The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 23, 4 June 1903, Page 24

The Catholic World

AUSTRIA.— A Holy Thursday Ceremony

The .bmperor Francis Joseph, assisted by eleven Archdukes, performed the ancient Holy Thursday ceremony of washing the feet of twelve aged men in the Hofburgh. Among those present were high court functionaries and members of the Diplomatic Body, including tho British Ambassador, Lady Plunket, Miss Plunket, and the Duchess of Morlborough.

ENCLAND.— A Successful Mission

The host of friends of the Very Rev. Father Kenelm Vaughan will rejoice to hear (says the ' Catholic Times') that he has completed a most successful collection throughout the Republics of South America for funds to complete the Spanish Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Westminster Cathedral, and now proceeds to open the final stage of his collecting tour amongst the Catholic people of Mexico. He is at present the guest of the Most P.ev Dr. Riordan, Archbishop of San Francisco.

Generous Donors

The cheque given at the offertory of £3000 on tho occasion of the blessing of the new Abbot of Buckfast, Devon, was gi\en by I">r. McNamara, Moynesk, St. Mary's Church, Torquay. Another equally kind and liberal friend sent a cheque for £ir>oo to Father Amigo, the worthy pastor of St. .Joseph's, Walworth. The donor requested that his name was not to be mentioned.

Priests in London

Mr. Charles Booth's new book, ' Life and Labor of tho People of London,' has the following reference to Ihc Catholic clergy — 'The priests Ine as poor men among the poor. Their food is simple, their clothes are threadbare : they tako few holidays They li\e from day to da\ — if they have a shilling in their pockets no one in want will ask in \i\in Abstemious and self-restrain-ed themselves, they ate vet lenient judges of the frailties that are not sins, and of the disorder that is not crime. This kindly gentleness is after the event ; at the time no one could be more uncompromising in denunciation or mo iv prompt in interference.' Mr Booth is a Protes-t-int, and one of tho activo partners in tho great shipping firm of Alfred Booth and Co , of Liverpool and London.

A Lost Masterpiece

An effoit is being irade by the priests in charge of the new church of St Mary's, Moorfields, London, to reptoduco. on a smaller scale, the magnificent altar fresco which was destroyed when the old church was demolished. This ftesco was a representation of the Crucifixion, by Aglio, and was considered by art critics

to be a masterpiece.

FRANCE.— More Circulars

In consequence of the recent votes in tho Chamber on the Congregational Law, M. Combes has addressed two circulars to the French bishops. The first of these announces that the Congregationist preachers will be removed altogether, as their very presence, M. Combes says, might not only raise the question of tho continuance of tho Concordat, but might also bring- about the closing of the churches in which they preach. In the second circular !VL Combes calls upon the bishops to order the immediate cessation of all religious services in places of worship which have not been granted decree of authorisation.

A Mission Closed

The Paris correspondent of the London ' Daily Express,' telegraphing on April 10, says : — The English Passionist Fathers of the Hoche Church have been .given

orders to leave Pans to-day. Their petition for authorisation has been rejected by the Chamber of Deputies. One of the Fathers yesterday delivered a parting address to the congregation, in which he expressed his gratitude for the generous support which had been accorded to the mission for the last forty years. The services will be held in the future, said the Father, by English secul j»-r chaplains a PP° in ted by the British Ambassador and the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris

A Bishop's Opinions

A telegram from Orleans contains an account of an incident, followed by a demonstration, which occurred on a Sunday recently in the Cathedral there. Notwithstanding the circular which had been sent to the bishops by M. Combes the day before, the sermon was preached in the presence of Consignor Touchet by Father Bruno a Franciscan. At its conclusion the Bishop himself spoke from the pulpit, thanking Father Bruno for his sermon, and declared that he did not see that any President of a Republic, or any Minister of Public Worship had the right to close the mouths of members of religious congregations. He claimed that this right belonged only to tho bishops, and added that for his own part he would never stop the mouth of any preacher.

A Tyrannical Edict

A Nice telegram to the London ' Standjard ' says : Great dismay is spread among the Catholics and all Nationalists at Nice by the notice which has jiust been served at all the churches, schools, convents, religious nursing institutions, and other congregations here to close their doors at once and leave within fifteen days. It had been hoped that the new regulations so stringently enforced in other parts of France would not bo put into force here, at any rate, for some time to come.

Suggested Protest

The Passionist Fathers of the Avenue Hoche, Paris, expelled from France by the French Government for no other reason than because they have unselfishly ministered to the religious wants of English-speaking Catholics in or passing through Paris are coming to Highgate (says the ' Catholic Times "i The English Benedictines, ordered to leave Douai, are returning in the summer. Like so many of their French brethren, they are victims of persecution. We think that their expulsion imposes a duty on English-speaking Catholics. If a single Methodist minister were expelled from France for preaching the Gospel, the leading papers of Great Britain, the colonies, and the U,nited States would publish columns of protest. Should not English-speaking Catholics make a formal protest against the unjust and inhospitable conduct of tho French Government and have it inserted in all the more important papers of the English-speaking world and in as many of the Continental journals as possible ? It would, at least, prove how closely Catholics are united and how earnestly tho English-speaking laity sympathise with the clergy in the hour of suffering. Steps could easily be taken by which a committee of representative men would be empowered to draw up a suitable document and to speak on behalf of their brethren.

A Query

M. Clemenceau is an anti-clerical like the late M. G-ambetta, but he is clear-sighted enough to see that in dissolving Congregations that devote themselves to tho caro of the sick and tho poor the French Government is doing the State an injury. In an article which he has contributed to the German and Austrian Press, he asks what the State has to put in their placo, and how it is to carry on this charitable work ? The Constituent Assembly in the days of the Revolution declared, no doubt, for the public care of all the sick and poor ; but ' never in tho history of France were the sick and the aged worse provided for, so inhumanly neglected as during the Great Revolution, after its secularisation of the monasteries. M. Clemenceau protests against the suppression of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd because, even if discipline was too severe in one House, tho other Houses of the Order against which thero was no complaint, should not be punished on that account. The nuns of the Good Shepherd are lodging, boarding nnd educating no fewer than 50,000 of the poor children of the French Republic and are thus rendering Franco a service which the State cannot get people to perform with equal 7eal. TVhatever M. Clemenceau 's religious views may be, he is not blind to the practical frfuits of Christian charity.

PORTUGAL.— Irish Dominicans

Tho visit of King Edward VII recently to the Irish Dominican Friary of Buon Successo, Lisbon, reminds a correspondent that this ancient foundation is encircled with memories of Irish Dominicans, notably Father Daniel O'Daly, or Dominic of the Holy Rosary, who went there from Louvain in 1632. The Irish Collogo of Corpo Santo was founded in 1615 by brief of Pope Paul V. Father O'Dalv, aided by Donna Lucia, QueenRegent of Portugal, built a new college, which was dedicated to the Queen of the Holy Riosary, on May 4, 1659. Tho great earthquake of 1755 left Corpo Santo a heap of ruins, and four of the Irish friars wore killed However, Father Charles O'Kellv, 0.P.. rebuilt it in 1760 and when Bishop de Burgo, O P , visited Lisbon in 1770 he was delighted to see ' a beautiful church, a collogo approach-ng completion, occupying exactly the same site as the former college '—the whole costing £40,000.

A Royal Visitor

Quite early this morning (telegraphs Reuter's Lisbon correspondent, under date April 6£, King Edward, fully

enjoying the warm sun and clear atmosphere, was out 32 cSt of t h h alf "£ aSt - 10 Mb Ma i est y P^(i a visit to the Convent of the Dominicans at Buon Successo. He W £ S JT eI Y£ d ** l he convent by the British Minister and ms wife, the head priest, and the chiefs of the Irish College the Corpo Santo Convent, and the Irish Church, ontil H h^ gr , at J ng thr ? u Kh which the outer world is icw Z t£ * c la<^ su^? rlor and the nuns Presented to the King their pupils. They were dressed all in white except for favors of the English colors, and P forSS in nes from the cloisters to the reception-room, where the King sat on the throne of John of Portugal. Here a touching little ceremony took place. A young ££h bl h Sh M Rpr + Cttil^u at the unaccustomedhoSlr, presented his Majesty with a nosegay of roses and maidenhair fern tied with red, white, and blue ribbons, and a design representing the arms of Great Britain. Bowing f?£il! tntoU. d '«f X?" V °^ Majesty dei « n to *<**** thfi U^JLzfr .«$. fo-ur nuns sang ; k£ T^fr r a r Ot n Qr u nun 2 n , the har P- and «*e clSef of ™ Irish Catholic College delivered an address. The Kin* remained 25 minutes at the convent.

ROME.— An Audience

On Friday, April 10, the Holy Father, Leo XIII , received in private audience Colonel Vaughan, his youngest daughter Alice, and her grandmother, Mrs. Pope. He spoke a few .affectionate words to each in turn, expressed his sorrow at the illness of the Cardinal-ArchbisW of Westminster and dismissed them with his Apostolic Blessing and his best wishes for ' una buona Pasqua '•

SOUTH AFRICA. -The Jesuit Fathers

The Jesuit Fathers in Rhodesia are keeping up the reputation of the Order for learning Several important books in Chiswina and Sindelbale have lately been written and printed at their missions at Chishawasha and JH/mpandem.

UNITED STATES.— A Venerable Archblshoo

Archbishop Elder, of Cincinnati, Ohio, who, on Sunday, March 22, observed his eighty-fourth birthday anniversary, celebrated the fifty-seventh anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on March 29. The Archbishop comes of an old Catholic family, which for more than a century and a half has lived in the vicinity of Baltimore, rhe Bishop himself was born in Cincinnati

Golden Jubilee

w •♦£ oKnSn^r"' of pp u hil adelphia, will be presented with 250,000 dollars on the occasion of his coming golden jubilee. When his Grace learned that a meeting was ,'^mm held to P re P ar e for the celebration he wrote • Whilst profoundly grateful for the intended honor I must presume on the friendly feelintrs of my spiritual children to permit me to insist that there shall be no other than the religious celebration of the event, and that the money which would be spent on any secular celebration, with as much more as the faithful of this archdiocese wish to offer on occasion of the iubilee be given to some one of our charitable institutions to be designated by yourself.' In less than half an hour a sum of 50,000 dollars was subscribed towards the gift