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New Zealand Tablet, 12 February 1914, Page 55

ENGLAND

LEGACY FOR DOWNSIDE ABBEY. Major William Worsley Worswick, of Normanton Hall, Hinckley, Leicestershire, late of the 37th Foot and of the Leicestershire Yeomanry, who died on July 16 last, aged 76 years, left estate of the gross value of £113,810, of which £43,378 is net personalty.. Major Worswick left £4OOO to his son, the Rev. Thomas William Peter Worsley Worswick, 0.5.8., of Downside Abbey, Bath, with the request, but without creating any trust in that respect, that he will apply the same in or towards the erection of school buildings at Downside, or in the establishment or augmentation of scholarships in connection with that school. He also left £3OOO upon trust for his said son Thomas for life, with remainder to his (testator’s) sons Basil and Christopher, jointly, with the request — but no trust—that they will apply this sum for the same purposes as the sum of £4OOO mentioned above. FRANCE EQUALITY OF TREATMENT DENIED. The Chamber (writes the Paris correspondent of the Irish Catholic ) has perpetrated an abominable injustice. By a majority of 367 votes against 188 it rejected an amendment presented by M. Drelon. That amendment to the Educational Bill was meant to establish equality of treatment for persons using undue pressure to induce parents to send their children to a State or Catholic primary school. The Catholic Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, priests, landowners, employers of labor, and all other persons who may have induced the parents of children attending the Government primary schools to forsake it are to be punished with from six days to one month’s imprisonment, and to a fine varying between 16 francs and 500 francs (12s lOd and £2O). On the other hand, no penalty whatever is to be inflicted on persons who may induce parents to remove their children from a Catholic educational establishment. The wording of the clause of the proposed law is so elastic that the conviction of almost anyone for the so-called offence could be obtained. Indeed, any person who may have induced parents to remove a child from a State primary school or to prevent the child from attending the classes regularly, or from studying any one of the books placed in his hand by a State school teacher, or again by what is most elastically defined as violence or threats’that is to say, ‘ by making them believe ’ a refusal to withdraw the child, or to prevent him from studying books prohibited by the French ecclesiastical authorities, would entail the loss of work or damage to their persons, family, or fortunewill be liable to condemnation to the penalties indicated above, while threats and pressure of all descriptions may be used by anybody or everybody to induce parents to take their children away from Catholic schools without incurring any sort of penalty or even blame. ' GERMANY ", _ -J BISHOPS CENSURE PRESENT FASHIONS. The' German Catholic bishops, in conference at Fulda on December 22, passed a resolution censuring the px-fesenb fashions for women as ‘ devoid of any sense of modesty.’ . The bishops called upon the Catholic women of Germany; to join in a crusade against the impropriety of dress which. is ‘ a disgraceful aberration.’ . I ROME THE ROMAN QUESTION! ' w v- , > Though a good deal has been said and written on the utterances of the Archbishop of Udine at Milan, as to a basis on which a reconciliation might be brought

about between the Holy See and the Italian Government, the last word has not been uttered -yet (says a Rome correspondent). The Pope, it was said, inspired the speech and corrected his Grace’s proof-sheets. Not only did the Holy Father not correct the proof-sheets, but Pius X. was not even aware that such a’ theme had been chosen by Archbishop Rossi for his address at Milan. His Holiness did not discuss the matter with the Archbishop, neither did his Eminence the Papal Secretary of State. And I do not risk going far wide of the mark if I say that the Holy Father would much prefer if his Grace of Udine had chosen some subject other than the Roman .question. Anyhow, this much may be taken for granted; neither the interview rgiven by Count Gentiloni, President of the Catholic Electoral Union of Italy, on the successful results arising from the votes of Catholics at the recent elections, nor the discourse of Archbishop Rossi has tended to improve the situation, excellent though the intentions of both undoubtedly were. It is only when one sees how much noise any mention of the Roman question occasions all over the world that he comes to realise the egregious blunder United Italy.’ THE SACRED COLLEGE. ' Tho death of Cardinal Rampolla, following upon the recent death of Cardinal Oreglia, reduces the membership of the Sacred College to 56. This makes it extremely probable (says the Irish Catholic) that a Consistory will be summoned early in 1914 for the creation of new Cardinals and to fill the higher posts left vacant by the deaths of the two Cardinals. The Sacred College of Cardinals, when it is complete, consists of six Cardinal Bishops, fifty Cardinal Priests, and fourteen Cardinal Deacons. ; CODIFICATION OF CANON LAW. His Holiness Pope Pius X. hoped when, nearly ten years ag£, the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law was appointed, that the work would be completed in five years. But owing to the extent of the material to be dealt with and the amount of time most of the thirteen Cardinals on the Commission have to give to Roman Congregations, Offices, and Tribunals, progress has been less rapid than was expected.. Cardinal Gaspari, on whom the main burden of the work has fallen, has now completed the fix-st draft of the new Code in three volumes dealing with ‘ Persons, Things, Judgments,’ and is engaged in collating and studying the observations of the Bishops on the material which has been submitted to them. UNITED STATES THE CATHOLIC PRESS. : There are 321 Catholic papers published in the United States. Of these 201 are printed in English, 51 in German, 24 in Polish, 7 in Bohemian, 5 in Italian, 2 in Slavonic, 2 in Magyar, 2 in Dutch, 1 in Croatian, 1 in Spanish, and 1 in Indian dialect. They form 14 dailies, 150 Weeklies, 128 monthlies, 29 quarterlies, 9 bi-monthlies, and 16 annuals. Of the dailies, ' 7 are French, 4 Polish, 2 German, and 1 Bohemian. l r . CATHOLIC TOOLS. The Catholics of this country (says the Boston Pilot), have made tremendous sacrifices ‘to build up and maintain their parochial school system. From one end of the land to the other they have established a veritable net-work of religious schools where truth's concerning God and eternity - may be freely communicated to the pupils bv the teacher. To-day Cathol'c school property is, worth over one hundred million dollars, and provides for the education of more than |a million children " atVan ; annual y cost : of (almost twenty million dollars. These figures tell the story of struggles v and sacrifices endured voluntarily for . years. As ope writer says, they mean ' that every year the Catholics in the United States could build a University like Harvard and in half a century have one in every State in a tin Union. ‘ ’ ' ' *