Aftermath of the Parish Mission and Sunday Observance in Meran

Austria.

† Meran, 14 Nov. It would be premature to review the fruits of the mission already now, as conversions, by their very nature, withdraw rather than push forward. The Very Rev. Fr. Patiß expressed himself generally very favorably regarding the people's participation in it, and many good effects are clearly evident. The mission cross, adorned with floral garlands, sees crowds of kneeling worshippers at all hours until late into the night, who trustingly offer a brief prayer in passing to gain the indulgence. – An observant eye might well perceive in many an even greater inner devotion than they outwardly display. – Yet, as there is no light without shadow here below, there was on the other hand no lack of people who, having hitherto remained quiet as mice or sat about like sluggish flies, now that the fathers have departed begin to bark, joke, and distort things. – Let them be! But one matter is worth mentioning, as it caused the Very Rev. Fr. Superior the bitterest grief, namely: that despite his urgent admonitions addressed in the name of the living God to shopkeepers no longer to desecrate Sundays and feast days, and despite publicly declared good resolutions, on the first Sunday, as if in mockery, most shops remained open, with the exception of a few whose owners did not wait for a police order or a municipal agreement to comply with the spirit of the church commandment, but without asking much question did what their conscience prescribed as right. *) Incidentally, I must add that the costs of the mission were borne by the Dean.

*) We note that this does not refer to the grocery shops, for which the necessity arises that they be kept open at certain hours even on Sundays and feast days.