutely absorbed in them, to the exclusion of the great question of the salvation of the soul and of the future life. That was precisely why Catholics must always be people who were a little bit slow—as a body —in taking up too keenly these questions' because the first thing they had to consider was" What is the relation of the Ship Canal, the fiscal policy, the peaceful mission to Thibet, and the Russio-Japanese war to eternal life and Christian doctrine ? " Therefore, they were guided first of all by the religious aspect of the whole thing, and not by its merely economic, social, or intellectual aspect. They as Catholics were everlastingly bound to adhere to that truth propounded by our Blessed Lord " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?" Seek ye first the Kingdom of heaven, added the preacher, and then think about the Ship Canal or the fiscal policy. The social, political, or intellectual life must be judged by its relationship to God, to the soul, and to eternal happiness. When he read the other day that,taking the statistics of suicides all over the world,there were very few Catholics who committed suicide, he thought that was only a logical carrying out of their creed. Their creed was essentially one of hope, joy, and comfort. It taught that if they were true to God, trusted in Him, received faithfully His Sacraments, and adhered truly to His church, He would be with them in life and in death, and that beyond the grave there was a happy eternity. The history of the whole world had been a longing and aspiring for immortality. . . . .  Having spoien o-n how Christiiinity fulfilled this aspiration, the preacher said they as Catholics ought to be the most jolly people on the face of God's earth. If they were true to their religion and kept the Ten Commandments of God and the precepts of the Church, they felt the absence of sin from the heart, and the heart must dilate with joy and gladness. Dr. Poock made a powerful appeal to the congregation to reduce the debt on the church, and pointed out what a great sum of money was raised by the Salvation Army in Manchester during their self-denial week. He admired their action immensely, and he thought it was a lesson for the Catholics of Latchford to take a leaf out of the Salvation Army book, and practise some self-denial in order to reduce the debt. If there was anything he was sick and tired of bearing, it was the old, threadbare, worn-out argument that the Catholics in England were poor. He knew they were poor, and be knew why. They were poor principally because they were once a persecuted set of people, and did not get religious liberty until 1829, Even then popular opinion was against it. That popular opinion had now changed, and he could only testify to the kindness, consideration, and fair-mindedness which he found among non-Catholics on the whole in Manchester.A great deal of their poverty was also traceable to the great famine in Ireland from 1847 to 1849. He did not want the Catholic Church inEngland to be rich. He had never read a single verse of the New Testament which gave a blessing on the rich.He would,however,ask them to stop that pestilential habit of talking about their poverty, when a lot of it was made by themselves —by the drinking of some of their people, the foolish waste of money,and foolish amusements. If they could use their money for the glory of God there would not be a church or a chapel in England with a penny of debt. _  —Kt the close of his sermon, Dr. Poock personally undertook the collectim, of the alms.  There was again a large congregation in the evening, when the preacher's subject was "-Bread from Heaven." The music, admirably rendered by the choir and orchestra, included the hymn "Hail! Queen of Heaven I" (composed by Mr. Peter Bate), "Benediction Service No. 5" (Rev. J. S. Murphy, 0.5.8.) and" Splendente te Deus" (Mozart).