The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 45

The Catholic World

CHINA

A GOOD RECORD.

One Christian out of three hundred pagans is the proportion to-day in most of China-; and only ten ' years ago the figures were one out of, four hundred. Pekin, however, has made a record nothing short of marvellous during the past year. The procurator of that Mission, Father Planchet, a Vincentian, writing to the American Foreign Mission Seminary at Maryknoll, states that his mission registered 38,280 adult baptismsmore than a hundred a day and that out of every 22 inhabitants in that section of China — Chih-lione is a Catholic,

ENGLAND

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS

Miss Margaret Stella Nickols, of Clarges street, London, W., who died on February 4 last, left unsettled estate of the gross value of .£13,011 5s Bd, of which £5877 7s lOd is net personalty. Miss Nickols left, amongst other bequests, £ISOO to the Mother Superior of the Assumption Convent, Kensington square, W.; £ISOO to the Father Provincial of the Redemptorists, St. Mary's, Clapham, S.W.; £IOOO to the Catholic Bishop of Leeds, as to one-half for poor missions and one-half for the education of priests ; £SOOO to the Prior of the Carthusian Monastery, Parkminster, Partridge Green, Sussex; real estate in Leeds over which she had power of appointment under her father's will to the Right Rev. Joseph Cowgill, Bishop of Leeds and the residue of her estate, subject to a few other legacies and bequests, to the Association for the Propagation of the Faith.

DENMARK

PROGRESS SLOW BUT SURE.

From Denmark comes a tale of Catholic progress slow but sure. Two cities, Odensen and Randers, have recently asked for and obtained the erection of Catholic hospitals which are in charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph. At Randers the prefect of the province was present at the inauguration of the hospital. The new prefect of that city is not a Catholic, as was his predecessor now at Copenhagen. The latter has just been prosecuted by the government for an article he wrote after reading the work of the Danish Catholic writer Jorgensen, which treats of Belgium and recent events. In his article in the Vortland the prefect spoke in such strong terms of the sacking of Louvain and Dinant that, fearing to offend a powerful neighbor, the government prosecuted him, but offered him a free' pardon. This he refused, saying he was an old soldier of 1864, and had meant every word he had said. Despite the cessation of missionary funds from outside, new missions have been started. In the island of Bornholm the first priest since the Reformation has taken up his residence. He will serve a largely Polish population who work there. '

FRANCE

MISREPRESENTATION BY ANTI-CLERICALS.

The war has produced in France a wonderful extension of the spirit of fraternity. In face of the perils that beset the country Frenchmen of every class and of different religious and political beliefs have joined hands. They are alive to the necessity of united efforts to drive the enemy out of the land. But there are a number of French anti-clericals who seem not to feel the influence of patriotism and are more anxious to make mischief than to render useful service whilst the Germans are striving with might and main to conquer and. advance (remarks the Catholic Times).

They have their papers which endeavor to sow dissension amongst Frenchmen. The .other day, for instance, the Depeche de . Toulouse said it defied any truthful French soldier to say he had seen a parish priest mount guard in the trenches. Twelve hundred and fifty-one French priests have been killed since the beginning of the war. • The writer must have known the fact, but he is such a bitter and unscrupulous enemy of Christianity that he does not hesitate to misrepresent the clergy* Other anti-clericals send post-cards to the soldiers containing caricatures and abuse of the clergy. Others, again, spread false reports about the priests. The secret of this hostility to the clergy is that the anti-clericals, many of whom hold official posts, know that the heroism and devotion of the Catholics, clerical and lay, tend to increase the power of the Church, arid that after the war a profession of anti-clericalism will not count for as much as it counted for in the past.

JAPAN

CHANGES IN FIFTY YEARS.

Bishop Chatron has been forty-two years in Japan. When he went there in the early days, he found many neophytes lately freed from prison where they had been held in punishment for professing Christianity. He recalls his feelings when he saw these confessors of faith with the marks of cruelty on their broken bodies. Persecution had not yet died out, and the missionaries could visit the homes of the Christians only under cover of night and with the greatest secrecy, to . administer the Sacraments to the dying and -Baptism to the newly born. Last year he said Mass on the anniversary of the ' Finding of the Christians' in the splendid church which has been erected on the spot where this presentday miracle took place, and in the presence of. 5000 Japanese Catholics. Thirty Japanese priests assisted in the service and Japanese Sisters were found in the different religious Orders of women who had assembled on this day of thanksgiving. These are indications of the results accomplished by Catholic missionaries during fifty years.

UNITED STATES

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON

In the archdiocese of Boston at present there are laboring in admirable co-operation with his Eminence Cardinal O'Connell, nearly 800 priests, in charge or assisting in the spiritual work of 245 parishes and 40 missions. These statistics do not take into account the parochial schools, academies, and institutions of higher learning, St. John's Seminary, the many houses of charity for old and young, the hospitals and houses for the sick and infirm, the Catholic societies, that are daily accomplishing more and more for Catholic ideals and the strengthening of Catholic . principles among the faithful. The Catholics of this archdiocese (says the Pilot) may well look back with pride on the work that faith, courage, and energy have wrought in the past 108 years, and advance in the same spirit towards larger and equally Christian goals in the years to cdme.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

Mrs. Mary A. Halloran, widow of John Halloran, banker, of New York City, who died March 12, disposed of approximately 1,000,000 dollars by the terms of her will, filed recently. The Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who, conduct St. Vincent's Hospital, are given the Mosher farm, at Stanfordville, Duchess County, N.Y., 'to be used as a branch hospital for cancer patients' and to be known as the Halloran Cancer Hospital. The Sisters are left 250,000 dollars to maintain the hospital. Other charitable bequests are: 10,000 dollars to St. Joseph's Hospital, Yonkers; 5000 dollars each to the Knapp Memorial Eye Hospital, Catholic Institute for the Blind, St. Ladrafence Hospital, and to the German Hospital.