CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 28, 10 April 1891, Page 5

CATHOLIC NEWS.

(From the Liverpool Catholic Timet,')

A nrw Catholic weekly paper is about to be started in the Eternal City with the title La Vera Roma.

An International Congress of Catholic men of science is to assemble in Pans in the first week of April.

There were twenty-one members of the Sacred College present at the funeral of Cardinal Christofori.

Mr Frederick Walton Atkinson, solicitor, has taken the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with honours, at the London University, being second amoDgst forty candidates. Mr Atkinson is a convert.

A monument to Columbus is to be erected in one of the Piamzas of Rome, and on the occasion of the centennial representation the work of the celebrated Morlacchi, presented in Italy and at Dresden in 1828, will be reproduced.

The Abbe Boyer, Canon of the Cathedral of St. Andre, Bordeaux, has been named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. The Abbe, as military chaplain, was present at many engagements during the war of 1870.

According to a work written by the Rev Father Gagarin, a Jesuit, and called " The Russian Archives, and the conversion of Alexander 1.," Alexander 1., Czar of Russia, was converted to the Catholic faith towards the close of his life.

Cardinal Mermillod has issued an appeal to the Catholic youth of the world, in the name of the Italian Association of Catholic Youth to celebrate worthily the third centenary of the death of St. Aloysius Gonzaga by joining the pilgrimage to Rome.

Pere Monsabie" has been presented by the Holy Father with a chalice as a token of satisfaction with the ability which the rev. gentleman displayed in his Advent sermons at the Church of St. Andrea della Valle.

Preparations are being made for the visit of the Austrian Empress to the Holy Land. Her journey there, undertaken in a truly Catholic spirit, will be not a pleasure tour, but a pilgrimage. She will spend the Holy Week in Jerusalem.

Mr. Richard Acton, son of Lord Acton has written to the Pall Mall Gaectte stating that there is not a shadow of foundation for the report that he had joined the Anglican communion — an announcement which was asserted in that journal on the authority of an Oxford correspondent.

The Duke of Norfolk is indignant at the action of the Government in reference to Mr Gladstone's Religious Disabilities Bill, and in a letter to the Times be says it is an ungrateful surprise to many Catholics to find their claims for justice sacrificed to the noisy declamation of heated bigotry.

Cardinal Lavigerie has received a splendid offering for the promotion of his good work. The Marquise de Brives, a lady of 98 years, who \b without heirs, hae, after providing for old domestics and poor friends, settled £640,000 on his Eminence in return for an annuity cf £1000.

An EDglish correspondent of the Paris Univers describes with enthußiasm the good work carried on at Wolvey, Hinckley, by a convert, Mr C. Arnold, aided by the Bey. Austin Richardson, another convert. The correspondent Btatea that during his residence at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, Father Richardson converted 47 persons, among them being his own mother.

The result of the Spanish elections has been a complete victory for the Catholic Conservative Ministry. As many as 289 Ministerialists were returned, and all parties in the Opposition taken together have only obtained 154 seats. Of the Opposition 25 are Republicans, 7 Carlisle, and 89 Liberals of the party led by Sagasta,

Two Jesuit Fathers, Bey. J. N. Straesmaier and J. Bppiog, have undertaken the laborious tack of deciphering the three Babylonian

tablets which were acquired a few years ago by the British Museum. The kind and tha extent of the astronomical knowledge poSNSsed by the Ohaldees is shown by these two tables, and now rests on a purer foundation than mere speculation.

The ladies of Paris are embroidering a magnificent carpet for tbe Katilica of the Sacred Heart, at Montmartre. It will be worth about 100,000 francs. In tbe centre is a view of Montmartre, above the arms cf the city of Paris, and on each side tbose of Jeanne d'Aro and Henri IV., whose armies once encamped near the hill. The names of the donors are embroidered on the border.

Baron Nicola', otherwise known as Father Dom Jean Louis Nioholai, formerly lieutenant-general in the Bussltn army and aide* de-camp to the Czar, has died at the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse, to which he retired about twenty years ago. He was Governor-General of the Caucasus, and it was he who suppressed tbe rising under Schamyl.

Frenob Catholics are mourning the death of Sister Celine, who, during 57 years, and notably through the tronblous Franco-Prussian war times, was a tender nurse to tbe vronoded soldiers. She was born in 1800, aud it is said that she was one of the most brilliant damet d'htmneur mt the Court of Cbarles X. After the fall of that monarch she joined the sisterhood of St. Vinoent de Paul.

The Commendatore de Rossi, the veteran explorer of the Bomin catacombs, and the chief living authority oq tha antiquities ,of the first five centuries, is still making important discoveries. . He has lately unearthed the basilica of St. Sylvester, the Pops of Oonttantine's day 8, containing the tombs of six of the earliest of the Roman Pontiffs. He also discovered the tomb of Priscilla, the mother of the Senator Pudens, in the cemetery bearing her name, a discovery that carries us back to the apostolic age.

General Sherman, who died recently, was married to a Catholic lady of Irish descent, a grand-daughter of one of the men of '98. Thanks to her influence Catholic chaplains were appointed in tbe Federal armies during the War of Secession. His sods were educated as Catholics, and one of them, Father Thomas E. Sherman, 8.J., is now completing a special course of study at the Jesuit oollege in Jersey. The General was visited on bis death -bod by a Catholic priest, who administered to him the last rites of the Church.

How effectually real power departs from a priest when oooa b« has severed himself from the Catholic Church. A writer in ons of tbe reviews — Mr. W. F, Stockley — has been giving his opinion of the influence exercised by ex- Pere Hyacinthe, and from his remarks, which art based on personal observation, it appears that his auditors scarcely ever regard the would-be reformer as a serious religious teacher. They treat his place of worship more as a lecture-hall or theatre tban as a church. Many forget to take off their hats nntil they are some time in the building ; conversation is freely indulged in, and the sermon is disenssed in tbe same way as an address from M. Francisquede Sarcey at La Salle des Conferences. This is the preacher npon whose words crowded congregations once bung with devout reverence. But greater ecclesiastics than he — men such as De Lammennais— became as sounding brass when they fell away from the teaching of tbe Church.

Everybody who is at all acquainted with life in the Bast knows how difficult it is to make converts to Christianity amongst the Orientals. There are no people on earth so thoroughly conservative of usages and religious ideas. So far as Christianity is concerned, the East is all but immovable. Good work, however, is being don« by Catholic missionaries in many Eastern quarters, and amongst the most successful evangelists are the Capuchin Fathers. A correspondent of an Italian Catholic paper has jus: been relating the nature of their labours at Trebizond and Erzeroum, and the facts he gives point to solid progress. The Capuchins are so reverenced for their poverty that many of the poor entrust to them the education of their children, and the Fathers have also woo a high reputation as medicine-men. At dispensaries which they have established in Trebizond and Samsun over 16,000 invalid* are attended to every year. Numerous conversions are effected, and one of the probabilities of the future is the return to tbe true Faith of a very large body of Armenian schismatics through the seal of the good Capuchin Fathers.

Baron Frieirich Schmidt, the celebrated Gothic restorer, was once asked by his friend, Fried rich Piecht, why he had become a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism. The answer he gave is noteworthy. " Because," said he, " I have come to recognise tha Catholic Church to be the mother of truth and of art. Amongst Catholics I have always found liberality of mind, spirit, humour, wealth of fancy, solidity, and fulness of tbonght. la the Prussian bureaucracy with which I had to deal before my conversion I found only stiffness and insipidity Was it say wonder, then, when I felt ■o attracted by Catholicism, that I should at length openly embrace it ? " The lesson of breadth and depth of thought which Baron Schmidt learned from his study of the Catholic Church he practised effectually during his brilliant career.

The " Old Catholics," who were to reform the Catholic Church off 'he face of the earth, and to refresh, msn in every tarf with tbo

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pure doctrines of a sublimate! Protestantism, have b^ea counting up their numbers of late, ai.d hive found, according to a German paper, that they are merely a few thousand. A few thousand after a crusade of twenty yearn ! Why, there are as many Mormons as th>it in En=:lacd, and if Mr. Qailliamand his Liverpool Mabomidins, of whom we have b 'en hearing FOtwt'iing of lato.only wnk with a little energt , they will b; in « position to (dipse tru •' Old Catholic"Beet. Tim:)sth>; touchs'one of truth. Top Ol I <Wioli'«s a1"a 1 " unable to stand that infallible test. Despite much favouutisra and Anglian subventions, they at- not m -rely d>iig, bat practically dead.

We have heard of an Ar.g'ic.in c'ergy man who was converted to the Catholic Cbuich by reading Dr. LittK dale's billet diatribes agaius it. The R^v. J. Moultrie, lately an Anglican curate at D jncaster, who has bicom: a G I'h ilic, app )\n to h*ve vi icg m 3 a somjw ,at similar experience. His vicir told his coagregatioa, on Sunday last, that when h? found Mr. M mlir.e felt unsettled hi hi* p>sition, be "fortified him with the strongest literature of an antidotal chincter he could brine; to bear." Mr. Moul'rie accept d the vicar 8 gift, but Boon afterwaris visited Father Strapp.ni, 8 J , Oxford, aai, as the vicar put it, "the Jesuit co iquered." We are almon inclined to sympathise with the vicar over the eff ict of his amunition against Borne.

A Ritualistic journal in noticing the recep'ion into the Church of the Rev. John Bulmer, observes that " the recoil from extreme Protestantism has been thu most fruitful c ias^ of the exodm to Rome." If it is any satisfaction to the Church Review we may state that Mr. Bulmer was never an extreme man in any sense of the word, But our contemporary complains that although the papers notice such conversions a? Mr, Bulmer's, they nover rec >r 1 " the leakage from Romanism to Anglicanism." How could they ? Some few Catholics may attend Protestant places of worship, but how many of them ever profesß to change their religion from mature conviction founded on c!ose and patient study of tho grounds on which Protestantism rests ? Once in teo ye-\rs, or in twenty years, such a case may be met with ; and a pretty fuss is made of it when it does happen. But clearly the drifting of some people from a Church wuich is in many towns poorly protided with one or two humble chapels, or with no chapel at all, to a communion which is rich and repu'able, does not by itself afford any presumption in favour of the latter body. Such changes of re.igion are well described by the Anglican paper as '' leakage," the gradual oczing away of the water in a ship's bottom — n X the mist valuable part of thecirgo — to mingle with the wa'er outside.

Who would have brlieved twenty yeirs a>o that the Prussian Government would not only make Us p^ace with the Church, but would cfTer to compensate the clergy for the penalties they incurred under the Falk Laws/ The sealants withheld from the bishops and priests who declimd to acknowledge therojal suprnnaey in spiritual affairs, amounts to ro Kb'? a sura than £800 000 ; and a bill has been introduced m.o the Pui--sian Paihamuit for paying c vei this mm to the bi&hopp. The grant is accompanied by curtain rccommerditiontas to t^ c macnt r in which the Govt ramtnt would like this large sarc of money to be spent ; but (ach prelate is to have the absolute pjwer of diepohing of the th>re b> longiDg to bin diocese. 'Ihe Prussian bishops and their flocks are to be cungratukved on the approaching completion of this pet of juttue ; and the Prussian Government deeerve preat cred.t for tin lr ooui age in pciforminj; it. ti it the chi.-t evils of the May Liws were spiritual, Lot temporal ; and the extent of thos>e evils cannot be computid. We can only hope that Gmman Btatesmin will lay the letsjn to heart that nothing can in ihe long run be gained by tiyit'g t<> coerce the cori'-ciences of Catholics.

Cardinal iSimor, the thoirnakei'ts bon, whose selection as a member of the Sacred Collide ana Pnmate of Hunijaiy illustrates the eesenaally dtmocrrttic spirit of the Cath die Churcn, proved by hid conduct thut ti e Chuich could have no more jealous custodian of its dignitj tbau a man laised hum the tjumbltst rauk«. In June, 18IJ7 a few weekt> after his appointment as Archbishop and Primate, Caidiual Simor went to Rurnc. 1l wa^ then propej-e 1 that in an imposing proctSßiui in honour of the Ap >stles S.^. P.ter an 1 Pail he should take his place as the 1 ist of the Arch j sh )ps % a>ncc h ■ w^t c last cioseii. bun ir vnjorou^H' protii3 f e ii i 1 i a -, se 1 t i.ic h;auull as Primate of flu i ;aiy ria'< ano li^t lle I* itiiuc hanl M < > t )o itans. Hid app"al wis lai i before Pun IX :n 1 ha cirr el ' h poi .t, th ■ kin l-li •iri d P jatill rimukiii;. "h; n a intii v eti i.i >.d n iiy energy.' But whist s^rupulou* m mun'iiiij,' lih p iv,l' n 'jj as a chuicnoi n, Simjr w is p.-rsO'ially a uul'l of hamuity.