The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 17, 26 April 1906, Page 27

The Catholic World

CHINA — Reported Massacre of Marist Brothers A Rome correspondent, writing under date March 1, says : ' 'Ihe Superior ot the ivianst Brothers here, has received 'a telegram from Shanghai stating — ' tive oi our brethren have been murdered — three aged 20, two aged 271. Ihe whole community have been destroyed and have joined the army ot martyrs.' ENGLAND— Death of a Priest The death has occurred at Widnes, Lancashire, of the Very Hey. Dean Jbmegan, at the age of sixty-five. 'Ihe deceased gentxeman was born in county Meath, and was educated at JMavan Seminary and Lisbton. He was made Dean in 18.) 7, and in 190U he celebrated his silver jubilee as priest. On that occasion he was presented with an address and monstrance. A Franciscan Foundation The Franciscan Capuchin Fathers of Olton, near Birmingham, have bought St. Kenelm's College, in the parish of Temple Couley, Oxford. Temple Couley has not been the seat of a religious house siuce 1274, when the Knights '1 empiars, who had a preceptory there, tian&terred it to the neighboring parish of Sandford. 'the Franciscan i* riars will take possession as soon as the buildings can be put m order for their reception. The School Question Four thousand Catholic people of Manchester, Salford, and district, assemlbJed in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on Monday night, March 5, passed strongly-, worded resolutions on the subject of the proposed changes in the Education Act, so tar as they may ai'iect religious instruction in Catholic schools. Right Hey. Dr. Casartelii, Bishop of Salford, who presided, said the meeting represented a thoroughly popular movement. It was not the Bishops and clergy who had had to drive the people on ; to tell the truth, they had almost had to hold the people back. Personally he had teit himself to be in the position of a man driving a team of metile steeds and holding them in with all his might lest they should go -too suddenly and too tar. '1 he movement was the outcome of the deep impression on their minds that they were standing at a moment of grave crisis, perhaps the gra\cst crisis beiore which the Catholic Church in England had stood for the greater part of a century. The Labor Party seemed committed to an absolutely secular and irreligious education, and in face of that Catholics would have to consider hoAV long they should co-operate with the Labor Party in Parliament. Catholics held true 1o their faith handed down to them unbroken across the centuries, and which they were bound to hand on (unchanged and undiminished to the generations that were to follow. Catholic Successes A Classical Fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge (which was tounded bly a Catholic Bishop of Ely more than lour centuries ago), has just been awarded to Mr. Wiltrid Jerome Farrell, 8.A., who graduated with the highest possible ilionors in classics in IUO4t. He had previously held an open Scholarship at the same College. Mr. Farrell, who is an alumnus ot Ushaw, where his father was before him, is the first Catholic who has been elected in modern times to a Fellowship at Cambridge, ,thoi|gh there are several at Oxford. An open Mathematical Scholarship, worth £8u per annum, has just T-teen won at Brasenose College, Oxford, by Mr. Valentine O'Connell Miley, a pupil of the Jesuits at Beaumont College, Old Windsor. FRANCE— The Future In <*ffs address at the Consistory (says the 'Cath- • olic Times ' ) the Holy Father summarily explained the difficulties of the religious situation in France which the Encyclical described in detail. The Government have displayed the keenest ingenuity in crippling the Uhurch. Everything possible has been done to nullify the authority ol the Holy See, and to make the Bishops powerless. In the new law the Roman Piontiff and the Bishops are not mentioned. The whole of the public administration of worship is vested in associations of the citizens, and these are the only religious organisations \officially recognised. If any differences arise amongst them, they are to be settled, not by the Bishops or the Holy Father, tout by the Council of State. In denouncingthe law his Holiness declared that it favors schism, and it is evident that, owing to the action of the State, he fears dissensions in the future*

Still, with the courage of a true Apostle, he urges French Catholics vo be ot stout heart. Amidst the difficulties of the moment the consoling thought presents itseli that it the opponents of the Church in France are wily and determined, the faithful are staunch and true— devoted with their whole hearts to religion and the Holy See. ROME— The General of the Jesuits A cable message received on Friday reports the death of Very Key. Father Luis Martin, General of the Society of Jesus. About a year ago Father Martin was obliged to have his lett arm amputated on account of a malignant tumor which de\ eloped there. Father Martin, who was a natne of Spain, was born in 1846 ; he entered the Jesuit Order in 18(>4 ; was professed in 1881, and made General in 1892. The Golden Jubilee of the Pope The Uathol.c * oung Aim's Society of Italy has taken up the plan ior securing a worthy celebration at Home and throughout the world of the Pontifical Jubilee of 1908, and has invited the co-operation of kindred societies at home and abroad. It proposes, besides a Koman pilgrimage and Congress, a movement on, beihalf of youth and poor churches,— something like this, very near to the heart of Pius X. The Irish Martyrs Uardinal Logue, during his slay here (writes a Home correspontient), is devoting his attention to the work connected with the canonisation of the Venerable Oliver Plunkett. 'ihe case hu>s now reached the stage called ' the introduction ot Apostolic process ' before the Congregation ot Kites for luither inquiry. This Congregation has already appointed Cardinal Vincenzo \ annutelli to repoit on ihc case. Monsignor Murphy, the late Hector ot the Irish College, had been nominated Postulator or suppor'er of the Beaiincation, but his death delayed the wnr-\ His place will now be taken by .another Postulator, who is hloely to be the Very Key. Dr. O'Kiordan, the present Hector of the Irish College, who is unfortunately detained at the Home of the 'Nursing Sisters of the Little Company of Mary through an internal complaint. SCOTLAND— ReIigion in Schools Heferring to the question of teaching religion in the schools, 'Dr. Turner, the Catholic Bishop ot Galloway, says in his Lenten Pastoral : ' Our schools are not mere workrooms tor training slaAc-s and fitting machines for the service of this woili , they are primarily and essentially 'nur.sciies of citizens for Heaven. Kather than abandon the mission school, we are piepared to sacrifice presbytery, church, chapel, and everything else. If our resources are too slender to maintain both a priest and a Catlu he teacher in the same mission ,i the priest must go, that the teacher may remain and the children be instructed.' SOUTH AFRlCA— Church Progress An occasional correspondent m Cape Colony writes as follows- 'to the London ' Tablet ' : — Few persons have an adeqiuate idea of the manner in which the Church has progressed in Southern Africa. It was planted in an uncongenial soil, where the prevailing religion was C'alvimstic, whi.te adherents do not really hate Catholicism but a creatme of their imagination stjled ' Homanism ' ; where the Blessed Virgin is said to be e-xaltcd above our Saviour and idolatry believed and practised. Mow there a:e seven Bishops (VicarsApostolic) and one Prefect-Apostolic. In the eastern vicariate of Cape Colony alone there are 55 priests and more than 400 relia^ious. U-reat successful Jesuit missions exist in Hhodesia, the Oblates possessing nourishing stations in Basutoland, and the Trappists in Natal, Zululand, and lransl-ei, aie performing a wonderful work. The 'gospel >of work is effectively taught, natives are not talen out of their sphere, and their natural I\esetti4ig sin of self-conceit fanned into a flame wh eh is now, unfortunately, beginning to threaten the white man's rule. ' Africa for the African ' is now the teaching of the Ethiopian Church, and the whirlwind following upon the wind of erroneous philosophical and theological teaching makes numbers r' men now declare that in enumerating the plagues ol South Africa we must add that of ' missionaries.' The organs of Catholicism in South Alrica are ' The Catholic Magazine, 1 published in Cane Town under the able editorial direction of Dr. Kolbe, himself a convert ; a magazine in Durban, Natal, and the Jesuit Missionary ' Zambesi Record.' Tn the Parliament of Cape Colony we lirvo enly two members, but we have no reason whatever 1o complain of the Protestant press, and there is s\ spirit of religious fair-play in existence which renders South Africa comparatively a fair field for Catholics.