Fairy Gold

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 15, 16 April 1908, Page 9

Fairy Gold

The fairy gold of Irish folk-lore glistens with the yellow sheen of the royal metal so long as night envelops the earth and the ' wee folk ' or ' good people ' are free to play their gambols -among the lilies and the heather-bells. But w/foen daylight conies, the yellow wealth of the night turns to' withered leaves. A similar fate befalls the showers of fairy goM which certain enterprising) journalists periodically pour into the treasury of the Vatican. On the death of the late Pope, .(e.g.)j one imaginative nib-twister announced the .discovery of over three tons of gold coin behind a few books 1 on a Vatican bookshelf. When the light, of investigation was switched on, that precious ' find ' turned out to be as evanescent asi the gold of iN ibelun-gen. The same thing happens Kto the odd millions that periodically drop from the (anti- Vatican) sky "into the papal fob — the idea being, rather palpably, am effort to dry up, or diminish.' the flow -of, the" fount of the Catsholic generosity that maintains the dignity of the Holy See, and secures 1 the Pope against the indignity of being the pensioner of the .Italian Government. ' - ■ • * The latest story of a big windfall- for the Vatican treasury circles around the engagement of the Catholic Prince of Bulgaria to the Princess of Reuss (who is at present a Protestant). ' The statement in this case I , say's the Edinburgh ' Catholic Herald ' of February 29, 'is that the Holy .See has given permission N for a Ca/tohjolic weddings demanding, however, an enormous sum for the concession. This rumor is quite as men-dacious-as those referred to above (several are there enumerated— Ed. 'iN.Z.T.'). The dispensation for a mixed marriage in the case of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria and his bride- has been given not by the Holy. See, but by the Prince's own Ordinary, the Archbishop

of Philippoipolis, on the usual conditions. Needless to say, the story about the " enormous sum " demanded - lor the dispensation is entirely fabulous. One wonders why the -English newspapers trouble themselves-~"about these matters at all, or (if they do), why they cannot be at the pains at least to learn the elements of the Church's law on the subject.'