The Catholic World.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 47, 25 March 1898, Page 24

The Catholic World.

' ENGLAND-— A Brave Catholic Boy —it is always pleasant to chronicle acts of bravery, and all the more so when the hero is a young lad who is yet far from man's estate. Such a case is just reported from Guildford, London. On Sunday, January 23, a meeting of the St. George's branch of the South London Catholic League was held in St. George's Schools, and during the proceedings a presentation was made to William Dooley, a lad nine years of age, who saved the life of a little boy during last summer at Guildford. The boys were spending the summer holidays, when one lad, John Herring, fell into the river, and but for the heroic conduct of Dooley, the boy would have been drowned. The presentation was made by the Very Rev. Canon Keatinge. The Case of Sister Monica- — The voting of the subscriber 8 on the question of whether Sister Monica shall be dismissed from her position as maternity nurse of the Ladies' Charity at Warwick, because she has joine 1 the Catholic Church, has resulted in a decision to take no action at present with regard to that lady, who has undertaken not to influence in any way the religious opinions of her patients. A Converted Nestorian Priest in Manchester.— Father David Benjamin, A.rchpriestof Oruiu in Persia, was the guest of the Very Rev. Father Bernard Vaughan, S.J., at the Holy Name, Manchester, lately, and at the eleven o'clock Mass on Sunday, January 22, delivered a moving appeal to a large congregation in aid of the [ minions oi. his country. In introducing himself to Father Vaughan's flock. Father Benjamin stated that he was a Xestorian, but had been converted to the Anglican Church and afterwards to the Catholic Church. He informed his hearers that his people were very poor and that the object of his coming to England was to ask for alms to enable him to build a church and school in his own mission. On Monday morning Father Benjamin celebrated Mass at the Holy Name in the presence of a large congregation, according to the SyroChalJean lite, in the lan»ua^e usel by Our Lord. JAPAN.— The Church and the Sects in Japan.— The eminent English scholar. Dr. Casartelh, gives the following as the correct statistics of the Japanese Christians : — The Flowery Kingdom has a hierarchy consisting of an archbishop and three bishops. The clergy number ninety-seven, of whom eighty-two are missionary priests and the rest Japanese. There are sixty-four churches, fifty-four schools, and, apart from the clergy and religious. 4 4. .")().") known Catholics. The Russian schism has 20,000 adherents in Japan, and the Protestant sects of all kinds have an aggregate following of 31,G.">0. ROME. — An Interesting Query. — Mrs. Mulhali, wife of the famous statistician, is in Rome prosecuting researches in the Vatican library. The object of her mission is to solve the following problem : Did Dante receive his inspiration from the legend of the Irish Saint Fursey, which the Venerable Bede had put into Latin and rendered popular throughout Europe ? Bede is the only Englishman mentioned in the '' Divine Comedy," and Mrs. Mulhali conjectures that Dante was familiar with his works. Mr. Gladstone long ago expressed his belief that Dante visited England, and the great statesman appears to more than half endorse Mrs. Mulhall's views. In accepting a copy of Mrs. Mulhall's essay on the subject, he says : '" The presumptions you raise appear to be important. Dante's being acquainted with a remote local saint such as Bede is oi itself remarkable, and if it was due to his studying in England, as I am inclined to believe he did, then England may have furnished the thread which brought into his \iew the root idea of his poem. SCOTLAND. -A Good Record. — The Brothers of the Sacred Hear: Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (Edinburgh) have ]ust issued their report for the year 181)7. The income of the year amounted to £107 12s 2d, the expenditure to JC'.U l'.ts .'id, leaving a credit balance of till 12s lid to be carried forward to 1.v.1.5. The Conference ha-, worked amongst the poor with a heart. As muny as 1.1570 oases were visited, and 74 cases received assistance. With such a record, the Brothers may, with confidence, appeal for continued assistance and support. UNITED STATES. -A Good Story of Archbishop Ireland. — A good story (says the Catholic Times) has been told

by an American editor of how the present Archbishop of St. Paul, the Most Rev. Dr. Ireland, who was a chaplain attached to the sth Minnesota Regiment during the great American Civil War, took an active part in the battle of Corinth. The narrator Bays :—lt: — It was in the midst of that battle. The famous Texas brigade had made their desperate charge. The Confederates had succeeded in penetrating the Union lines. They had captured some of the batteries, and were pouring into the streets of Corinth. The gap in the lines was widening. More soldiers were rushing through. It looked as though the Confederates would soon attack Rosecrans' army in the rear, when the sth Minnesota Regiment was ordered to the rescue to close the gap. They attempted to do so. They threw themselves like a whirlwind upon the enemy. With shot and bayonet they rushed upon the advancing mass, pressing it back inch by inch until at last they re-took the batteries which had been lost, and almost succeeded in re-establishing the line at the point where it had been broken. Just at this time, when the enemy were still crowding and fighting for the gap, the cry went up from the Union soldiers for more ammunition. Many of our boys had used up their forty rounds, and were replenishing their cartridge boxes from those of their dead comrades. It was then that walking amidst shot and shell, came a smooth-shaven, tall, angular young man in the dress of a chaplain. Upon his shoulder he carried a heavy box, and as he walked along just at the back of the soldiers he yelled out from time to time : " Here are more cartridges for you, boys. Here are more cartridges for you ! " And so he went along the line, the soldiers reaching back and grabbing the cartridges by the handfulls, and then turning again with new ammunition upon the struggling enemy. And so all through that fight this smoothshaven chaplain moved back and forth carrying ammunition to the men to whom he had preached only a few nights before. He kept it up until at last, when the evening shades began to fall, the battle closed with a victory for the Union forces. Then it was discovered that the brave chaplain was missing. Father Ireland, for it was he who carried the cartridges to the men, could nowhere be found. The greatest concern prevailed, and almost all thought that his bravery had cost him his life. There was an anxious search among the wounded, when in an improvised hospital on the outer edge of Corinth the young priest was found unhurt, but still at work speaking words of comfort and cheer to the wounded and the dying.

Death Roll of Irish Priests in the States.— The Irish Catholic just to hand gives the following list of Irish priests who have recently passed away in the United States. The Rev. Patrick McEvoy died on January 7 at St. Vincent's Hospital, New York City. Father McEvoy, who was about fifty-five years old, had returned from Europe only the day before he died. Father McEvoy was born in Ireland, and pursued his higher studies in Belgium, where he joined the Order of Carmelites. He was on a mission in London for several years, and later was located in Dublin. The Rev. Father William Casey, the oldest Catholic priest in point of service in the diocese of Rochester, New York, passed peacefully away at St. Mary's Hospital, January 4th. Father Casey was born in Limerick, May IS, 1820, being 78 years of age at the time of his diath. Early in life he commenced a course of study in theology at All Hallows College, and in 1818 was ordained a priest. In 1833 he went to the States and accepted the charge of the parish at Palmyra, New York, which he continued to hold continuously for iorty years. Four years ago failing health compelled him to retire. Since his retirement the aged priest has lived with his brother, Dr. James Casey, at 2'> Sophia-street, in Rochester. Besides his brother, Dr. James \V. Cahey, of Rochester. Father Casey is survived by one sister, Mrs. Bridget Sheehan, of Limerick. Rev. Tnomas Walsh, late pastor of the Catholic congregation at Newry, Blair County, Pa.. died January (i, of congestion ot the brain. He was born in county Waterford, sixty-eight years ago, went to America when 17 years of age, was educated at St. Vincent's College, near Latrobe, and ordained when 2~> years old. He had served 43 years as a priest in the Pittsburg diocese, being stationed at Hollidaysburg Ebensburg, Lilly, and Huntingdon, before going to Newry. He resigned his pastorate at Newry a tew weeks ago, on account of ill health, and had since made vis home with relatives in Atloona.

A Nun Descended From Martha Washington.— The Catholic ( 'ulum l? ui it is authority for the statement thut a descendant in the sixth degree of Martha Washington, a great granddaughter of Nellie Curtis, who was the grand laughter of Lady Washington and the adopted child of the iii^t President, i.s now residing in New York, a member of a religious community, in which she is known simply as Sifter Philomena. She is, pictured in the New York pre^s in the garb of a Dominican nun. Her lineage is thus traced : Nellie Curtis married Lawrence Lewis ; their daughter Emily married Colonel Edward Butler ; their daughter Isabel married Colonel Williamson ; and their eldest daughter it is who now wears the religious habit. Colonel Williamson was atone time IT. S. Minister to Central America, where his daughters were educated in a convent, and while there embraced the Catholic religion. Later, the eldest one entered a convent in Tennessee and has since devoted herself to the educational work in which her Order is. engaged.

WALES.— Catholic Progress in Wales.— Even our Protestant friends have to admit that the Catholic Church is progressing in Wales by leaps and bounds. The South W'alcx Daily uYeivs, an influential Nonconformist organ, writing 1 on the subject a short time ago, t-aid : "It will be seen from the following figures, obtained from a report just issued, that Roman Catholicism is gaining- ground in Wales. Statistics show that there were 50 years ago in Wales and Monmouthshire, then forming a diocese called ' Apolonia,' 11 lioman Catholic chapels. Ln the 12 Welsh counties there were only *.) chapels, which were thus distributed among 6 counties — 3 in Glamorganshire, 2 in Flintshire, and 1 in each of the counties of Brecon, Pembroke, Carnarvon, and Denbigh. At

present there are 90 Roman Catholic places of -worship in Wales and Monmouthshire, making an increase of 79 since 1847 ; but of the 90, 26 are in Monmouthshire, leaving a total of 64 for Wales; proper. In South Wales the number of chapels is 41, out of which there are 22 in Glamorganshire, 4 in Pembrokeshire, 2 in Carmarthenshire, and 1 'in each of the counties of Brecon, Cardigan, and Radnor. In North Wales, where there were only 4 chapele 50 years ago, there are at present 23 chapels. Eleven out of this number are in Flintshire, 6 in Carnarvonshire, 3 in Denbighshire, and 1 in each of the counties of Merioneth, Montgomery, and Anglesey. There are also, in addition to the chapels, a number of day schools and also the Jesuit College at Trenieirchion, in the Vale of Clywd, and the Capuchin monastery at Pantasaph, near Holywell."