The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 31 August 1911, Page 1711

The Catholic World

ENGLAND

CATHOLICS IN THE COMMONS. The return of Baron de Forest as Liberal member for North West Ham brings up the number of Catholics for British constituencies in the House of Commons ten. It is remarkable that within a single week two bye-elections in ' England should have returned two .Catholic members — Mark Sykes, Conservative member for Hull, and Baron da Forest. The other Catholics representing British constituencies are : Lord Niriian Crichton Stuart (Cardiff), Sir Ivor Herbert (S. Monmouth), Mr. James O'Grady (E. Leeds), Mr. Rowland Hunt (Shropshire), Mr. J. F. Hope (Sheffield).,. Lord, Edmund Talbot (Sussex), Major Archer Shee (Finsbury), and Mr. T. P. O'Connor (Liverpool). -.'-,-• A PROCESSION ATTACKED. Exciting scenes occurred on Sunday, July 9 (says the London Morning Leader) in Canning Town when a Catholic street procession was attacked by a number of militant. Protestants and broken up, with the result that four persons were arrested. The procession was near the end of the route when a small company of strangers made a dash at it from the body of spectators. Instantly the road was thrown into confusion, the procession being fiercely defended against the attackers by Catholics in the crowd. The screaming of women and the crying' of the children in the procession intensified the excitement. The few police present were helpless, and only when reinforcements telephoned for arrived from police stations near by was order restored. The police, however, were obliged to use. their truncheons. Three men were taken to the police station in connection with the affair. The procession, being within a few yards of its destination, did not re-form.

FRANCE

PERSECUTING THE BISHOPS. To -the long list of French Bishops who have been dragged before the judges during the last few years must now be added more names. Mgr. Campistron, Bishop of Annecy, now in- his seventy-first year. One of his clergy is charged with publishing the ordinances of the Bishop on the First Communion of children; and the ordinance itself is attacked as renewing in effect the teaching and condemnations Contained in the collective letter of the French Episcopate. On June 9, the Bishop and his cure appeared before the police court of Bonneville (Haute-Savoie). The tribunal condemned both the Bishop and the cure of St. Sigismund to a fine of £2 and costs. This action was brought by the schoolmasters. Monsignor Beguinot, Bishop , of Nimes, whose age is seventy-five, appeared on June 15 befdre the police court of his episcopal city, charged with displaying and refusing to remove the Papal flag on the Feast of Blessed Joan of Arc. Judgment is deferred. Monsignor de Durfort, Bishop of Langres, with some dozen notables of Le Mans, was summoned before the police court of that city on June 22 for the same ' offence 'as Monsignor Beguinot. At the request of the authorities, and amid the ironical! cheering of the public, the case was adjourned sine die. The Friendly Society of the schoolmasters of the Finistere has just cited Monsignor Duparc, Bishop of Quimper, before the civil tribunal of that city, for his share in the collective letter of the Bishops of France, condemning certain school manuals. ,

ROME

THE HOLY FATHER AND THE CORONATION. The Holy Father received Monsignor Granito di Belmonte early in July, after his return from London, as well as the members of the Papal Mission, and among many kind and gracious words about the Coronation, said he had followed it with great interest, and that he thoroughly appreciated the cordiality of the reception

given to his representative. His Holiness dwelt, too, on the satisfaction that must be given to all Catholics throughout the British Empire by such a reception of the Pontifical Envoy’s, and emphasised it as a powerful asset of future loyalty.

SPAIN

THE HOLY FATHER AND THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. / ~y - , ; ; The telegram from the Holy Father to the King of Spain refers to that Congress as a triumph of the Eucharist which does honor to Catholic Spain and its Sovereign (says the Catholic Times). Many good results the Congress will have, but one it should have which is of special importance so far as public opinion in Great Britain is concerned/Readers of the daily papers here are wont to be assured from time to time that Spain is seething with unbelief; that the majority of the people are hostile to the clergy, and that Senor Canalejas has their hearty sympathy in his anti-clerical crusade. During the Congress the Spaniards of every rank and class not alone in the capital, but in every part of Spain, showed that they are proud of the Catholic spirit which animated their forefathers in undertaking their great enterprises for religion and civilisation. Unbelief has not made serious inroads amongst the masses of the people, and to describe them, whether in the columns of the newspapers or in publications brought out after brief visits- to - the country in the interests of anti-Catholic organisations, as bitterly hostile to the Catholic clergy is to misrepresent them.

UNITED STATES

A GOLDEN JUBILEE. With the simplicity that characterised his. ordination to the priesthood fifty years ago on June 30, Cardinal Gibbons observed the anniversary by offering Low Mass of thanksgiving in the chapel of a private home where he was on a visit. Only the few members of the family whom he was visiting, and' Bishop McSherry, of South Africa, were present.

• RELIGIOUS VISIT THE WHITE HOUSE. Nearly three hundred members of the teaching Orders of nuns were received at the White House on the afternoon of - July 13 by President Taft. ■ The assemblage was one of the most remarkable ever gathered in the historic mansion. Twenty-five different religious communities were represented, and they came from forty-two different States, from Canada and British Columbia. The nuns were attending the lectures at the summer school of the Catholic University, and were accompanied by Right Rev. Mgr. Shahan, rector of the University Very Rev. Alexander Doyle, C.S.P., rector of the Apostolic Mission House; Rev. Thomas E. Shields, Ph. D., and other professors connected with the University. - I

GENERAL

CATHOLICS IN . CHINA AND JAPAN. - According to the reliable statistics of Die Catholischen Missionevi, the number of Catholics in China in 1909 was 1,210,054. This represents an increase of 667,390 in the number of Chinese Catholics during twenty years. The missions in, China are in charge' of 2010 priests, of whom 631 are natives. As the number of missionaries was 937 in 1889-, both Christians and missionaries are more than twice as numerous as they were twenty years ago. Japan had 65,741 Catholics in 1909, against 37,560 in 1889, while a still greater increase is shown., for Korea, where . the figures are 15,416 and 68,016 respectively, though Japan is credited with 195 priests, whereas ■.Korea has but. 56.