CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 30, 18 November 1887, Page 3

CATHOLIC NEWS.

Time has brought about the jubilee of the Catholic Church in the Colony of Fiji. Father Lepeut, S.M., the resident priest, proceeded to Levuka on September 12 by the French Man of War, for the purpose of being preseut at the celebration of the event, and as many of the clergy as could be gathered from the other parts of the group were also assembled. ",Thii interesting occurrence (says the Fiji Times) cannot but prove grateful to the feelings of those who are members of the oldest of the Christian denominations ; and the memory of the hardships undergone aod the services rendered by the Pioneers of the Faith here will be universally brought home to the recollections of those who may gather to do honour to so memorable an epoch in the history of the Church in the Island missions. On such an occasion, the devotion, unostentatious piety, charitable work, and God-fearing life of the Rev. Father Breheret, Prefect Apostolique, can but be borne in mind. More faithful priest and truer gentleman never breathed. Sublime in his self-imposed obligation ot poverty, the riches of the Rev. Father's generous and charitable heart are unspeakable- Knowing no difference of creed or clime, his large-mindei beneficence has caused him to view distress as the claim and bond of brotherhood, and to acknowledge as an obligation the duty of bestowing rel'ef and consolation wherever they might be needed. This jubilee will be cause indeed for him to rejoice ; but no less will it be to his co-religionists m tbe reflection that the chief minister of their Faith here has proved himself so worthy a representative of the truths which ennoble the practice of true Christianity in its highest form." Father Breheret, who is a Manst, has been connected with the Fiji mission for nearly 50 years.

Maxwell, the convicted murderer of Preller at the Southern Hotel, in St. Louis, has renounced Protestantism and been received into the, Church by Rev. J. Henry Then, assistant recior of St. John's Church, St. Louis.

Either intentionally or by accident, says the Weekly Register. the mystic number 7 plays a great part in the Cologne Cathedral Tbe number appears to have been taken as the groundwork of all arrangements in which numerical quantity comes into question. Thus there are 7 niches for the reception of statues at all the chief doors and at the side entrances. The hsight of the vestibule is 7 times 8 feet ; 7 pediments for figures staud in the same ; 7 chapels surround the choir, the width of which, like that oil tbe inner area of tno church, is 7 times 23 fedt, while the heuht of the choir is 7 limes 23 feet ; the height of the aisles is 7 times 10 feet, and twice 7 pillars adorn the choir. In the aisles are 7 times 8 pillara, and 4 times 7 soaris rise along the walls. The western portal is 7 times 33 feet wide, the

length of the v,i<n buildtng is 7 times 76 fe>jt, and the height to the summit of the principal toweiß ia also fixed a r 7 times 76 feet. The three tra^veise aisles are 7 times 15 feet wide. Not only does the number 7 enter so largely into the general architectural arrangements, but also into the smallest details as the parts of dec >rative w >rk.

Cardinal Livig.»rie has been spending a few days in Belgium. The great Archbishop of Carthage and Algiers, the founder, protector, and promoter nf the missions in Equa'orial Africa, was interviewed by a representative of th>' Patriote, ihe npirited little Catholic H aily of Brussels. T^e interviewer described the Cardi-ial as showing no signs of feeling the weight of years— his are six y-two in number — except in the snowiness of Lis beard ; asupright, and oquar ly built ; his complexion bronzed by an African sun ; with rhe a^p^ct of a hale warrior. And such indeed he is, for has he not devoted himself to the warfare of the Cross ? His Eminence explained that he had come to Belgium to open a house of probation for Sisters t > aid in missionary work in Africa. Thanks to generous help received from (Germany, Belgium and Holland, a house for the Sisters had been founded *t Maestricht, and in less than twenty-four hours all had been settled for their es'ablishment in the Dutch town. There are at the African novitiate at Wolou we twenty students ; thirty have already gone to Africa, of whom some have already died martyrs in the cause of Christianity and civilisation. Cardiual Lavigerie. before leaving Belgium, had a few minutes' conversation wiih the King of the Belgians, and visited the Count of Flanders.

The Marquis of Bute, who has already shown his aptitude and attraction for serious studies in his excellent translation of the Roman Breviary, is having translated, edited, and published at his own expense tbe Latin Lives of the Irish Saints, in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, which formerly belonged to the Franciscan community at Lnuv?in. The translating and editing have been entrusted to the Rev. Father de Smet, one of the four Bollandist Fathers charged with the onerous task of continuing the large collection of the Ada Sanctorum, which takes its name from the Jesuit B-ilWndus, one of the first compilers, and which is comprised in about 66 folio volumes Belginm is rich in historical records referring to Ireland, a^ there is no country in Europe with which we bad more frequent intercourse, particularly ecclesiastical relation". The late Dr. T.dd. about thirty years ago, got a loan of Irish manuscript, lives of saints, from^the Belgian Government, which Professor Eugene O'Curry translated into English, making duplicate copies for himself, which, after his deatb, were purchased for the Catholic University.

It is announced that the Holy Father has deigned to erpct into a basilica the sanctuary of Ste. Anne de Beaup-e, in the Diocese of Quebec, and that the miraculous statue of the Saint venerated therein will be solemnly crowned, in the name of Leo XIII., the Pope desiring thus to glorify toe patroness of French Canada. The crown of St. Anne and the Blessed Virgin will bo of massive gold, the gifts of the women of Canada.

Mgr Mermillod, after consulting with experts on the subject, has approved of the plaster model of Blessed Canisius, which is to be s ulptured in Carrara marble, and sent to Rojae as tbe gift of the Catholic Canton of Fribourg. The Swiss Guards of Honour of the Sacied Heart are sending a costly chalice, ornamented with turquoise and garnets.

The Swiss Federal Council has addressed a communication to the Vatican, in which it leaves the nomination of the successor of Mgr. Lachat, ac Administrator Apostolic of Ticino, to the Pope, should his Holiness be satisfied with the maintenance of the present relations between Church and State. If the Pope, however, desires a more definite arrangement, the Federal Council is prepared to receive a delegate from the Vatican, and to enter into negotiations. The Swiss Episcopate have just held their annual conference under the presidency of Mgr. Mertuillod, who, since Mgr. Lachat's death, is the senior prelate.

A German paper slates that "at Vienna last year no less than three hundred and sixty-three Jews became Christians," and another paper tells us that "at no period since the first century have conversions from Judaism to Christianity been s~> frequent as they are at the present."

On August 16, the statue of the late Tery Rev. Dr. Cahill was erected oveT his grave in O'Connell's Circle, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, opposite to Sir John Gray's monument.

The Austrian Catholic Poor School Committee, under tbe patronage of Cardinal Ganglbauer, lately is-ued an appeal to all the Catholicsof the Empire to combine effort in behalf of popular education. The rising generation must have schools wherein their faith will be safe.

In a population of 250 000, Buffalo had 90,000 Catholics.

One is taken back to the Middle Ages (the Paris correspondent of the Standard says), by a ceremony performed in the Faubourg St. Germain a few days ago. On the second floor o£ No. 30 Rue de Lille, two men were, with all the old-fashioned ceremonies, made Knights of the Ancient Order of the Militia of Jesus Christ, founded by Bt. Dominic at the commencement of the thirteenth century, and approved in the year 1209 in a bull issued by Innocent 111. The dignitaries of the Order, clad in their white and blue costumes, were assembled in the grand salon, while the privileged spectators who crowded the antechamber could see all that was done through the large folding-doors, which were thrown wide open. At the further extremity of the salon another loom transformed into an oratory was visible. The first candidate, M. Lautier, knelt before the altar, and the Prior, rising, said in a voice audible to all those present :—": — " My brother, you are about to become a Knight. It is not to be rich, to be honoured, or to take your case, for thus you would do no honour to the militia. But it is to be the model for your brethren by the nobleness of your aspirntions and ty your generous abnegations, and to serve as a valiant Christian the Order of the Militia of Jesus Christ, of which you will be the vanguard." A dignitary then placed the red cross on his breast and attached his spurs. Another threw over bis shoulders the knight's cloak, which is a superb black garment lined with white satin. The Prior completed the equipment by attaching the sword to the belt of

the new Knight, and then touched him three times on the shoulder with the flit of the sword, saying, " In tbe name of Ged, Oar Lady, and Father St. Dominic I dub you Kuight." The new Knight recited the creed, and afterwards, with his sword on the Gospels, pronounced aloud the oath to fulfil with exactitude the dutieß which tbe constitution of the Order imposed on him. The other new knight is Dr. Dubois.

Cardinal Manning, who is the president of the Total Abstinence S jciety of the R >man Catholic community of England known as the League of the Cross, attended the annual festival at the Crystal Palace on Monday, the 22nd Augrst. There was a great gathering of people from all branches of the League in and about London, and some from distant parts. The great majority were people of the Übouring classes as distinguished fr im the artisan classes, with a large number of young women from the factories of the east and north-east of London, and a great number of children. In the afternoon the Cardinal, who was attended by many priests, presided at a mass-meeting in the theatre. His Eminence read a telegram from the Liverpool branch, giving greetings to the I eague in London, and proceeded to make known his desire hat all the people when asked should sign a petition in favour of closing public houses on Sunday The Suuday drink traffic he held co be one of the greatest curses afflicting the land. He then called their attention to the special blessing which the Pope bad bestowed upon the total abstinence move in America, and remarked that this oiessing wan not upon mere " temperance," so-called apart from total abstinence, for nothing less than totil abstinence would meet the case of combating wiih this evil. He appealed especially to the sober people and those who were living good lives — to such as had never felt the temptations surrounding the drink question — to enrol themselves in the total abstinence ranks. By so doing? they would aid ► hose who were suffering from the curse. He begged parents to keep the poison from their children, and not to be led away by the specious suggestion that " a little can do no harm." To give a child drink was as sowing the seeds of weeds in a garden where flowers and fruits should be planted, and the weeds could not afterwards be eradicated. This noble movement had the blessing of the Holy Father, and he trusted that they might grow strong in their resolves, upon which too, that the blessing of God would rest. Referring to Ireland, his Eminence remarked that if the movement of Father Matbew revived in that ountry and the people broke off the bondage of drink no other bondage would exist.

It is sometimes (stys the Aye Maria) alleged by those who ought to know better that the Church is losing ground in Catholic countries. In a spirited aad timely article iv the columns of the Ncn York Sun this opinion is ably combated. " Catholicism," says the Sun, " is actually better off under the French Republic than it was under the pious despotism of Louis XIV." This view has been successfully championed by Mr. A. F. Marshall in the last number of the Catholic Quarterly. He declares that Louis XIV. did more harm to religion than Paul Bert, and he proves this assertion by showing that there is to-day among the people of France a larger number of fervent Catholics than there was two hundred years ago. "In the old Versailles days the world, the flesh, and the devil were all in active fraternity with (he show of faith." In Italy, too, Mr. Marshall points out that, nunvrically, there atJ as many professing Catholics as there were before the Garibaldian aggression, and that the force of the Catholic religion in Italian life is as great a 9 it ever was. In Germany M. Stoecker, the chief Protestant minister of Berlin, writes as follows in the Gazette Ecolesiastique Evangelique : '' For years hack we have seen the Catholic Church in Germany acquire a constantly increasing development. She has gained the sympathy of the nobles, the princes, the upper classes generally, as well as of the peasantry and working people. ... It is incontestable," concludes M Stoecker, " that the Catholic Church has far outstripped the Protestant Church." After such testimonies as these in reference to France, Italy, and Germany, what further need have we of witnesses to refute the silly calumny that the Church ia losing ground in Catholic countries ? But to make assurance doubly nure, news comes from Mexico of a great Catholic revival, characterised by increased devotion everywhere to the Blessed Virgin. In the face of facts like these we think it ill-timed, to Bay the least, to bring up a ten-times refuted slander.