attendance of the
faithful. At the close of each they erected a huge missionary
cross before the church or in the cemetery, in memory of the occasion.
South East Hope was another place for a mission held after the
others.
During these missions the two Fathers
heard 2,500 confessions, many of them being general ones, and attended
many sick calls and performed much other necessary pastoral work, such
as receiving converts, reconciling old hardened sinners, straightening
out old marriage tangles, family feuds, etc.
At the same time they endeavoured to give
the various church centres a better organization. In Preston and
South East Hope they prepared the way for establishing Separate
Schools; the other places had them already.
Soon after their arrival in St. Agatha a
parishioner donated a statue of the Blessed Virgin and an altar for it.
This was blessed with great ceremonies. Then the men took
up a collection for an altar and a statue of St. Joseph for their side
of the church. In the early days, and for years after, the men
occupied the right side of the church and the women the left.
To us it may look strange that in the
early times nearly all the churches and schools were built on private
property. But there were reasons for it.
At first there was no Episcopal
Corporation to hold the property for the
REV. LUCAS LAVENG, S.J.
church. Many congregations received their
church and school sites direct from the Crown. They were obliged
by law to elect trustees to hold and manage the church property.
In default of trustees the property would again revert to the
Crown. Church property obtained from private parties was usually
held in the same way.
Another reason for this way of holding
church lands was, no doubt, the fact that the few priests were so
occupied with the functions of the ministry that they had no time to
give to matters of this kind.
Such a system of holding church lands was
peculiarly liable to cause friction between the clergy and the
congregation.
After the Act of Episcopal Corporations
came into force the tendency of the church authorities was to bring all
the church lands under the Title of the Corporation. The fear of
the people that the Bishop might overburden the Episcopal Corporation
with debts or cause trouble by mismanagement, was natural in the
circumstances, but unfounded, because the Bishop with his Council are
men of keen judgment, and also because they cannot alienate or