THE HOLY LAND

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2602, 26 October 1915, Page 8

THE HOLY LAND

GERMAN AND TURKISH ! DESECRATORS. Father Kennedy, 0.F.M., Warerley, Now Soutli Wales (Commissary of tho Holy Land for Australasia), makes tho following appeal for help in the Sydney "Morning Herald" of October 14, in view of the desecration of holy places by tho Turks. A cable message, if confirmed, lie states, is calculated to send a thrill of horror vibrating through every Christian heart in tho world. There, seems to bo good reason to accept the authenticity of tho statement of tho "Temps" correspond.eilt at Alexandria, that a wicked sacrilege is being committed at Jerusalem, and at other places throughout the Holy Land, bv the Turks, supportedand encouraged by the Germans. .Kcims was demolished, Louvain was burned down, the Lusitania, was sunk, womeu were outraged nuns were insulted, priests wcro murdered—tho . greatest sacrilege of all was flashed over Christendom in the message. AYe were not- prepared to hear that the sacred places, hallowed by the birth and lifo and death of the Founder of our common Christian creed, would be desecrated; but evidently they have. The cable message says that musketry butts are erected on. Golgotha; convents have been turned into barracks, recruits are drilling on Mount Olivet, and all through tlie country, under German officers; and all roads in the Holy Land are full of caravans, bearing munitions and supplies. ' There is no danger of a massacre of the Christians, but they stand face to face with utter starvation, and, in many instances, with captivity and death. There are 55 shrines in the Holy Land, 60 convents and hospices, 42 parishes, with 100,000 of » Christian population, almost ali depending on alms from outside; 58 schools for'hoys and girls, five orphan asylums, with 300 children ; seven large pharmacies, which distribute medicinofree, besides other smaller dispensaries, attached to every hospice; several doctors, who tend tfio s-ick without distinction of creed or nationality free of charge; 100 male teachers and 57 female teachers, eight large casanovas (boardinghouses), for tlie reception, and accommodation of pilgrims; 496 houses, in which 2560 poor families live, and are entirely supported by tho custos of the Holy Land. The condition of these poor people at the. present moment must be appalling. ( Tho •Europeau countries which formerly contributed ; to support them are now stricken down with poverty, suffering, and grief themselves, and consequently , aro unable to afford them help. I Father Kennedy concludes by appeal- ' ing to the generosity of the Australasian public, noiifCatholic as well as Catholic, to come to their aid. Knowing that a, period of (lire distress was approaching for the Christians under Mohammedan rule, Father Kennedy has had a booklet printed within the last month, entitled "The Crusader," hoping by that means to raise funds to meet tho urgency of the case. Copies of tho "Crusader" may be had at the Catholic bookstalls of this city at the nominal prico of olio penny.