GERMANY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 133, 19 November 1875, Page 15

GERMANY.

Warendorf. — On 19th August, 200 citizens, having at their head Herr L. Bernhard, tlie President of the Municipality, visited the Franciscan Convent to take leave of the good friars, who are obliged to quit their place. The President addressed them, reminding them that for centuries the people of Waxendorf have "been indebted for great spiritual blessings to tfie care of the sons of St. Francis. After a very affecting speech from the Guardian a musical society chanted a hymn — Via crucis, via luois — and they separated. fihitieland. — A large number of priests, members of religious orders, chiefly Franciscans and Capuchins, passed through this district en route for Eotterdam, to take ship for Amexica. At the railway station at Cleve a crow.d of people were gathered, bewailing their loss. Baden. — During the current week a general congress of the Catholics of Germany has been held at Freiburg in Baden. Particulars of ho-w it has been conducted have not, of course, come to hand at the time o e writing. But the local committee charged with organizing it htd issued an address, in which their duties of hospitality are very cordially declared and cheerfally accepted. The preliminary meetings were to be held in the "house of Ihe Catholic Union of Freiburg, but all the general meetings, whether public or private, were to be held in the Kunsthalle. The chief subject of deliberation was to be how best to continue the struggle against the elimination of religion out of the State, society, the schools, and the family, and to bring back into public recognition the old salutary motto, " Fear God, honor the King." Berlin. — The ' Germania' of Monday, 23rd August, was confiscated by the police at the request of the Attorney-General's department for Posen, the only explanation of the proceeding being that the paper had published, some notices concerning the antiecclesiastical proceeding at Gratz in that province. Bishop of Miinsler. — On the 23rd Angust some of the staff of the ' Westfaliscber Merkur' were examined on oath before the Commissary Muller, charged with the preliminary proceedings against Dr. Brinkmann, with a view to his deposition. The object of the examination was to ascertain the connection between the Bishop and the newspaper, and whether he had himself sent to it for publication various pastorals, &c. J?osen. — The Catholic journals (and, indeed, also the Protestant) announce the usual list of prosecutions against clergymen, with the ordinary accompaniment of fines and imprisonment. Some of the prosecutions are experiments to discover the persons who have declared the sentences of excommunication against sundry ecclesiastical intruders. Treves. — In the country districts of this diocese the people have taken upon themselves to supply the wants of the clergy, so as to neutralize as far as possible the law abolishing the ecclesiastical incomes. Thus one man supplies meal, another bread, another meat, &c, and the bills are regularly sent in receipted. Prince Charles of Bavaria. — The will of this prince has been made public. He has made provision for maintaining all the poor and other charitable objects as during his life, devoting for this purpose a sum of between 80,000 and 90,000 gulden. Religious Orders. — The reports continue of the closing of the religious establishments in Prussia, and of the moving scenes with which they are accompanied, by reason of the sympathy of the population. In some places, where private gentlemen have the reversionary interest in the fabrics, &c, difficulties have arise

between them and the Government. This has been the case in Mtinster, with respect to the Capuchin Convent, the buildings of •which were taken possession of by the agent of Count von Galen, and with respect to the Franciscan Convent, which, upon the departure of the Keligious 5 was taken possession of by Herr Albers. It is scarcely necessary to observe that in all those cases the reversioner is in no way hostile to the former religious proprietors. , It would appear that the law of suppression will be put in force against all establishments -without distinction. Thus even the Trappistt,, at Mariawald, must quit their retreat; although it is hard to see in what way those solitaries can be regarded as hostile to the Empire (Reichsfeindliche) . The Bishop of Breslau.—A. letter from the Bishop of Breslau to the Franciscans who were compelled to leave their church at Annaberg has just been published. It is a follows: — "My beloved children in Christ,— Tour letter of departure of 27th July has just reached me, and I have read it with sorrowful, nay with the most painful feelings. So even the last four (Friars) will also "be taken away from me, they will no longer be the faithful guardians of the church of St. Anne on the mountain : they will no longer receive the pious pilgrims journeying to the holy mount and refresh them with holy food. Tou are going away, bearing to a far-off land the blessing which you scattered broadcast over my diocese, and my faithful children gaze after you with yearning, streaming eyes, I must, however, thank you for having so faithfully corresponded to the confidence with which I invited you, for having so -well fulfilled your duties in the spirit of your founder, for having so faithfully cultivated God's vineyard within my diocese. You go; but your memory goes not. Annaberg belongs to you ; it will again receive you when the season of trial is past. And we also shall see each other again ; perhatra not here, but assuredly there, where they who sow in sorrow reap in joy. Farewell, then, my blessings and my prayers accompany you. Pray you also for my diocese and for myself. I remain in affection and thankfulness your troubled but God-trusting Bishop, t Heinbich." The Bavarian Bishops — "With respect to the meeting of the Bavarian Bisliops at Eich.statt,a fortnight ago, it is worth, remarking that there was nothing unusual in the meeting. Every other year those episcopal meetings are held, and strictly speaking they ought to be held, at each Bishop's See in turn; but by reason of the quiet which Eichstatt enjoys it has been now for some years selected as the place of Conference.