PETER'S PENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 380, 30 July 1880, Page 19

PETER'S PENCE.

(From the Bathurst Record.) Those who have plundered the Holy Father of the Patrimony of St. Peter under the pretext of making him more free, have only embarassed him in the exercise of his spiritual power. Indeed, by a series of confiscations, the Italian Government has reduced the Holy See to a state of absolute indigence. Such being the position of affairs the sovereign Pontiff has no other resource than the offerings of his children, namely, Peter's Pence. Many persons, we fear, have not a very clear idea of the wants of the Holy See. It will suffice to state a few. In order to maintain official relations with various Governments, the Pope has need of Nuncios, Delegates, and Vicars Apostolic, and these must be supported. Bible Societies, Protestant sects, and Freethinkers have of late years invaded the Eternal City, where they spend money most lavishly in proselytizing Italian children. In order to combat the evil effects of these proselytizers, the Pope has established free schools for all classes, which he maintains at his own expense. -In Siberia there are exiled Polish priests reduced to the last extremity ; in Germany many parishes have been deprived of their pastors ; in Italy a great number of the bishops have been deprived of their income, and are thrown on the charity of the Holy Father. If to these we add professors in colleges, the students from all lands educated gratuitously, and the vast staff of servants and employees at the Vatican, it has baen estimated that about 5000 depend for support on Leo XIII., and it is calculated that at the lowest estimate £350,000 are required for all the wants of the government of the Church. There are in the world over 200 millions of Catholics, and if all contributed annually one penny each the Holy Father would be beyond the reach of want. But about three-fourths of the Catholic world are either suffering from poverty or persecution. Other countries, however, enjoy the blessings of peace, prosperity and religious liberty ; they, therefore, that are favoured with means ought to pay for those who suffer. The Holy Father himself exacts nothing, he imposes nothing, he prescribes nothing. He leaves each of his children at full liberty to give or not to give, and to give much or to give little. He has surely the same right to his support as every other minister of Christ. On Irish Catholics especially he has strong claims. Can we forget how in days gone by, in the worst era of our strange history, in the hour of darkest persecution, the Popes sent year by year large remittances to eveiy Court in Europe for the relief of Irish exiles, pensioning our banished bishops, founding colleges for the education of our priests, and granting indulgences to all the faithtul who prayed for Catholic Ireland 1 And in our own day, when Ireland is visited by famine, who is the first to come to her relief 1 Leo XIII. Gratitude is not a stain on our national character. True, we are poor, but we are willing to give according to our means. Our gift will be estimated, not by its moneys worth, but by the affection and gratitude of which it is a pledge. We aie dutiful children of Leo XIII.

"Rumours regarding a possible active interference in the affairs of Cashmere have lately been going the round of the English and Indian papers. That that unhappy countiy is most grossly misgoverned is beyond question, and it is alleged, rightly or wrongly, that the Indian Government is in possession of proofs of the Maharajah having carried on a treasonable correspondence with Russia ; but it is not the fact, as stated in some quarters, that the question of repurchasing or otherwise annexing his dominions is under consideration. — Times. A careful but caustic observer — a non-Catholic, by the way — remarked the other day, that the ordinary Protestant preacher, now-a-days, when not engaged in betraying his neighbour's wife, or in defrauding his friends out of their money, was generally to be found engaged ia a quarrel with one or more of his ministerial brethren, and in playing the part either as prosecutor or defendant in some ecclesiastical trial. The remark may bo somewhat exaggerated ; but there is too much foundation for it. If a catalogue of all the " Church trials," scandals and " investigations " which have been going on among the preachers of the various sects since the Ist of January last, could be prepared, it would fill many pages of our largest daily newspapers. The spirit displayed by these wranglers is of the earth, earthy ; the disclosures of the private life of the accusers and the. accused is often disgusting. Ihe idea that there are souls to save, and that they hold themselves out as men whose lives are supposed to be devoted to this work, does not appear to be present to their minds. — Brooklyn Catholic Review.