The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 1 December 1910, Page 1987

The Catholic World

AUSTRIA—A Monument to Mendel

Briinn, the capital of the Austrian, province of Moravia, has a number of notable memorials. But probably upon none of its monuments will future generations look with greater interest than on that which has just been raised to Gregory Mendel, priest, botanist, and naturalist. Mendel's fame as a botanist and naturalist was established by patient observation, and the value of his contributions to science lay in the exclusion of every element of doubt from his theories owing to their being purely based on fact. Cambridge and many other universities were repr*. sented at the unveiling of the monument, and at a banquet subsequently held several distinguished professors acknowledged in enthusiastic language how greatly the learned world is indebted to his studies, especially on the theory of heredity. At a time when every opportunity is taken to discredit the works of the clergy it is gratifying to note this testimony of esteem for the memory of a Catholic priest. But Mendel, of course, cannot be overlooked. He fairly won a reputation which will endure.

FRANCE— A Minister on the Lay School

The French Minister of Labor, it will be remembered, gained for himself as an atheist notoriety throughout the world by boasting that the French Government had shut out the light of Heaven from the sight of the French wonting man. This gentleman has a rival in blasphemy. M. Trouillot, French Minister for the Colonies, presiding the other day at a banquet given at the close of the Congress of the Teaching League, said: ' The lay-school is the corner stone of the Republican structure, and on this rock we shall build our Church.' This, it will be noted (says the Catholic Times), was meant to be a parody of. Our Divine Lord's words. Alas for the youth under the care of teachers who receive such sentiments without protest. The lay school, as the French Government understand the words, is a school in which the holy name of God is not mentioned —if it be not mockingly in the tone of this ignorant Minister. It is a school which every Frenchman who loves honor and honesty and all the virtues that go to make a good citizen and patriot should hold in abhorrence. We observe the fruits of the lay school in the French journals that come to hand day by day—not only anarchy in families, infidelity in marital life, and corruption in public offices, but most callous murders by the young. So cold and remorseless are the youthful criminals in France that they seem to be quite bereft of the moral sense. In the vast majority of cases this horrible state of affairs can be traced to the lay school.

GERMANY— Passion Play

The Catholic Bishop of Wheeling, U.S.A. (Right Rev. Dr. O'Donoghue), and the Protestant Bishop of Southwell were at Oberammergau at about the same time a few months ago. In an interview later on, Dr. O'Donoghue said to a pressman that ' nothing could have been more edifying than the devotional spirit displayed at Oberammergau by the English Protestants present at the Passion Play. Among the many things that struck me as being worthy of note at Oberammergau were the reverence and devotion displayed by English Protestants at the Passion Play. _ Their generosity was equally praiseworthy, as not only, did they subscribe towards 'the fund for those who suffered from the floods brought on there by the heavy rains, but their subscriptions in the past went a long way towards the purchase of a pulpit for the village church. I felt very edified at their reverent bearing and charitableness.' When the Bishop of Southwell returned home, he wrote for his parish magazine about the Passion Play performed by Catholic peasants: —' For eight hours the audience of four thousand were held in silence as the old, old story was unfolded; but for us that story has now had new light thrown upon it, and we grasp somewhat better the meaning of the Passion.' The Bishop also referred to the beauty of the children and of the purity and sincerity of the life of these villagers, and he added: ' Simplicity reigns, and reigns in the face of praise and adulation which is poured out upon them. The one wish of the whole community seems to be to constrain you to understand better, and so to love more, the Master Who died for us.'

Cardinal Fischer's Sympathy

The Pastoral Letter addressed by his Eminence Cardinal Fischer, Archbishop of Cologne, to his subjects on his coming visit to Rome and Mayor Nathan's insults to the Sovereign Pontiff, is of a particularly interesting character. After referring to the pilgrimage from Cologne to Rome, which, through fear of cholera, has had to be abandoned, the Cardinal-Archbishop continues:—'lf indeed, the projected pilgrimage cannot be held, I myself desire to go personally as a pilgrim to Rome, taking with me in spirit to the Eternal City all my dear spiritual subjects, as well as all their prayers. "For a Bishop it is always a pleasure and a consolation to be able to converse in person with the Pope. Moreover, in an archdiocese so

extensive and important as ours there are always difficult questions and cases on which the Pastor would like to take counsel with the Vicar of Christ, particularly in times like ours, which are so varied and so full of movements.' Regarding the insults offered to the Pontiff on September 20 by Signor Nathan, Cardinal Fischer denounces the Syndic in unsparing terms, i and declares his chief object in going to Rome is to offer his sympathy to the Holy Father. This,' he says, 'constitutes a special motive for going to Home at present, because Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church are bound by oath to divide sorrows and! consolations with the Pope. It is my duty to go to Rome to assure the Holy Father in my name, as well as in yours, dear children, of our share in his sorrow, and to attest our fidelity, which increases all the more at seeing the Father of our souls attacked, saddened, and offended. It is with special consideration that I say this, in your and my name, since 1 understand your fidelity, and submission to the Holy See. The Holy Father himself in speaking to me has on various occasions praised your fidelity and Christian sentiments. Yes, thank God, in the Catholic Rhine Provinces, and especially in the archdiocese of the Rhine, the Catholic Faith, inherited from our fathers, still nourishes, despite dangers which have multiplied, and despits the attacks to which we are exposed. We gave a proof of this last year before all Germany, or, better, before the whole world, on the occasion of the Eucharistie Congress. ■ I joyfully recall and with gratitude I thank the Lord daily (as I declared last summer during mv Confirmation tour), that the reception of the Holy Sacraments is on the increase. I recall the flourishing state of your associations, especially those that are dedicated to the working man's interestsassociations which are more numerous here than in any other diocese in Germany It is precisely they that formed the most glorious part of the Eucharistic procession last year. Zeal for the Catholic faith is particularly manifested in the adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, which is the centre of the religious life of the Church, whence springs love and fidelity towards him who occupies the Apostolic Chair as visible head of the community of the Faithful.'

ROME—A Serious Outlook

Travelling, we all know, widens the mind (remarks the Universe), and it is obviously doing as much for a correspondent of the Saturday Review, who sends to that weekly a suggestive letter on ' The Third Rome.' The writer, though evidently not a Catholic, throws some lurid light on the ideal of a new Rome as recently evolved by Signor Nathan, who, he asserts, is 'stirring up a spirit of revolution which is likely seriously to damage the prospects of the capital, bent, as he is, on taking every opportunity of insulting the Pope and the Christian religion." But even on the lowest plane, the writer points out that such policy is really suicidal to the material interests of the Eternal City, for foreigners, he assures us, still go to Rome on account of the Vatican, which is its chief attraction. His closing words are worth quoting, for they reveal the trend of a popular opinion not to be mistaken': ' You will see a hundred portraits of the Pope for one of the King, and should the Pope and his Court withdraw altogether, in less than three months the commerce of Rome will be runied.' So it looks as if the ideal proposed by the 1« reemasonic Mayor were to spell not only spiritual but material bankruptcy as well!

More Protests

_ Expressions of indignation at the anti-Catholic offensiveness of Syndic Nathan still reach the Vatican, the most noteworthy amongst the latest messages to the Holy lather being that of the College of Parish Priests of Rome, assembled in council (says a Rome correspondent;. So far, the German Catholics have been the most outspoken amongst foreign peoples in denouncing the outrageous language of the audacious Mason. A series of meetings is held in Germany to formulate protests and to call attention to the insecurity of the position in which the Sovereign Pontiff finds himself. Even some of the Liberal press vie with Catholic organs in the Fatherland in condemning Nathan; and, curiously enough, a Hebrew paper, the Deutsche Israelitische Zeitung, follows suit in a thoroughly vigorous fashion, and goes the length of denying to the Mayor of Rome the right to call himself a true Jew: ' Of a Jew he has only the name, since a good Jew is never so lacking in tact as to mix himself up in questions of another religion and to wound the religious sentiments of millions of men.' After a solemn meeting the people of Bologna despatched a telegram to the Pope, a second to Victor Emmanuel, and a third to the Premier of Italy In the telegram to the King the people reminded him that at the moment his grandfather took possession of the city of Rome he gave a promise that the person and dignity of the Sovereign Pontiff would remain ever immune from insult or injury.

SCOTLAND— The Archbishop of Glasgow

Our Home exchanges report that his Grace the Archbishop of Glasgow had, owing to a severe breakdown of health, left for Lourdes, and the clergy of the archdiocese had been requested to ask the prayers of the people forhis recovery. r V