GENERAL NEWS. New Zealand Tablet

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 124, 10 September 1875, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS. New Zealand Tablet

On the morning of Ascension Thursday, there died at the Presentation Convent in Madras, perhaps the oldest member of the order. Sister Mary Frances Curran was a niece of the famous Irish Orator, John Phillpot Curran. She was a convert to the faith, and made her religious profession on the eve of Ascension in 1830, and lived a nun for forty-five years, dying at the 'age of eighty-five. She went to Madras in 1842, with the late Bishop Fennelly. Among the Peers— English, Scotch and Irish— Catholicity has thirty-four representatives, namely— The Duke of Norfolk, premier Duke and Earl of England; ;the Marquisses of Bute and Kipon; the Earls of Denbigh, Westmeath, Fingall, Granard, Kenaiare, Orford€and Gainsborough; the Yisc6unts Gormanstown, Netterville, 'Taaffe and Southwell, and the Barons Beaumont, Stourton, Vaux of Harrowden, Petre, Dormer, Arundel of Wardour, Stafford, Clifford, Herries of Terregies, Lovat, Trimleston, Louth; Ffrench, Bcllew, De Fresne, Howard of Glossop, Acto.u, O'Hagan, Emly and Camoys. There are also forty-six Catholic members of Parliament. The Berlin ministers still continue to propose measures for the persecution of Catholics, and an obsequious Parliament blindly obeys their behests. Bismarck lately spoke of -the Catholics as "enemies of the state," in the face of all that had been done in the late war by the Catholic Bavarians, Poles and Westphalians, and of the unwearied devotion of priests and nuns and members of other religious Orders, in ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded. With reason does the • Germania ' exclaim, with bitter earnestness : " Were we really enemies of the State, were we really allied to social democracy, and conspiring with foreign powers, then woe to the German Empire, woe to Prussia, woe to the dynasty of Hohenzollern ; their days would be numbered, and they would end in horror and disaster." In 1848, when the Chartists were spreading fear amongst the crowned heads of Europe, and threatening destruction to thi old Constitutions, the King of Prussia, expressed himself as follows: "I have to thank my Catholic subjects for the preservation of my throne." We had much to say, by way of comment, upon these few words, in connection with the Emperor's present bearing towards his "Catholic subjects ;" but they speak so loudly on their own behalf, that we will content ourselves with quoting the old German adage : " TTndankbarkeit ist der Welt's Lohn " (Ingratitude is the world's reward), and leave our conclusions. The New York 'Herald's' correspondent in Louisiana has been investigating the condition of the Southern negroes in a religious point of view. He says : "In Southern Louisiana a large part of the colored population are Catholics, and have not separate churches. A Protestant, as I am, is put to shame when he compares the course of the Catholic Church towards its members, the equality it insists on within the Church between different races and conditions with the careless, and, as it seems to me, un-Cbristian distinctions made in Protestant churches. Why should not the white planter and his family worship God on Sunday in a church to which his laborers and tenants should also be invited ? The Christian Church ought to be the most powerful instrument for removing prejudices, for raising the -lowly and training the weak i and ignorant. The Eoman Catholic Church has, in my view, many serious faults; but it has one great glory — it brings tcgether, within its communion here in the South, and I suppose everywhere, all its members, regardless of condition, color or race, as a universal brotherhood before God. Those Protestants who sincerely desire the elevation of the colored people ought to see to it that distinctions within the Church are removed, and that white and black shall be called on Sunday to the same Sunday School and the same Church service. Boston has adopted a plan for constructing dwellings for the poor, which is designed to supersede the " fiats" so popular in New York andoiher cities. The system is to build a continuous row of three story stone or brick residences upon each front of a square or a block. These houses will have ample accommodations of all kinds, except for cooking and washing purposes. These will be located in a spacious house in tho centre of the square, ample enough to serve the whole population of the block. The houses will be rented, and the inmates need only employ such servants as they want for household purposes. The cooking will be done in the general kitchen, and paid for at a low r.itc, so much per month for each family. The new language of Italy had hardly taken form before many little republics at once sprang into existence and gave another fame to that almost depopulated and destroyed land. Floronce stands not the first, but one of the mo3t famous. Venice had sprung from seaweeds and marches that bordered the Adriatic a short time before. But for some internal dissension and family feuds these two little republics would present to the world a career of unsurpassed splendor, and would enjoy to-day tho fame of having done more to enlighten and advance man than any nations of the world. At an early period in Florence the peoplejvvere 'divided by a family feud which, in time, involved all Italy. has something of tho romance that lead all Greece to collect their brave warriors around the wall of Troy One side joined the King -of Naples against the Pope, and the other stood with the Pope and for free .government. They were called G-uelphs and Ghibellines. A/ter many years of war and much confusion, the Guolph party succeeded. When the Emperors of Germany sought to rule both Italy and tho Church, as they wished to make and unmake Popes at their will, this Guelph party always opposed them, and wore found the party of liberty and the Church. Machiavelli, by no means a paitial historian for the Church says speaking of the power of the Guelph party, " Tho Guelphs' wore much more powe ful than tho Ghibellines, for the latter were bated by the people, and because the Church party was in more favor than that of the Emperor, for with the aid of the Church they hoped to

enjoy their liberty, but withthe Emperor they were apprehensive of losing it." From 1830 to 1875 is just forty-five years. The following table, exhibiting a few of the leading ecclesiastical statistics, will give our readers a summary, from which they may deduce considerations of encouragements and strong hope in regard to the future of Catholicity in America. 1830 1845 1860 1875 /"•-■•""N /•">>-»\ <**"^" s » ' Archdioceses ... ... 1 1 7 7 Dioceses ... ... 11 21 43-49 Priests ... ... 232 (583 2235 4873 - Churches ... ... 230 675 2385 473 L Chapels and Stations ... .... 592 1128 1902 I Theological Seminaries ... 9 18 Ecclesiastical Students ... , .... 1375. Colleges ... ... 8 15 69 Academies ... .".. 20 63 202 511 In tho statistics above given, Arehiepiscopal Province* and the Dioceses created at the recent Consistory at Eome are not included in the column for 1875. The aetvial number of Archdioceses in the United States now is eleven. * The ' Missions Catholiquos ' says" that there ib a great return to the faith in Abyssinia. The Superior of the schisrnatical -convent of Debro has returned to the Church, and has induced several other monks to follow his example. Many years ago he was Catholic, but ambitious motives induced him. to abandon the, faith.. This movement towards Catholicism is pronounced to be very great j the number of conversions is considerable. The Protestants have recently sent out a number of missionaries and a cargo or so of Bibles 'to Abyssinia, but they are not well received by the people, who, although schismatics, pray to the Blessed Virgin and the saints, and believe in the efficacy of the sacraments. A month or so back, a council of Abyssinian priests assembled to anathematize the Protestant missionaries,, whom they very justly called "the enemies of Mary." Our schools in Abyssinia under the carejof the>dmirablo Sisters of Charity are flourishing. The 'Univers' announces that a concordat between the Holy See and Russia has been conchided. According to tho celebrated French journal, as well as the Polish press, it appears that the negotiations have terminated iv the restoration of the normal organization of the Chnrch in the Russian provinces. The Bussian government has concluded to recognise the diocesan authority of the Catholic bishops, and their right to correspond directly with Rome. The ukase of 1868 is withdrawn, and the appeals of the bishops in Poland will be transmitted "henceforth to the Archbishop of Warsaw, instead of being sent to the " College of St. Potersburg." The Holy See consents to recognize this last named institution, and it is henceforth to be composed of delegates chosen by the bishops who are to administer the temporalities of the Catholic Church, and to act as a council of a Catholic primate residing in the Russian Capital, who will probably be the Archbishop of Mohilew, the Metropolitan of Russia, as distinguished from Poland. Those bishops who were exiled to Siberia, are to be allowed to return at once to their dioceses. Tho only prelate who is not to be restored is, it is said, Mgr. Felinslri, Archbishop of Warsaw, who is to receive a pension from the government, but to live abroad henceforward. The magnificent procession of the Corpus Christi at Yienua, was this year attended by the 1 emperor and empress and the whole imperial court. Unfortunately it rained, and the cortege was obliged to take refuge in the church of St. Michael. On the following day over thirty processions of the Blessed .Sacrament took place in various parts of Vienna. All of them were attended by 'soldiers ordered by the Emperor of Austria to escort the Host, and to do honor to our Lord as He passed along tho decorated streets. But the radical press has been down on their sovereign for this " most ridiculous act," as they are pleased to call the duty which his majesty very rightly performed. The emperor, ho-werer, is supreme head t>f the Austrian army, and no one clares disobey his military commands. He is reported to have been highly incensed at the remarks of the liberalpapers, so much so, indeed, that several of them were induced to change their tone under fear of suppression and fine._ The Yiennesse processions were received with great respect by the people, and there were no disorders. The ' Boston Pilot ' says : — Man is not half so power "ul as he thinks himself, after all. He is forced to resort in this enlightened age 1 o the simplest and most primitive aids to his weakness. With all our discoveries in sbeam, electricity, magnetism, heat, ballooning, the greatest of nations has to come down to trained pigeons as the safest messengers in tinio of war. Germany and France have established regular schools for the training of this important branch of their armies ; and a leading military authority in England urges that country to do likewise. The French training establishment is in Paris ; and it is notable that the Germans have made Strasburg — on the French border — the " centre of their pigeon-training operations. Another sohool is to be established at Metz. The wonderful memory and fidelity of the carrier-pigeon was shown recently by a pigeon which was captured in a balloon during* the siege of Paris, and sent by Prince Frederick Charles to his mother in Berlin. A few weeks ago, it oscaped from captivity, and returned to its former owner in Paris. Dr. Stables has broiiglit out a book on cats, in which he treats his readers to the following statistics: — "It is the very lowest average, to say that every cat in this country does away with twenty mice and rats per annum ; ard also, on the lowest average, each mouse or rat will destroy one pound's worth of property a year. Well, there are in the British Islands over 400,000,000 cats ; that multiplied by twenty gives an annual saving of £80,000,000 worth of property ; and these cats do not take .£4,000,000 to keep them alive — not more at any rate."

An Aberdeen baby is said to have inherited the eyes and nose of his father, but the cheek of his uncle, who is an insurance agent.