The Catholic World.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 25, 27 October 1898, Page 27

The Catholic World.

' AMERICA.— A New College-— ln accordance with many requests, the Jesuit Fathers have decided to open in the city of Toledo, 0., shortly, an institution for higher learning. A suitable property has been secured. The institution will open with an academic course, preparatory to a collegiate oourse. The following cordial letter from the Bishop of Cleveland will be read with interest : — 'It was at our solicitation that the Jesuit Fathers determined to inaugurate a Catholic College for the higher education of the youth of Toledo. From our own experience we can testify to the worth and excellence of their course of studies. It has the testimony of the last 300 years in its favour. We hope that the clergy and laity of the city of Toledo will appreciate the college whioh. will open September next, end will give their hearty ejtoouragement to make it a success. May God bless the work and may it be ever Ad majorem Lei Gloriam — the motto of the Society — • For the greater glory of God,' and for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Catholics of Toledo.'

The Alliance. — Archbishop Gross, of Portland, Oregon, gives an opinion of the proposed Anglo-American alliance, less unfavourable than any yet pronounced by a prelate in the United States :—: — ' I have no English blood in my veins, for on my father's side I am of Alsatian descent, on my mother's side Irish descent ; but from the standpoint of ah American gentleman and a Catholic prelate I would, were alliance to become a necessity, prefer one with England, for the English fleet combined with ours could whip the combined navies in the world. England could, as Disraeli told the famous Berlin Conference, easily place a million or more of welldrilled and well-equipped troops from India and elsewhere into the field. As a Catholic prelate, I know that there are no Governments on earth that so persecuted the Catholic churches as Russia, France, and Italy. Whereas, whatever England's courses have been in the past, at present nowhere ia the Catholic Church more free than in all the British Empire.' AUSTRALIA. — The Cardinal's Generosity. — A Mudgee (N.S.W.) paper says : — ' The R.C. congregation being unable to pay the interest due on the church building and land of Sutherland, Cardinal Moran paid off the entire debt. Bully for his Eminence !'

ENGLAND.— Cassell's 'History of Protestantism'— The London Tablet of recent date says that at the close of the Catholio Conference lately the Bishop of Nottingham proposed that : ' The Catholic Conference assembled at Nottingham desires to protest against the advertisement of Messrs. Cassell's History of Protestantism, as opposed to recognised facts and as a direct insult to the Catholics of Great Britain.' The Bishop of Southwark, in seconding, said it seemed to him that the advertisement was a direct insult to every one of them, and it waa well they should not allow it to pass unnoticed. The statement protested against runs as follows : ♦ With the dawn of the Reformation Great Britain oommenced that splendid career of which her people are justly proud. She owes her greatness to the vivifying effects produced by that change, and her present position to freedom from superstition and the blighting effects of Romanism.' i GERMANY— The House of Hohenlohe-— Brother Constantine, 0.5.8., formerly Prince Philip Hohenlohe, nephew of the Chancellor of the German Empire, took his simple vows as a religious on the last Sunday in August at the Benedictine Monas- , tery of Seckau. Before the Pontifical High Mass the ceremony of the change of dress took place. A large number of relations and friends assisted at the profession, among them the young novice's mother, Priucess Marie Hohenlohe, and his brothers. HOLLAND-— The Queen— The Pope has sent the Queen of Holland an autograph letter of congratulation and a present of a magnificent mosaic table. ITALY-— Suppression of Catholic Societies— The Osser- 1 ratnre Romano of August 27, publishes a list of the Catholic societies dissolved between the beginning of May and the middle of June, furnished to it by a Milanese correspondent, who has gone through the statistics with the utmost care, and vouches for the substantial accuracy of the results :— Regional Committees ... ... 4 Dioceean Committees ... ... 70 Parochial Committees ... ... 2600

Young Men's Societies ... ... 600 University Circles ... ... ... 5 Circles of Catholic Youth ... .. 20 Catholio Associations ... ... 300 Several co-operative societies and associations for mutual assistance of a purely economic-social character have alco been suppressed (says the Tablet), merely because they were Catholic, but of these the numbers have not been ascertained. The wholesale character of the action of the Government may be judjred from the estimate of 3600 societies dissolved in little more than a month, while not one has been subjected to legal prosecution, and not one of their members has been found guilty of the subversive aims of which the Catholic associations were acoused as the Bole pretext of their arbitrary dissolution. SCANDINAVIA.— A Notable Convert-A considerable sensation has been causod by the conversion to the Catholic faith of the well-known Swedish writer, Helene Nyblom. The gifted authoress has published an article entitled • The Churoh which I sought and found,' explaining the motives of her conversion, and this article has been translated into French. The still more celebrated writer, George Brandes, has taken up the cause of his fair colleague in the Danish Press, and though himself supposed to be entirely a ' secularist," takes occasion to emphasize the manifold advantages of Catholicity in comparison with Lutheranism. SOUDAN-— A ZealoUß Chaplain-— The St. James' Gazette, writing of Father Brindle, an army ohaplain, who has been through many campaigns, says :— ' When lately stationed at Darmali camp with the Ist Brigade, he happened to hear that a private of his flock in the Northumberland Fusiliers in 2nd Brigade, stationed at Atbara, where there was no priest, was lying dangerously ill, and he afterwards died. Father Brindle walked the ten miles to Atbara in the early morning of Sunday, administered the last Sacraments to the man, and returned to Darmali it time to celebrate Mass to the troops there, thus accomplishing a record Sunday's duty.' We learn since that the Queen has approved the grant of a good service pension to Father Brindle. It is many years since such a reward was conferred upon a chaplain, but, says the Pall Mall Gazette, perhaps few have ever been more worthily bestowed upon either combatant or non-combatant officer. He obtained his first appointment to the Chaplains' Department in January, 1874, and was with the Egyptian expeditionary force in 1882, for which he has the medal and Khedive's bronze star. In 1884 he was present at the battles of Teb and Tamai, and received the clasps for those battles. He was mentioned in despatches for his zeal and devotion to the men and promoted chaplain to the forces, second class. The Khedive also conferred upon him the Order of the Osmanieh, fourth class. He was with the Nile Expedition of 1884-5 as senior chaplain to the field force. He was again mentioned in despatches, received the ' Nile ' clasp, and promoted chaplain to the forces, first class. In 1885-6 he was with the frontier field force, and was present at the action at Giniss, and again mentioned in despatches. In 1896 he was with General Kitchener's expedition to Dongola, and, being again mentioned in despatches, received the medal and clasp and the Order of the Medjidie, third class. He is still serving in the Soudan with the Khartoum Expedition, and has already been mentioned in the Atbara despatches. GENERAL. The appointment of a royal prince to a bishopric is a rare event in the dynastic history of Europe, but this has just been the case with Prince Max of Saxony, who has been appointed Bishop of Kulm. Archbishop Menini, O.S.F.C.,Vicar- Apostolic of Sofia and Philippopolis, who, says the Colombo Catholic Messenger, has hitherto resided regularly in the latter city, is now building an episcopal residence close by the Catholic church in the Bulgarian capital. In future he will spend half the year in one see, and half in the other. The new Bishop's residence is, to a large extent, due to the generosity of Father John Dvorak, a distinguished ecclesiastical writer, who formerly was a missioner at Sofia, and now lives in Hungary. The Austrian Emperor has also contributed several thousand florins, and the Catholio ladies of Sofia are doing their best to furnish the house in a worthy manner. The church has also received several valuable gifts during the past few weeks. The Vicariate embraces nearly half Bulgaria, and the whole of Eastern Roumelia. At present the Vicariate contains 14,850 Catholics of the Latin rite, and is in a gratifying condition. In writing to the Times the Earl of Portsmouth, a Protestant, treats as follows of the Papacy as an institution : — ' The strength of

the Roman Church is the Papacy, a final authority, the sublimity of human wisdom and ecclesiastical statecraft. The weakness of the English Church is not antipathy from without ; but the attempt on the part of many, very good, but not very clever, men to be a Pope into themselves and their congregations.' It is ' a sign of the times ' to note th.it even staunch Protestants, like the Earl of Portemouth, are beginning to look upon the Papacy no longer contemptuously, but as an outcome of sublime worldly wisdom.'