CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 17, 12 February 1892, Page 15

CATHOLIC NEWS.

(From the Liverpool Catholio Timet.)

One half of the Paulists of New York City are converts from Protestantism. They now number twenty-four.

It appears that the Chinese prince who has been mnrdered by the rebels was a Christian, a convert, and benefactor of the Belgian missionaries.

The Rev M. Louvet, a French missionary, says the reason why China rejects Christianity is because behind the apostles of Christ it tees Europe coming, its ideas and its civilisation, which it does not want at any price.

The Hon. William F. Sheehan, the new Lieutenant-Governor of New York State, is an alumnus of St. Joseph's College, in that city which is conducted by the Christian Brothers. He is the first Catholic n the State to hod the office of Lientenant-Governor.

The late Dom Pedro was an ardent student of botany . His knowledge of languages was also very extensive. He wrote and spoke fluently English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. His remains will be interred at Lisbon in the family vault of the House of Braganza.

Mgr. Buffo Scilla who, with Mgr. Sepiacci, is to be created a Cardinal at the next Consistory , is a member of a family that has already given several Cardinals to the Church. The most famous of them was the Cardinal Fabrizio Buffo Scilla, who, in the closing years of the last century, raised the South of Italy in insurrection against the French, and, with the help of the English fleet, expelled them from Naples. Buffo Scilla's insurrection began among the people of Calabria, where his ancestors once reigned as sovereign princes.

One of the most notable women in the Dominion of Canada, Sister Thcrese, of the Order of Sisters of Providence, has just diedIn 1852 she was sent with another nun to relieve the Indians in the Far West, and her travels on that occasion included a journey on> horseback almost to the Pacific coaßt, in a region where no white woman had been before. She founded at Montreal the immense insane asylum, which was burnt down with 100 of its inmates early last year. Sister Theiese was Superior of this establishment till her death.

Last week we gave a contradiction by Lord Salisbury of the report that he had had a major-domo who was an Italian priest disguised. In another contradiction of the same report his Loidship says: "It is an idiotic fabrication from beginning to end. Italian priests do not accept positions as butlers, which they probably would be incompetent to fill ; and Iha ye never had an Ital ian , whether priest or layman, in my service as butler." Is it surprising that Catholics should smile at the incredulity of the British public when they see equally idiotic stories with regard to their religion published by the Press almost day by day.

His Holiness Leo XIII. at the request of the Patriarch Bishops and notables of the Maronites, has issued an Apostolic Letter, reestablishing the Maronite College in the Eternal City. This college was founded at Rcme in 1584, by Gregory XIII., and it continued to flourish there for two centuries. The Pontifical document announces that funds for the re-establishment of the college have been collected by the Maronite Bishops and his Holiness sanctions the project, whilst reserving for a subsequent period the designation of the locality in which the college will be reconstituted. The institution will be under the direct patronage of the Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda, and he will appoint the rector and professors, as well as a Maronite ecclesiastic, whose duty it will be to teach the students the liturgy suitable to their rite.

Mgr. Isoard, Bishopof Annecy, insists upon being understood. To Bhow the world that his religious politics have Dot changed since this time last year, when he adhered publicity to the toast from Algiers he has just addressed the Catholic youth of his diocese in a document which bears somewhat a political character. In it he reiterates bis previously expressed opinion that the " French Monarchy is dead "—" — an expression which has proved exceedingly objectionable to monarchist susceptibilities — and Catholicism and the monarchy being no longer to be regarded as a common cause, he again invites French Catholics to adhere to the republic as the only regime possible in France for the future. All this is logical and consistent on the part of the Bishop of Annecy, only the public were not quite prepared for the manifesto since bis very recent letter to the Minister of Worship, written with the evident intention of placing himself with respect to the Government in exactly the same position as the offending Archbishop of Aix. Iv truth the position of French Bishops is more than difficult just now, indeed so difficult that wore a St. Ambrose to come among them he might find all his work cut out in order to steer clear of pitfalls.

The Proteßtant editor of a Jamaica paper, Gall's Weekly News Letter, in reviewing the career of the late Father Hathaway, S.J., took occasion to draw a remarkable parallel between the lives of Catholic and Protestant missionaries. The Catholic priests in Jamaica are, he declares, zealous in the interests of religion, devoted in the

service of the poor, and unambitious of worldly wealth. Their ministrations are given m eagerly to the humble and poverty-Btricken m to the moneyed daises, and they are ever ready to face any personal sacrifices for the welfare of their flocks. Exactly the rerane ot this ia the character of the average Protestant missionary. He is grasping and avaricious, unwilling to endure personal discomforts, and a pandtrer to the rich whilst he absolutely neglects the poor. The primary aim of his labours is not the evangelisation of the people, bat the accumulation of property. With heartfelt shame the editor avows that whilst Catholicism in Jamaica is instinct with vigour and fall of the Apostolic spirit, the Protestant missions are lifeless and decaying. Failure is writ large over them all. We have no donbt that that despite all this those good Protestant ladies in Great Britain who contribute towards the Jamaica missions are annually regaled with glowing accounts of the church work done in the island by their heroic and long-suffering ministers.