The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 11 August 1910, Page 1283

The Catholic World

CANADA— The Eucharistic Congress So far invitations accepted by ecclesiastical dignitaries show that ninety archbishops and bishops will attend the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal in September. There are indications, too, that the list will be further swelled, and there is a possibility that his Eminence Cardinal Logue, who made such a favorable impression on the occasion of a visit to the United States and Canada, and who was particularly popular during a short stay in Montreal, may also be present at the Congress. Gaelic-speaking Catholics, The Nova Scotian diocese of Antigonish, over which the late Bishop Cameron ruled, contains more Catholic Highlanders than does the whole of Scotland at the present day. Of the eighty-five thousand Catholics within the diocese, forty-five thousand are the still Gaelic-speaking descendants of ancestors evicted from the Scottish Highlands. Bishop Cameron was himself equally at home in Gaelic and in English, and sixty of his priests speak the Gaelic tongue. ENGLAND— Progress' of the Church _ At the Catholic Congress at Leeds last week Archbishop Bourne emphasised the progress of Catholicism in England and Wales. There were now 1064 schools, with an attendance of 339,000 children, and there were 3687 priests. FRANCE—Must not teach History - Father Carrier, parish priest of Vinay, during the course of catechism lessons and religious instruction given to the children of his parish, gave examples from French history, in the most natural way— the history of the Church and that of France are bound together. How can a priest in giving instruction, say, on the Holy Eucharist, abstain from refuting malignant errors, and the history of those errors? . Moreover, the instructions were given in the vestry of the church. There were spies and informers about, and in due time Father Carrier was summoned to appear before the court for opening a school and giving lessons in history without State authorisation, and was fined 200 francs. The Bishop of the diocese, Mgr. Henry, has stigmatised the judgment as shameful. 'This judgment is shameful for the bench of magistrates. I await the decision of the Court of Grenoble— Court of Appeal— if it is a confirmation of the injustice proclaimed in the tribunal of St. Marcellin I will not hesitate. I will order all the priests of the diocese of Grenoble to take no notice of this iniquitous sentence; I will order them to refute doctrinal errors, and combat the systematic attacks on religion contained in the school books whenever the occasion demands it. I do not intend in taking this decision, which will deliver into the hands of French justice all the valiant priests of the diocese, to shirk the responsibility which lies on me, and I, the Bishop, will be the first to give the example. In presence of all the faithful, specially summoned on a fixed date, from the raised episcopal chair of the Cathedral I will refute the known errors, the falsehoods circulated,. the false interpretations of historical facts contained in the school books.' The Crime of the Capuchins Five poor Capuchin Fathers, formerly expelled from their Monastery of Narbonne, appeared before the tribunal of that city recently accused of having reconstructed their Congregation (says the Paris correspondent of the Glasgow Observer). This is the story; it portrays very well the implacable and unceasing persecution of the Church in France. The most of the Capuchins, who had been heartlessly driven out of their monastery, have gone to foreign lands or found refuge in more remote parts of France, but Father. Clement lived with a M. Roussignol at Narbonne; Fathers Timotheus and Theodore and Brother Gabriel lodged separately in different parts of the town. For economic reasons they took their principal meal, which was of the most frugal kind, , at M. Roussignol's house. One Sunday at midday the Prefect of Police, with a posse of men fully armed, burst into this house, and discovered the three Fathers of Narbonne, the lay Brother, and a Father Eustache, a visitor from Toulouse, along .with their host, taking their simple meal together. The Prefect had now discovered what he long suspected, four. Fathers and a lay Brother eating, together; that was an unlawful assemblage, a reconstruction of the dispersed Congregation, a heinous offence against the laws of the land. Dragged before the tribunal, the Fathers pleaded that they said no prayers in common, which constituted an offence in the eyes of the law, and the mere meeting to eat from a common plate was no infringement of the legal statutes. The magistrates admitted the plea, and the five poor Capuchin Fathers were discharged to prolong their miserable isolation under the vigilant eyes of the police. . v : ITALY—The Prime Minister and Bad Literature A circular has just been sent out by Signor Luzzatti, Prime Minister of Italy, 'to the Prefects, Sub-Prefects, District Commissioners, Questors, and officers of public safety,' with " regard to the attitude which they are to

adopt -against pornographic literature/ post cards photo-' decency Sef Sr d other things StS% puo m uecency Tn the Rome correspondent of the Catholic Tiroes) In recent debates in Parliament, the Prime Minis' SILn y +„ le i ha ? a f ked to consider the frightful condition to which wicked, men threaten to reduce public BSSftfi tl l\ stre f\ before this he had seen for himself the state of affairs and had determined upon his ' resent action $ Among the old Romans there was P asay! mg to the effect that 'the child should be treated with the greatest reverence and in the Gospel a curse was pro! nounced against those who scandalised little ones The childrey continues Signer Luzzatti, must be defendedMy the State tnrough the medium of her officers, who in future are to use 'special vigilance and inflexible severity' over public iterature and all its branches of prints, post cards etc Prime Mh !» Italy has aheady the lame Minister on the uncompromising attitude which he has adopted against pornography; but it may be well to point oat that on the benches of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, amongst the deputies sitting before him! Sees Podrecca the editor .of the worst sheet in Europe, the IS He> might summon to his study the Procurator of Pome and feel the mora pulse of that gentleman, who has at east once-perhaps twice-refused officially to see anvthingTumoral enough I? that Sheet to warrant its suppression! Probably when the Procurator and Podrecca have been St with justly we can hope to see more in the Prime Minister's circular than a mass of verbiage. ~" s MEXICO—The First Church in America About sixty miles from Mexico City, isolated amone rugged hills, untouched by modern civilisation, only a fragment remaining of its early greatness, is the moss-grown town of Tlascala (says the Westminster. Gazette. Four centuries ago it had a population of 400,000 fiercely independent people ft were never subjugated by their powerful neighbors, the Aztecs, or Mexicans. The number of its lesidents at the present day does not exceed 4000, and the warlike spirit is gone. Gentle in their pride, upright reserved, and pitifully poor, the descendants of ' the Tlascalan chieftains live l in the traditions of the past, seldom leaving the narrow boundaries of their domain, knowing little, caring naught for the great world bevond. On the slope of a lull beside the decaying town stands the noble Church of San Francisco, the first church erected by Cortes in Mexico, therefore the earliest monument to the Christian religion m America Its foundations were begun in 1521 the year which marked the completion of the conquest. ' ROME—Decrees Relative to Heroic Virtues . , , In the Presence of' the Holy Father on Sunday, June 19 in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican, were read and promulgated the three Decrees relative to the heroic virtues of the venerable servant of God, Francis Mary Paul Libermanii,. founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Mary; of the venerable servant of God, Sister Florida Levoli a professed Capuchin nun; and of the venerable servant of God, Margaret Burgeoys, foundress of the Congregation of Our Lady. The Holy Father delivered a discourse in which he congratulated the three Orders to which the venerable servants of God belonged. The President-Elect of Argentina . An interesting reception by the Pope has been that of his Excellency Dr. Rogue Saens Pena, President-Elect of the Argentine Republic, together with his family. During the audience, which lasted for thirty-five minutes, the Holy lather spoke in warm terms of the Catholic spirit that obtains in the Argentine and of the progress and prosperity that continue to characterise the Republic. For the Pre-sident-Elect Pius X. had words of hearty congratulation. He commended to his consideration the Italian emigrants to the Argentine. At the conclusion of the President's audience, his Holiness received Sefiora Saens Pena, with her daughter and niece, and the Minister of the Argentine Republic to the Holy See, with whom he remained in conversation for several minutes. As a souvenir of the visit the Holy Father presented to Sefiora Saens Pena a photograph of himself with autograph, and gold medals to each of the ladies. .- Australian Prelates Received "/ _ The Right Rev. Dr. Corbett, Bishop of Sale, was received in private audience by the Pope on June 16 for the first time during the three months of his residence in Rome. Pius X., who, by the way, is a year younger than Dr. Corbett, warmly congratulated him on having recovered from the severe attack of pneumonia which seized him on arriving in the city. The Bishop presented the Holy Father with £4OO, Peter's Pence collected in his diocese. SCOTLAND—Charitable Bequests The Little Sisters of the Poor, Gilmour Place, Edinburgh, benefit largely by the will of Mrs. Josephine Hoxie Bartlett, of Aldwych, who died on April 25, leaving a net personalty of £20,370. ; After bequeathing certain legacies, she leaves the residue of her estate upon trust, subject tor*.' two life interests, to the above community. SPAIN—The Religious Orders One of the reasons put forward by the present Spanish Government for the proposed legislation with reference to.

the religious Orders (says an exchange), is their ( abnormal development.' The alleged excessive increase in the membership of the religious communities is pure fiction, as statistics prove. So far from the number of religious in Catholic Spain being excessive, it is proportionately lower than in other countries, being no more than 26 religious for # every 10,000 of the population. In Germany the proportional number is 48, and even in Protestant England it is 30. UNITED STATES-Risks his Life While more than a thousand people looked on, some cheering and others devoutly kneeling in prayer, Rev. Charles P. Raffo, of St. Charles Borromeo's Church, Louisville, Ky., was lifted 80ft through the air to the fifth floor of an uncompleted elevator to administer the last consolation'of religion to Martin Wiggenton, who lay dying. Wiggenton, a young structural iron worker, fell from the eighth floor of the elevator to the fifth, sustaining fatal injuries. Wiggenton, realising that he was dying, called piteously for a priest. Father Raffo, when it was seen that Wiggenton could not be brought down alive, asked that he be raised to him. He took the Blessed Sacrament with him, and as soon as rope ladders could be stretched was swung

to his parishioner.