The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 19 October 1916, Page 53

The Catholic World

ENGLAND A GREAT EDUCATIONIST. Mgr. Bernard Ward has resigned the Presidency of 'St. Edmund's College, Old Hall, which he has held for 23 years. St. Edmund's competes with Ushaw for the distinction of being the oldest such foundation in England. The history of St. Edmund's College during the past 25 years is inseparable from the biography of its President. During that period the ideals of secondary education have been transformed, and, while by his influence and advocacy at head masters' conferences he has had his share in transforming them, to Mgr. Ward is due the pioneer position which St. Edmund's College has always held among Catholic educational institutions. And under his rule the college has grown structurally, no less than in scope. So untiringly have been his activities and so great his love, the work of his predecessors has been merged and all but lost in his improvements, although it has been his hobby and his pride to preserve in minute detail the memory of past Presidents. St. Edmund's as it stands to-day is in all but its nucleus the creation of Mgr. Ward. Such items as the extensive new wings, the swimming bath, the theatre, museums, and play-ing-fields owe their excellence (sometimes their inception, often their completion) entirely to him. Mgr. Ward is the son of ' Ideal ' George Ward, one of the most conspicuous figures in the Oxford Movement of the 'Forties, whose two other sons, Edmund Granville, and the well-known writer, -Wilfrid Ward, both died this year. Mgr. Ward was born in a house adjoining the college (it is now St. Hugh's Preparatory School). After completing his theological course at Oscott, he had a brief but eminently successful experience of London missionary life at Willesden, where he founded the mission. He then returned to St. Edmund's, of which he became Vice-President in 1890, and President in 1893. He was made Domestic Prelate to Leo XIII. in 1895, and Canon of Westminster in 1903. His numerous writings, which are the miraculous outcome of the leisure of a life which seems to have known no leisure, reflect his two chief enthusiasms: Firstly, St. Edmund of Canterbury and the college that is under his patronage: secondly, the revival, struggles, and growth of English Catholicism. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Though his work at St. Edmund's has, apparently, come to a definite close, there is every reason to believe (says the London correspondent of the Irish Catholic) that as Rector of Holy Trinity, Brook Green, Hammersmith, he is entering upon a new phase of achievement. ROME THE POPE AND PRISONERS OF WAR. Scarcely a day passes without some manifestation of gratitude being heard of on the part of those who have had their sorrows relieved by the kind intervention of the Holy Father. A late issue of the Tribune de Geneve states that the English Foreign Secretary has asked the English representative at the Vatican to communicate to his Excellency the Cardinal Secretary of State that our English officers interned in Switzerland desire to express their most sincere thanks for what the Pope has done upon their behalf on the occasion of their being transferred to Switzerland, where they are well and their state of health is good. News also comes from Berne of the kind intervention of the Holy Father on behalf of an Italian prisoner, for, as a result of a request made by the Holy See, the Austrian Government has granted permission to Lieutenant Pasquale Russo, a prisoner in Austria who is ill, to go to Switzerland. Yet there

are those who are ever ready to have a critical word ; for the Holy See. HOW NUNS REPAY. ' For many years the exiled Sisters of Charity of Nancy have conducted a small hospital in Rome. Shortly after the declaration of. war between Italy and Austria, the French Ambassador to the Quirinal, at the suggestion of his Government at Paris, arranged to open in the Sisters' hospital a department for the wounded Italians. The good Sisters, unmindful of the wrongs suffered from the French Government in the past, gladly acceded to the proposal, and aided in every way the Ambassador and his wife to make the project a success. A hundred beds were prepared and no pains spared to have all in first-class order. Recently their hospital was honored with a visit from Queen Margaret of Italy. SPAIN SOCIAL WORK. The Committee of Catholic Social Action of Spain has just held a most interesting and valuable week's session at Madrid. A review of the year's. work of this social action, which embraces the various committees of all the parishes, shows the value of cohesion in the works of the mission. Spiritually and temporally many improvements have been effected. The number of communicants has increased, the number of those under evening instruction in catechism is much larger, the confraternities have longer rolls of names. In addition to the establishment of Catholic benefit societies and savings banks, a great fillip has been given to the campaign against the bad press by the establishment of a number of parochial libraries well stocked with Catholic books and periodicals. To one of these King Alfonso has himself contributed some 300 volumes, which he bought for the purpose. The latest work undertaken by the organisation i 3 the distribution of alms to the poor, a suggestion which covers the centralisation of relief in order to prevent overlapping, and which would become an immense safeguard against the Anglo-Spanish souper if all relief was distributed through Catholic hands. GENERAL TRIBUTE TO NUNS. After the evacuation of the Dardanelles, a number of the French sailors arrived at the port of Syra, on the -<Egean Sea, in an extremely weak condition. Many of them were sent to the French Hospital, which is under the care of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, who nursed their warrior patients back to health with devoted zeal and kindness. Many of the men availed of this opportunity to receive the Sacraments, and so their sojourn in the hospital was also a spiritual good as well as a temporal benefit. The French Consul at Syra, who was a witness of the devotion of the nuns, called the attention of the leaders of the Government to it, and especially to the untiring labors of the Sister Superior of the hospital, who was ready to take up any duty in the house during the busiest time in spite of fatigue. She remained humble and calm during the days of stress and extra work. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs has now announced that the military silver medal has been bestowed upon this good nun,. Sister Teresa Mirzan, and also upon another member of the community at Syra, Sister Eugenie Angelven. • ~ .