BOOK NOTICES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVI, Issue 18, 1 May 1919, Page 19

BOOK NOTICES

The Ceremonies of the. Roman Rite Described. By Adrian Fortescue. Burns and Oates publishers. From the Catholic Supply Co., Wellington, 18/6 net. -' There is hardly a more engrossing subject in Catholic literature than the study of the beautiful ceremonies of the Church. Many converts have found their true peace of mind through being first attracted by the ritual of the Catholic Church. In all ages devout writers have emphasised the importance of the study and inculcated the necessity of having the ceremonies conducted in a manner in keeping with the sublime mysteries of which they are the outward expression and ornament. Many lay writers have treated explicitly or incidentally of the Roman ceremonies and done not a little to make their solemn beauty known outside the Church. As a rule, however, the best books on the subject are written in Latin or in Italian, and are not available for the general reader. Not only to the laity but also to many of the clergy a work in English on the Roman Rite is a real boon. The clergy by virtue of their sacred office are bound to have at hand a reliable and clear work of reference on all questions connected with the Rite of the Church. Most of us have had in our libraries older works which we have felt could be much improved. The original Latin or Italian is not as clear to us all as English, and the translations are not always up to the mark. Therefore a new work by a well-known writer of undoubted scholarship is certainly all the more welcome when, it comes in the vernacular. Father Forteseue's name is a guarantee that the book will fill a want in many a presbytery, and Cardinal Bourne's letter of introduction assures us that we have now a Manual of Ceremonies of undoubted accurateness and clearness which will fully satisfy the requirements of clergy and laity: "For a long time past the clergy in England have been without a Manual of Ceremonies in their own tongue possessing any claim to accuracy and completeness. . . . This pressing want has now been fully supplied by the learned compiler of Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, and by the publishers who present his work in such a satisfactory form. . . . With great confidence we recommend it to the study and use of all." After the Cardinal's words it is hardly necessary for us to add our recommendation. The book should be welcome to the educated Catholic laity. That every priest will get a copy of it we take for granted. The One Big Union: Will It Emancipate the Worker? By P. S. Cleary, president, of the Catholic Federation. Angus and Robertson, Sydney (1/-).

Mr. Cleary has given us a thoughtful and helpful study of the most actual aspects of the Labor question. His brochure is a useful contribution to social study and deserves to be widely circulated. When, after pointing out the fallacies of Syndicalism he urges that the real remedy lies in proper education he hits the mark. We are moving in a maze as long as we have a purely materialistic system of education to teach the people that money-making is the end' of life, and it is true to say that the Governments in their short-sighted-' ness are constantly laying the foundations of social unrest through the State schools which have boycotted God.