The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1913, Page 55

The Catholic World

ENGLAND

THE BISHOP OF SOUTHW ARK'S JUBILEE. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk has presented £2OOO to the fund which is; being raised in the diocese, of Southwark to commemorate the silver jubilee of the Bishop's ordination to the priesthood. ' Amongst the subscribers to the testimonial, which has reached nearly £7OOO, are Lady Mary Howard, an anonymous contributor who has sent through Mgr. Brown, V.G., an offering of £IOUO, Mr. James Hope, M.P., and many of the religious institutions of the diocese. The fund is to be devoted, in accordance with the special desire pf the Bishop, towards the liquidation of diocesan debts.

PORTUGAL

REPUBLICAN BRUTALITY. In our present issue we {Catholic Times) publish, a letter from a special correspondent giving a description of the brutal treatment to which priests who are prisoners are subjected in Portugal. The narrative is harrowing, and our correspondent earnestly appeals to the Catholic public of this country to use all possible means of inducing the Brit'sh Government to put a" stopas it can effectually do — the atrocities. Statements which are beginning to appear in the British press make it clear that the information we publish does not in the slightest degree exceed the truth. The special correspondent of the Standard in Lisbon wrote in a recent issue of that paper: 'As if driven by an inexorable fate, the Republicans are paving the way to their own downfall by the harsh measures taken against the Royalists. Gaols are filled with so-called "conspirators" who are condemned to the same treatment as the most hardened criminals. To quote two instances, the Marquis of who held the rank of Captain in the Austrian Army, and Don Vasco Belmonte, a great-grandson of John VI. of Portugal, are at this moment undergoing sentences of ten years' cell imprisonment side by side with murderers and thieves. The Catholic clergy are the objects .of oppression by the Government, who allow the carbonarios a free hand in the commission of their lawless acts.' In a word, the Republican regime in Portugal has become intolerable.

ROME

THE LATE CARDINAL VICAR. The twelve years which the late Cardinal Respighi spent in Rome as Cardinal-Vicar, were marked by important reforms. Many new quarters were established in the city and it became necessary to create new parishes. Cardinal Respighi, with the encouragement of the Holy Father, Pope Pius X., performed this difficult task with great success. He was a prelate of a very quiet disposition, but when once he came to a decision he held to it firmly. The grief at his death was universal in the Eternal City, and there was a very large attendance at the funeral.

UNITED STATES

DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO IN OMAHA. In the disastrous tornado which struck Omaha, on Easter Sunday, the Convent of the Sacred Heart was one of the many fine buildings wrecked (says the Sacred Heart Review). This was one of the largest Catholic institutions in the country. Standing directly in the path of the storm it was almost totally demolished. It is considered a miracle that with but two exceptions, every person in the enormous building escaped without injury, and were soon busy ministering to the injured at St. Joseph's Hospital. Most of the 250 girl students had gone to their homes for the Easter vacation. A man who was standing on his porch at the time the convent was struck, says: 'I saw a cottage

come sailing through the air many feet above the ground. It struck the fifth storey, of the great Sacred Heart Convent. The sailing cottage smashed! the south wing of the convent building as if the latter had been made of paper.’ Bishop Scannell’s residence was partly., wrecked. The True Voice (Omaha’s Catholic paper) tells us that of the eleven churches wrecked by the tornado none were Catholic churches. Besides! the Sacred Heart Convent mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the monastery of the Nuns of St Clare was slightly damaged. The home of the Good Shepherd was just outside the zone of destruction and a few windows were broken there. ‘ Aside from these losses,’ says our contemporary, ‘ Catholic institutions in Omaha escaped the fury of the elements — fact which seems remarkable enough considering the number of them in the city and the area of devastation wrought by the tornado.’ _ '

GENERAL

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SCHOOL CHILDREN. In quite a number of the States of Europe (writes a Rome correspondent), religious instruction in the schools forms the chief bone of contention between the Catholics and those whose aim it is to de-Christianise nations. Italy is fighting to force its Government to observe the laws regulating this question. In Hungary a secret Masonic circular, which recently fell into Catholic hands, shows that the capture of 11,000 denominational schools is to be the chief object of. the ambition of the lodges during the next -few years. Spain is in the throes of a struggle for the school, and in France the sectarians have established the godless school, though, happily, failure has been its lot'on the whole; for an investigation at Rennes has proved that whilst the attendance at the free schools is overflowing, the Government school has but an average of five pupils each and that the cost annually per pupil is 600 francs. I wish to refer particularly to the Duchy of Luxemburg, for nowhere in Europe have the Socialist-Masonic coalition betrayed a stronger determination to render powerless all efforts to instruct the children in the Christian religion. The new law dealing ..with this question, while apparently giving the clergy an opportunity of exercising a small degree of surveillance over Christian education in the schools, practically hands over the children en masse to the tender mercies of godless preceptors. When in Rome five years ago the Bishop of Luxemburg made a forecast of the storm which has now broken out.

FATHER BERNARD VAUGHAN. A genuine and very pleasant surprise befell a few people in Colombo on March 22 (says the Catholic Messenger), when they discovered that Father Vaughan was amongst them. Unfortunately, however, his stay was of the shortest, and Colombo congregations have lost the opportunity of hearing the famous preacher. Father Vaughan is on his way back from his American tour, which he completed at San Francisco. Though apparently quite fresh, he is 67 years of age and was tired out by his strenuous exertions in America. His recollections of the westward journey through the States determined him to escape from their enthusiastic and exacting attentions by the Golden Gates and. get back to England via Japan. During his short stay in the latter country he was able to do a great piece of good work for his Society and for the cause of Christian education in securing from the Government of Japan the official recognition of the University opened there by the Jesuit Fathers a few years back. The withholding of this recognition had greatly hampered the work of the body of very able men to whom the Society entrusted the work of the University. Their course will now be smooth, and with a free field and no favor, all that they ask, they may be expected before long to make their mark on Japanese higher education. As a rule Father Vaughan's recollections are in keeping with his genial character and of a pleasant kind, but he had to deplore the prevalent materialism that threatens to bring ruin on the kingdom of the rising sun. to