The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 23 January 1913, Page 55

The Catholic World

ENGLAND CAUSE OF BEATIFICATION. An ecclesiastical Court has been constituted in Birmingham for the examination of witnesses in the cause of the Beatification of Father Dominic, the Passionist, which has been introduced in Rome. Father Dominic was the,first Passionist to live in England, and his apostolic work is well remembered by Catholics, especially in the Midlands. One of his first followers was the revered Father Ignatius Spencer, whose overt wearing of the Passionist dress called forth a certain amount of public demonstration. One of the most hallowed memories of St. Wilfrid's College, Cotton Hall, Oakamoor, is that, for a time, it was the home of the saintly son of St. Paul of the Cross. Cotton Hall afterwards was the retreat of the gifted Oratorian, Father Faber. A momentous event in the life of Father Dominic was his reception into the Church of Newman. During his life at Littlemore, Newman was a man suspected of all sorts of disloyalty to his Church— instance, of being a Catholic already, who only concealed his faith in order to exert more influence over other Anglicans—a course of which he was quite incapable. On October 8, 1845, he invited Father Dominic to his house at , Littlemore, in order that he might be received into the Catholic Church, and on the following day he made his profession of faith.

FRANCE DEATH OF THE FOUNDER OF LA CROIX.' The death is announced from Paris, at the age of eighty, of Father Vincent de Bailly, who was best known as the founder and editor of the Catholic journal La Croix, in which, under the signature ' Le Moine,' he wrote articles which exerted considerable influence. Father Vincent de Bailly began his career as an official in the telegraph service of the Second Empire, and during the Crimean War was specially attached to the Imperial Court at St. Cloud. He is said to have been the first to introduce long-distance telegraphy without intermediate transmission. In 1860 he entered the Order of Assumptionists at Nimes, and was successively army chaplain with the Papal forces in 1867 at Rome and with the French troops at Metz in 1870. His connection with La Croix lasted from its foundation until the dissolution of the Assumptionist Order by the Waldeck-Rousseau Ministry in 1898, when, with a view to conciliation, Leo XIII. brought about Fatherßailly's retirement in favor of a less combative editor: During the remainder of his life he lived in retirement and devoted himself to the organisation of National pilgrimages to Lourdes, Rome, and Jerusalem.

PETTY PERSECUTION. The Frenchmen who have become enemies of the Church appear to have lost, with the faith, some of the finest French qualities. When all France was Catholic (remarks the Catholic Times) it was a land in which the people were manly and honorable. They were above meanness. One did not hear of their indulging in acts of petty persecution. Now, in their warfare against Christianity, the French unbelievers are guilty, week after week, of the most despicable conduct. Their highest ambition seems to be to do something by which Catholic neighbors will be injured or insulted. On the anniversary of battles which were fought in 1870 around Beaune la Rolande, the veterans of Pithiviers laid a palm, according to custom, on the monument raised in honor of the dead. The Abbe Meuley was requested to take part in the patriotic ceremony. He is the almoner of the Invalides, a priest who distinguished himself by heroism during the war, a member of the General Council of Veterans, and he wears on his breast the Cross of the Legion of Honor and the medal of the Volunteers of 1870. As soon as the announcement was made that he had consented to represent the General Council of the Veterans the Masonic lodges set to work to concoct a plan for preventing him from being pre-

sent. They industriously circulated the rumor that if he attended there would be a riot, and in consequence the President of the Veterans of Pithiviers requested him not to put in an appearance. The creatures who offered this insult to the veteran, soldier-priest were in all probability shivering with terror in hiding-places when the Germans were advancing into France.

- - PORTUGAL GOVERNMENT METHODS. The publication in the London Times and a number of European journals of accounts of the cruelties inflicted on,the prisoners in the horrible dungeons of Portugal has. had the effect of making the Republicans somewhat ashamed of their brutality. Hardened sinners though they appear to be, they are pained to discover that plain records of what is taking place under the authority of the Government are bringing upon them the scorn and contempt of other countries. V A deputy who protested that he was a thorough Republican asked the Prime Minister in Parliament, the other day whether it was not essential or the honor and prestige of the Republican regime that the prisoners, many of whom might be innocent and some of whom had been in gaol for over a year, should be brought to trial. without delay. And the Premier answered that as the trials of the prisoners depended on the procedure in the military Iribunals he knew little about them, but that he would communicate with the Minister of War so that an end might be put to such an abnormal state of things. . Imagine the Prime Minister of a country in which the Government boasts of having established liberty, equality, and fraternity, entertaining such a happy-go-lucky idea of his responsibilities!

ROME CARDINAL LEGATE TO THE EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. Though most people are surprised at the appointment of a Cardinal Legate to the Eucharistic Congress of Malta at this early date (writes a Rome correspondent), none feel surprised that Cardinal Ferrata, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, has been chosen. It was a foregone conclusion that an Italian would be nominated to the position of honor, and in official circles there has not been a thought of appointing anyone of another nationality. Nearly all the Maltese are Catholics Cardinal Ferrata's youthful days were spent in Malta; and, as the old friendship has been cherished on both sides ever since the future Prince of the Church left the historic island, no more delicate compliment could be paid to the Catholics there by the Holy See than to send them their eminent friend as representative of the Pope.

UNITED STATES THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. In a letter to the Hierarchy in the United States, Cardinal Gibbons, Chancellor of the Catholic University, Washington, says that the growth of the lay departments of the university in the last three years has been truly phenomenal. Prom a modest figure the number of students in all departments . receiving instruction from its professors has reached one thousand.

GENERAL NEXT YEAR'S. EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. The announcement of the American Catholic Press Association's correspondent in Rome that the International Eucharistic Congress for 1914 will be held at New Orleans is stated by the New Orleans Morning Star to be erroneous. At Montreal the Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. Blenk, expressed himself in favor of having the Congress in New Orleans in 1915, but that was in the expectation that an international exposition, in view of the opening of the Panama Canal, would be held during the same year in the city. Only in that event would buildings large enough be erected to accommodate the visitors.