The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 9 January 1913, Page 55

The Catholic World

r-: CHINA . THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH. Rev. Father F. E. Ross, in the course of a lecture delivered recently in St. Swithin’s Hall, Southsea, on Catholic Missions in China, said that Catholic missionaries had continuously for the last 300 years been evangelising China and penetrating to its utmost confines, whereas no Protestant mission had extended beyond the Treaty ports previous to 1866. The result of these 300 years of spade-work was that at present there were in China no fewer than 43 Catholic Bishops, nearly 1400 European priests, over 600 Chinese priests, and at least 1,300,000 > Catholics among the Chinese. He, however, dwelt upon the fact that of all the priests on the mission, there were but 12 English speaking, and in conclusion, the lecturer made an appeal for more English-speaking workers for the Chinese mission field, the great brunt of the work now being taken by the French. J ENGLAND SACERDOTAL DIAMOND JUBILEE. - On November 19, Right Rev. Mgr. Carr, V.G., of Our Lady’s Church, Formby, celebrated his eightysixth birthday, as well as his diamond jubilee as parish priest of Formby. He was born at Preston in 1826. He twice visited his Holiness, the late Pope Leo, and was made by him Vicar-General, and later Protonotary Apostolic. DEATH OF A CANON.' Right Rev. Mgr. Canon Luck, Protonotary Apostolic and Vicar-General of the diocese of Portsmouth, passed away on November 16. The deceased prelate was born in London and educated at St. Edmund’s College, Ware, and at Rome, and was ordained on July 28, 1861. Very shortly after that he went to East Hendred, where he was destined to remain all his life. Upon the erection of the new diocese of Portsmouth in 1882, Father Luck was nominated as one of the first Canons of the newly-established Chapter. In 1900 he was appointed by the late Bishop Cahill to be his Vicar-General—a post he filled for ten years, At the Bishop’s death he was elected by the Chapter as Vicar-Capitular and ruled the diocese for four months until Bishop Cotter’s appointment, when once more he became Vicar-General. In 1901 he received from Pope Leo XIII. a brief appointing him a Protonotary Apostolic. Canon Luck was the eldest son of the family his two brothers became Benedictines, and one of them was Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand, and two of his sisters are Franciscan nuns. Yet, strange to say, his father was a convert of only three years’ standing at his birth, and his mother remained a Protestant until her death. When Thomas Luck was baptised a Catholic, a great storm was raised in her family. But then it was only eight years since Catholic Emancipation had been granted. FRANCE THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CHURCH. • Even Frenchmen of anti-religious tendencies are scandalised at the treatment of the Abbe SoulangeBoudm. This priest rebuilt at his own expense Die church of Notre Dame de Plaisance, which had become too small for a growing congregation; and he also built at his own expense a presbytery for the accommodation of the clergy. The Department of Domaines has not only claimed the property, but has instituted proceedi ng non g n amSt the ,P ries i t for arrears of rent amounting to £3OO, incurred by him for having occupied the pres & ter Lr Ce t . he PP lication of the Law o‘f Separation. The Abbe naturally wants to know on what ground a wb\ S \° U n- be I ? ed , to PJ rent for a private house which he himself has built at his own cost. The case is to be tried at the Palais de Justice, and fair-minded people the world over will be interested in the result.

INCREASE OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. Canon Laude, after a personal investigation of conditions in every diocese of France, has just drawn up for the Societe d’Education an excellent report on the state of Catholic schools. Since 1902 twenty thousand schools have been closed by the Government - because the teachers of these belonged to religious congregations. Of this number, eight thousand have already been reopened, either with secularisel members of religious congregations as teachers or with lay masters, and mistresses approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. Canon Laude informs us that the teaching force now numbers 8000 schoolmasters and 25,000 schoolmistresses. The annual cost of the schools, defrayed entirely by the voluntary offerings of Catholics, already amounts to 45,000,000 francs, the outlay ' for teachers’ salaries alone calling for thirty millions. Every year about two hundred new schools are thrown open to Catholic children. Even in the less Catholic districts the religious schools appear to grow in favor daily; they are usually crowded, while the State lay schools remain often empty. This preference appears to be based in some cases on other reasons than the desire of religious instruction. The schoolmasters "in the lay schools dabble considerably in politics, and the training of the children suffers in consequence. PORTUGAL THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CLERGY. A late evil feature of government action in Portugal is the appointment of parish priests, without regard for the bishops (says America). Some interesting statistics are appearing concerning the priests who have accepted government salaries.' In the diocese of Lisbon there are only 54 out of 382. In the diocese of Braga there are but 45 out of 1040; and in the diocese of Portalegre there are 15 out of a total of 213, ROME DEATH OF A CARDINAL. The Rome correspondent of the Umvej'se, writing of the death of Cardinal Capecelatro, who passed away at Capua on November 14, says: With him disappears one of the most distinguished and respected personalities, not only of the Sacred College and of the Church, but of Italy itself. Distinguished author in almost every field of literature, history, and philosophy, he preserved his wonderful clearness and virility of mind right to the end of his life, which counted over eightyseven years. But he was more than a mere savant; ho was a man of action, deeply interested in all questions of the day, full of apostolic sympathy and charity, while as Archbishop he was universally beloved by clergy and people. His Cardinalital jubilee, recently held, was an unprecedented demonstration of respect and affection. He has been called the Newman of Italy. NATIONAL COLLEGES. According to Home, of November 2, the number of ecclesiastical students has increased so much in the Eternal City that many of the old collegiate institutions have become too small to hold them. The Gregorian University now counts 1200, and is being forced to find new quarters for them. The capacity of Propaganda is taxed to its utmost, and Apollinaris, famous tor its course of Canon Law, will be transferred for the same reason to the precincts of the Lateran. Around these chief centres cluster the many national colleges, as for instance, ‘the Urban College of Propaganda which is a microcosm of the Catholic Church with its 130 students of every race and color; the North American College, head of the whole list in numbers; the South American College, with 150 students from the various republics of the Southern continent, the French Seminary, with an almost equal number; the Spanish College, which although less than twenty years old is now one of the most famous and flourishing of such institutions; the Portuguese College, founded a few years ago through the munificence of a nobleman, and

whose students have now been put under a ban by the Separation Law and denied the right of exercising the Sacred. Ministry in their own land; there is the venerable English College, which in the last two years has almost doubled its students until they are now 35; the .Irish College, keeping up the great reputation it has enjoyed for centuries; the Scots College, rich in splendid traditions and in modern efficiency; the German, or rather the Teutonic College, with its seventy or eighty students, whose cassocks of brilliant red give such a warm note of color to the streets of Rome; there are Belgians and Poles, and Greeks, and Armenians, and Bohemians, and half a score of others. THE HOLY SEE AND SPAIN. Perhaps in no city in Europe outside Spain (writes a Rome correspondent) did the tidings of the assassination of the late Spanish Premier cause such a sensation as in Rome. Scarcely a day has passed for three years without having brought the name of Senor Canalejas prominently before the minds of the people of the city. His relations with the Holy See, his interviews with journalists, and incidents connected with his leadership of the Government’s forces, were diligently described in the Roman press, and it almost seemed as if this world would be a very queer place had we not the acts and utterances of Senor Canalejas to discuss. Now that his life has ended tragically no part of the European press deals more kindly with his memory than the Catholic newspapers of Rome. On the reception of a telegram from Madrid telling of the assassination the Papal Secretary of State immediately repaired to the apartments of the Pope to inform his Holiness of the occurrence. The Holy Father expressed profound regret and ordered that a telegram should be despatched to the Papal Nunciature to convey his sympathy to the Osservatore Romano the following announcement has appeared: ‘We learn that yesterday evening, as soon as the fatal news of the tragic end of Senor Canalejas, President of the Council of Ministers in Spain, arrived, his Eminence Cardinal Merry del Val, Secretary of State to his Holiness, despatched an urgent telegram to his Eminence Cardinal Vico, Pro-Nuncio Apostolic to Spain, charging him to express to the Government, in the name of the Holy Father and in that of the Cardinal Secretary of State himself, profound indignation at the horrible crime of which Senor Canalejas has been the victim.’