The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1910, Page 591

The Catholic World

CANADA—The Catholic Population The Catholic population of Canada, according to. Wiltzius’ Catholic Directory, is 2,538,374. FRANCE—Contemptible Persecution Details given by the Eclair of the persecution of two Capuchin Fathers in Paris recall the worst features of the old Penal Laws in England (remarks the Catholic Times). How Frenchmen stoop to such vile arts and how other Frenchmen tolerate the practices is. beyond our comprehension. The charges against the two Capuchins are that though the Congregations to which they belonged were dissolved by law they still meet in community. One of them. Father Boussard, was accused of having received some other priests at his dwelling. Detectives were put on his track. He went to buy some groceries and articles of furniture, and they followed him from shop to shop. They 'made and kept a record of everything he purchased. The other Capuchin, Father Cesaire, was closely' watched in Paris, at Nantes, and in other places. It was put forward against him as a crime that the Rev. Father Venance, who was named Paris Provincial of the Order in 1908, lived with him, and his correspondence with Capuchin missionaries was set down as part of the charge which he was called upon to answer. The police told the Court how many letters he received, what it cost him to live, and other facts, which showed the perfection of the French spy system. The decision of the Court was deferred, but it is pretty certain, the Capuchins will be treated as criminals. What a glorious land of liberty is the France of our day! Want of Organisation . Some fifteen thousand persons cheered Mgr. Araette, Archbishop of Paris, on February 18, when, at the close of the Paris Diocesan Conference, he proposed a resolution condemning the tyrannical interference with the rights of Catholics in France, and proclaiming their determination to do all in their power in defence of the faith of their children and liberty of instruction. When French Catholics assemble in such large numbers to defend the interests of the Church, it seems singular that they cannot set on foot a national organisation for the. overthrow of the infidel and persecuting Government. The elections are close at hand (says the Catholic Times), but no one predicts that the position of the persecutors will be seriously weakened. Yet until the Catholics of France make their power felt in the urns complete religious liberty will never be restored to them. If they cannot defeat a considerable number of the Government’s candidates in the coming contests, why not begin now to prepare for a struggle which will be successful at some future time? In all Great Britain there are only a couple of million Catholics, yet by appealing to the people’s spirit of fair play, they can safeguard themselves and their Church from injustice. Surely the millions of French Catholics should be able to exercise at least an equal power,- and so protect the Church from oppression. Spoils to the Victors The cablegrams announcing the defalcations of Duez, . the official liquidator of several religious societies in Paris, and the revelations of wholesale bribery and corruption on the part of Government officials, politicians, and journalists, evoked the following letter from his Grace the Archbishop of Hobart (says the Tasmanian Monitor). It appeared in the Examiner. Writing under date March 14, the Archbishop said:The-brief cablegram in to-day’s Examiner regarding Duez’s defalcations has its pathetic side. The French Government expelled many thousands of men and women from their homes, simply because they were members of certain religious Congregations. Their convents and effects were seized for the moment by official sequestrators, and at the end of a certain interval were handed over to official liquidators to wind the business up. The Act of Parliament had provided that indigent members of the expelled religious should receive some pittance out of the proceeds of the sale to help them keep body and soul together. Great numbers of really indigent, and, in many instances aged, religious have pleaded, but in ’ vain, for the dole intended. I have read in the French press reports of the debates in the Chamber of Deputies ' the questions and appeals in behalf of those starving men 1 and women. ■ Very little heed has been paid to those • pathetic appeals. The usual answer is that the property sold has not realised enough after payment of the expenses of liquidation. A Parliamentary commission was appointed to report on the work of the liquidators,'and some condemnations have been expressed. The work of liquidaj; tion was tainted with jobbery. Legal members of Parlia- • ment and relations of members got into the pick of the business. It has been an indecent scramble for the spoil 'of the monks and nuns. The late M. Waldeck-Rousseau promised tire working men of France no less than £40,000,000 from the sale of the monks’ and nuns’ property, and he held it out as the sheet anchor of his policy for the establishment of old-age pensions. The monks and nuns have been effectively robbed and cast adrift but no one

■ knows what became of the fabled £40,000,000. ~ However wuM c * e . £ l r that there were some' good pickings all the same! ’’ hue the religious were starving,' their one-time homes enable Government pets of the Duez stamp to have high times, until they are too embarrassing even for their patrons. v. • 1 Reward for Charity and Courage Among those to whom has been awarded the Montyoh puzes for virtue this year in France are several priests and nuns. It is curious to note how, in these days of religious persecution (says the Sacred Heart Be view), the most worthy of the prize winners are priests and nuns whom the French Government persecutes in so cowardly and crafty a fashion, a proof that love of‘ God is the strongest mainspring of noble deeds of charity. In 1872 a wealthy citizen of l aris, the Baron de Moiityon, presented the Irench Ac a domy with a sum of 12,000 francs, the revenue of winch was to be given every year to any man or woman 5 who had performed a remarkable acte de vertu, or good action. Since then other donations have increased the fund, and every year the French Academy; distributes a considerable sum of money to a large number of persons who have distinguished themselves by deeds of devotedness charity, or courage. ; . ’ ITALY—The Campanile of Venice The Campanile of Venice, after seven years’ work, is approaching completion ; the shaft is finished, and. only lacks the belfry, the separate pieces of which are ready to be set in place. # The more delicate work of the reconstruction 2* the Loggia di Sansovino is proceeding with celerity. 1 he debris left of it when it was shattered by the fall of the Campanile was all carefully transported to the Doge’s I alace, where it was thoroughly gone over and sifted, and the large pieces photographed. ROME—The Revision of the Vulgate _ . In response to an invitation of the Oliver Plunket society, Rome, the Right Rev. Abbot Gasquet, President of the Vulgate Commission, delivered recently at - the Irish College a most instructive and interesting * lecture on the work of the revision of the Biblical text confided to his Order by Pius X. (writes the Rome correspondent of the Catholic limes). The object of the. Bible Commission, said the learned Benedictine, is to return to .the version translated by St. Jerome in 382 by the request of the Pope, Shortly after the time of St. Jerome it was found that owing to incorrect transcription no , really reliable version existed for which reason a council held under Charlemagne in / 89 decreed an improved edition. Of this version several copies exist still, one being preserved in St. Paul’s, Rome, 1 ears went by and copies were made anew, but transcribers again caused such confusion in good; faith by adding notes and interpretations to - the . -text that Roger Bacon wrote to the Pope in the thirteenth century suggesting a revision of the Bible. After no little, delay a;;Commission - came to be appointed and forty years; were passed at the work, Sixtus V. publishing the manuscripts, which are to be seen at the Vatican even to this day. According to the knowledge of that day, this revision, notwithstanding the censures that some now seek to cast upon-it, was done in a scientific manner. However, as many errors were found in the edition, it was recalled and re-written by Clement VIII. in 1592. Even in this‘edition again errors were not absent. Hence the decree of Pope Pius X. to obtain a work drawn from the purest sources. Passing over a large number of slides shown by the lecturer, I now come to treat of the Irish sources whence he hopes to derive much help in his work. Illustrations were given from the Book of Kells, belonging to the ninth century; the Book of Armagh, and other ancient remains, in which the beautiful penmanship and marvellous coloring of the old Irish scribes is so wonderfully evidenced. At the conclusion of the lecture a vote of thanks was proposed by Father David Fleming, 0.F.M., and seconded by Chev, P. L. Connellan. On putting the vote from the chair the Right Rev. Dr. Clancy, Bishop of Elphin, drew attention to several points of the lecture in which he felt special interest, one of which was the fatuity displayed by the so-called Reformers of the sixteenth century in pinning their faith to the Bible, seeing there were so many different versions in vogue. The other point noted by Dr. Clancy related to the large number of Irish documents mentioned. by Abbot Gasquet as being of help in the revision of the Vulgate. Only a few days previously he (Dr. Clancy) had occasion to peruse certain papers showing that only a few centuries after St. Patrick had brought the Faith to Ireland, Irish monks were to be found toiling in Belgium, Germany," France, England, Scotland, and North Italy, ■ and' spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. • UNITED STATES—CIergy and Churches There are 16,550 Catholic priests in the United States, 12,274 being secular clergy and 4276 members of religious Orders. The total (16,550) does not include those United States priests who are working in the Philippines or other foreign missions. Neither does it include those in Rome or studying abroad. There are 8849 Catholic churches with resident priests in the United States, and 4355 mission churches which are supplied by the neighboring pastors.

The total number of churches, therefore," is 13,204, a gain of 806 over last year. The Hierarchy The Hierarchy of the United States consists of 1 Apostolic Delegate, 1 Cardinal/13 Archbishops, and 88 Bishops. The oldest prelate in point of service is Cardinal Gibbons, who was consecrated Bishop August 16, 1868. Bishop Hogan, of Kansas City, Mo., is next in rank, having , been consecrated, a month later than Cardinal Gibbons. Archbishop Ryan of Philadelphia, who was appointed Bishop in 1872, ranks third, while Archbishop Ireland; of St. Paul, is fourth, his consecration date being December 21, 1875. GENERAL The Propagation of the Faith It appears from the annual report, just issued, of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith that-the association’s receipts for the year 1908 were as,follow: —Dioceses of Europe, £199,188 13s; diocese of Asia, £3lB 13s 4d; dioceses of Africa, £973 12s sd; dioceses of America, £55,370 8s 2d; dioceses of Oceania, £252 2s 8d; total receipts for the year 1908, £256,103 9s 7d; sum remaining at tile disposal of the Holy Father for his works in the East at the close of the vear 1907, £2776; carried forward from 1907, £lB 0s 4d; total, £258,897 9s lid.