The Catholic Word.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 14, 6 April 1899, Page 27

The Catholic Word.

AFRlCA —Missionaries for the Dark Continent —The Rev. Father Daignault, S.J , of the Zambesi Mission, was in Dublin recently for the purpose of recruiting missionaries, and to obtain postulants for the Dominican Order of Nuns, of whom there are 37 on the Mission, their headquarters being at Buluwayo, Salisbury, and Cnisawasha. In reply to an interviewer he said that his efforts, so far had been crowned with success. In May next he expected that live Sisters of the Order o£ Notre Dame will leave England for the Zambesi, and that these will be followed during the ensuing year by a contingent of the Marist Brothers, who will go out to take charge of the Mission School at Buluwayo. Some of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Switzerland, are also expected to undertake labours in this important missionary field. Though the only Christian mission established in these African regions so far has been conducted by the Jesuit Fathers ; they are not desirous of confining to themselves the honour of carrying to a successful hsue the great and noble work which they have undertaken at the expressed wish of his Holiness, the present occupant of the Chair of Peter, and, in accordance with their ancient motto, Ad Ma jo rent Dei Gloriam. On the contrary, one of the chief items in Father Daignault's programme at the present moment is that of seeking to induce other religious Orders to join in the good work by starting similar missions in the same territory. The Jesuits and the Zambesi Mission.— The limits of the Jesuit Mission of the Zambesi (says the Irish Catholic") are practically the same as those of the great Rhodesia country, with which many of our readers have, within recent years, become more or less familiar, as the scene upon which some of the keenest political intellects of the century are centred with an interest which the events of each passing day serve but the more strongly to accentuate. Within the area of 730,000 square miles of the ' Dark Continent, which go to form the Jesuit Mission of the Zambesi, are included such important districts aa Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Barctseland, and Beohuanaland, and it is amongst the peoples of these countries that the lot of the Jesuit missionaries —no easy one, it will be readily believed— has been cast for many years. The record of the • work which they have been enabled to accomplish, though far from being one of uninterrupted success, has lately been crowned with the reward which the zealous and untiring efforts of the workers in I this great missionary field have most certainly merited, the results ! of their labours being such as to arouse reasonable hopes that, I within a comparatively short space of time, the natives of this vast section of Africa may all be won over to the fold of the Church of Christ, a consummation which will be earnestly and devoutly looked forward to by the united ranks of the members of the Catholic Church all the world over. GREAT BRITAIN. — Lenten Pastoral- — Cardinal Vaughan'B pastoral this year deals with the rescue of children, a subject which has always attracted the eloquence and the energy of his Eminence. Archbihhop Macdonald of Edinburgh appealed for extended aid to the Catholic schools committee. Archbishop Eyre of Glasgow wrote on the Passion. The Bishop of Saltord treated on the evils of mixed marriages. The Bishop of Hexham and Newcattle dealt with the doctrinal crisis in the Church of England. IRELAND-— Archbishop Walsh on Immoral Publications—in his, Lenten pastoral his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin spoke as follow* on dangerous publications :— lnfidel works and tracts, and immoral poetry and romances, which undermine faith, darken the understanding, and corrupt the heart, should be carefully excluded from Christian homes, Heads of families should prevent their children from reading newspapers or periodicals containing irreligious or immoral matter. The reading of religious books, such as the Sacred Scriptures and the L,ces of th Sauitx, andalso of good, scientific, literary and historical work^ written in a spirit of truth, is to be encouraged. Parochial libraries are most useful, and should be everywhere established It ' still unhappily continues to be a special duty to warn the faithful ' that they should shun immodest representations in theatres and 1 elsewhere, improper dances, scandalous pictures and photographs, : and, in a word, everything calculated to excite bad passions and to 1 destroy the purity of Christian morals. The attention of Catholic I vendors of books newspapers, and other publications should be called by the clergy to the awful responsibility that is incurred by thoi who lend themselves to the diabolical work of undermining