Roman Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 22, 27 February 1891, Page 3

Roman Notes.

The Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop 3oE Raphoe and Derry who have visited Rome, are supposed to have made the Pope acquainted with the facts of Mr. ParneU's case and the feeling respecting it of the Irish hierarchy. If this be true, however, nothing has transpired as to details. The Catholic Press of Italy has condemned Mr. Parnell'a action in attempting to retain the leadership and the opinions expressed by it are generally shared in Catholic quarters, including especially those proper to Irish ecclesiastics. If it were distinguished for nothing elsj the reign of Pope Leo XIII. mast Btill remain memorable from the facilities provided under it for opening to tbe learned world the treasures of the Vatican Library. The great work has now been taken in hand of compiling catalogue? of the manuscripts preserved there, and of which there are immense numbei3 id various languages, many of them dating from th* earliest times. The task alluded to is a most difficult and arduous one. Its value, however, to students of history when it has at length been accomplished will be almost beyond the power of calculation. The Pope has recently given his approval to the establishment by the Dominican Fathers at Jerusalem of a school of Biblical studies. The locality will give to this school advantages not to be commanded elsewhere, and doubtless valuable elucidation of Holy Scripture will be the result. The votive offerings surrounding tLe picture of Our Lady Immaculate in the church of St, Andrea delle FratU were recently

stolen, notwithstanding the fact that the church is in the immediate neighbourhood of a police station. The picture, at the offerings testified, has long been held miraculous, and it wag before it that the conversion of the young Jew, Alphonae de Batisbonne, was instantaneously accomplished. The young man in question as it may be remembered, although well disposed and free from bigotry had no Ca holic leanings. On the contrary, he was about to marry and settle down for life in his own creed, when by accident he entered the cburch of St. Andrea. The church had just been arranged for th<_ funeral ceremonies of a French nobleman noted for his piety, and in an apparition of the Blessed Virgin seen by Batisbonne, it was intimated to him that the departed soul had prayed for his conversion. Tti s was worked on the spot, and the convert subsequently devoted bis life to the priesthood. Sacrilege, however, is now not uncommon in unfortunate Italy. The authorities, to say the least of it, seem careless as to preventing it. But having themselves given the example, although legally, what can be' expected ? The disposition of the Vatican towards the EnglUh Torie9 may, perhaps, be gathered from the appointmeat that has receHtly been made of Mgr. Bahadgiare, formerly Administrator in Malta, as Nuncio in South America. It was at the request of the English Government that Mgr. Bahadgiare was removed from the island. His appointment to a position of exceptional honour and confidence, following on the late ecclesiastical troubles in Malta, seems to have some significance. Notwithstanding the confiscations and the attempts made by the Italian Government to destroy religious life in the country, the Holy Father still perseveres in encouraging and fostering it — repairing in many instances the mischief that has been done. His Holiness has now, for example, given orders for the erection of a Benedictine convent on Mount Aventine — in which a community of the famous Order will devote themselves to the works of learning and piety, in which from timo immemorial they have proved themselves bo proficient. The rebels against religion are growing in boldness, and hardly seem &uy longer to care about maintaining tha pretences adopted on their outbreak. A passage in the speech of King Humbert, for example in opening the Parliamentary session the other day, if openly interpreted even by the organs of the party as implying a threat to the Pope. The King, in the passage alluded to, declared that while he had guaranteed the rights of the Catholic Church— he had not allowed that offence to his sovereign authority should be given in its name— and for political ends. The allusion to the new penal code, and the determination to enforce it is evident, as well as the denial of recognition to the sovereignty of the Pope. The revolutionary papers themselves, as has been said, acknowledge the utterance as, to all intents and purposes, a violation of the law of guaiantees. A report which occasioned some sensation, to the effect that the Austrian Ambassador to the Holy See had been attacked in the Btreet on his way to the Vatican, thougn based on fact, has proved to have had no political signification, as it was at first believed it had. The assailant was a seivant who had been dischargad for drunkenness, and who, out of revenge, lay in wait for the carriage of his Excellency, and smashed in its windows with stones. Toe Ambassador was slightly cut on tbe face, but no serious injury was done. Another ebulition of temper that made some little stir the other day took the shape of a duel between two deputies, who quarrelled in the Chamber. No mi«chief was done, however— pistols being harmlessly fired. Advanced civilisatiOD, nevertheless, would seem to chug to archaic methods. It is not to the more enlightened rulers of the country that the people of Italy seem to turn for aid in the distress that is now rife among them. Even from distant quarters it is to the Pope they make their appeal. The Holy Father, for example, has lately sent assistance in response to the prayer of unemployed workmen at Milan wbo sought his aid. There is certainly need that tbe Catholic world should be generous in supplying the Holy Father with funds— in consideration of the calls that are made on him.