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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 184, 6 October 1876, Page 14

There are but faint signs of any mitigation of the^ Catho^^B troubles iv the Cautcn of Berne. A French priest/ the Abbe Berniwj^ cure of Fessevillers (Doubs), who had been condemned by the rural Rhadamanthus to a fine of fifty francs for teaching catechism to Catholic children at the Orphanage of Saignelegier, has been relieved from that sentence on appeal to the superior police-court at Berne ; and the Catholic population of the Jura has succeeded, after many struggles, in getting back their own priests, who are now at libei ty to resume their pastoral ministrations. But Apostasy and infidelity ars still in possession of the churches and Church property. The Catholic clergy are supported by voluntary contributions, and nearly all tha rcriinary schools are at present in the hands of the enemy. Thd other day, M. Herzog, a Prussian, was elected "bishop" of the "Old Catholic" sect at Olten. At a subsequent meeting of the " pynod" it was proposed to "reform" the Church by the abolition of Latin Mass, prie9tl t y celibacy, sacramental confession, and to forth. In some places the new clergy have given great scandal by their delinquencies, and the Bernese Government has its hands full of "case»" of this kind, which .re all it has to show in return for the large sunn it has disbursed for tne support of the schism. Several "Old Catholic" parishes are demanding the removal of their reformed pastors j while at Courfaivre tLe ■chiimaties have locked their " Old Catholic" priest out of the parish church, and will allow him to officiate there no more. In fact, in the Canton of Berne, the movement is looked upon as'afailurt. In Geneva the persecution goes on, Trith malice unabated.