The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 49, 5 December 1907, Page 31

The Catholic World

CHlNA— lncrease of Catholics * The increase of Catholics throughout China during last year is reckoned to have been nearly~9o,ooo. ~ Catholics in Shanghai . ■ _ The district of Shanghai, China, contains a large Catholic population — upwards of 60,000. Many of the 'inhabitants are of old Catholic stock,, dating back two or three centuries. This explains their, fervent devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and their tender love of . the Blessed Virgin. A correspondent of the ' Aye Maria ' writes : ' I have just heaid from Chin* that in the pilgrimage chapel of Our Lady of Zo-ce, about twelve miles from Shanghai, there were more than 2500 Communions for the opening month of May, and more than -- .7000 in the course of the "month. On the feast of Our - Lady Help of Christians, transferred this year to a day in June, there were 2000 Communions more, thus raising the number to about^l2, ooo for the May devotions and " pilgrimages.' Church Progress A recent number of' ' Die Katholischen Missionen,' published at Freiburg-im-Breisgau, under the editorship of the Jesuit Fathers, calls attention, in a long and interesting areicle, to a form of Christian devotion peculiar, so far as we (' Aye Maria ') are aware, to China —the institution of consecrated virgins, girls and women who have vowed themselves to the service of God,"" but - who tire not religious, nor necessarily living 'in fcommunity. The Jesuit missionaries speak of the work done by these devoted women and girls as beyond praise. As long/ ago as the year 1846, one of the Jesuit Fathers at Shanghai wrote that * ' in every Christian community there are found a number of girls who, without being bound by the vows "of any Order, - have of their own free will vowed a virgin life. Most ; of these dedicated virgins v live at home, occupied in manual labor and. good works ; others in a kind of community. The institution has supplied many members to the various religious Orders and regular communities. It is wonderful how, in the last few years, the number of Chinese religious has grown. In one convent of Carmelite nuns, numbering thirty-three members, twenty-one are Chinese. A house of the Sisters of Mercy has three native members. In one mission (in Kiangrsu) there are to-day 341 Sisters, of whom 230 ' are Chinese. Since Christmas, 1904, there has existed at Ning-po a wholly Chinese community of Sisters" of Mercy, now comprising forty-eight members, with its own rule and a Chinese superior. The Sisters take each year the three simple vows. They are the first of their country to adopt the dress as well as the manner of life of European nuns. There are to-day in Uiina a-bout COO European Sisters, already nearly 500 Chinese nuns, and between 3000 and 4000 virgins dedicated, in the world, tq the service of God and of the mission. It is not easy to exaggerate the good work done by these last. They fill JJ splace5 place which could not ~ in their country, be filled by religious and are a f/^w ?? am Pl« of »ow our holy mother the Church under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, can lay hold of the capacities and special gifts of every nation, as of T7i, m £ V ? dua k - and consecr ate all to the furtherance of the Divine Kingdom and the salvation of souls. ENGLAND— Nuns in Training Colleges The question, raised b/y the Protestant Allfcuncebigots, of the presence of nuns in some of the London Lounty Council schools, came up for consideration at a recent meeting of the Education Committee of the Counrcil. The recommendation of the sub-committee was agreed to. Having stated that the nuns in question were working as regular students, that, like all students of training colleges, they were required to attend -elementary schools for the mirpose of practice in the art of teaching and that they took no part in the religious instruction, but merely dealt with the ordinary classes according to the usual scheme for such -student teachers the sub-committee were of opinion that the Board of Education should be informed of the Sit o f the Council under which the students in ciuesiion attended the school, and that it should be stated that the t Council made no imouirv into the religious belief or lees SS ° C1 antece <ients of the students inftraining colBritish. Sailors at the Vatican - A correspondence has taken place between- the Imperial Protestant Federation and the Prime Minister and

the Admiralty with reference to the British sailors' visit to the Vatican, In July last. The Federation wrote to the Premier, enclosing a cutting from the ' Tablet,' giving a 'detailed description of the visit of a number of British officers and " sailors of , r the Mediterranean Fleet to the Vatican, where they were addressed by the Pope, and asking if the facts^mentibned in the article were true or untrue. To this ''there .was no reply until the Federation Secretary wrote a second time, when J Mr. Ponsonby replied— ' I beg to state that the Prime Minister cannot be .expected to express an opinion with regard to the accuracy or inaccuracy of newspaper imports.' -In reply' to a further ' letter, asking the Premier whether he would cause inquiries to be made, Mr, Walsh, the organising secretary, was referred' to the Ad.miralty, to whom' he sent a copy of his first letter to the^ Prime Minister, together with tlie extract. The reply he received was—' In reply to your inquiry on the subject, I am commanded by their " Lordships to acquaint . you that while the 'Prince of Wales' (battleship)- was lying off Civita Vecchia, early in June last, twenty-one officers and eighty-seven petty officers and men of that ship when visiting Rome attended the audience of • his" Holiness the Pope, and that the address given on that occasion, as reported by the captain of the ship, corresponds with the version published in the « Tablet.' FRANCE— The French Soldiers Referring in the ' Saturday Review ' to the French campaign in Morocco, Mr. Richard Davey writes : ' The French army being deprived of its chaplains both 'in thefield and in the military hospitals, it is at the present critical time impossible for French soldiers— be- they Catholics, Protestants, or Jews— to obtain the ministrations of the clergy of their respective denominations on the battlefield at the hour of death- or by the graveside. - The Little Sisters of- the Poor The persecution of the religious Orders in France has hitherto spared -those devoted women "the Little - Sisters of the Poor, who are loved and revered by Protestants and Catholics alike in every qHiarter of the globe. Even the fury of the Combists "feared to perpetrate, the iniquity of their expulsion. But notwithstanding the odium of the act and "the -indignation of the populace, a- house belonging to them has just been closed m the Ardennes. Sixteen Sisters have been turned adrift and their charges, consisting of 130 aged and helpless old men, have been thrown into the streets without bread or shelter. As Ihe journal, which records the act justly says, it is an abomination for which there is no adequate name. The Courage of the Clergy In a letter from Paris, quoted by the 'Manchester Cruawhan,' the writer says: 'With good courage and energy the French cure is putting his shoulder to the wheel and taking up a manual occupation. In the country many become gardeners, beekeepers, joiners ; in the small towns they are printers," bookbinders, watchmakers workers m iretal, and so on. In the great cities it is evident by the marked increase of their £™ SS + ci MJM J m* th / g ? at public libraries, that many of the most highly educated work at literary-' occupations— hackwoik often, no doubt.' ITALY— The Weakness of the Government The connivance of the Government in the recent outJSKL'^J 1 Hl6H 16 C ml gy is bparin S fr«it (writes a Rome coiiespondent) The rabble of Rome have realized the K?f?X- .^authorities t o -keep order and protect «£«* S? A - II 11I 1 - 6 11 cc i t ? zens - " Emboldened by their- sucSLh \, antl ~ clerical riots, they have, practically gaajaed the upper hand in the city. Not to mention repeated burglaries and thefts, which are increasing) ■ *JV* hardly ever detected, criminality is growing li?LT\ S Y-'Y -' tely - P° liceme n have been waylaid and killed during the night. Within the past few days two policemen were attacked in the streets and mortally " yeS"- An^hK?°s? V^ 6 CrimeS re^ uSisc"sn^ihi/? + l m ' '1?" ahsm . and Freemasonry are*responsible for the anti-Church movement which was favored more or less by the civil authorities and the present crimes are the inevitable result ' ROME— Death of a Cardinal f PC t Th rff 8 anno ?P ce d of Cardinal Steinhuber, PreCardinai ™ c ° ongr ,^ atlOn of the Index. The deceased of SS?« R. a Germa ' n > and a member of the Society was 7n h^ S9 f ainan ° f Profound learning. He Germany ?„ I*^ ar ' having been horn ' a * " UUOau, , fl f. m S ln 18 |5. He was created Cardinal by the chitis Stir IL XU I- in , 1894 ' Death was duetobron-

The Holy Father's Thoughtf illness Some wealthy Airerican ladies who lately visited the Pope' expressed their desire to present -his Holiness • with beautiful lace for church purposes. The Pope, accepting, their offer, desir&d the work to be placed in the hands of Irish peasant workers of whose handiwork he had heard so much. Accordingly orders have been placed with nuns in some parts of Ireland. UNITED STATES— Many Nationalities Represented Fifteen thousand persons, ■ representing fifteen different nations, among them the Catholic Indians of Nebirastta, took part on October 6 in the parade at the dedication of the new Omaha Cathedral, U.S.A. Bishop Scannell laid the corner-stone. Missionary Work Among the Colored People The Rev. J. J. Plantevigne, a colored priest who was ordained at Baltimore, "U.S.A., on September 21, will after some time undertake missionary work amongst the negroes, but for the next, year he will study at the Catholic University, Washington. He is the first colored priest who will frequent the University. Archdiocese of Boston The late Archbishop Williams, of Boston, is -succeeded by Archbishop O'Connell, the Coadjutor with the right of succession. He, though descended from an Irish family, as his name declares unmistakably was .born, in the Boston archdiocese. A student of ' the American College in Rome, he, after ordination, was appointed ourate in one of the most populous parishes of .boston. After ten years of this labor on the mission he was selected as Rector of his old college in Rome. After six years of. Rectorship, he was appointed Bishop of Portland, in the State of Maine The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius X., chose him as Delegate Aposloiic to Japan, on which he was entrusted with a very important and delicate mission, which he fulfilled to the full satisfaction of the Sovereign Pontiff. He was then nominated by his Holiness as Coadjutor-Archbi-shop, with right of succession to the venerable Archbishop Williams. GENERAL The Passionists A general Chapter of Passionists will be held in Home next spring to- elect a successor to Father Silvestrelli who has resigned in consequence of advancing age. Father SUvestrelli has been at the head of thi Congregation for more than a couple of decades of years.