Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 26 November 1908, Page 22

Notes

Bogus Nuns A few weeks ago a news paragraph went the rounds of a section of the New Zealand secular press, announcing the breaking-up of an orphan asylum in Chicago that was alleged to have been conducted by an association of Catholic nuns. The real facts of the case are now the common property of the American press. The alleged ' nuns ' were not Catholics. They were three impostors who assumed the religious habit in order the better to appeal to the pity of a great city that is largely Catholic. They were the agents and accomplices of a nonCatholic criminal who, with fraudulent intent, donned clerical attire and called himself ' Father ' De Lubica. The bogus ' priest ' netted some to £i 3i 3 a day from tlie operations of the sham ' nuns,' and the precious quartette spent the money in riotous living, while the fifteen hapless inmates that were taken in to give a color to their ' charity ' were half-starved and mistreated. From our American exchange we learn that the enterprising coterie of criminals have been arrested and brought to justice. The ' Catholic Encyclopedia * The Catholic Encyclopedia has not escaped the ' backwounding calumny' that (as Shakespeare saith) 'the whitest virtue strikes.' ' What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?' This time (like the termagant in the old play) slander had • a free tongue and a bold invention.' It coined and industriously circulated the report that the Catholic Encyclopedia had fallen under the censure of the Holy See. A cabled reply from Rome made it clear that the whole story was a fabrication from top to finish. Meantime, this great Catholic work of reference continues to win laurels of praise from every part of the Church's wide domain. It has also attracted, through its wide and varied scholarship and ,ts judicial temper, widespread and commendatory attention from Protestant sources in Europe and America. The S.H. Review quotes a very recent instance in point, from an* editorial article in the Sabbath Recorder. "The breadth of view which the Encyclopedia takes,' says the Recorder, * whenever the history of Protestantism comes within its scope, will surprise the average Protestant. The Sabbath Recorder. theologically and logically stands at the extreme antipode when compared with Catholicism. Nevertheless, we appreciate the fairness and thoroughness with which this Encyclopedia presents its claims. No well equipped public library, to say nothing of private libraries, can afford to be without this Encyclopedia.' * Three volumes of the Encyclopedia have leen already published, and the fourth will shortly appear. Each succeeding volume more amply justifies the verdict of Cardinal Gibbons who refers to it as ' a great work of reference, equal to anything of its class m foreign countries, if not in certain respects the very best of its kind.' , • . In France " The Catholic Times summarises, in its issue of October 9 an interesting article by the Paris correspondent of the Guardian

(Anglican) on the results of the separation of Church and State in France. *In spite of some drawbacks,' says the Catholic Times, 'he finds that many benefits have arisen. Thus, the Church is relieved from its former obligations towards the State, it enjoys liberty, it has no diminution of its civic rights, Us Bishops are not Government nominees, its clergy are appointed by the Bishop. But it is poorer. Still, the faithful in every parish and diocese are working zealously to raise the funds required for the support of the clergy and the maintenance of divine worship, and on the whole with success. Yet many of the priests axe in such dire' poverty that they are forced tolabor for their daily bread. Curious are • the kinds of secular employment which they take up. Some are secretaries -to Municipal Councils, some work in the fields as farm laborers; others are artists, sculptors, and portrait painters. One has patented an incubator for chickens, another breeds rabbits, another cultivates snails, another makes jellies and jams, another makes bicycles, motor-cars, and sewing-machines, and another is a turner of chair and table legs. Watch and clock making, tailoring, knitting, printing, perfumery are the occupations of others. And the list might be lengthened. These toiling priests have banded themselves tcgether in a union called The Alliance of Working Priests, which already numbers six hundred members. Thus do the French clergy, in the day of their dire distress, prove that their spirit of faith can face the calls of poverty. But the distress will deepen when the pensions allowed to some of the older priests dwindle and cease. Then will come the full pressure of poverty, when all the clergy, without exception, must be maintained totally from the alms of the faithful. Let us hope by that time the faithful will have grown accustomed to the duty of supporting their ministers of religion.'