Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 12, 20 March 1902, Page 24

Catholic World

AFRICA.— The White Fathers. In a volume of travels in the Congo region just published in Paris, the author. Captain Lemaire, pays a high tribute to the new civilisation which Catholic missionaries are building in Africa. The work done by the White Fathers furnishes, in his opinion, 'a model for the world.' The work is issued under the auspices of the Paris Geographical Society. BELGIUM.- Catholic Influence. Tho 'free ' university at Brussels, established in opposition to Louvain by the Liberals, already has so far come under Catholic influence thai a majority of its professors and students are of the Catholic faith. The Bollandists. Rev. Pero Charles de Smcdt, Bollaudist and rector of the College of Si . Michael at Brussels, has been celebrating tho fiftieth anniversary of his entrance into the Society of .7esiis. The interesting event is a reminder that the old college in tho Rue des Ursulines, over which Pere de Smedt presides, has been for many years the centre of the literary and scientific activity of the little

band of Jesuit Fathers who are' known as the Bollandists, the continuators of that monumental work which was inaugurated upwards of 250 years ago by the renowned Pere •Jean de Boland. It may with truth * be said that the fame of the 'Acta Sanctorum ' and of many of the men identified with that splendid undertaking, is in all the churches. In the many ponderous folio tomes of the 'Acta '—the first volume appeared in. 1643 — the sixty-second, the latest issued, was published in 1894 — are amassed such treasures of hagiographical, historical, and critical information as render the work unique among publications of tho kind. For the execution of so comprehensive a design, a scheme involving an immense amount of minute and curious research, the progress of its writers and compilers has necessarily been slow. FRANCE.— A Deplorable Result. It^ is stated that the driving out of France of the religious Orders has already closed 85 houses of maternity, U7 asylums for incurables and a home for leprosy, 172 poor asylums, 229 asylums for the aged, 393 dispensaries and hospitals, 398 works for assisting the unfortunate, 512 night lodging houses, 570 works for the infirm, 691 orphanages, and 1428 other houses of beneficence. Refusal. A house of the Sisters of Charity in Normandy, France, was declared forfeited to the State recently, although the nuns, who were very poor, had asked for authorisation, and, on refusal, had scattered to the homes of friends. The members of the community have been warned to leave France. GERMANY.— Sad Results. One gets an idea of the setback caused to religion by the Kulturkampf from the reports sent out from the diocese of Breslau. The Prince-Bishop Cardinal Kopp, ordained 56 priests for his diocese in one day recently, yet the number of priests is still insufficient to fill up the gap caused by Bismarck's war upon tho Church ROME.— An Object Lesson. During the past week (says the London ' Tablet ' of January 3 8) the grand object lesson of the unity of the world-wide Church has been given in the Church of St. Andrea Delia Valle. Latins, Greeks, Marounites, Chaldeans, Slavs, Syrians, and Armenians have celebrated, each in their own solemn rite, the same sacrifice of the Mass at the same altar ; Italian, French, English, German , Spanish, and Polish priests have preached from the same pulpit, each in their own tongue, one and the same faith ; Cardinals, bishops, the clergy, secular and regular, and the national seminaries and colleges of Home have taken part in the functions. In no other spot in the world but Rome, the centre of Christendom, and common home of the faithful of all lands, could such a demonstration take place. The custom of celebrating this octavo was begun by the Venerable Vincent Pallotti,, founder of the Pious Society of Missions in the year 1836. and has been faithfully observed ever .since. Father David Fleming, VicarGeneral of the Order of Friars Minor preached one of the English sermons. Mgr. Fraser, Rector of tho Scots College, was announced to preach the other, but through illness was unable to keep the engagement . A Privilege. An American exchange states that the Holy Father has just granted the Greek Bishops of the Latin rite permission to found a seminary for tho education of young priests in connection with the Leonine Instil tute at Athens*. A Rumor. It is hinted by several Italian Catholic journals that tho approach-

ing conference of the Russian Czar with the Pope next April may result in an arrangement of world-wide interest. fcUNITED STATES. At the annual session of the State teachers of Illinois, president Thewing, of the Western Reserve University, in the course of an address, deplored the absence of moral and religious teaching in the public schools. He said : 'I, a Protestant, would rather have my children taught by a good Catholic nuu than by a wise agnostic. . . We have gone farther in the elimination of religious teaching than is necessary. Of course, we must observe the statutes, but Illinois is a Christian commonwealth and the United States is a Christian nation. As a Christian nation and a Christian commonwealth the United! States and the State of Illinois should recognise that there is a Divine Being, and to that Divine Being we owe certain duties. We should go so far, therefore, as to teach that there is a God, and a God we ought to love.' The Indians. Bishop O'Gorman, of Sioux Falls. in an account of a tour among the Indian reservations, states that the red men are fast becoming civilised, and, while the old generation of hunters and warriors is dying out, the new generation is keenly anxious to learn. Moro than half the Indians are Catholics. The New Possessions. The census bureau bulletin of .January, 1902, makes the population of the Philippines and Porto Rico 7,914,592, which added to the figures of 9,158,74 L Catholics m the United States, makes oxer 17,000, 000 Catholics, or over 00 per cent of the church-going people under the American fhig. Charitable Bequests. By the will of the lato Miss] Cecil id Tully. of Boston, the following bequests were made .—£-100. — £-100 each to the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Home for Destitute Catholic Children, the House of the Good Shepherd, and for Carney Hospital , £200 to the Sisters of Mount Carmel ; £400 to the Working Boys' Home, to be applied to the industrial and manual training branch ; £2000 to Archbishop Williams for the use of St. John's Seminary ; £6000 to Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md. ; £1000 to the Apostolic College of Mungret, County Limerick, Ireland ; £200 to the Oblate Fathers' Novitiate at Stillorgan, Dublin ; £800 to the trustees of Boston College for two scholarships. Dedicating: a Seminary. A short time ago the Right Rev. Bishop Dunne, of Dallas, Texas, dedicated the handsome new St. Xavier's Academy in Dennison. The building cost £15,000 and is one of the finest in the South.

Fighting Saloons. In a sermon preached in Dubuque on January 12 Archbishop Keane intimated that the Catholic clergy would take an active part in the coming municipal election in an open tight against saloons. The Archbishop has organised the clergy and laity with the object of enforcing the measures covering the closing of saloons on Sundays. A Strange Fact. At Tampa, Kansas, a new Catholic church was recently dedicated by Bishop Hennessy, although not a Catholic resides in the town. The members of the congregation come in from the country districts. Successful Canvas. In less than two months Archbishop Riordan raised over £5000 among the friends of the Dominican Convent of San Rafael, California. Only a short time ago at the golden jubilee of thei convent it was announced that about £3000 had been raised toward payment of the debt. Some of those present predicted then that perhaps in a year the entire mortgage would be wiped out, but none ever conjectured that this would be done in two months. The .Sisters themselves had no thought of the great liberality that would be displayed in the contributions. But the friends of the institution rallied and to every request of Archbishop Riordan, more than the amount asked for was forthcoming. Catholic Schools. In the archdiocese of Boston there are 26 cities and towns, in which there are 68 Catholic schools attended by 4.1,000 pupils, with 825 teachers. This system of parish schools (says the ' Sacred Heart Review ') saves m annual expenses to the cities and towns an amount of money which would surprise those non-Catholic friends of ours who maintain that the Church is opposed to education. For instance, in Boston last year it would have cost £80,000 to educate in public schools the children (13,5-25 in number) who attended the parish schools, and the interest on school building investment would have been about £•16,000, thus making a total of close on £100,000. Friendly Rivalry. Of the German and the Irish races, and their respective parts in the upbuilding of the Church in Detroit, the ' Michigan Catholic ' says • — ' Both races have furnished examples of sacrifice and devotion which illuminate the history of the Catholic Church in all the ages. Where there has been competition between them, it has not been born of the selfish desire to control, so much as of the desire to excel each other in spreading the light. The very best priests who served under the Belgian Bishop of Detroit, Dr. Lefevre, were born Irish and born Germans. The host priests who served under the late Dr. Borgess were Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen, though he was

a German born." The most faithful priests serving to-day under Bishop i y '^ a son °* the frish race, include German-born priests and the sons of German parents.' GENERAL. Probable Cardinal. r . OJa a Private letter received in Ohnstchurch we learn that it is rumored m well-informed Catholic circles in the United States that the Rev David Fleming, Vicar-Ueneral Ot „i c L Order of the I'^iurs Minor, 7, iv s^? rtlv tie made a Cardinal. b atner h leniing is held ni the highest esteem by the Holy Father, the latest distinction conferred upon him being his appointment as Secretary to the Papal Commission on Biblical studies. Innsbruck University. At the University of Innsbruck, this year, there are about 300 students of theology. Forty-three of these are priests pursuing a higher course of studies. Among them are Jesuits, Benedictines, Franciscans, Servites, and Redemptorists. Canonisation. The slow progress of causes of canonisation is proverbial even in Rome, writes Father Pollen, S.J., in the London 'Weekly Register.' To advert to only one of modern instances, our present Holy Father concluded during his year of jubilee the canonisation of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites, which had been before the Papal trubunal for over six centuries. The cause of our own (English) martyrs is in reality over 300 years old, if we reckon (as we should) from the first concession made by Gregory XIII. in 1548. Nowadays, moreover, the rate of speed must of necessity be more measured and leisurely than ever. More documents, monuments, matters needing investigation, are known now than of old. There is by consequence more to inquire into, and modern methods of research are, on the whole, more thorough than the old ones were. Again, the melancholy circumstances of the Church in Rome act as a decided drag. As our universities would be sadly hampered if all their endowments passed into the hands of a hostile power, so have the men of study among the Roman clergy been miserably crippled by the latter-day confiscation of benefices under the new rules of the Eternal City. A still further complication has arisen from the modern zeal for promoting canonisation which Pope Leo has encouraged. The undermanned and overworked Congregation of Rites has now some 260 causes before it, one or two of which contain several hundred names. The Holy Father, with his usual legislative skill, has abolished some of the old regulations which were most fruitful in delays, but much remains to be done before the old machinery will be quite competent to turn out as much as is expected of it. The quality of the work, thank God, is still admirable.