The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 12 January 1911, Page 79

The Catholic World

ENGLAND — Appointed Vicar-Apostolic ' The Rev. H. Gregory Thompson, headmaster of St. Augustine’s College, Ramsgate, has been appointed VicarApostolic of Gibraltar, in the place of the late Bishop Barbieri. Born in 1871, near Mold, a son of Mr. Edward Thompson, coalmaster and director of the North and South Wales Bank, the new Bishop was educated partly at Oscott and partly at St. Augustine’s College, Ramsgate. Provincial of the Jesuits The Very Rev. Father Joseph Browne, S.J., who has been for nearly five years Rector of St. Francis Xavier’s, Liverpool, has been appointed Provincial of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, in succession to the Very Rev. Father Sykes, S.J., who has filled the office since 1904. The new Provincial has had a distinguished career. Born at Liverpool in 1856, he was educated at Stonyhurst, taking his B.A. at London University, and being ordained in 1883. He was appointed Superior of St. Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst, in 1893, and five years later became Rector of Stonyhurst, which position he relinquished in 1896 to take up the Rectorship of St. Francis Xavier’s College. It is understood that Father Browne’s place at Liverpool will be taken by the retiring Provincial, Father Richard Sykes, S. J. FRANCE — Liquidation Scandals The Seine Court demands a reduction of 75 per cent, in the fees of certain liquidators. So enormous are the accounts of the liquidators, and so heavy the total of fees and costs implied, that the Court of the Seine has had to exact a reduction of 75 per cent. This astounding figure (says the Universe) is no invention; it is the Court itself which has insisted on the reduction being made, alter a close inquiry and investigation on the part of its financial administrators. Take the case of M. Menage, who had fixed his total of fees at a million of francs. After dis-, cussing it with the Court, this figure was brought down to 500,000, just one-half, as a result of the discussion. The discount was already heavy, but not sufficiently so. The lowest Finance authorities considered, in fact, that this half ought to have been still further reduced to 75 per cent., which would leave to M. Menage annual fees of 18.000 francs, or for six years of liquidation 108,000 francs. Yet M. Menage exacts 580,000 francs for official expenses. On this sum the Court would require a diminution of 150.000 to 200,000 francs. So the liquidator will have to prove that this sum is owing to him. Nor is M. Menage’s ease unique. We give it as typical because this liquidator is, we are assured, one of the least voracious.’ We may well ask to what did the ‘ voracity’ of the others amount? GERMANY— Kaiser and the Monks We ( Catholic Times ) give in our present issue a special account of the reception of the German Emperor at the Benedictine Abbey of Beuron and of the memorable speech his Majesty delivered on the occasion. At a time when so many enemies of Christianity are combating it in every quarter and sowing the seeds of unbelief, this expression of deep religious conviction by the Kaiser is most welcome. The degenerates of France and Portugal have set their hands against the monks. They have slandered and libelled them, persecuted them, and cast them forth. Not so this strong Emperor of a mighty nation. ‘We monks,’ said Archabbot Schober, ‘ sons of Benedict, the great Patriarch of the West, strive each day, in conformity with the principles of our Order and with our holy rule, to give God what is God’s.’ And the Emperor, replying, said: ‘Continue to labor on the lines of your predecessors and to support me in my efforts to maintain religion for the people. This is all the more important as the twentieth century has let loose ideas which can be successfully combated only with the help of religion and the support of Heaven. This is my firm conviction. • The Crown I wear can only warrant success by basing its strength on the Word and Person of the Lord. It is but a natural interpretation of his Majesty s words to read them as an appeal to the religious Orders of the Catholic Church not to be dismayed by temporary trials in the great work they are performing for God and men. They should also be a source of encouragement to Christian rulers in the grave difficulties they have to face owing to the machinations of the foes of Christianity, ITALY Press and the Mayor of Rome It has been remarked in Rome (writes a correspondent) that the impression conveyed by Reuter’s representation of the Nathan incident has not been quite clear. On reading a Reuter’s message sent on November 10, I find that the only impression one gets is that the clerical papers alone protest against Nathan’s conduct. To show how false this is I .quote verbatim the Carrier e della Sera on Nathan, which paper is anything but clerical. It says: ‘Ernest Nathan, on learning that the Mayor of Montreal, a Cathohc and the representative of Catholics, voted along with the Municipal Council, a censure on a speech full of in-

sults to Catholicity delivered , by the Mayor of Rome, , has lost his temper and written an acrid letter in reply, enclosing a French and English translation. The idea of the two translations is a splendid one, as the text of the epistle is not graceful Italian. The Mayor of Rome is rather confused in his composition. He makes detours in phrases slightly labyrinthine, and uses imaginings over which one must pause to arrive at a legitimate suspicion of their approximate meaning. Thus, with regard to the wish that the First Magistrate of Montreal “may be compensated for his Catholic zeal in current coin in the limited sphere in which he moves,” what does that mean? Does it mean that the Canadian gentleman would accept small change in return for the gratification given to some prelate? It is not possible. The stupidity is too great. But there is one part that the Mayor of Montreal will thoroughly comprehend—viz., the remark that the Mayor of Rome adyises him to mind his affairs as Mayor without mixing himself up in those of others. All we say is the advice is good. So good is it that probably the Mayor of Rome will finish by following it himself. On the happy day that he decides to follow it, perhaps, in case he is Mayor, he will deliver addresses as Mayor and not as exGrand Master of Freemasonry, and will feel convinced that to give proof of being a good administrator for the city of Rome it is not necessary to say insolent things against the 1 ope and Catholicism.’ ROME—The Pope and the Eucharistic Congress . The arrival of his Eminence Cardinal Vincent VannuteJii in Rome from America was followed next morning by a most interesting interview with the Holy Father. Pius A., almiough already well informed of the details of the Eucharistic Congress of Montreal, and of the Cardinal’s reception in the United States, felt anxious to hear from the L apal Legate himself further particulars of the great manifestation in Canada and the States. His Eminence gave a most consoling and, indeed, enthusiastic account or the success of his mission, and of the strong thoroughly organised state of the Catholics in the New ” o }' d - ~ ~e Holy Father expressed his deep satisfaction at the Cardinal s report, and repeatedly uttered words of good-will and benediction with regard to the prelates, priests, and faithful of Canada and the United States! While on his return to Europe Cardinal Vannutelli received the following thoughtful marconigraph from* Mr Guerin Mayor of Montreal: ‘Grateful Montreal wishes you a happy voyage and sends an expression of homage to the Holy Father.’ The New Vatican Observatory . In the inauguration of the new Vatican Observatory, which has oeen completed under the direction of Cardinal Main, Archbishop of Pisa, Father Hagen, S.J., and Father Lais, Director and Vice-Director respectively of the observatory, the fostering care which the Church has ever had tor science, has once more been illiistrated. The observatory which consists of the Tower of Leo IV. and the summer residence of Leo XIII situated in the highest part of the atican Gardens, is calculated to be one of the finest in the woiid, tor none but the most superior class of astronomical instruments and fittings have been chosen. On account of the uncertain state of the weather, the Holy Father hearkened to the advice to inaugurate the observatory in the Vatican. Here, surrounded by the ecclesiastical and lav dignitaries of Ins court his Holiness listened to an eloquent address from Cardinal Maffi suitable to the occasion. . Opening his discourse by mentioning how the Pontiff had honored him in entrusting to him the work of organising the observatory, the Cardinal Archbishop of Pisa spoke of the obstacles that had to be overcome in the task, the place the institution holds among other observatories, and the perfection of the instruments _ procured. ‘ln these gardens, peinaps on this spot,’ continued the Cardinal, ‘ your predecessor, Clement VII amid . Cardinals, Bishops, and ; prelates, listened to a lecture from Widmanstadt, who exn d 7l° n l r nndr r d - y^ ar ! before . the trial of Galileo (1633) heliocentric doctrine and the movement of the earth round the sun. He met with neither corrections nor silence. But the Pope presented to him a Greek codex of Alexander of Afrodisia, which is now ! preserved in the with IC th« bl tvf f f *f unicll ; in Bavaria, and honored him with the title of domestic secretary. Human passions which misled both the followers of Ptolemy and Copernicus deprived the Church for a brief period of its happy state elemental! a ? 6 - r f ° Ur centurie |> the scene in which Clement VII. figured is renewed, and yon. Holy Father on this day amid the joyful applause of all, give to another astronomer, such as Widmanstadt of Germany, the powev to write—and in a sense with greater truth- In the Vatican Gardens I explained the doctrine of the motion of the earth. ” At the end of the address Pius X congratulated the Cardinal and bestowed on Father Hagen a medal in commemoration of the day. “ SCOTLAND Golden Jubilee cr a rJ h A,f^ ry^TV * Donald . Provost Mackintosh, of Mingarry, Moidart, Inverness-shire, celebrated his golden iubi lee on November 30, the Feast of St. Andrew. The Provost was ordained at Ratisbon on November 30, 1860 in the Scots College .there. Provost Mackintosh was ’born in Glenfinnan, and took charge of the parish of E after the death of the Rev Charles Macdonald f 1^1894^

UNITED STATES— Burial at Sea The priests of ; the archdiocese of Philadelphia have passed a resolution condemning the course taken on the steamship California in the burial at sea of the Rev. William A. McLoughlin, late pastor of St. Stephen’s Church, Philadelphia, notwithstanding the remonstrances of friends and a relative. The Catholic University The Right Rev Mgr. Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University of America, hopes for the establishment in the University of a Chair of Liturgy under the auspices of the archdiocese of Boston, in. honor, and under the name of the late Archbishop John J. Williams. Proposed Memorial Friends of the late Rev. Louis A. Lambert, LL.D., pastor of the Church of the Assumption, at Scottsville, N.Y., and editor of the New York Freeman’s Journal, are planning for the erection of a splendid monument to his memory at Scottsville, where he labored so long. jesuit Scientists Praised According to information received in Washington, Secretary of War Dickinson, who recently visited the Philippine Islands on his round-the-world trip, highly commended the work being done by the Jesuit Fathers at the Manila observatory. He expressed his own appreciation and that of his Government of the services of these men, who gave up their Spanish citizenship to serve the United States as its official weather forecasters in the Philippines. Progress in a Quarter of a Century The New York Catholic. News, which was founded a quarter of a century ago, said in a recent issue; —During its existence the Catholic News has seen the Catholic Church make extraordinary progress in the United States. When its first number appeared the Church had in this country 74 archbishops and bishops against 101 to-day; 7296 priests against 16,550 to-day ; 6755 churches against 13,204 ; 85 colleges against/ 217; 618 academies against 709; 2621 parochial schools against 4845; a parochial school attendance of 492,949 against 1,237,251 to-day. In every other Catholic endeavor Catholic growth has been equally remarkable. Our own archdiocese of New York shows no less notable progress. Twenty-five years ago there were 176 churches as compared with 331 to-day; 60 chapels against 193 today; 402 priests against 926; 57 parish schools for boys and 61 for girls against 148 schools for boys and 148 for girls; a parochial school attendance of 34,292 against 72,193. The Catholic population of the New York archdiocese then was estimated at 600,000; to-day it is 1,219,920. GENERAL Benedictines in the Congo Writing of the arrival in the Congo of a partv of Benedictines who are about to make a foundation there and minister to the white settlers and to the natives, the Catholic Magazine of South Africa says: ‘Strange to say the Benedictines have only one other foundation in Africa, the Vicariate of South Zanzibar, founded in 1887. But their civilising work is as old as Christian monasticism itself. When Europe was still a land of barbarians, they cleared the forests and tilled the land, and taught the unruly Vandal and Goth to plough and reap. Often they went to establish themselves where no man’s foot had trodden before them. But wherever they- pitched their tents, the church and the school and the workshop soon sprang up. The Congo now calls for the very same missionary work that was so thoroughly performed in England and in Germany in the days gone by. There is this difference, that events move more quickly in our days than they did in the days of the. early Benedictines. Perhaps some of us may live to see a new Tinteru Abbey or a Monte Cassino within the borders of the Congo State.’