THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 21, 24 May 1900, Page 10

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SOUTH AFRICA.

In the course of an appreciation of an article contributed to the Jhiblin 1U vu ir on ' The Catholn Church in South Africa,' by Miss E. M. Clerke, the London Tabht nays. — It was only in IM-J7that Catholicism first obtained admittance to the half-way house between England and Australia, and England and India"; under penal restrictions not removed until ISC.S. We have now in British South Africa and the two Dutch Republics four VicariatesApostolic and three Prefectures, with loi". missionaries !>7 churches or chapels, 121 schojls, and :jl),M)o Catholics. This remarkable work has been principally achieved by Jesuits, Little Brothers of Mary, Irish Sisters of St. Dominic, Sisters of the Assumption, and the Oblates of St. Francis of Sales, an lof Mary Immaculate. There is a Trappist monastery at Marianhill with a colony of <>0(>, managing .">(),( too acres in Griqualand and 20,(100 in Natal. Everything required for the colony is product d on the spot. Newspapers are published weekly and monthly in English, German, Kaffir, and, we are .-upas.-d to learn, in Polish. Rapid, too, is the progress made by the 12 mi-sicis with the B,i-ut «, who become ' model Christians,' and whose ■/ al in travelling long <h-t .in c-> to hear Mass or fetch a priest to the dying tnuht well '•eivt us an txamplo to the member^ or old r communities." All this in spite of

polygamy and the influence of the chiefs, reverenced almost aa divinities, who encourage all pagan rites and usages. The Transvaal has 7000 to 8000 Catholics under the disabilities denied by Dr. Leyds. In the noroh the work of the Jesuits and the Dominican S'sters has received historical recognition. The former's station of Chishawaaha is tie pioneer model farm of Rhodesia, employing 1000 natives and winning innumerable prizea for its produce. If there be any real civilisation in the world here lies the essence of it. SiiK-e the t-übstimtion of English for Dutch rule in 1808 ' civilisation' has contrived seven campaigns against the Kaffirs, three ayainsL Lbu Zulus, and two Anglo-Dutch wars.