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New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 251, 22 February 1878, Page 9

One-tenth of the people of Russia are Catholics, and the proportion is the same in the Russian army. For the religious wants of all these thousands of soldiers not the least provision is made. When at the beginning of the war the Czar entered Roumania, Mgr. Ignacio Paoll, the Bishop of Bucharest, addressed a petition to His Majesty, soliciting permission to provide for the spiritual comforts of the Catholic soldiers. This petition remained unanswered, and Baron Huart, the Russian Consul-General of Bucharest, subsequently intimated to the prelate that the Commander-in-Chief was thinking of appointing several priests as chaplains to the army, This thought of the Grand Duke has not yet become a reality, and, as a consequence of this, thousands of Catholic soldiers have died on the battle-field without receiving the slightest solace of Holy Church. -~ ~-• In the canton of Zurich, during the year 1876, only 86 per cent, of the infants born received baptism. Of the interments 90 per cent, were according to religious rites, and the remainder " civil." Of the marriages, exactly one-half were solemnized in a church, or by a clergyman. We thus perceive the effect of the spreading Socialism.