The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7, 15 February 1906, Page 24

The Catholic World

AFRICA— The Congo Mission In 1885 there were but three Catholic missions, with six missionaries and an insignificant number of converts, in Mhat is now the Congo Free State. To-day there are 59 fixed posts and 2y temporary ones, in charge of 384 missionaries and Sisters and 72,382 Christians. Such is the result of twenty years' work. The reason of this great success is given by Mrs. French Sheldon, who has been travelling through that section of Africa, and although not a Catholic does not hesitate to express her views very freely : 'In all the Catholic missions which I visited a strange condition impressed me, and as this was in direct opposition to my former conviction it is worthy of note. The natives realize that the Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters have come among them to stay, to live with them, nurse them when ill, and when the time comes to die with them. This state of realisation has bred a feeling of greater community between the native and the Catholic missionaries than is usual with other missionaries, and has contributed to cement a confidence such as exists between parents and children. The services of the Sisters, as nurses for the white people, have been a great boon. The unselfishness of their lives, the relinquishment of all mundane ties for their vocation as Sisters, imbue them with a certain spirit of fearlessness in regard to contagious maladies ; their freedom from personal domestic ties and the knowledge that their parents and relations are resigned to, or accept, whatever befalls them add vastly to their usefulness in a country like Africa.' ENGLAND— A Signal Honor Mr. John St. Lawrence has received a signal honor from the Sovereign Pontiff in recognition of his services to the cause of (Jatholic education. At the express wish of his Grace the Archbishop of Westminster, the Holy Father has conferred the dignity of Papal Knighthood on Mr. St. Lawrence. He has for many years been associated with Lord Ripon in the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in England, and for some time he discharged the responsible duties of honorary secretary of the Westminster Catholic Education Committee. Born in Limerick, Mr. St. Lawrence served close upon fifty years in the War Office. FRANCE— The Anti-Clericals It is a common abusive epithet of anti-clericals (says, the ' Catholic Times ') to call religious people obscurantists ; to tell us we hate, because we fear, the light of truth and knowledge. We may easily return the compliment. The College de France has its Chair of Assyrian Language and Archaeology vacant, and the professors in due course proposed the Rev. Father Scheil 0.P., for the post. Father Scheil's reputation as an Assyrian scholar is world-wide. His monogram on the stele of Hammurabi is the classical authority, and none can doubt his competency to fill the Chair of Assyrian at the College de France. But the choice of the professors has aroused the fury of the anti-clericals. A Dominican to lecture in the college where Renan taught? The bare idea is sacrilege. So the Minister of Education is warned, and threatened with something akin to excommunication if he dares to ratify the choice of the professors. Notice, the choice is a good one — the very best. The candidate is admitted to be .the most learned Assjaiolojgist living. His appointment would do honor to the College de France. But he is a priest, a Dominican. So out with him, and let us have a less competent man. Oh, the obscurantism of the clericals ! ITALY— Charitable Bequest The Marchesa Zambeccari, who has just died at Bologna, has left a legacy of £80,000 to the SuperiorGeneral of the Salesian Order. ROME— Christmas Greetings The Holy Father having abolished the customary reception of the Sacred College for the exchange of Christmas greetings, his Holiness spent the whole of Saturday, December 23, in receiving the Cardinals and other high ecclesiastical dignitaries in separate audience. The King of Spain's Bride The Roman correspondent of the ' New Free Press,* of Vienna, says the formalities for the reception o! Princess Victoria Eugenic of Battenberg into the Church, prior to her marriage with the King of Spain, have been arranged. Father Whitmee, Rector of San

Silvestro, Rome, and confessor of the Queen. Dowager of Italy, will instruct the Princess and officiate at the ceremony otj^the profession of faith. An Official Press Office . . _ . Pope Pius X. contemplates founding an official press news ofiice for supplying Church news to correspondents. The idea was suggested to him by Cardinal Merry Del Val, and is likely to save the Holy Father from much of the annoyance he experiences now through the circulation of unfounded rumors and the presentation of views inimical to the interests of the Church. France and the Holy See A Reuter's telegram from Rome says : The Vatican announces the publication of a White Hook, consisting of 300 pages, relating to the separation of Church and State in France. The first part of the book contains nine chapters, with an appendix, and gives an account of the discussion on the question of the Separation, while the second part comprises 47 documents, a large number of which have not hitherto been published. A preface to this portion of the Book sets forth the precise object of its publication, through which the Holy See hopes to show that the responsibility for the ruptuie rests with the French Government. The only object of the publication, it is asserted, is to prevent a misconstruction of historical facts in such an important question. The appendix 1 1 eats of the protection by France of Catholics in the Near and Far East. The St. Vincent de Paul Society Among the most interesting of recent audiences granted by the Holy Father was thai granted to the President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The Pope, after examining the account of the work of tke great. Society for the year 1001, sent the following message- (through the President : ' I thank you for all the good you are doing. I know jour Society well, for 1 saw it at work at Mantua and Venice, where it rendered great services to the poor, not only by the succor it brought them, but still more by the moral encouragement it gave them. What numbers of families it has saved ! What numbers of young people it has led back to the right path from which they had erred. The Society of St. Vincent dc Paul is an apostolate for good at a time when there are so many other societies which are an apo.stolatc for evil. Continue, then, to carry on the &ood work , you will find that it will bring you peace of mmd — when a man docs good during the day he sleeps the bolter for it at night. Your Society is a necessity of the time in which we live, and it has my encouragement and blessing.' A Visitor from Australia During his audience a few days ago (writes a Rome correspondent under date December 27) the Very Rev. Dr. O'Riordan presented to Ins Holiness the Hon. B. Fahey, member of the Legislative Council of Brisbane. The lion. B. Fahey was born near Ballyvaughan, County Clare, and left Ireland fifty years ago. He was employed in the Civil Service till a few years ago, when, he went out on pension. lie then entered Parliament, and is one of its most useful members, owing to the detailed knowledge of the country which his official duties for half a century brought him. He has a brother still living in the house where he was born. He visited his native land this last summer for the first time in half a century , and has been now in Rome for some weeks andj /intends to leave immediately after the Christmas holidays for the Souih of France, where ho will pass the winter. He was the guest of the Rector of the Irish College on Christmas Day, besides a few other Irish visitors to the Eternal City whom the Rector wished to make at home for the Feast. The lion. Mr. Fahey had hoped to spend Christmas with his brother in Clare, but feared the climate of Ireland after so many years living in Australia ; but, when the winter is over he is to return to Ireland to bid his brother and his native place a final farewell. Mr. Fahey is' a well known man in Australia, a genuine Catholic and Irishman, and a personal friend of Cardinal Moran, Archbishop Carr, of Melbourne, and several of the Australian Bishops. SCOTLAND— Christmas Masses MTdnight Mass (writes a correspondent) was celebrated in no fewer than 87 churches in the Glasgow archdiocese alone, crowded congregations attending in each, a noticeable fact being the attendance thereat of many non-Catholics, which more surely than aught else marks a sign of changed times and changed opinions in Scotland. *' New Churches As further evidence of the_spread of Catholicism in Scotland (writes a Glasgow correspondent), two new churches were opened on Sunday, December 17, one at

Co>tdyke, Airdrie, which . was dedicated by 1 "Jlaguire: "In. jbhe-rcbur.se ot a brilliant sermon; the" Archbishop congratulated the congregation, and offered' them his\own^ and -other Catholics' good wishes on the good work that "had been so happily completed t.in the opening of that new building. They had outgrown the accommodation provided for them in the adjoining school, and were now able to devote the whole of that building to education, 'lhe new church is built to. accommodate 700 worshippers, and has cost £1000. -fit is built on the Airdrie estate, and is situated in the . midst of- a. rapidly growing population. Ample provision has been made with a view to erecting a larger structure' in the future, 'lhe second church opened was at Larkhall. Very Rev. Provost Chisholm, Paisley, performed the opening ceremony. SPAlN— Attempt the Life of a Cardinal As Cardinal Casanas was leaving the Cathedral, Barcelona, on Sunday evening, December 21, a stranger threw himself upon him and attempted to assassinate him. The, man was at once seized and overpowered by the bystanders. The author of the attempt on the Cardinal's life, a weaver named Jose ttal.is Comas, committed suicide in his cell on Monday evening by takl ing poison. During his last moments Comas declared himself to be an Anarchist. UNITEU STATES— Higher Education of Women Many leading representatives of the American Catholic Hierarchy attended the presentation recently of a scholarship fund of 10,000 dollais to Trinity College, Washington— the first Catholic institution founded in the United States for the higher education of women— by the ladies' auxiliary of lhe Ancient Order of Hibernians. Cardinal Gibbons, president of the Board of trustees, received the gift for the college. The Apostolic Mission There are now in attendance at the lectures in the Apostolic Mission House, Washington (says the ' Paulist Calendar '), 20 priest students— nearly thiee times the enrolment of last year. Tins one great fact indicates the growth of this remarkable work. It will not take many years now before we shall have two or three hundred of these well-trained missionaries out among the non-Catholic people of the United States telling them what the Catholic Church teaches, and persuading them that their highest spiritual interests are dependent on her saving grace. It can be seen what a mighty impetus this will give to the progress of the Church. The growth ol this work, as well as the numerous! letters wet arc receiving, doubly convince us that we are behind a great movement ; as an eminent lawyer wrote recently, ' the greatest movement in the Church since the days of Luther.' Last year our affiliated missionaries in the South gave nearly one hundred missions of a week each, preached to thousands who never knew aught of the Catholic Church but what they considered detestable, and they received some hundreds of converts into the Church. This service cost us over 400,000 dollars. A few years more will enable us, with the Catholic support, to place this work on a safe and secure footing.