A GREAT GERMAN CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2, 11 January 1900, Page 31

A GREAT GERMAN CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.

1 Among the most interesting reports presented to the great congress of German Catholics, recently held in Neisse, was that of the ' Popular Aspociation for Catholic Germany.' From this we learn that last year that powerful Volksverein mustered no less than 186,000 members, divided as follows among various parts of the empire :— Rheinland, 62,029 ; Westphalia, 34,208 ; Hanover, 11,600 ; province of Saxony, 302 ; Brandenburg, 1376 ; West Prussia, 1459 ; Silesia, 4572 ; Bavaria. 18,289 ; Wurtemburg, 22,054 ; Baden, 10,654 ; Alsace-Loraine, 2176.

One of the chief ends of the association is the advancement of social reforms by word and pen as well as by the individual influence of the members. It promotes with a special zeal meetings of artisans and the establishment of Christian clubs for working people. After several years of activity, the association ia able to olaim with perfect justice that ' it has at length succeeded in creating among the Catholic population greater interest and understanding of the great political questions.' It will interest the members of our own Catholic Truth Society to learn that the German society has circulated C,62!»,000 publications, and that last year, during the elections for the Reichstag, it scattered abroad no less than three million fly-leaves on social questions.