Litany

On a London church two posters appeared last week. One read, PRAY FOR PEACE. THIS CHURCH IS OPEN ALL DAY; the other, IF YOUR KNEES KNOCK, KNEEL ON THEM. But Europe's war-struck millions needed no such calls to prayer. From the crowded churches of a whole continent rose a spontaneous litany. Some religious footnotes to the week's headlined woe: >Closed to the public were Westminster Abbey's Royal Chapels, their tombs sandbagged, many of their effigies removed. On the black marble slab of Great Britain's Unknown Warrior in the Abbey's nave, a wreath of brown orchids inscribed "The Italian Embassy" lay beside a wreath from President Albert Lebrun of France. >Great Britain's Cardinal Kinsley told nuns they might wear headdresses that fitted over gas masks, recommended "a simplified form . . . consisting of: 1) an unstarched, tight-fitting cap or snugly fitting under-veil, over which the respirator could easily be adjusted, 2) a heavier outer-veil which could be pulled back over the head harness of the respirator when the latter is in use." >Canceled was the Salvation Army's farewell party in London's Earl's Court to General Evangeline Booth, for which 25,000 tickets had been sold. >At the domed Church of the Sacred Heart on Paris' Montmartre, Cardinal Verdier blessed the overflow crowd kneeling on the steps. >Arrested for trying to deliver a Bible to Prime Minister Chamberlain, one Robert Edmund Harrison, 29, pleaded not guilty to the charge of obstructing a policeman.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.