The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 26 July 1906, Page 31

The Catholic World

♦ — AFRICA— The Congo Free State * ,A Home paper states that 4*4 * a convention has beensigned between the Vatican and the Congo Free State with the oWject of regulating the status of Catholic missions in the Congo. BELGIUM— The New Parliament The late Belgian Chamber was composed of 93 Catholics, 43 Liberals, 28 Socialists, and one Christian Democrat. The new. Chamber, has 89 Catholics, 47 , Liberals, 28 Socialists, and one Christian Democrat. The Recent Elections V Whilst in nearby every other country (says the * Catholic Times ') where parliaments have to appeal to the people -Ministers and Cabinets are changed, Belgium remains faithful to the Catholic leaders who form> its Government. True, the Liberals gained four seats from - the Catholics at the elections, but it must be remembered that the ..Catholics, who still have a .majority of twelve, have been in power for an unbroken" period' of twenty-two years, and thatT -at each election the tendency Inown "as cue swing of 'the pendulum is unfavorable to the Government. - The Catholics must, therefore, have very strongly entrenched themselves to be able to resist all at/tacks for close upon a quarter of a century. They have in fact done so by meeting the wishes of the people for progres- - sive measures. Belgium -is probably the best-gov-erned country in the world. It continues to increase in population and wealth, and all its legislation is framed in a progressive spirit. We do not thiiult, therefore, that the Catholics need seriously fear the defeat which the Liberals threaten to inflict on them in 1908. The Belgian electors are shrewd, appreciate a | good administration, and have no anxiety to take the risk of getting a bad one. ENGLAND— GoIden Jubilee The Training College of Not-e Dame, Mount Pleas- i ant, Liverpool, founded in 1856, kept recently its 50th birthday. It was the first, and for many years the only, institution of the Lind open to Catholic schoolmistresses, and it has sent, during its existence of half a century, over 2500 teacher.s into the elementary schools of Great Britain. The Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, was founded by the huirfblc Julie Billiart, the decree of whose Beatification was solemnly pronounced at St. Peter's O ni May 13. It now possesses 114 houses, 18 of which are in England. In Liverpool alone the Sisters have under their charge 20 elementary schools, besides secondary schools both in the north and south end of the city. A Good Example Nothing (says the 'Catholic Times') could- be more amusing or instructive than the manner in which the press of England has calmed down over the conversion of Queen Ena, who is now declared to be a noted Englishwoman and the hope of Spain. The ' Times ' somewhat tones its expression of delight, however by re-~ minding her that, as she has left ' the Chu-ch of her ancestors, ' it would be a s well, if ever she returns to England as Queen of Srain, ' not to . make too ostentatious a display of her "religion. 1 Shades of De-^ ' lane ! Does the ' Times ' really imagine that the V* een 4.? £ Spai Jl wUI devia te by a fraction from the etjquette usually observed by exalted personals, or smother her Faith to r lease the Cliffords of this country .' ihe religious sincerity of the Queen which has been manifest during the ceremonies connected with the marriage, w a s admirably illustrated on the n y ou toP** tore for Srain, which was Ascension U' 7, was , up al six o'clock in the m o rhine; in order to hear Mass and receive Holy Communion at the Carmelite Church at Kensington, .before starting ' on her journey, whereby Her Royal Highness set I cSn d,?t XX v mm h Pl f e t0 lhos + c who neglect this solemn duty before undertaking a /voyage. The Education Bill " ... The London ; Tablet ' give some rather startling '- figures as showing the effect which will be .produced" upon Catholic schools in England^ if the Educa-~' tion Bill m its present form receives ihe sanction of Parliament It.. .appears that in the rural areas ther*.-. are 2,43 schools now in Gatholic hands, from which TL <L+* h& i new 1 s i at , e °,f, f things, Catholic teaching would be entirely excluded. As regards urban districts the situation is more serious still, despite the provision's %l i SG + *' W *V C \ we are told ' have bee n specially - designed to meet the case o f the Catholics and "the Jews m these .centres. The clause lays it down that

wherever four-fifths of the parents of children attending a school in any urban- area demand .specific denominational teaching, the . local authority . may, afford -facilities to jiave such teaching- giveoirr But the 'Tablet' points out that owing., to circumstances, over which the Catholic managers-, have no control, many of the schools 4> have more than twenty rev cent. »of Protestant' children in attendance, and so ipso facto are shut -out from "the operation of the extended facilities clause. In the Diocese of Westminster there are 25 such schools', in Southwa-k there are -36,--; in Birmingham at least £9, in Hexham 10, ' in Leeds^27, in Mididlesbro' 2, in Nottingham 2, in Plymouth/ 9, in Shrewsbury 10, in Portsmouth about 15. A>ltogether the ' Tablet.' calculates that taking the Bill as it stands, and even assuming' , Clause 4 Io be made compulsory on the local authorities, instead of permissive^ as 'at present, the Catholics stand to lose nearly half "' their schools. ~ - _^- . - - FRANCE— Pensions to Ecclesiastics The demands made to the French Ministry of Public Worship for the .^en^ions to ecclesiastics provided for by the Separation Law number in the case of the Catholic ecclesiastics 11,480 out of a total of 13,095. . A Prize- Winner , According to a dispatch of May 17, from Paris, the ■ Stanislaus Julien prize of 1500 francs, 'offered for the best work dealing with China and Japan, has been awarded by the" French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres to the Rev. Emile Raguet, of the Paris Society of Foreign Missions. Father Raguet is v doing mission work at Nagasaki, Japan. GERMANY— Working in Harmony The German Centre works in- harmony with many Evangelical Protestants, and at a banq,uet given by the Centre Party the other day the toast of ' The Evangelical Guests ' was proposed by Herr Fehrenbach, leader of ,the Centre members at the Baden Landtag, and was responded' to by Count Bernstorflf, a Lutheran. ROME— Beatification The Beatification of 4ho sixteen Carmelite Sisters of Compiegne who were martyred during the French Revolution, being decapitated on July 17, "1794, at Paris, took T|lace recently at the Vatican amidst most solemn ceremonies. The Irish College For some time past (writes a Rome correspondent) the Irish College has " developed at a rjiick and steady pace into one of the foremost centres 'in the Eternal City. Under a rector with a national reputation like the Very Rev. Dr. O'Riordan^now perfectly recovered from his illness of the late winter— it is most fittingly to reach a further development still. A coldege journal is to appear in June, as the organ of the Oliver Plunket Literary and Debating Society, which has been a principal focus of intellectual life for the- college. The ' Seven Hills '—this is the designation chosen, simply enough and rightly also, for the new publication. It will publish the papers read before the society, a nd an ■account of the proceedings ; and as strangers are frequently invited to deliver lectures on special subjects, very interesting papers and renorts may be expected* Besides these features, the ' "Seven Hills- will also have literary reviews and notices, and that Ihe Very Rev. Dr O'Riordan is a contributor of these to the first number .. is a high and sufficient recommendation. Among the contributors pi articles to the same number will be Cardinal JVtoran, Archbishop of Sydney v Rev. _ Dr. P. C *orke, of .San Francisco; the Rev. Reginald Walsh 0.P., Master of Studies at San Clemen te ; the Rev' Professor Bonajuti > .-Editor of the 'La Rivistta ' - arid others. A biography of his Holiness will be given. SCOTLAND— GoIden Jubilee '"~ Mother Abbess, of\ the Poor Clares Convent, Liberton^ UdmbUrgh,. recently celebrated her golden jubilee The' revered* -religious is a -member of the*. Clinorcl family Eanihanv andns related to many of the oldest Mnemtoers of. -the- .^English nobility, including the Duke- of Norfolk" The Bute Family . . - The name given the.youngest member of the Buto family is. Mary Crichton Sl'uart. The baptismal" cere-" mony was performed, by Archbishop Smith, assisted br Father John Grj&y. •- .. ' . ." . * - Death of a Prominent Catholic . , By the death of. "Mr. William Mackintosh, of .Oxford v street, Edinburgh, the Catholic community of the Scottish capital has lost one of its oldest and most respected citizens. Mr. Mackintosh, who was "in his 74th year, became a convert to the Faith more than fifty years ago 'and immediately afterwards devoted himself - eagerly and energetically in Edinburgh for many yea>s to lay work in connection with the St. Vincent de Paul

Society and the "V.M.S. Later on he came out to Australia, fourteen years ago he returned to Edinburgh and became in a quiet and unassuming way identified with the parochial life of St. Columba's mission Ncvvlngton. UNITED STATES— Appointed Bishop A New Orleans despatch says news has readied Catholic circles in that city that the Very Rev Patrick McHale, CM., Rector of St. John's College, Brooklyn has-been appointed Bishop of Porto Rico, to succeed Archbishop Blcnk, who held that office until he was recently elevated to the Archbishopric of New Orleans. GENERAL An Unauthorised Congregation The English papers are never tired of denouncing tho Belgian authorities because they do not allow Protestant missionaries to establish new missions and stations in their territory, halt they have not a word ?o say about the action of the French. Bishop Au"ouanl writes in the ' Missions Catholiques Francaises >t3 that the English Protestant missionaries crossed the Ufoanchi into trench territory and wished to establish it L a rou, C a a station. ihe French authorities promptly expelled them and sent them back across the river on the ground that they were an ' unautnorised congregation '