CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 17 May 1889, Page 29

CATHOLIC NEWS.

This Spanish Catholics will celebrate this year the thirteenth cen* tenary of the return of Spain to Catholic unity under the Visigoth k'ngs. Milwaukee diocese has the largest number of churches of any diocese in tbe United States.

A Bister of Charity died at Strasburg after having served for thirty-three years in the chief hospital of the city. Tbe funeral was made the occasion of a public demonstration of respect, in which Protestants and Catholics alike j 'inert.

A correspondent of tne New York Times gives testimony to the great lean \n\>, hospitality and influence <>t the Catholic priesthood in Honduras, and tells of the ignorance of the paity hostile to the Church.

The Irish Catholic is authority for the statement that her Maje^iy is pi eventing a statne of St. El ward the Confessor to form pait «1 a new chou-screen to be erected in the recently restored cathedral of Winchester, erected in Catholic times.

At Milan, Italy, in consequence of a project for a new Education Bill, tbe authorities a?ked what proportion of the population desired to have religious instruction for its children. Ninety -five percent, responded in favour of religious instruction in the schools. It was accordingly decided to introduce religion into the schools at the public expense. The church with the largest congregation in the world is that of S. Stanislaus Kostka, Chicago, the pastor of which is assisted by twelve priests. The membership runs into the tens of thousands, and is constantly growing. The congregation is largely composed of Poles, Excellent parish schools are maintained.

The Christian Brothers have in view the erection of a college in Chicago in which the pupils will receive a religious training as well as a commercial education. The cost of the proposed edifice is reckoned at lOO.OOOdoIs. and will have a capacity of 600 scholars. It will be four stories in height, the basement being about completed. It will be known as La Salle Institute,

A cable dispatch from Rome announces the death tbere of Cardinal Carlo Sacconi. He was born at Montalto, was 81 years old, and was made a cardinal, September 27th, 1861. He was one of the six Suffragan Bishops of the Pope, being Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, and was Dean of the Sacred College The Boston Herald states that the com ct estimate of the Catholic population of the United States is 12 000,000. The Little Sisters of the Poor have opened one of their houses at Colombo in Ceylon. The first old man admitted to tbe refuge was a converted Brahmin (aged 71), named Vandoolison. He was the younger of two brotheis who were converted in their youth, and the elder of them died a Catholic priest at Colombo not long ago. The sanctuary of Our Lady of Einsiedeln was visited during last year by 200,000 pilgrims. There were 174,000 Communions and 19,000 Masses at the shrine. General Bronsart von Bchelleniiorf, the War Minister of the German Empire, has published a decree in virtue of which Catholic priests who are liable to military service will be allowed to wear the ecclesiastical dress. These are important cotcessions, and the Archbishop of Cologne has given permusion to his priests to follow the prescribed course of training. In 1886 a Bishop from Ecuador wrote an appeal in the German papers, pointing out the spiritual destitution of his diocese, and urgently beggmg for German priests. The diocese is as large as Holland and Be gium combined, and has only 17 priests, of whom four are Benedictines and two Capuchins. Last year the good Bishop established a seminary in Puerto Viejo, and has now 12 young German ecclesiastical students. One of these, the Rev. Franz Videuz, a Westphalian, has just been ordained priest, at a very early age. A correspondent writing from Scfia. in Bulgaria, touching upon theßpread of Catholicism in the Kingdom of Bulgaria, gives the following extract from Russian journals : "The Catholic convents in Bnigaria are increasing and growing daily. In all the larger towns, such as Rustschuck, Widdin, Sofia, Sistowa, Philipopolis, and others, have Catholic schools been established. Prince Ferdinand and Princess Clementine are subsiditing tbem largely, tbe mother of the prince in one instance having donated 20,000 francs to the school in the capital. Some time since, says the Catholic Advocate, the Rev. Anton Domback was a priest in Green Bay diocese. He rejected the authority of his Bishop and was in consequejee removed from all pastoral charge. He went to Chicago, became a Methodist, and married a wealthy widow who had a son arrived at manhood. The unfortunate man peddled books sometimes ; again he lived on his wife's means. He was eaten by remorse. He went mad. A few days since he tore off the wedding ring from the woman's finger and thus addressed her :— " You are not married," he said ; "a pnest can not marry, and you are now a disreputable woman." He is now a frothing, dangerous madman, locked up in an insane asylum. The Prussian Government follows bravely in the footsteps of Russia in this matter of trie Catholic Poles. Here are more samples. The Klanders Chelminski ("Culm Calendar"), * favourite Polish Almanac, has just been forbidden by the local authorities because it does not indicate tbe birthday of the Emperor of Germapy, King of Prussia, "moreover makes no mention of him, and thus betrays its object of weakening iffec'ion to tbe Kaiser and the Empire and exciting dissatisfaction with the existing order of things" — to quote the official decree. The Almanac, be it obse ved, con ains nothing but the ordinary calendar of the year, a list of market days and fairs, and announcements. At Posen a mixed marriage between a —Catholic Pole and a Protestant man took place, the latter, of course, .flbadertaking to bring up the children as Catholic. Some time ago "^TftDzendorf (such was the husband's name) ran away, abandoning wfie and family. Now the lecal judicial tribune steps in "as guardian of the family," tells Madame Kunzendorf that if she does not cease taking her children to the Catholic Church she will be deprived of the care of their education.

The American pilgrims to the Holy Land spent St. Patrick's Day in Borne and visited churches and shrines. They had a special audieics with Pope Leo XIII. the following div, and Bishop '• ademacher, Mgr. Satoo, and th? Very Rev. Charles A. Yisaani presented a richly-bouad address to His Holiness. He gave the pri. sts fall privilege* and power to pronounce a special Papal Benediction upon their congregations on their return. la blessing the onfUmme carried by the pilgrims, the Pope, observing the eagle, said : "America never gies back from anything." He expressed the hope that America w >uld soon have a national hospice ia Palestine like other nations. The Pope presented to each pilgrim a silver medal, enclosed in a handsome case, and ia return received many gifts from the visitors. Bishop Wigger was abseut oq account of illness. He will abandon the pilgrimage and returi to America. The posi ion, so very important in itself, of Librarian of Holy Roman Church, most ably filled by the late Cardinal Pitra of the Order of St. Beaedict, has flow been assigned to His Eminence Cardinal PI acid o Maria Schiaffino. It may be remembered that Cardinal, then Mgr., Schiaffi 10 was director of the Roman journal Aurora, which was distinguished for its intelligent articles on Irish affairs, and which was suppressed through English influence. Letters from Tonquin give the details of the murder of Rev. Father Pedemon, a French missionary in 8 jutbern Tonquin. Father Pedemon has made an excursion into the mountains for the purpose of obtaining the liberty of a number of Christians held in captivity by brigands since the time of the Lang Massacre in 1885, when a missionary, two native priests, and over six hundred Chrisians suffered for their fditb. The heroic priest was shot through the head by the bandits. The ruins of the Tower of Babel have been made to serve as a pedestal for a statue of the Blessed Virgin. The ruins form a hill, at the highest point of which a portion of the ancient wall still remaim standing, having resisted dp to this all the ravages of time. The Superior of the Carmelite Missionaries of Bagdad, after offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, placed the statue oa the highest point of the wall. It stands in such a manner that it cannot be seen from the base of the tower, but only at a considerable distance. It is quite small in proportion to its elevation, and it is necessary to be aware of its presence in order to recognise it. The Bishop of Salford has founded in Bonn aa educational establishment for German and English boys of the npper classes. Tbia institution, which is in the closest connection with the wellknown college founded by the same Bishop in Manchester, has for its object to procure for its English pupils the benefit of a German education, and for the German pupils attending the higher schools in Bonn a home which may supply the place of family life and at the same time offer them the advantage of learning English m union with the advancement of their own s ndies. An important rescript has lately been issued by the Prussian War Minister, General Bronsart von Schellendorff, according to which members of the clergy who have attained the age of military service are to be exclusively attached to the almoner'a department in the capacity of infirmarians. Not only so, but a further privilege is accorded. Such of the clergy as are willing to undergo a course of four weeks' training m a military hospital (during which they may retain their ecclesiastical dress), and who pass an examination at the end, shall be chosen by prpfdreuce by the almonet-in-chief to accompany the army as almoners in time of war, whilst the remainder will have to serve as infirmarians in the reserve