VATICAN CITY -- Two new saints, St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, were numbered in the heavenly host of the Catholic church today, and because, they died for the unity of the church, Pope Pius XI signalized their canonization with a strong bid for reunion with the Church of England.
Pointing to the martyrdom of the two Englishmen because they refused to recognize King Henry VIII as head of the reformed church, the Pope, in an impressive ceremony, asked Britain to "return to the Fathers house."
Many Britons Attend Services.
Hundreds of high British Catholic clergymen and other pilgrims, including Thomas More Evanton, a descendant of the martyr, attended the rites.
After praising the lives, fortitude and faithfulness of Sir Thomas More and John Cardinal Fisher, the Pope said:
"We desire that in your ardent prayers invoking the patronage of the new saints, you ask of the Lord that which is so dear to our heart, namely, that England, in the words of St. Paul, meditating the happy consummation that crowned the lives of these two martyrs, may follow them in their faith, and return to the Fathers house in unity cf faith and of knowledge of the Son of God."
Welcomed To Paternal Home.
"Let those who are still separated from us consider attentively the ancient glories of their church, which were at once the reflection and increment of the Church of Rome.
"Let them consider, moreover, and remember that this apostolic see has been waiting for them so long and so anxiously not as com ing to a strange dwelling place but as finally returning to the paternal home."
