The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1916, Page 41

The Catholic World

ENGLAND

A GENEROUS GIFT.

„ .u 1S Grace , tbe ,Duke of Norfolk and the committee of Cathodes of the diocese of Southwark, who are raising £100,001) to commemorate the silver jubilee of the ordination of the Right Rev. Bishop Amigo, have just received an anonymous gift of £IOOO. The donor expresses the wish that £SOO shall be allocated to Walworth and £SUO to Tooting, for the reduction of the debts oh those missions.

THE NEW CARDIFF ARCHDIOCESE. Following on the recent erection of the archdiocese of Cardiff, the Vicar-Capitular, the Right Rev. Mgr. O'Reilly has received unofficial notification of the issue of a Papal Bull elevating the Pro-Cathedral of Belmont, in Herefordshire, to the full rank of a cathedral, and making the Church of St. David, Cardiff, also a cathedral. Thus the new Archbishop will have two cathedrals. The dignity conferred on Belmont is due to the fact that, on the appointment of the late Dr. Medley as Bishop of Newport and Monmouth, Belmont Priory Church, being the property of the Benedictine Order, of which the Bishop was a member, was fixed upon as his Pro-Cathedral till such time as he could found a Cathedral. But that time never came. The Archbishop of Cardiff, being a Benedictine, will retain Belmont Cathedral, but St. David's Cathdral’ situated in a great centre of population, will be more convenient for many purposes, especially to the secular clergy. I hough St. David s was built more recently than St. Peters Cardiff, it serves the oldest parish in that city, the Fathers of the Order of Charity having begun work there in 1846, Father Casta subsequently Archbishop of Turin, being in charge. From their labors came developments which resulted in the building of the churches of St. Peter, St. Mary, St. David, and St. Patrick, which serve half the city. The present St. David’s, built by the secular clergy, of whom the first to take charge of the parish was Mgr. Williams, has been selected for the new dignity because it serves the premier Cardiff parish. Amongst the clergy, it is considered that the elevation of St. David’s to Cathedral rank will make it unnecessary to consider the question of erecting a Cathedral for some years to come.

ROME

THE HOLY FATHER AND BELGIUM.

M. Auguste Melot, the well-known Catholic Deputy for Namur, who recently returned from Rome, where he had the honor of being received by the Pope, delivered a lecture to the Paris students belonging to the Association of the Conference Saint Paul. He treated the delicate subject of Benedict XV. and Belgium. He said he knew that some people had been tempted to reproach the Pope with not having, immediately after the violation of Belgium by the German armies, fulminated against the crime. He nas not, however, one of them, because he contended that neither from a natural nor from a supernatural point of view has anyone the right to pronounce on the silence of the judge. From a natural point of .view, men of the present day have not the right to judge him, because they do not possess the distance of time necessary to historians, and from a supernatural point of view, because they are not the teaching Church. - It was, he admitted, nevertheless true, that in the confusion which characterised the beginning of the war, everyone turned eves towards the Vatican, expecting the sentence hoped for by some and dreaded by others. M. Melot. declared that fact merited the attention of all Catholics, as it constituted an implied homage to the Papacy. It was impossible to doubt, said the orator, that certain personages surrounding the Pope thought that Belgium might have contented herself with offering a purely formal resistance, but he was able to certify that Benedict XV. never shared that view, and that he approved the action of the King of the Belgians, who could not believe there was more than one way of keeping an oath. M. Melot knew that personally, because the Holy Father told him so in so many words. *

SCOTLAND

DEFENDING THE WORKERS.

The Most Rev. Dr. Maguire, Archbishop of Glasgow, has shown on various occasions that his hearty sympathy goes out to the humble and hard-worked toiler, especially

when he is subjected to any injustice. Naturally, therefore, .he expresses in his Lenten Pastoral satisfaction that J r 9 nv J r f s I made against the Clyde munition workers have proved baseless. These charges, he states, were made by interested persons enjoying large profits from -the work'of their men, and unfortunately they were believed and repeated without proper enquiry, by other persons in responsible positions. It has become clear from a formal nvestigation that the failure of some of the men to attend regularly was largely due to their being overworked, and the investigating Commission have recommended the shortening of the hours of labor. ‘We may now hope/ says the Archbishop, ‘that the calumniators of our working men will be silent, and that if they do repeat their charges public men will be less ready to listen and make thoughtless speeches founded on false information.’ His Grace- (says the Catholic Times ) is to be congratulated on having spoken out so emphatically in defence of working men, misrepresented and wrongly attacked. Too often the workers have few friends in high places to defend their rights and interests.

general

THE CLERGY AND MILITARY SERVICE. ■ j • The Bishop of Northampton, in his Lenten Pastoral brings out the fact that the earliest legislation on the subject of the exemption of the clergy from military service dates back to the year 803, and was promulgated by Charlemagne in answer to a petition from the whole of his subjects. It was felt by the Catholics of that day that varfare was not consistent with the clerical characteJ, and that owing to the engagement of the clergy in military service religious interests suffered. Experience 'S what has happened during the present war teaches the same lesson. The valor of the French clergy who have been enrolled as combatants is indisputable. They have magnificently upheld the national reputation for bravery The renown they have won has induced some Catholics to think that it would be to the advantage of religion if the priests everywhere became liable to military service. But that' is not so In a considerable number of the parishes in France it is now found extremely difficult to meet the religious requirements of the people in consequence of the lack of priests. If in every country the priests were compelled to undergo military training and to fight.in the event of war, the damage to religion would be incalculable order S6Vere bl ° W "° Uld be struck at the bases of social

THE POPE AND THE PEACE CONFERENCE. It is already clear that when the time for the Peace Conference comes a number of influential Protestants will unite with Catholics in demanding that the Holy Father shall be invited to be present or send a representative (says the Catholic limes). An important expression of opinion on the subject has appeared in He Herant, the chief organ of Dr. Kuyper, a Protestant, who was formerly Premier of Holland. The editor of the paper published an article the writer of which contended that the Catholic Church was the most influential agency making for peace inasmuch as she was a ‘world Church ’ and stood outside and above all parties. Another Dutch paper asked if he had forgotten the differences between the Catholics in the countries that were at war with one another. Such differences/ replies the editor, ‘ appear to us quite natural and, under the circumstances, well-nigh unavoidable. But the Roman Church, as a whole, has kept herself- strictly neutral. As a ‘world Church’ her system is sufficiently pliable to withstand these sympathetic quarrels without hurting in the least her unity of belief. For this reason the Pope could very properly admonish the nations to cease the bloody struggle, and for this same reason many do look up to him as the sole arbiter on behalf of peace. It is useless for us Protestants to minimise or smooth over realities. It is a fact that the present war has disrupted all international ties, heretofore existing in the social, scientific, .and artistic life of the various nations. The Roman Church alone is maintaining her internationalunity, a brilliant proof of the stability of her organisation.’ The editor of this Dutch Protestant journal is not a victim of the prejudices which blind writers in so many of the Protestant religious papers of this country.