The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 18 December 1913, Page 49

The Catholic World

GENERAL - 'x?. , GENEROUS BEQUESTS. Bequests aggregating nearly £20,000 were made to Catholic churches, institutions, and organisations by the provisions of the will of Cornelius Ambrose Lane, of Philadelphia. ENGLAND A GENEROUS GIFT. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk has forwarded to Mr. G. C. Topham, the secretary of the fund being raised to commemorate the silver jubilee of the Bishop of Southwark, a donation of £2OOO. In a letter which, his Grace has addressed to the Catholics of the diocese he makes an urgent appeal for generous assistance on behalf of the fund. He says: 'While I feel that much gratitude is due to those who have already responded by promises and subscriptions, there are many who have not yet given practical expression of their loyalty to the Bishop and the Church by a subscription to the fund. It is hardly, necessary to enlarge upon the facts connected with the appeal —facts which are probably very well known to most of us in the diocese. But I do desire to emphasise what appears to have been lost sight of by so many, viz., that the facts which form the subject of the testimonial constitute a very solid claim upon the duty of all Catholics in the diocese, rich and poor alike, to rally round their leader the Bishop in the hard fight he is forced to make on behalf of the diocese to prevent the many good works associated with it from being swamped under a load of debt. Not one of us can claim exemption from the duty of giving as effective a hand as each is able to aid the Bishop in his need. That need is so great and the call to assist so pressing that I make no apology for urging upon you the duty of doing at once and to the utmost all you possibly can to lessen the crushing strain which the Bishop has to bear.' The object of the committee is to raise £IOO,OOO, and towards this amount more than £15,000 have been received.

FRANCE SECTARIAN HATE. The aim the atheistic sectarians are still pursuing (writes the Paris correspondent of the Irish Catholic) is the realisation of M. Viviani's prophecy that he would 'extinguish the lights of heaven.' They do not find that task quite so easy as they may have expected. Indeed, the five prelates of Brittany— Archbishop of Rennes, and the Bishops of Nantes, Vannes, Saint Brieue, and Quimperhave just addressed a pastoral letter to the faithful of their dioceses which commences with the following phrase:—'During the present trials of the Church we find one of our greatest consolations in the prosperity of our Christian schools. We discover in it the irrefutable testimony of your fidelity to the religious convictions of your ancestors. On it we found the. strongest hopes for the future of Brittany.' The prelates proceed to show that, nevertheless, the situation is serious, because that prosperity of the Catholic schools has excited the hatred of the Freemasons and inspired them to elaborate Bills of a most dangerous character for all Christian educational establishments. After exposing the perfidious manoeuvres by which the enemies of religion seek to make it appear .that the Bishops'and priests have recourse to threats and intimidation to induce parents to take their children from the Government schools and send them to the Christian establishments, the five prelates declare : *' But you, our very dear brethren, know why the Christian school has your preference. We proclaim it without fear of being contradicted by you. It is because you are determined to have your children brought' up in the faith of your fathers. And as the Christian school is the only one whish can aid you in the accomplishment of the task you prefer it. It is simply an act of common sense. That is the simple explanation of your conduct.'

GERMANY ;;/ "•'/■■ . ■;■/H-.X^-' THE EMPEROR AND THE BENEDICTINES. The Emperor William is a great friend of the' Order of Saint Benedict. On the occasion of his last' visit to Italy he went to visit the monks at the-cele-brated Monastery at Mount Casino. Moreover, the Emperor has visited on many occasions the Abbey of Beuron, in the Black Forest, and also the Abbey of Maria-Laach. On October 17, his Majesty paid a visit to the new Lord Abbot of Maria Laach.- On his coat he wore a medal of St. Benedict which had been given? him on a previous visit to the Abbey. As the Emperor: was received by the Abbot the bells of the Abbey were 1 rung, and he then proceeded to the church, where the monks intoned the ' Laudes Hinemari.' The singing made a very deep impression on the Sovereign,- who expressed his admiration of it to the Superior. The" Emperor spent" two hours in the monastery, and,before evening he was presented with a statue of the Blessed' Virgin, carved by one of the monks. ~..;• v ; ,., ...;

THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS. Under an electoral system which is nearly' universal suffrage, the fresh franchise having increased the number of voters from three millions to eight, the first ballots were taken at the Italian General Elections on October 26 (says the Catholic Times). The' new elements in the contests were more or less uncertain quantities, and the prophecies as to the results were less confident than they usually have been on such occasions. But there was a general impression that Signor Giolit'ti, the Premier, would resume office with unimpaired power, and it' has proved correct. For him the verdict of the electors has been a triumph. The complexion of the next Chamber will be pretty much the same as that of the old. If there is any change it has been in the direction of moderation. The Italian democracy is not revolutionary, and it determined to avoid the risks"; of. extreme experiments.- Tomany of the Catholics the value set by candidates on Catholic support has been a welcome revelation.' They have discovered how valuable the ballot is as a weapon of defence. There are a considerable number of successful candidates who have sought the suffrages of the, electors as Catholics, and the non expedit was suspended in a great many dioceses, but there is no Catholic Party' in Italy. Recognising that the whole nation is Catholic, the Holy See forbade the formation -of such a parFy, and the attitude of most of the successful candidates towards the Church attests the wisdom of that policy. v •;.;', i -.

ROME THE SACRED COLLEGE. We are yet only three-fourths of the way in the year of grace 1913 (writes a Rome correspondent), and the Senate of the Church has already lost six of its Princes. Austria, Hungary, Italy, and' Spain have been the losers, and this month sees the Sacred College numbering only fifty-eight. With, the exception of Cardinal Vaszary, of Hungary, wlio was eighty-one, none of the other deceased Cardinals could be regarded as men of advanced years, as Cardinal Vives y Tuto counted only fifty-nine; Cardinal Respighi, Vicar of Rome, only seventy; and Cardinal Nagl, ■ of Vienna, fifty-eight. Of course, Princes of the Church are always young; still, one may feel safe in saying France, the United States, and Italy have each one Cardinal or mature years. Cardinal Oreglia, of Rome, the only surviving creation of Pius IX., is in his eighty-' sixth year, and Cardinal de Roverie Cabriers," of France, is turning the eighty-fourth milestone and turning out books still. [We learnt by cable on Friday of the death! of Cardinal Oreglia.— &.Z.T.] 4 -^^^