THE CATHOLIC WORLD

New Zealand Tablet, 22 August 1918, Page 39

THE CATHOLIC WORLD

GENERAL. Among the justices of the peace newly appointed for Inverness-shire (Scotland) are- Very Rev. . Canon McDougall, Mulroy, Royhridge ; Rev. Angus Macrae, Morar; and Rev. J. J. Mackintosh, Romish, South Uist. '

I The Rome correspondent of the Tablet says : ‘There have been received into the Church recently in Rome a niece of Mr. Lloyd George and her daughter. They received • Confirmation from Mgr. s Palica, Viceregent of Rome. ' Cardinal Mercier and the clergy of the Diocese of Malines, in thanking the Holy Father for the New Code of .Canon Law, express their own and the common gratitude of the Belgian people to his Holiness for having saved the bells of the Belgian churches. a The centenary of the finding of the body of St. Francis of Assisi will be celebrated this year (1918) by {the Franciscan Order throughout the world. The Papal Brief, authenticating the discovery of the saint's body, was published on September 8, 1820. In the Catholic churches of San Juan, Porto Rico, special services were held recently in commemmoration of the 405th anniversary of the creation of the first Catholic diocese in the New World. The diocese was created only 20 years after the discovery of the islands by Columbus. “

La Sc mam Jlefn/ixam, the official diocesan or-an ot Quebec, announced that preliminaries leading to'the possible canonisation of Bishop Montmorency de Lava', Quebec s first bishop, will commence on June 11. In a letter to the clergy and the. faithful Cardinal Berlin recommends the proceedings to the pravers of all Catholics.

The Trappists or Reformed Cistercians in Kentucky date from the year 1805. Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States was chiefly instrumental in their settling in Kentucky. Gethsemane Abbey, near Louisvil'e Ky is one of the largest and most important Trappist monasteries in the world. 1

p ?°T, there is bein " shown in Rome the film of Fabiola We can imagine no film which could entice Catholics more than these pictures of Wiseman’s great i story oT the early centuries. “Fabiola’’ was recently exhibited before the College of Cardinals who came at the invitation of Cardinal Gasquet, the learned -tiiiglish Benedictine. An important change affecting the English-speak-mg branch of the Redemptorist Order in Canada has been announced. This branch of the Order, which up 0 the present was a vice-province and subject to the head order in , the United States, now becomes a separate province, with Rev. Father Mulhall, C.SS.R. as Provincial, with headquarters in Toronto. . ~T he Arch bishop of Birmingham officiated recently of the Profession In St. Anne’s Convent, Birmingham, of Sister Vincent, a convert. This lady was formerly a worker with Mr. Lopez, an Anglican clergyman of Birmingham, who was received into the Church several years ago at the Birmingham Oratory, and whose ordination to the priesthood will take place shortly in

~ At Durban (Natal) about 5000 people took part in the Corpus Christi procession. A mission had been conducted in the Cathedral parish during the preced Fathers aYp Fa Sr ° rai - of the Redemptorist Fathers at Pretoria. The procession, after passim/ A lh° ll f h r> S T e °b f th « P rmci P al Greets, assembled in Albert Park, where Benediction was given by Bishop Delalle. The organiser of this successful function was O M active parish pnetet, Father James O’Donnell,

This year again Naples was en fete for the spring procession of St. Januarius. The ceremony on the feast day of the saint takes place in the Cathedral,

; .. . . ... , j ■ . ' ; •. : ■ ,< . but on 7 the May - feast the statue of St. Januarius and the phial containing his blood are “carried ,in solemn procession through the city to the Church of'. Santa Chiara, where this year again, after the usual prayers and litanies, the miracle was'again accomplished. A little over an hour elapsed .before the liquefaction of the blood of the saint. The only absence of note was the Mayor, of Naples, a Socialist; who {again refused to be represented, although ex officio a member of the “committee of honor” during his term of office. The open-air procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the Exeter convent grounds on the Feast of Corpus Christi is noteworthy from the historic associations amidst which the event took place. In Catholic days in England the convent site was surrounded by Religious Houses. Close by, in South Street, where the Church of the Sacred Heart now stands, was the House of the Franciscan or Grey Friars, founded in 1284, and a Priory of Cistercians, a cell to the abbey of Buckland. About a century ago the Bear Inn, now extinct, stood on the site of the Cistercian Priory, and it was in this inn that the priest from Axminster, the small town of carpet-industry fame, who then served Exeter, was accustomed to take up his lodging. These houses, like those of the Benedictines and Dominicans m Exeter, were suppressed at the time of the Dissolution.

An important event in the annals of the Church and civilisation should, if the times allowed, be'celebrated this year. For it was in 1868 that Cardinal La\ i<;ei ie laid the foundations of his Congregation of Our Lady of Africa for the conversion of the Mahominedans and the emancipation of their slaves. Although no celebration of the Golden Jubilee can take place, 1918 will be marked in the history of the Congregation by the inception of an undertaking of farreaching importance. The Superior-General has decided on the momentous step of opening an Apostolic College for the training of English boys for the White Fathers’ Congregation, at the Priory, Bishop’s Waltham, Hants, which for the last few years has been occupied by trench candidates. This undertaking has been entrusted to Father Travers, who has done several years’ service in Nyassaland and Northern Rhodesia, and has thus been brought into contact with British officials. Father Travers has also seen service with the French arm v.

1 he official results of the recent Portuguese elections give the following figures for the representation in the House of Representatives:—loß Republicans, 39 Monarchists, and eight Catholics, while the figures lor the Senate are 67 Republicans, seven Monarchists, and three Catholics. Nevertheless, many of the Republicans returned are Catholics, although they have not fought the elections - on,. the purely Catholic ticket. The present President of the Republic (Major Sidonio Paes), who is generally regarded as a strong man, has so far made a good impression. Pie has telegraphed congratulations to King Alphonso on the occasion of the latter s birthday, just celebrated, and has received a cordial telegram in reply. He has also visited the prisoners arrested in the recent conspiracy, which was nipped in the bud ; and, finding the accusations of their ill-treatment to have some foundation, he has ordered their immediate release. The negotiations for a concordat with the Holy See are well advanced, and Catholics, particularly priests and religious, now have entire liberty.