ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIII, Issue 1, 6 January 1916, Page 55

ROME LETTER

‘ % . * V •* r - y. - £..'<•• (From our own correspondent.) ’ _ N •• . October 24. ' THE TWO SISTER NATIONS. It is with no small degree of satisfaction one sees coming to a head that project as to the founding of a common plan of action between the Catholics of France and the Catholics of Italy for the defence of the rights of the Church and of the Holy See. Not, indeed, in 1915, but in 1895—five years before French Masonry swore eternal hostility ,to the Catholic —should this league have been formed. Strong are the ties and well-pondered are the assaults that characterise the common action. of Franco-Italian Masons against the Vatican. Hence the necessity, - growing daily more palpable, for united action on., the part of the sister countries. ” •' •

The idea has these days met with the powerful advocacy of the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, who, it is stated, came to Rome at the request of Benedict XV. to hear details of the entire situation in France from his Eminence’s own lips.. While positively refusing to receive journalists, by reason of the delicacy of the situation. Cardinal-Amette gives full voice to his enthusiasm for the project .to a militant pressman in the Catholic camp, 1 • •■'ltaly and France,’ said the Cardinal, ‘ are not vainly called “the sister nations,” and therefore they must walk side by side on the same path, just as do two sisters united by cordial affection. But, mark you well, they must walk on “their own” path. .- For just as the stars cannot give light if they do not follow in the orbit assigned to them, so France and Italy shall not be able to give that light of civility which the world has always expected from them, if they ' do not follow “their own” way. And the way of Italy and of France is, as you know, Catholicism.’ If Cardinal Amette remained a few months in the Eternal City, he should, see ah amusing form in which the Pontiff’s enemy, the secret society, manifests its rage and chagrin at the triumphs obtained by his Holiness in the service of humanity. Catholic, Protestant, Schismatic, and Moslem-give ear to only one man in Europe— king illae lucrymat ! So last week, when the Pope’s letter to the Sultan of Turkey, appealing for poor, persecuted Armenia, resulted in a •cessation of massacres and expatriations of Catholic and Schismatic Armenians; an explanatory circular from the Ottoman Minister of Interior Affairs (who charges the Armenians with plotting for the erection of an Armeniaip'State) on the awful situation, and in the expression of public thanks of the Schismatic Patriarchy at Constantinople - to Archbishop Dolci, Papal Delegate on the Bosphorus, who could expect the gutter organs by the Tiber to restrain their feelings any longer And so, in a series of rumors, malice found an outlet. What were they ?T> Ohe, the old story qver again: ‘ The plan for the Pope’s flight from Rome,’ which -the King of Spain and Prince Hartstein, Austrian Ambassador ~to the ■ Holy See, were supposed-to have engineered, forified - the burden of their song. Rome and Ireland are the safest, perhaps the only really safe, spot Ain ■'Europe But what mattered that to those who would have the masses believe—and they will credit anything nowadays, . provided the fabrication is recounted in a positive manner, without blush or hesitation—the Holy Father found' it expedient I to fly from Rome ’ !•/, Had the lovers of truth gone to the hotels, they should have found that a fair, number of foreigners are gathering into Rome for the'winter, one evidence of which is that

the Advent course of ; sermons is taken on by . the Very Rev. Dr. O’Gorman, Rector of the Church of St. Patrick, Rome, -in. Sait Silvestro in Capite. Were {there not a pretty large nuinber to attend the usual course, the series \ should not fie held in English.- Still, The Rope T?as to fly at once from Rome ; ■ N .' Another, was that detailed letter from ' the Pope to the King of The Belgians calling upon him as a son of the - Church ;to {initiate a peace project, and King.

Albert’s respectful and emphatic refusal : to - entertain the. very idea. So tenaciously did the Messagg.ero (the Masonic organ) hold to the reality of such a letter that it required- two denials from { the Osservatore Romano , the semi-official organ of the Vatican; to lay j the {report at rest , Neither ‘in substance, nor in form is . there ? any foundation for the rumor (it says) and if ‘ jjn ecclesiastical diplomat { made' such a statement (which we do not believe), he would be the author of a mystification. Really the Holy Father is too busy.. The Consistory ivill give to the Sacred College at least 9 Cardinals, and that means work, every .detail of which must be seen to by himself. He can, and does, leave to the Sacred Congregations of Propaganda and Consistorial the onus of choosing bishops for -the dioceses of ; the world, up to the point of ratification, where the supreme authority must alone act. And this calls to mind the pretty total of dioceses in English-speaking countries, which are at this present hour widowed of their bishops— Los Angeles, Chicago, in the United States; Nottingham in England; Christchurch in New Zealand; Ballarat in Australia; Dromore and Waterford in Ireland. Dr. O’Neill, Bishop of Dromord, the latest of these bishops to pass to his reward, was one of the most courtly and polished gentlemen that ever entered by the Flaminian Gale ■

Early in- November the Romans, it is announced, will devote a day to the solemn commemoration of all Italian soldiers that have fallen in the Italo-Austrian war. Later on the Municipality of Rome will raise a monument in San Lorenzo over the tomb of all-Ro-man soldiers whose remains, from general down to private, the city, as far as it possibly can, \yill have transferred to the vast city of the dead. Both ideas betoken the good hearts of Italians and the wonderful reverence, intense -aijd profound, which they have for ‘ their dear dead.’ But when Roman citizens are erecting that monument let them look through the tens of thousands of . others in San Lorenzo. Among them stands one, lofty, rich, and significant in its marble and bronze, which Pius the'Ninth erected to the memory of The Canadian, French, Irish, Swiss, and Italian soldiers who fell in defence of the Papal States. Upon the summit of the grand monument stands'a marble statue of St. Peter iff the act of placing a sword in the hands of a Christian knight. And around the column are inscribed the names of the dead heroes. At its base lies a marble slab placed there by those who conquered ■ Pius the Ninth in their first flush of victory. Its inscription brands the fallen ones as ‘mercenaries.’ ‘ Mercenaries ! those brave Franks and Celts with the best blood of Europe flowing in their veins, men who gave up rank, title,, wealth, profession to enter the Pope’s little army as full privates*. - The following students of the Irish College will be ordained Deacons on_November .1 : —Rev. P. RoughTieer (Achonry), Rev. B. Duggan r (Raphoe), Rev. J. ‘Kelly (Bathurst), Rev. H., .O’Neill (Cork), Rev. S. Marley (Dublin), Rev. P. Dargan (Dublin), Rev. P. Flynn ( Ardagh). Subdeacohs: Rev. Messrs. H. Devine (Goulbum), J. Fitzpatrick (Dublin). And from the Irish Augustinians: —Deacons—Rev. P. Redmond, O S.A., and. Rev. T. Conlail,' 0.5. A..

■•■'h •' .* /NOTE:;':.--. ■ . ’ . Brother O'Hagen, AssisTant-General of the Irish Christian Brothers, who .is on a visitation of their institutes, has been received in private audience by the Holy Father; so' also has been the Procurator-General of ■ the' Missionaries of J the Sacred Hearts *