CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 21, 20 February 1891, Page 25

CATHOLIC NEWS.

The Indian papers announce the conversion of two priests of the pchismatic Jacobite sect at Kottayam. The new Catholic papers, O Cruzeiro and O Brazil, have been founded in Brazil, with the approval and support of the Episcopate. The- Congress of Ulm was attended by 18.000 Catholic men, the largest number that has ever been present at a Catholic Congress in Germany. Tbe Pope has received from Berlin a communication to the effect that the Bundesrath has decided to refuse pirmission for the Jeßuits to return to Germany but is in favour of permitting the Redemptorist Fathers to return. A collection i% being made all over Germany for the purpose of presenting to Herr Wmdthoret, the veteran leader of the Centre party in toe Reichstag, the sum of 90,000 marks toward completing the new Cathulic Marienkirche in Windthorst's parish in Hanover city. The Bishop of Malta, Monsignor Pace, ha 9 sent the Pope a volume of addresses from the clergy and laity, togethei with letters BBBunng him that perfect tranquihty now prevails in the diocese. A number of young native Chribtians brought from Uganda, in Central Africa, by Cardinal Lavigene, are now probecu'ing their Btudies for the sacred ministry at Malta. A fund is being raised, by public subscription in Canada, to erect a church in memory of the martyr missionaries Pores Breboeuf and Lallemant. Ihe church is to be built at Pcntanguishene, the Bcene of their first mission among the Hurons Pere Didon's " Life of our Lord " has proved to be the great literary success of" the Paris publishing seaarn. It is a book in two large volumes, and sells at the price of 20 francs ; nevertheless 15,000 copies have already been Bold. Dr. Despioa' effort to have the Sisters of Charity reinstated in the Paris hospitals has been defeated in the French Chamber. In his speech the Doctor declared that he acted purely in the interest of the Republic and of the poor people. The banishment of the nuns from the hospitals had been a calamity, and the carelessness of the secular nurses substituted for them had actually been tbe cause of several deaths. Sienor de Cesarc writes from Rome that tbe Pope has purchased from the Gonzaga family a picture, by Veronese, representing St. Louis of Gonaag/i ;n his princely drees with a sword. The picture 'know exhibited in the Germanic College, where it is visited by vfSrdinals and piiesta. It is a sign of the preparations for the centenary of St. Louis, which falls on the 21st June, 1891. The medical attendants of the Holy Father have just published the statement that Leo XIII. is in marvellous health. Tney attribute the Pope's " ripe od'^e " to his very regular and simple habits of life.

Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, in a letter on the persecution of the Jews in Russia, says : " The fact that Christ and His Blessed Mother were Jews according to the flesh attaches me strongly to the race." Commenting on the report that the Catholic clergy in Germany have received instructions from the Holy Father to combat Socialism with all po«pib!e energy, the limes says : " Leo XIII. appears to possess at once an acute sense of the h-ird facts ot the modern world, and of the bearing which those facts have on thfi policy and the interests of the great organisation he directs." On a recenc Sunday Father Tiernan, of Syracuse, N.Y., lectured in the adjoining town of Cicero, on the subject of ''Temperance," and. says an exchange, " all the Protestant churches of the village dismissed their congregations from evening services and gathered with their clergy at the church to hear the lecture.' His Eminence Cardinal Bausa, having written to the Holy Father respecting the devoti >n to the Holy Family, his Holiness in his reply says that that devotion is to be manintined without change in the state in which it was approved of by trie Holy See, especially by the letter of Pius IX., published on the sth of January, 1870. His Holiness strongly urges bishops and priests to show their zeal in the propagation of the devotion. At the opening sitting of the CoDgress of Nantes, Mgr. d'Hulst, at the close of the eloquent allocution on the Social Question, announced that a Catholic Scientific Congress would open in Paris on he Ist of April, the object of which will be to prove that science, nstead of being the adversary of religion, is, on the contrary, its strongest advocate. The Congress was brought to a close on Sunday by a discourse from Mgr. Freppel, who, bearing strongly upon the religious topics of the hour, pointed his arguments directly against the Revolution. " 'Ihe Papacy," he said, " has for a hundred yean fought against the Revolution." Bmin Pasha, in the Colonud-zeitung , now contributes his meed of praise to the Catholic missions in Africa, with a not obscurely implied comparison with the Protestant ones. "As regards missions," he writes. " I refer only to such as, instead of teaching their pupils mechanical Bible reading and providing them with check trousers at the expense of pious souls in Europe, impart to them useful knowledge, instruct them in agriculture, teach them trades, and thus make each mission station a centre of crystallization for humanitarian work. It is a pleasure for me here to refer to the Catholic mission of Bagamoyo and its daughter institutions. Such establishments certainly deserve every kind of assistance from the State, and it should be made the duty of every settlement to support them as far as possible." Cardinal Gibbons has written the following letter to the Jewish Exponent, of Philadelphia: " Every friend of humanity must deplore the systematic persecution of the Jews in Russia. For my part 1 cannot well conceive how Christians can entertain other than kind sentiments towards the Hebrew race when I consider how much we are indebted to them. We have from them the inspired volumes of the Old Testament, which has been the consolation in all ages to devout eouls. Christ our Lord, the founder of our religion, His blessed mother, as well as the Apostles, were all Jews according to the flesh. These facts attach me strongly to the Jewish race. Over six thousand persons visited the new church of the Sacred Heart on Montmartre during the month of December. One hundred and fifty of the visitors or pilgrims are priests who said Mass. Amongst the pilgrims' names we find those of the newly-consecrated Vicar-Apostolic of Übangbi (Upper Congo), Mgr. Augouard, of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, and his former commanding officer, General de CharetVe. The General had just come from Rome, where he had several audiences of the Pope, who on every occasion spoke to him of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and of Montmartre. " The Sisterß of the Most Holy Sacrament " is the name decided upon for the new religious order that Miss Kate Drexel, or " Sister Catherine,' 1 as she is now called, is to establish, and which will have for its special object the amelioration and improvement of the condition of Indiana and coloured people. A site has already been purchased at Arundel, near Washington, and the erection of a convent and a school will be begun immediately. The mother-house is bling built at Andalusia, near Philadelphia, and will be the novitiate of the new Order. Sister Catherine will make ber profession next February, at which time she will relinquish to the Order her immense fortune, estimated at between 7,000,000 and 8,000,000 dols. By this acquisition " The Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament " will become one of the wealthiest religious Orders jn the world. The whole country is chorusing the praise of the heroic priest, Father Jule, who, in the face of almost certain death, penetrated the I ostile camp at the Pine Ridge Agency. His mission was one of peace and mercy. He went as a mediator between the Government and the maddened Indians in order to get an explicit statement of their gnevances, and thus stop, if possible, the dreadful eliughier that would certainly accompany another uprising. Speaking of Father Jule's perilous undertaking, the Sunday Expnsi says .—. — " The daring mission of the brave man of God who took his life in his hand that he might appeal to the braves deserves the immortality in which history has enshrined many of his devoted predecessors. If all Indian agents were as high-minded as he, the Indian problem would soon be solved, for the red man appears to have an animallike instinct which can detect the difference between honourable men and schemers quicker than trained reasoning powers often do." The Church Times and other Anglic-m organs of the Press have been building great hopes on the "Old Catholic " Conference held some time ago, arid predicing for the schismatics such a degree of progress as would place them iv a position of rivalry with the Catholic Church on tin: Continent. The unhappy French apostate, M. Loysop, aeerns to have bi>en captivated by the flattering dieam, and has been announcing Urbi it Orbt the great future in store for "Old Catholicism " Unfortunately for the dreamers, stubborn facts aie rendering their sanguine txpectations ridiculous. The "Old Catholics," lcadeis and followers, arc returning surely and rapidly" to the fold which th*y deserted. From Friburg, iv Brisgau, we

(Liverpool CathtUe Times') learn that in the Commune of KappeU on-the-Rhine 310 persons, who in 1870 formed themselves into an " Old Catholic " parish and obtained possession of the Catholic church in the district, formally renounced their errors on the 13th inst. The church will therefore ba henceforward devoted to its original purpose, after it has been reconsecrated by the Archbishop of friburg. The " Old Catholic " schism, despite the attempts of the Anglicans to bolster it up, baa long been doomed.