THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 102, 10 April 1875, Page 6

THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.

With regard to the rumors which have been circulated for some time past, about the Duke of Norfolk becoming a priest, the Dublin ' Freeman ' says : " The little birds which whisper news items to well-informed journals during the dull season 'have been repeating, with fresh circumstances, a story originally started more than a year ago. It is to the effect that the Duke of Norfolk is about to become a Catholic priest, and to join the Order of the Oratorians, at BrompThis, as we have said, is aja old rumor, being, in fact, nothing more than the iteration of a statment made in the first instance in that realm of truth, the American Press. So far, the report has no more authoritative foundation than the well-known personal P ] e # ?l , c Duke of Norfolk ' Ws zeal for the welfare and progress of Catholicity, and his intimate family connection with the religious life. His Grace spends a great deal of his time in the society of Oratorians at Brompton,- he built at his expense the "little oratory of the establishment, and has recently given .£SOOO to the Order for the enlargement of their church. Two of his sisters are nuns— one, the eldest, in a Carmelite Convent at Paris; the other, two years younger than himself, is a Sister of Charity. The Duke is now twenty-eight years old, and it is thought that his refusal to enter the holy state of matrimony, added to the other matters noted, may have given rise to the story of his intention to become a priest. Without expressing doubt or the reverse in this item of newspaper intelligence, we may observe, in referencetothe amazement expressed by certain journals who seem disposed to credit the rumor, that men no:e -IT.-lrioiu in station, race, and fame that even the first noble of llnghmd, have thrown aside sword and sceptre to enter on the service of the sanctuary. If, indeed, his Grace has resolved, to lay down the Coronet and take up the Cross, he will have to take a step which had many and memorable precedents in the order and country which he adorns by his virtues and character." J