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.)

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