The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 12 March 1914, Page 55

The Catholic World

ENGLAND AN IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT. ™ The fifty-ninth annual Catholic Reunion was held at the Town Hall, Birmingham, on January 20, when the Right .Rev. John Mclntyre, Bishop of Camus, the president of the reunion, delivered an address on ‘Public Spirit.’ Whilst so many agencies were at work for the removal of the miseries that oppressed the masses, he was quite sure, he said, that Catholics would neither join the sous of rest nor form themselves into sleeping circles. His Lordship, who was to proceed to Rome a few days later to take up his position as Rector of the English College, was presented with an illuminated address by the clergy and laity of the diocese of Birmingham. CATHOLIC STATISTICS. The Kmjlish Catholic Directory for 1914 gives the Catholic population of England and Wales as 2,100,446, as compared with 1,793,038 last year. These figures may be regarded as reliable, for returns are made to the bishops of the numbers in the Catholic congregations, the infant baptisms, the marriages, and the conversions, and these particulars are in nearly all cases fully set forth at the end of the records for the different dioceses. The Government returns of marriages in Catholic churches arc also given. The number of conversions made during the year is stated as follows: —Westminster, 1359 Birmingham, return not given; Liverpool, 1102; Clifton, 189; Hexham and Newcastle, 931; Leeds, 637 : Middlesbrough, 138; Newport, 200; Northampton, 253: Nottingham, return not given : Plymouth, 190; Portsmouth, 310: Salford, return not given; Shrewsbury, 262; Southwark, 911; and Menevia, 29. Total for the twelve dioceses for which figures are given, 6322. The estimate of the Catholic population of Scotland as compared with last year’s shows a decline. This year it is 518,969; last year it stood at 547.336. For Ireland the same figures have been given in both years, namely 3,242,670 Altogether the Catholic population of the British Empire in Europe numbers 5,800,526 ; in Asia, 2,288,898 ; in Africa, 498,965; in America, 3,271,358; and in Australia, 1,184,500. The total Catholic population of the British Empire is therefore 13.386,565. The general population is 417,148,000. The number cf Catholics in the United States and the American possessions of the Pacific is 24,189,941. The total of the Catholics in English-speaking countries is therefore 37,576,506. The Catholic population of the world is estimated at 298,734,824. The number of priests in Great Britain is 4449, as compared with 4401 last vear. Of the priests 2871 belong to the Secular and 1578 to the Regular clergy. Many of the Regulars are French exiles, and a large number are not engaged in parochial or missionary work. _ FRANCE ' THE NEXT EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS. Bishop Schoepfer has announced that the,Eucharistic Congress that is to be held this year at Lourdes will commence on the 22nd and will terminate on the 26th July. It is expected that 150,000 pilgrims will be present at the Congress. ROME THE SACRED COLLEGE. The Sacred College (writes ,a Rome correspondent) Y at present is composed of fifty-six members, twenty-four of whom were created by Leo XIII and thirty-two by Pius X. The oldest Cardinal is his Eminence Cardinal Di Pietro, who is eighty-six ; the youngest, his Eminence Cardinal Merry del Val, who counts only fortynine years. But Cardinal Di Pietro is junior in the

Senate of the Church to the Cardinal-Archbishop of Baltimore, whose elevation took place in March, 1887, while that of_„the older prelate occurred in 1893. The Cardinals of the Roman Court now number twentythree, twenty Italians and three of other nationalitiesviz., Cardinal S. Vannutelli, Cardinal V. Yannutelli, Cardinal Cassetta, and-,Cardinal De Lai, of the Order of Bishops ; Cardinal Di Pietro, Cardinal Gotti, Car* dinal Ferrata, Cardinal Martinelli, Cardinal Gennan, Cardinal Merry del Val, Cardinal Rinaldini, Cardinal Lorenzclli, Cardinal Gasparri, Cardinal Falconio, Cardinal Vico, and Cardinal Granite Pignatelli, of the Order of Priests; Cardinal Della Volpe, Cardinal Cagiano, Cardinal Bisleti, Cardinal Lugari, Cardinal Pompili, Cardinal Billot, and Cardinal Van Rossum, of the Order of Deacons. SCOTLAND DEATH OF A BISHOP. The death occurred at Dumfries on January 19, after a long illness, of the Right Rev. Dr. Turner, Bishop of Galloway, who passed away in his seventieth year. The late Dr. Turner was born at Aberdeen on December 12, 1844. Educated in Rome at the Gregorian University (Gollegio Romano), he was ordained in 1868, and returned thereafter to take up his work as a priest on the Scottish Mission. Becoming Dean of the diocese of Galloway, he succeeded in 1893 to the Bishopric of that Sec, on the, death of the Right Rev. Bishop McLachlan, who was the first Bishop of Galloway in the restored Hierarchy of Scotland. His consecration as Bishop took place in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Dumfries, on July 25, 1893, the consecrating prelate being the Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, the Most Rev. Angus Macdonald. On the occasion of his enthronement as Bishop of Galloway, Bishop Turner was presented with a complimentary address and a purse of sovereigns from the faithful of Ins diocese, and when he returned to Dumfries in 1898, after his first episcopal visit to Rome, he received a similar tribute from his people. As Dean Turner, ho served for a considerable time on the Dumfries School Board, and was one of the leading authorities in Scotland on Catholic educational matters. In the school question his Lordship took a deep and abiding interest. As an episcopal administrator, Bishop Turner did great and enduring work in his historic diocese. Only two of the present Scottish Hierarchy were his seniors in episcopal consecration, th.ese being Archbishop Smith, of St Andrews and Edinburgh, whose consecration date's back to 1890, and Bishop George Smith, of Argyll’and the Isles, who was consecrated on April 25, 1893,. Although he had attained the allotted span of three score and ten, Bishop Turner looked a much younger man, and till within a few months of his death had all the energy and activity of a man twenty years younger. UNITED SPATE'S A GENEROUS BENEFACTOR. Mr. Thomas Cruse, a wealthy mine owner and banker of Helena, Mont., gave Bishop Carroll, of that city, a Christmas gift of £20,000 to complete the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which has been under construction for several years. The donation was made in memory of his daughter, who died recently. This gift makes a total of £36,000 which Mr. Cruse has contri- ‘ buted to the Cathedral building fund. He also says that he will donate a large pipe organ, costing £3OOO, when the sacred edifice is completed. The money will be used to complete the interior finishing of the Cathedral.