THE AUSTRALASIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 38, 20 September 1900, Page 19

THE AUSTRALASIAN CATHOLIC CONGRESS.

The Catholic Congress in Sydney devoted Thursday of last week to a number of papers dealing with education, including one by his Grace Archbishop Redwood on religion as an essential feature of primary education. The Evangelical Alliance of Sydney issued a protest against the Governor of New South Wales attending in his official capacity High Mass at the dedication of St. Mary's Cathedral. In doing so and listening to Archbishop Redwood's attack on Protestantism, (which, by the way. he never made) his Excellency did what the Queen by her Coronation Oath is precluded from doing. Very probably, but the Governor of any of these colonies has a perfect right to attend any religious service he pleases. It was only the other day that a Catholic Governor left Tasmania, after spending some years there. It is even said that the Prince of Wales is not above attending Catholic services when staying on the Continent. The Governor very likely received the protest of the Alliance with the consideration which it deserved. A paper prepared by Mr. Mulhall, the well known statistician, was read at the Congress. It showed that of 1439 millions of people in the world at the end of 1898, 501,600,000 were Christians, made up as follows .— Roman Catholics. 240,000,000 ; Protestants, 1M,300.000; Greeks, 93,300,000. As to the interesting question, which phase of Christianity, Roman Catholic or Protestant, increases numerically faster, there was no doubt the principal Protestant nations advanced with great strides, while Catholio countries show little or no increase yearly, but, making a general survey of Christendom, it would be found the figures were pretty equal. At the concluding sitting of the Congress Archbishop Redwood stated that it was intended to hold a similar gathering every three years. On Saturday a Rii/uiem High Mass was said in St. Mary'i Cathedral for those who had suffered death in China.