PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

New Zealand Tablet, 24 October 1918, Page 30

PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

Father Lawrence Verreker, the oldest Catholic priest in Newfoundland, recently passed away. He was 82 years of age. Father Verreker was the last of the "old guard"—a band of Irish ecclesiastics who planted the seeds of the Faith in Newfoundland and lived to see them fructify all over the island His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Redwood, Archbishop of Wellington (New Zealand), and General Pau, the famous French general and leader of the visiting French mission, were "schoolmates" in France for a number of years. It is worthy* of note (states the Melbourne Tribune) that Archbishop Redwood is a most brilliant linguist, and can speak, it is said, quite a number of different languages. His Grace 6peaks French most fluently. An interesting refugee passed away at Reading, England, a few weeks ago, and was laid to rest in a specially consecrated corner of the Caversham Cemetery there. This was no other than the Comte de Pretroode Calesberg of Brussels, an old diplomat, who had represented his country at several European courts. He was in his seventy-ninth year. When the Germans began to invade Belgium the Comte left his estates near Brussels and brought the Countess to England, where he has resided ever since. His wife died in 1915. He passed away fortified with the last rites of the Church. He was the friend and confidant both of the late King Leopold and the present King Albert. The deportation by the German military authorities to the Abbey of Maria Laach of Mgr. Caasimir Nicholas Michalkiewicz, Administrator-Apostolic of the diocese of Vilna, in Lithuania, is told in a speech delivered in the Reichstag by the Polish deputy, Herr Korfanty. The Bishop of Vilna, Mgr, Ropp, was banished by the late Russian Government to Pskov, and the diocese was placed under the administration of Mgr. Michalkiewicz. According to Deputy Korfanty, four pro-German ecclesiastics belonging to the diocese engaged in propaganda work for the German Government, accompanied by members of the Prussian police force. Their zeal in this work was greater than their discretion, and the Administrator-Apostolic orderea that they should undergo canonical discipline. Immediately he was arrested and deported. The German officer in command gave him only three hours to prepare for his departure, and he was not allowed to say farewell to his chapter. The incident has called forth indignant protests in the Reichstag from the Centre and Polish deputies, who bitterly resent the manner in which the military authorities have dealt with Mgr. Michalkiewicz. '"- Ida M. Tarbell, in the Red Cross Magazine for June, tells the inspiring story of Cardinal Mercier, one heroic man who stood out above the terrible flood—when the Germans swept over Belgium—unswerving, brave and serene. She says: "The more the world learns of Cardinal Mercier the higher it places him among the very few superior men. that have been developed in this world war. His passionate sympathy, his complete courage, his adroit and unanswerable arguments in the cases where he has clashed with the occupying Power, all put him high among men, not only of this day, but of any day. An extraordinary and complete confidence in the justice of God in all his • misery pervades everything that he writes and says like some celestial light. The man- may cry out in agony, but he does not doubt. Some of his expressions of faith with which he comforts his people we must believe sustain his own soulare among the finest to be found in this kind of writing. I am told by those who worked with the Cardinal in Belgium that the finest impression he makes is one of extraordinary spirituality. A member of the Belgian Commission told me that the first time he went into his presence his instinctive comment was, 'Here is a saint'; but when

he grasped his hand and looked into his eye he said, 'Here is a man.' " * The diocese of Indianapolis (U.S.A.) mourns the loss of its good Bishop, the saintly Right Rev. Francis Silas Chatard. For 40 years he labored zealously for the Church and succeeded in building up many of the leading Catholic educational institutions in America (states the Catholic Columbian). Many interesting memories are entwined in the life of this able prelate. He was one of a trio of Church dignitaries whose lives run in remarkably similar channels. Only one of the trio now survives (Cardinal Gibbons). The other member of the three was the late Bishop John Foley, of Detroit, who died several months ago. The three men were born in the same neighborhood in Baltimore in 1834, and were baptised in the Cathedral of Baltimore within the same year. They were students in Rome at the same time, and each became a bishop. The high regard in which Pius IX. held Father Chatard, while in Rome, is evidenced by the many personal favors he conferred upon him. While President of the American College he was honored by an appointment to the post of one of the private supernumerary chamberlains to his Holiness. In this position he was very close to the Pontiff, the audiences with American visitors to the Eternal City being placed entirely at his discretion. Among the Americans he presented to the Pope were General Grant and General Sherman. Deeply interested in the Catholic press, he with some of the active Catholic laymen of Indianapolis invested several thousand dollars to maintain the Catholic Recard, a paper taken over by the Columbian Company in 1899, and now known as the Indiana Record. While a stern and strict upholder of Catholic doctrine, he was looked upon by both the priesthood and laity with respect and reverence. His successor (Right Rev. Bishop Chartrand) is recognised as an able executive, an intensely patriotic leader, and one of the humble, saintly, hardworking prelates of the Catholic Church in America.