Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 17, 29 April 1909, Page 662

Notes

Third Catholic Congress - In the Intercolonial column of this issue tlie announcement is made that the Third Australasian Catholic Ctfngresswill be held in October in Sydney, where the first was inaugurated nine years ago -with such commanding success. ♦ An Impeached Nation ' '__ In the course of a gracious acknowledgment of a copy of the New Zealand Tablet publication, An Impeached Nation, his. Eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop of Sydney remarked" that ' St. Patrick must be pleased that the good name of the race so dear to him is well championed under the Southern Cross.' The Bishop of Sandhurst (the Right Rev. Dr. Reville) -writes : ~ ' -It is a marvel of industry and research. It" is full of information,, and will prove invaluable as a book of reference.' What Hocking Finds Shocking The Rev. Joseph Hocking — he of the c shilling shocker No-Popery novels — has dressed up another bogey and scared himself mightily ; This time- it is a statistical one. ' Mr. Hocking,' to quote the newspaper report, 1 quoted figures as proof (to use his own words) that England was threatened with conquest by lieresy. In 1851 (he said) there were 958 priests in Great Britain; in 1908 there were 4193. In 1851 there were 683 Roman churches, chapels, and stations ; in 1908 there were 2137. In 1851 there were 70 monasteries and nunneries established; in 1908 there were 1131. These figures, he claimed, represented a united determination to pervert England, and they were more important than they appeared to, be on the surface.' Catholic Educators in U.S.A. According to Wiltzius's Official Catholic Directory for 1909, there are in the United, States 80) Catholic seminaries, with 5687 students ; 213 universities and colleges for young men and boys, and 708 academies for young men and girls, though there is a larger attendance of yonng^ men at the higher institution's of learning than there is of young women at the academies. According to the* same official figures, there are 4703 parishes having parochial- schools, with a total number of children in these schools of 1,197,913. | There are 290 orphan asylums, in which 44,960 orphans are cared for. " Adding the number of young persons attending higher educational institutions and the number of children in charitable institutions to the parochial school statistics, it will be found that there are 1,397,348 childreiTeducated in Catholic -institutions.' All told, there are 1094 charitable institutions in the various dioceses.