ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1916, Page 39

ROME LETTER

(From our own correspondent.) „ - April 7. " It is with pleasure that all lovers of truth will read N ,the letter just given to the press by M. Briand, Pre"}Mmier of France, on the calumniatory attacks which professional maligners of the French clergy have been propagating in a country that could once call herself the eldest daughter of the Church.’ In every province of France some little local official accused the

cure of bringing about the European War, and then leaving the people to fight their battles. In more than one place our petty friend incited the people to contribute nothing to the parochial collections, as the cure surely intended ‘sending the money to the Germans! M. Briand has taken a stand even more firm than one should have expected from him. He denounces the calumnies, and assured the French public that the Government had given orders that those who try to disturb the public peace in such a fashion are to be sought out and brought to justice. 4 And,’ adds the Premier, 4 the Government will take care its orders are put into execution with aIT necessary vigilance and firmness.’ It is about time something like justice was done to those thousands of priests, monks, and nuns who, as Cardinal Sevin, Archbishop of Lyons, says in his pastoral, 4 flocked back to the country at the first sound of alarm without uttering one word of recrimination ’ against those who had driven them into exile. But there is another Premier (Mr. Asquith) whose visit to the Pope keeps the press and public speculating as to its object, * What did they converse about ?’ is the question of the day. Needless to say no one has the least idea what subjects Benedict XV. and the Prime Minister of England discussed during the 20 minutes that, the audience lasted. Certain newspapers may continue to guess, but that is all, as nothing has been made public. And probably years must elapse before public curiosity is satisfied on the point. As the Church is ever foremost in organisation, so she is always in the front in science. At the present time the Vatican Observatory is concluding the second

volume of Gatalogo Astronomico. For several years a colossal work has been continued unceasingly in Europe —viz., a "photograph of the heavens. The observatories which participate in this colossal scientific undertaking nymber nineteen, of which there are eleven in Europe, two in. Africa, three in 'America, three in Oceania. Amongst the eleven European observatories is that of the Vatican. It has published several photographic charts of the heavens, which "were obtained by Father Lais, S.J., who, with an ardor more unique than rare, has dedicated some twenty-five years to this astronomical kind of worlc. Amongst those who have worked at the composition of this catalogue are to be noted, besides those connected with measurements and calculations, the names of Father Hagen, S.J., vicedirector of the Specola Vaticana, and Father Lais, S.J., vice-director; Mr. H. H. Turner, director of the Observatory of Oxford, England, and his assistants; Signor V. Cerulli, director of the Observatory of Teramo. NOTES. The tribute recently paid by Archbishop Cerretti, Apostolic Delegate to Australasia, to Catholicity in Australia at a Communion breakfast, given by the Hibernian Society of Sydney, has been read in Homo with deep satisfaction.' In an article entitled 4 The Suicide of Civil Europe, its Causes and Accomplices,’ by Father Grossi-Gondi, S.J., in the Givilta Cattolica of this month, the eyes of nations are opened to the fact that if the conflict should be prolonged indefinitely, no one can save Europe from anarchy and revolution. Cardinal Mercier’s secretary has not been arrested. Neither has the Cardinal any notion of leaving Belgium.