CATHOLIC CHAEITIES IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Tablet, 8 May 1919, Page 29

CATHOLIC CHAEITIES IN AMERICA.

The Catholic press of America brings to light, from time to time, munificent bequests made to the "Catholic cause. Some of them are not without a touch of romance, but all bespeak the touching generosity of the testators. In a single copy of an American Journal there are recorded as many as five bequests to Catholic charities, including one by a non-Catholic. The most interesting gift is that of an Irishman Thomas Feigh who came to America, a helpless cripple, at the age of sixteen. He hired a frontiersman to carry him 200 miles on his back to the place where he settled and made his fortune. Of this fortune he has left 100,000 dollars for the construction of a Catholic church. Another —David D. Walker, of St. Louis—has left various sums, ranging from two to five thousand dollars, to different Catholic charities, together with a separate bequest for the erection of a church. Mr. Paul Keith, of New York, a magnate in the theatrical world, has

given the residue of an estate, valued at 6,000,000 dollars, to Cardinal O'Connell of Boston for charitable purposes in equal' shares with Harvard College. The non-Catholic testator referred to, who was a business man at Toledo, has bequeathed 70,000 dollars to St. Vincent's Hospital, 30,000 dollars to Mercy Hospital, and. 20,000 dollars to ; the Little Sisters of the Poor. Lastly, there is the bequest of the late Cardinal Farley, assessed at 6000 dollars, which goes to the archdiocese. These facts are worth noting, in view of the regrettable dearth of religious and charitable bequests in this country at the present "enlightened" age (comments the Catholic Tier aid of India).