The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 19 September 1907, Page 31

The Catholic World

BELGlUM— Fighting Intemperance . . The Bishops of Belgium are actively engaged. in taking measures to prevent the spread, of intemperance in that country. Scientific and medical congresses have tlone much to aid the_work, and in -many of the parishes there are large numbers of zealous workers in the cause of the temperance crusade. CANADA— A Venerable Religious Sister Theresa (Miss Martha O'Hagan), Superior of the Grey iN'un Convent/ Rideau street, Ottawa, Canada, recently celebrated her 60th anniversary. On this occasion a purse of £600 was presented to her, contributed by. Protestants as well as Catholics. When the Order was started in Montreal in L 845, she presented herself as the first English-speaking novice, and was accepted. ENGLAND— A Good Investment It may be news to some people, says the ' Shef- ' field Telegraph,' .that Cardinal Manning had a piece of good fortune in his investment in London land. The Cardinal had -a. sum of £200,000 at his disposal as a nucleus for providing a cathedral for the diocese of Westminster. He purchased a block of land covered with rookeries just behind Victoria street. When the' leases expired the Cardinal sold a part of the site for $250,000, and had sufficient land on which to erect the cathedral for nothing, as well as £50,000 for the building, fund. Pour Brothers Priests On the first Sunday in August an interesting ceremony took place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Aspull, near Wigan. The occasion was the ordination to the priesthood, by the Bishop of Menevia(Right Rev. Dr. Mostyn), of the Rev. George Callaway. The assistants were his brothers— the rector (the Rev. T. Callaway), the Rev. James Callaway to Hope Hospital, Salford), and the Rev.- Joseph Callaway (assistant priest at St. Mary's, Bolton). They are all natives of Somerset, 'in the diocese- of Clifton. FRANCE— Secular Schools and Crime France (says the ' Catholic Times ') is exhibiting the natural and necessary effects of a systeiri of godless education. Crime, especially juvenile crime,, is increasing with fearful rapidity. So terrible is the condition among the young, that statistics have had to be arranged 4n order to hide from ihe country the actual state of criminality. Many crimes are now classed as light offences, and some have ceased to be followed up by the police. Nay, in order still further to blind the eyes of the nation, the age of ' youth ' has been raised from sixteen to eighteen years, thus enabling the police to -prepare returns of crime less terrifying to, the public. Yet many of these ' youthful . offences comprise misdeeds such as robbery, murder, and indecent assaults ! But every effort must be made by., the authorities to prevent the true facts from being known, or the result would be prejudicial to the infidel, secular system of education which they have imposed upon the country. Irreligious education must of necessity produce irreligious scholars. GERMANY— The Emperor's Appreciation On the occasion of . the sixtieth birthday of Cardinal Kopp, the Emperor William sent him his own bust in marble. The Chancellor, the Minister of Worship, and the Minister ol the Interior also telegraphed their congratulations. f ITALY— A Great Honor A great honor has been conferred upon the Salesian Order by -the, Sovereign Pontiff. On July 24 his Holiness signed a decree by which the founder of the Congregation of St. Francis de Sales, "Don Giovanni Bosco, is declared Venerable. It is stated ," in a French contemporary, the 'Eclair, 1 that' of all the modern religious Orders, that of St. Francis de Sales is certainly the • most popular in Italy, and - enjoys the special favor of the Italian Government. ' The. Salesians have a -large number of "educational establishments" 'in the East, from .which there floats the .Italian national flag. JAPAN— Seeking Assistance The "Right Rev: Alexander' Berlioz, Bishop of ' the diocese of Hakodate, -in Japan, has been spending the summer in Europe. An alumnus of 'the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions, he has been in Japan more than a quarter of a century. This is his- first absence

from his diocese, ■ and his object is to, make a report of his mission to the Holy Father, and to secure, i£ possible, help in means and missionaries for his diocese. ROME— The Holy Father and the Mikado The' attitude of the Mikado towards the- Pope, as expressed in the words of* the Ambassador whom he" deputed to bear a letter to the Holy See, contrasts '- pleasantly with that of several of the heads of- some Euro- x pean States (says the ' Catholic Weekly ')• Curiously enough, in 1583, when Japan was a comparatively urn known land, four young Japanese noblemen, with their Emperor's consent, went to Rome to offer their'homage to Gregory XIII. Thus does history repeat itself. The 'short speech which the Ambassador delivered when he v " was received by the -Holy * Father clearly shows in what high esteem he is held by the 'Japanese. The Ambassador said : — ' I consider it a great honor • that the honorable task has been confided to me of consignx ing to your Holiness a letter from his Majesty the Emperor of Japan; and it is with great satisfaction as. well as with profound respect that I approach - your Holiness's throne in order to place in your hands his Majesty's massive. Full of the most respectful sentiments for your Holiness, I take the- liberty of „ expressing my warm gratitude for the propitious' " occasion thus offered me of approaching your august person and ' of submitting to your Holiness the assurance of my sincere wishes for the personal happiness of your Holiness and for the felicity and prosperity * of your reign.' , ; SCOTLAND— The Shadow and the Substance The Rev. . John M. Charleson, formerly Presbyterian parish minister of Thornliebank (writes a Glasgow correspondent), has just \b£en appointed by the Archbishop of Glasgow to the pastorate of Croy, an important and populous parish in the archdiocese. Father Charleson was' converted to the Faith about six years' ago, and has published an extremely interesting account -of the steps which led to this happy event. After his reception into the Church he went -to Rome, and for several years studied at the Scots College. - He', received the priesthood in St. John Lateran, . at ■ the hands of Cardinal Respighi, Vicar of Rome, on Ember Saturday of Advent, 1904, and said his first Mass^ in S. Andrea della Fra'te— the Scottish Church of mediaeval Rome — at the Altar of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which 1 was made famous, sixty-five years ago by the sudden conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, a Jew, through an apparition of the Immaculate Mother beside this • altar. A local paper describes Father Charleson's first sermon to his ( new parishioners, in which he tord of the circumstances that led to his conversion. His closing words -of thankfulness are worthy to be spread' far and wide : 'In exchange for the shadow He hath given me the substance ; instead of the merely human notions of Protestantism He has given me Divine Faith ; instead of old doubt He has given me Catholic certainty-.' . • UNITED STATES— Catholic Statistics For some months it has been known that plans, were being perfected' for the co-operation of-"' the Catholic 1 "hierarchy with the United ■ States Government " in the task of obtaining complete statistics of the. Catholic body in that country. -Formal announcement is now made that Most Rev. John J. Glennon; Archbishop of St. Louis, has been incorporated into the United States Census Bureau as special agent for the. Catholic census, and under his direction the work: is . about to begin in every diocese. The. Archbishop, it is said, hopes to complete the task in six months. Everything to the Church Rev. Thaddeus Hogan, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Trenton' New Jersey, has recently made the announcement to his people that during the thirty years of his pastorate he. has not retained one penny of his salary above the amount required for 'his personal expenses, having devoted move than £3000 towards clearing the church of deb.t. He went to the church with thirty shillings in his possession, and now , has less than that, to call his own. He has even willed his life insurance to the church. . - A Venerable Trappist Right Rev: Father Alberic, the venerable Lord Abbot of -the Trappist Monastery of Melleray, near Dubuque, la., United States, or Dennis Dunlea, as his name and style would be were he a civilian, is now close on his seventy-fifth year. He went from Mount Melleray, in Ireland, twenty-four years ago. A Successful Convention , The fourth annual meeting of the Catholic Educational Association of the United States, held recently

in Milwaukee,- was the most successful and enthusiastic convention in the history of the Association. The attendance was'- the' largest; in- the 'Association's • history, there being present' ? ' four Archbishops, "three hundred priests and Brothers, one - Bishop, and eight hundred • Sisters of.. the teaching Orders, in. addition to hundreds of *;the -laity. ; . , > Catholic Deaf Mutes. ' , The Rev. F. A. Moeller, S. J., of St. Ignatius' College, in Chicago, addressing the great Milwaukee Congress of Catholic* Educators, made a. strong plea for Catholic deaf mutes in the United States. Father Moeller said that of the estimated number of 15,275 Catholic deaf, there weie 1002 children in Catholic schools and 10,646 in non-Catholic schools. He declared that thousands of these could be saved to the Catholic Faith if there were a~ brotherhood devoted to the work. Colored Catholics ! Rev. J. A. St. Laurent, of Baltimore, a member of the Josephite Order, whose work is among the Negroes, says that among the 10,000,000 Negroes, he estimates that there are possibly 200,000 Catholics. ' , - A Heroic Religious Provincial- Superioress Mother Mary Joseph of the Ursuline Nuns, .and the heroine of ; the Galveston storm of September '8, 1900, ' has been elected to the head of aJKthe, English 7 speaking Ursulines, with ~ headquarters at T Rome. She leaves for there immediately. When a terror-stricken crowd of some 300 negro -storm refugees created a panic in the Ursuline Institute, on the night of .the storm, it was- Mother Joseph who calmed them after all other efforts had failed. The Ursuline Convent and Academy was on the edge of .a .devastated area, and Within its walls one thousand souls ''were sheltered, many of them having being, dragged off housetops and improvised rafts as they were swept -at the mercy of the hurricane-driven flood. The. crazed negroes were rushing wildly through the building when Mother Joseph mounted a chair, and, grasping the rope of ..the, big- chapel 1 bell, rang it and headed the mob -into ■' the ■ assembly hall. Here she admonished them' to cease their camp-meeting tactics and told them it was time for ' rescue work and not for demonstration. In a few minutes she had converted the mob into an army ' of nurses and rescuers, and 'many of the storm victimswere saved by them.