Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 37, 11 September 1902, Page 27

Catholic World

ENOLAND.— A Royal Visit. On the occasion of the visit of King: Edward and the Queen to Cowes, Isle of Wight, daring their yacht cruise recently, they called at the Benedictine Convent and spent nearly an hour in friendly intercourse with the inmates, many of whom recently took their departure from France owing to the repressive regulations of the Associations Act. Open Air Procession. On Sunday, July 20, the procession in honor of Our Lady of Mount Cartnel which has been for some years now an annual event in the Italian colony at Hatton Garden, took place under very auspicious oiroumetanoeß this year. For an hour before the procession started, the route was lined with tens of thousands of onlookers, •ver 300 police constables preserving the passage on the line of march. The streets in many places were decorated with a gay display of bunting, and at the head of the procession marched the League of the Cross, described by the London Daily papers as ' stalwart Irish teetotallers.' The Guild of Ransom, headed by Mr Lister Drummond, had also a place in the procession, as had the sohool-ohildren ; but the principal and most pictureeque items were the confraternities of Italians attached to the Italian church at Hatton Garden, the girls wearing Italian costumes and bearing banners and statues after the Italian manner. It was feared that the Eensit mob might interfere with the procession, but London is not Belfast, nor even Londonderry, and there was fortunately no interference. Death of a Convert. Mr Eegan Paul, the publisher, who has just died (says a Home paper) in his 75th year was a convert whose acceptance of the Gatholio Faith was particularly noteworthy. The story of his life is related in his ' Memories.' Born at White Lackington, near Ilminster, on March 8, 1828, he was educated at Eton and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1849. Between 1853 and 1862 he was a master at Eton, and for 12 years he was the Anglican Vicar of Sturminster. Losing faith in the Church of England, he lapsed into Agnosticism, went to London, and started a publishing business. He was for a time attracted by the philosophy of Auguste Comte, but he abandoned it, being convinced that it was merely a fair-weather creed. Then he was influenced by Newman's writings, and during a trip to the continent was much impressed by what the Church does for the relief of sorrow. Gradually he waa drawn nearer and nearer to the truth, and on the day after Newman's death he wae received into the Church at Fulham. In after-years he wrote : ' I have found a deeper peace and a greater all-pervading happiness, have found stronger incentives and more powerful aids to pure living and high-thinking. . . . The Church has satisfied the deepest wants and longings of my nature.' Mr Kegan Paul was the author of a numbsr of valuable original works and some translations. FRANCE.— A Demonstration. At the conclusion of the distribution of prises at the Convent School in the Avenue Parmentier, Paris, on July 22, M. Francois Ooppee delivered an address protesting against the steps which were being taken to suppress the schools conducted by Religious Orders. When the proceedings came to an end, there was some disturbance as those prosent were leaving the hall. The police dispersed the demonstration, and after some souffling arrested M. Coppee, M. Lorelle, M. Geston Mery, member of the Municipal Council, and the Abbe Paturate. Count Urbain de Maille, who whb also arrested, was detained in custody, but MM. Coppee, Lorelle, and Mery were released shortly before seven o'clock. MM. Arohdeaoon and Pagließi Conti, members of the Chamber of Deputies, and M. Le Menuet, municipal councillor, accompanied by a great crowd, escorted the five expelled nuns from their school in the Rue Stroch to the Gara St.

Lazare in the avenue de I'Opera. There was a demonstration, followed by some scuffling, as they passed, and some arrests were made. Fresh demonstrations took place at the station on the departure of the nuns. The police and Municipal Mounted Guards maintained order. The Pope to Appeal. The Roman correspondent of 'LaCroix' Bays he learns that the Pope, urged by countless appeals received from France, has resolved upon adding a protest of his own oonoerning the campaign of the Combes Ministry against religious associations. A Fresh Circular. The Kulturkampf which the French Government are conducting (says the ' Catholic Times') has led to some sad and exciting scenes. Young and old are turned out into the streets, and, for aught the authorities care, left to starve. At Neuilly, where the Sisters of Charity took care of hundreds of infants while the mothers were at work, the establishment was summarily close! the other day, and when parents arrived in the evening they found the children in the streets. On the same day 400 children who were turned out of a school in the parish of St. Rooh marched with their parents to the Elyse'e, and presented a protest to Mme. Loubet. The police were called upon to disperse them. The incident, however, has had a salutary effect. M. Combes, who makes light of the words of the episcopate, has a wholesome fear of physical resistance, and it it stated that in a fresh circular to the prefects he has given diruotions that not only oharitable establishments, but also establishments which are partly educational sfnd partly charitable should remain undisturbed. The cloistered Orders also will not, it ia believed, be interfered with, nor the communities that have been allowed by decrees to purchase buildings or sites and have thus virtually been authorieed by previous Governments. It seems to us that if Catholics only vigorously used the moral force they possess they would not have to bear the injustice to which they are subjected. The Ministry and the Schools. With everyday (says an exchange) matters affecting French Catholics proceed from bad to worse. The persecution to *which they are exposed is open and violent. In all parts of the country schools are being closed with the result that, after the summer holidays, thousands of French children will have t» frequent the State schools, or be deprived of education. Altogether some 2000 schools will come under the Ministerial decree. Their existence, it seems, is regarded as an infraction of the Association Law. On the passing of that measure by the late Cabinet the managers of about 2000 Congregationist schools, recognising the futility of applying for authorisation, handed over their institutions to laymen, who employed the late owners as the teaching staff. This the Government considers an evasion of the law, and declares its intention to close the schools. Public opinion is somewhat stirred by the arbitrary proceeding, and men who have no love for Catholicism regard it as unjustifiable. M. de Pressense asks that it should be followed up by its only logical conclusion, the separation of the State from the Church. How the Church can be more separated from the State than it is in France we cannot easily imagine. It is so separated that the State never comes near it, except whip in hand. In England, where the Church is free, opinion would favor the separation of the French Church from the State, in theory as in fact. But that decision is no affair of ours. We can only regret that so many Catholic children in France muss now go to State schools. GERMANY. In the course of a letter to the London ' Times,' Cardinal Vaughan describes the elementary school system in Germany. ' They who know (writes his Eminence) the present condition of great masaes of the young of either sex when they have left school know that, with the decay of the religious sentiment and of reverence, theie is a growing negleot of God and a contempt for all religious ordinances, bo that the future of the nation becomes a matter of

grave anxiety and misgiving. This, therefore, surely is not the time to eliminate or to weaken the influences of religion in our elementary schools 1 How different is the state of things among the young in Germany I The State lays down the principle tbat elementary education must b« based upon religion. It fully recognises the religions professed by Catholios, Protestants, and Jews. Eaoh have their schools fully paid for by the State. The managers are the priest, the parson, and the Jewish rabbi or minister ; the States prescribes the syllabus, and there are many inspectors to see tbat all is properly carried out. Religious instruction is treated Berioußly— that is, sufficient time is given to it eaoh week. In elementary schools catechism is taught and explained two hours every week, generally by the priest ; and the Old and New Testament?, the history of the Church, the meaning of the Liturgy and of Catholic practices, devotions, hymns, etc, are taught from two to three hours also every week. The school always begins and ends with prayer; the children and their teachers have to attend Mass together on week days. Thus the State in Germany prescribes that from four to five hours every week shall be given to purely Catholic instruction in Gatholio schools ; and the same oare and similar regulations hold good in the Protestant and Jewish schools. There is no Cowper-Temple clause known in German schools ; no religious instruction common to;, mutually exclusive creeds. No child of one creed is allowed by law to be present at the instruction given to the children of another creed unless upon a written request from the parent. Each creed must be taught separately to its respective adherents. The Catholics of Germany would never submit to such tampering with their, religion as the provision of the Cowper-Temple clause would be ; and the State would never dream of imposing it. Thus even in small schools in whioh Catholics and Protestants are mixed, the State in Germany takes care that there shall be teachers of each religion, and that the different religions shall receive separate religious instruction. I have ventured to call attention to the practice of Germany in the elementary schools because in the matter of popnlar education the Germans have long been in advance of vi. They are certainly thorough and^painitaking. They have also learnt by experience the need of religion as a foundation in education. Religion is not " scamped "in their elementary schools, but four or five hours a week are given to it, because it is thought to be worth learning well if learnt at all. I hope we shall hear nothing of the Cowper-Temple clause in our denominational schools, and that we shall not go back upon the time hitherto allowed for religious instruction.' ITALY.— Unsafe. The Campanile of St. Stefano, Venice, it being pulled down, as it was found to be aslant to the extent of 65 inches. ROME.— Proposed Consistory. It is semi-officially announced that the Holy Father will celebrate the close of the Jubilee year by holding a Consistory, in the course of which he will create no fewer than six new Cardinal?. Papal Gifts. The Holy Father, at the farewell audience with the members of the American Commission, showed them the mosaic whioh he is sending to President Roosevelt. It is a copy of Corrodi's well-known picture of Pope Leo Bitting on the terraoe of the Vatican garden, surveying Rome. His Holiness gave Bishop O'Gorman an autograph letter for the President. He presented Governor Taft with a gold goose-quill of exquisite workmanship, the Pope's coat-of-arms being displayed on the feathers. To Bishop O'Gorman his Holiness gave a peotoral cross, set with rubies and amethysts, and to Mrs Taft an enamel reproduction of an ancient painting of ' St. Ursula and the Virgins.' Satisfactory Conclusion. A Rome correspondent, writing with reference to the negotiations respecting the Philippines, says the Holy Father, in the farewell audience to Governor Taft, declared that they could be regarded as having been

brought to a satMaotory conclusion, all vital pomts having: been mutually agreed upon Governor Taft heartily endorsed the Holy Father's opinion. The Philippine Question. People (says the 'Catholic Timps') who profess saintly sentiments are often very human. There can be no doubt that the appointment of the American Commianon to the Holy See for the settlement of certain difficulties in the Philippines stirred up the jealousy of non-Catholic seota. They were irritated by the thought that the head of the Catholic Church received such formal recogtion from the Government, whilst they we^e not treated with the same deference. Accordingly, during Governor Tafi'Bstay in Rome, the Press has been full of sinister hinti and diurnal prophecies as to the issue of the negotiations. One day we were told that the American Government had laid down conditions which were at once to be accepted or rejected by the Vatican , another day, that President Roosevelt had ordered that relations with the Pope be at once broken off. The newspaper men knew, of courae, that reports of this kind would please the bigots. What has actually happened in Rome we are told by the ' Osservatore Romano.' The negotiations have been conducted in an amicable spirit. The bioad lines laid down in the memorandum drawn up by the Holy See are to be followed, and the negotiations will be concluded at Manila by the Apostolio Delegate and the Governor of the Philippines. The cordiality of the farewell audience given by the Pope to Governor Taft and the other members of the Commission tends to confirm the ' Ost-ervatore's ' statement. Hie Holiness presented to each of them a souvenir of himself ac a token of special regard.

GENERAL.

A Devoted Missionary. By the death of Monsignor Roveggio the Catholic Church in Central Africa has lost one of her most able and devoted missionaries. He was taken suddenly ill atQoudokoro, and died during a journey to Berber. Both the Sirdar, Sir Francis Wingate, and 81atin Pasha were represented at the Bishop'e funeral. An Unpopular Measure. The Parliament of the Brazilian Republic, by an overwhelming majority, has (led in d to allow a Biil sanctioning divorce to be introduced into the legislation of the oountry.