52
HISTORY
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
CHAPTER III.-BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH ACTIVITY.
At the beginning of the New Germany colony, the
nearest centre of Catholic life was Guelph, which was founded by the
Canada Company under Mr. John Galt in 1826. Father Campion was
the first missionary to visit Guelph regularly, first from Old Niagara,
later from Dundas. The writer could not find any New Germany
settlers' names in his register preserved in Dundas. The settlers
here could scarcely look to Guelph for much religious help.
Neither Father Campion nor his successors Fathers Cullen and
Cassidy, could converse with them in German. Yet it is said that
one of them came from Guelph in 1832 and celebrated Mass in Christian
Rich's house. This must have been Father Cassidy, who was then
residing in Guelph.
A case is still remembered where a young couple
whose names could be given wishing to enter the holy state of
benedicts, had to do so in a lay marriage, no priest being available.
All the Catholic settlers then there were invited to the novel
and important function. Whether one of the elders acted as
minister or not the historian does not tell, nor what were the
ceremonies. Some three or four years later, when the first
priest, Father Louis Wiriath, made his appearance, the young couple
asked him for the nuptial blessing, and received it. Their
frst-born, a boy, was then old enough to walk and be an interested
spectator of his parents' religious marriage. It is more than
likely that other marriages were similarly solemnized. A census
of Ontario Catholics for 1827 has no mention of Waterloo County,
because it did not then exist as such. The paper does not state
who the compiler of the census was. It seems Father Campion
furnished the figures for Central Ontario. (Toronto Archives.)