CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 8, 14 June 1889, Page 19

CATHOLIC NEWS.

Pere Monsabre, the illustrious Dominican, has entered on the eighteenth series of his Lenten sermons in the chair of Notre Daroe at Pariß. For eighteen years has the great preacher held this exalted post— a longer term, by-the-bye, than that of any of his immediate predecessors— Fraysslnoua, Rivi^nan, LacorJaire. Felix, or Hyacinthe. The distinguished Dominican is still as hale and hearty as when he first mounted tbe steps of the historic pulpit of Notre Dime. Though biß locks are growing grey, tbe Matures are fresh and ruddy, and his Btep iB light and elastic. Pere Monsabre 's Lenten sermons comprise six in all— one for each of the Sundays — to which must be added five short addresses delivered during Holy Week. He occrpies the entire of his life in preparing and revis.ng these chefs d'oeuvres in oratory, a volume of which appears anDually. For these services the administrative authorities of No're Dime award him a yearly stipeni of 3,ooo francs, or, in other words, 600 dols.—a sum which i 3 infinites! mally small when compared with tbe fat salaries of many English and American preachers of the Protestant churches. The stipend in question, it must be added, is solely intended to defray the rev. gentleman's personal expenses. Prussia still persists in her " Germanising " attempts upon Polish nationality. According to the Oaaeta Toruiuka, the German Protestant schoolmasters who have been forced upjn the Catholic population do their best to aid the Government by preventing the children, as far as they can, from using Polish books, aid for this purpose frequently examine tbe booka they bring to school. The other day. a headmaster, named Kdtt^ubn, confiscated a Polish primer belongiDg to a little girl, the daughter of a labouring man, and refused to return it to the father. The same teacher endeavours to discourage the children from gong to the instructions for confession, which are given in Polish. But the climax wa9 reached on the 4th in9t., when this zealous Germaniser dragged six Polish girls to the police station, where the poor children were terrified with threats of all kinds of punishment, to make them tell wno had given them Polish reading books, and who taught them to read Polish ? The trembling little girls answered thac their parents bad bought them the books, and that the parish priest als> had given some of them. Thereupon they were strictly questioned as to whethe- the paii«h priest had given them the books personally or by means of another priest ; what he said to them whilst in&trucing them for confession; whether he taught them to read Polish, etc. The police authorities could get nothing inciiminating out of the girls' testimony ; the parish priest taught the catechism and sacred history, their mothers taught them Polish. What is to be said of a teacher who can hurry his pupils to a police station, as if they had been guilty ol some great crime, because they possessed books in their own language ? 'ihe Belgian Catholics have wisely determined to imitate the action of the Germans in founding a " St. Raphael's Society " for the special direction and proteciion of emigrants to all parts of the world. A very strong committee has beeu formed, with M. Van Jckerhout, a Benator of Biuges, as president. The St. Raphael's Society of Germany, to which we have several times referred, has now agents at all the great ports oi both the Old and New World?, who^e duty it is to meet emigrant, either on their go! ig abroad or on landing, to give them needful directions and advice, secure them decent lodgings, and protect them from falling into the h^nds of the unscrupulous agents of every kind— some of the rrost infamous characters— who swarm at all sea ports. Such wi'l also be the work of the Belgian Society. The Neuent Nachrichten aus dem Morgenland, a German newspaper pub.ith-d in Palestiue. stites that the city of Jerusalem is gro*iLg in size and population at a remarkable rate. Its growth is all the more surpri-ing because neither its situition nor its trade is favourable to a rapid increase ; it lie* among a not very fertile group of mountains, it has next to no commerce, and it has no manufactures. Nevertheless, new buildings are rising daily ; churches, gardens, and institutes of various kinds are filling up the formerly desolate neighbourhood to the distance of half an houi's walk beyond the old limits of ihe city. The Jews are to the front as builders.— Their houses spring out of the ground like mushrooms— uniform, ugly, one-storied, plentifully supplied with windows, but with no manner of adornment. The Rothschilds have completed a new boacital. Close beside it there is a new Abyssianiin church. The cussians ure also great builders ; they have erected a new church, ponsulate, lodging-boutes for pilgrims of the Orthodox national Kburches, and a hospital.