Then and Now

New Zealand Tablet, 18 October 1906, Page 10

Then and Now

' Beneath this slarry arch Nought rcsteth or is still '. * - The Chuix-h keeps . ever on her triumphant march of conquest— checked or -delayed by a passing obstacle here or there/ but with her eyes 'ever forward, and the star of empire upon her brow. A comprehensive glance at her progress since tfoe evil days of 1800 is given in ' The Oathoirc Church in -the Nineteenth Century \ by Father Forbes, 'S.J./ whom the' New York ' Freeman ' describes" as ' a' member of 'a ■distinguished Scottish Highland family '.. The following is a brief summary - of ' part of contents of the work, translated by our' New" 1 York contemporary from the ' Civilta Cattolica ' :—: — . 1 Father Forbes contrasts the state of the Church in the beginning of -the nineteenth- century with its condition now. The earlier picture wa.s not a pleasing -one : Pius VI. died a ' prisoner at Valence and the present Pope is a prisoner in the Vatican. But what a tremendous difference -in the Church 'itself ! Turkey '° has but 25,000,000 inhabitants to its 40,000,000 in 1800. From Afghanistan to China, liberty has made it possible for Catholic missionaries to spreaid the faith amoiigj 300,000,000, the -Catholic natives now numbering 2,250,000, as against. 500,000 in 1800. -In lndo-China alone the indigenous Catholic population has risen from 300,000 to nearly 1,000,^)00. Australia and New Zealand, which wereovithout priests, in' lBoo, are now the home of 1,000,000 Catholics, and the islands 6f Oceanica can boast 100,000 members af the Faith in their population of 5,000,000/ Japan, since 1879, has added -50,000 to her. original number of 4000 Catholics, ami China proper boasts nearly 2,000,000 members of the Catholic Church.- Africa, which was almost entirely Moslem in 1800, except where it had come under English influences, and here ,tlm. Catholics .were persecuted; has now , a , following of - the Church numbering 2,000,000, with six vicars-apostolic ami a splendid hierarchy.' . ... ' <"; ■ * Some of Father Forbes* figures give a spiritual significance to the, epigraph to Bancroft's 'History of the United States ' : -'-'Westward the star of empire takes its way \, Marvellous,' says the' Civilta x reviewer, 'are the progressive results in both • Americas. The CJatholic churches, of South America, with their 40,000,000 members;' have' awakened from their torpor and give~ promise ol a splendid increase.- *, The -Catholics in the United ..State's numbered, in 180.0 one Bishop, - forty priests, and 40,000 Catholics. - To^lay there are 94 Bishops, 11,817 priests; and some 14,000,000 confessed members- of the Church. .-Finally, in Europe, there '.is-' Germany,, with its 18,000,000 of Catholics strongly organised ; Belgium, almost; Catholic to an individual ; Holland (which banished priejsts and persecuted Catholics in 1S00) with I,soo,ooo '.Catholics en-

tirely free, and a lapidly growing increase of Catholicity in Scandinavia and Switzerland. Even in -the Balkan States in the last , century; the Church gained" many new adherents : in Roumania, n-early' 150,000 ; Bosnia and Herzegovina, over 275,000 ; Bulgaria, 26, 006; 'Greece, 50me .15, 000.' . - ". ' * This is true progress. The grand march" of "God's - army was here and— there made with Weeding feet oversharp- rocks- and J thorn-strewn ascents, and here and" there delayed (as in Germany for a season and" in"' " France just now") by encounters with passing foes. But those are always in a majority that have God and right upon their- side. And we who. see persecu-' tion raising, its arm. think hopefully of ' th&. milk-white" hind that- was * ofl doomed to death, but fated not to ,die !-: - - .. ■ „- .-., r