The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 30 July 1908, Page 31

The Catholic World

ENQLAND— A Papal Honor By a Brief, dated the 3rd of June, and signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, the Holy See has been graciously pleased to honor Mr. Charles Robertson, late of Begbroke, Oxon., with a Knighthood of Sf. Gregory. The Holy Father refers to Mr. Robertson's happy conversion to; the Faith, and speaks in handsome terms of his exemplary Christian life, of his devotion to the Apostolic See, and of his large and numerous charitable benefactions. The immediate occasioji of the Brief was the donation by Mr. Robertson to the diocese of Birmingham of a large, w.ell-appointed mansion and valuable property at Begbroke, which are, in the terms of the trust, to be used ' as a residence for th : Bishop, and as a clergy-house or. home of rest for secular priests, particularly those residing in the R.C. diocese of Birmingham, or for such other charitable purposes as the trustees, with the conse-it of the Bishop, may determine.' FRANCE— Peculiarities of the Law In France (says the ' Catholic Times '), when the Catholic clergy are concerned, law and justice may prove to be very far apart. A case in point is that of the Assumptionist. Fathers. When in 1900 the Religious Congregations were dissolved, these Fathers were owners of the newspapers published under the name of 'La Croix,' and very widely read throughout France. Being thenceforth unable to hold property, they sold their papers and printing works to a M. Feron-Vrau. But the Government liquidator took an action to have the sale declared illegal, with the result that the court now gives him a verdict, and has decided that the purchase was invalid, on the ground- that the vendors had no right to sell \ Curiously enough, just before the sale, the Assumptionists had taken out a large loan with the Provi- j dence Assurance Company ; but the court holds that the company has a title to recover its debt. So that the Assumptionists are bound to pay their debt, but may not sell their property to do so. The liquidator will manage the "whole business, make his profits out of it, and meanwhile be in charge of the papers, which are Catholic papers. The position is one that offers fine testimony to the love of freedom and justice in the breasts of freethinking anti-clericals in France, where everybody has rights of property except monks and nuns. GERMANY— lncendiaries at Work Berlin's mysterious band of incendiaries (telegraphs the Berlin correspondent of the London ' Daily Mail '), who have terrorised the populace by causing more than five hundred fires during the past two months, to-day made a dastardly attempt to burn down a Catholic church, crowded with worshippers at -the Whit Monday Mass. A panic, with what must have been serious loss of life, was only averted by the coolness of the half-dozen priests, and the presence of mind- with which they contrived to imbue the congregation. The desperate determination of the incendiaries was revealed by- the finding of twelve firebrands, soaked in petroleum, distributed at various points in the roof, which was the first portion of the church to take fire. The building which it was planned to destroy was the St. Paul's local house of worship of the Dominican monks in the Moabit quarter. The church was filled to the last pew for the 11 o'clock Mass owing to the fact that the celebrated monk, Father Bonaventura, was to preach the sermon. The Mass was nearing its end when word was brought to Father Bonaventura that the church was on fire.. Calmly surveying the congregation, wheat the moment were kneeling in silent prayer, Father Bonaventura tiptoed over to a fellow-priest, who was the Celebrant, and asked him to declare the service abruptly at an end. The roof of the building was ,by that time already aflame, and thefire brigade was. on its- way. to the church. Father Bonaventura and the other priests then calmly - descended from the altar,, and walked down -the different aisles, and in quiet whispers suggested to each -pewful of people that perhaps- they had better leave, as some little blaze had been discovered in a remote section of the building. With splendid discipline the worshippers, numbering over 2000, and including hundreds of women and children, filed out of the building without the of a panic. The first to reach the street found the fire brigade already preparing to attack the flames. The proximity of the fire station and the consequent quick arrival of the apparatus enabled; the brigade to cope with the flames "before they had done much more than wreck the roof

,of the church and a portion of the belfry. The police are convinced that the same gang of incendiaries who set fire to the

Kaiser's garrison church on the night of April 14 arc responsible' for Monday's blaze. INDIA— The late Father Lafont Of Father Lafont, S.J., the 'distinguished" scientist, whose death was recently announced in our columns, the Bombay ' Examiner ' says : — ' With him disappears a name known -throughout India, and an influence which reflected on S«. , Xavier's College; Calcutta, and, we may say, on the Mission in general. He owed his name to his knowledge of ' Experimental' Physics and his unequalled power of popularising' science. He arrived in the country in 1865, when little was' heard and less known of Physical Science. As soon as he succeeded in gathering the first instruments for his " " museum " — as liked to call his laboratory — he began -lecturing, and gained the name of "The Father of Science in India." As his fame extended, public opinion endowed him with the reputation of an authority on every possible subject, even on " such matters as never attracted his attention for a momentT .In his numerous lectures, in and outside the college,- In the pulpit, as .well as -in- society, Father Lafont could always be interesting, and he was a. great favbrite with all the Viceroys, L*icutenant-GovernOrs, and other ~high officials that passed through" India during his long • career.- His Grace the Archbishop received,' the following letter from the Lieutenant-Governor : "My dear Archbishop,— l have heard with , great sorrow of the death of the Very Rev. Father Lafont, who. has been my Valued and esteemed friend. . He has done splendid service to the Church and" to Bengal, "and has' passed to his rest full of honor. I sympathise deeply with you ' and with . his °colleagues in this bereavement. There are many who mourn with you a man greatly respected and beloved. "•••/• . - • _ - 'ROME— Scots College - ; The Right Rev. Mgr. Fraserj.on June 9, in the name of the Scots College, Rome, presented to the Holy- Father as a Jubilee - gift ten chasubles, and two sets of Mass .vestments, two missals, and two altar glasses. At the same time, he read an address to his Holiness from the college. In his reply, the Pope expressed sympathy with the two Scottish, students who Were wounded by roughs at Albano. His Holiness paid a high compliment to the college on the discipline and the spirit of study for which it was, he said, conspicuous amongst the Cathc» lie Colleges in Rome. Mgr. Fraser afterwards presented to the Pope a gift of vestments in the name of the " Edinburgh Altar Society. The Lateran Basilica The restoration of the ceiling of St. John Lateran — ' the mother and the head of all the churches of the city' and the world ' — which has been carried on during the past seven years, is now completed (writes a Rome correspondent). The. cost has been over The work owes much to his late Holiness Pope Leo XIII., of whom a fine statue stands over the door opening into the sacristy. : • - _„..• RUSSIA— No Change for the Better A special correspondent of the ' Catholic Times ' " in Russia, writing of the present position of the Church in that country, says: — 'The Catholic Church remains in much the same' state as before the proclamation of liberty ; the laws of " the Church and the requirements of the Government are often opposed to each other,* not. that the Faithful are deprived "of the 'services of the Church or any spiritual* consolation. " ' ThY first is duly performed, but if any "dispute should arise between the' priest and the Governor of the province or the chief of police," then, rightly or wrongly, the priest must suffer and "a church may be closed at any moment. This has/ happened over and over again. "The proceedings, of the authorities have not been modified in any respect. - In October the Bishop of Vilria, Baron, 1 Von der Rbp'p, was exiled by a decree of the Emperor, and'these acts cannot be criticised by the Duma. \ At the same time, the Government required , the members of the" Chapter to elect ah administrator. They replied that they had.not the" jurisdiction to do so, "as 'their Bishop lived; that, if under the pressure of'the Government they elected one, the election would be excommunicated: • In" consequence of this answer,, given on November 2, ' the- members Vof the Chapter were deprived of the usufruct of their possessions til! the nomination of a Bishop. One of -them, Bishop Sadofsky, secretary' of the Consistory, has received orders .to go" to St. Petersburg. How the question will terminate it is impossible at present to. say ; it is the first time that we see in Russia a diocese in a state of the most complete stagnation " in all that appertains to its , administration. The Government would be - very glad to transfer Bishop Ropp to another See, but he did not agree to the proposition, and the Holy Father approves of

his conduct. Of the twelve dioceses in Russia, five are vacant ; Mohilef since July, 1905 ; Seyny for more than five years ; Kiel, Sandomir, Vilna. The Archbishop of Warsaw and the Bishop

of Lublin are very old, and their death will probably augment the number of vacant Sees. It will be perceived from this statement that the Jast state of the Catholic . Church is worse than the first.' SCOTLAND— CathoIic Schools The following interesting particulars are given in the ' Irish Educational Review,' in an article contributed by Mr. Frederick F. Hoban. The writer says : — ' We have in Scotland 2.08 Catholic schools,' with an average number of scholars on the register of 83,019, and an average attendance of 71,757. The school staff numbers 140 male and 753 female certificated teachers, and 605 assistant uncerlificated- teachers. The average salary of principal male certificated teachers works out at £\<\i 1 os, that of certificated male assistants at 6s Bd. Head mistresses are paid from to £120, certificated assistants about £t$ or and uncertificated assistants to In the distribution of staff a certificated head teacher counts for fifty scholars, .a certificated assistant for sixty, and uncertificated assistant for forty-five or thirty-five according to class. The management of voluntary schools is vested .in three managers. The rector of the parish is usually correspondent. The Local School Board exercises no jurisdiction over voluntary schools beyond calling for a monthly return of the attendance. The board officer visits our schools once or twice a week to receive reports of defaulters. The managers deal in all matters directly with the department. Inspectors visit informally once or twice throughout the year for the purpose of observing teachers and pupils in their ordinary daily routine, and at the end of the school year, when a more minute and detailed examination is made of the whole school. I think that managers will bear willing testimony to the courtesy and kind consideration which characterise the inspectors in dealing with us here in Scotland. We are fortunate in finding in the officials^ of the department a generous disposition to advise in cases of "difficulty, a willingness to give full credit to the work of our teachers, as well as to make allowances for deficiencies.'