When Jesus Christ went into the wilderness to spend 40 days in solitude, he set an example for all Christians who wish to make their peace with God, put their lives in order. That example, however, has been systematically and generally followed only among Roman Catholics. In the 16th Century St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, laid down detailed rules for "retreats" in his Spiritual Exercises, and St. Charles (Cardinal) Borromeo established retreat houses in his archdiocese of Milan. Since the 17th Century annual retreats have been customary and obligatory for all Catholic priests. Since 1882, when a French Jesuit named Pere Henry pioneered among workingmen to revive the custom of attending them, retreats have steadily gained favor among pious laymen.
In the U. S. every Catholic diocese has a retreat house consisting of a dormitory and refectory for visiting retreatants. There from one to three days the lay communicant usually meditates, prays, confesses, is sermonized. The retreatant contributes what he likes (average: $10). In the West, 1,200 laymen throughout the year retreat at the monastery of the Passionist Fathers at Sierra Madre near Los Angeles, while others attend El Retiro, San Inigo, a retreat conducted by Jesuits near San Francisco. A place favored by Manhattan businessmen and politicians is Mount Manresa on Staten Island. In Chicago such good Catholics as Judge John Patrick McGoorty, President Dennis Francis Kelly of The Fair (department store), President Frederick H. Massman of National Tea Company and Mayor James Joseph Kelly's brother Stephen spend "Sixty Golden Hours" in the Franciscan retreat nearby at Mayslake. Last week Catholics flocked to the nation's two most famed retreats, at South Bend, Ind. and Malvern, Pa.
The South Bend retreats are conducted on the University of Notre Dame campus by the Holy Cross Fathers who run that institution. Masses and other religious observances take place before Notre Dame's copy of the grotto at France's Lourdes. With big, 41-year-old Rev. Patrick Henry Dolan, C. S. C., as director, last week's retreat attracted 1,300 Catholics. As distinguished from retreatants elsewhere, they observed strict silence even at mealtimes, heard for the first time a nonreligious talk, by the University's Economics Professor Rev. William Augustine Bolger, C. S. C.
St. Joseph's-in-the-Hills at Malvern, Pa. is the largest U. S. retreat, the only one in the world owned and operated by laymen.