THE CATHOLIC WORLD

New Zealand Tablet, 8 May 1919, Page 31

THE CATHOLIC WORLD

GENERAL. Five Marist Sisters from Tours, France, passed through America recently en route to the leper colonies in the Fiji Islands, as teachers and nurses. Chaplain O'Hara, writing from the front, recently told of what a wonderfully cosmopolitan army America had sent to France, lie said: "It is truly Catholic. On the same day I gave Communion to an Armenian and a Syrian, a Lithuanian, a Pole, an Italian, a Spaniard, and a Frenchman, an Indian from Arizona, a Colombian from South America, and, as it chanced, to a German prisoner from Saxony." This year during Lent the Irish pulpits in Rome were filled by Irish-Americans on St. Patrick's Day. In St. Isidore's, of the Irish Franciscans, the panegyric of the Apostle of Ireland was delivered by Father Charles Macksey, S.J., Boston,. Professor of Ethics in the Gregorian University ; and that in San Patrizio, of the Irish Augustinians, was preached by Father O'Rourke. S.J., ISew York, Professor in the Pontifical Biblical Institute. Though the world is engaged in talking of the Peace Congress, it seems not yet aware that the white habit of St. Dominic shines in the hall of the momentous gathering. The delegates of the various countries are accompanied by commissions of a technical nature, and in that appointed for the branch. concerned with labor is Rev. Ceslaus Rutten, 0.P., Belgium, whose reputation as a sociologist marked him out as particularly able to serve his country. Father Rutten is also the secretary-general of the Christian Syndicates of Belgium, "a man," as L'Unit a Cattolica of Florence puts it, "of phenomenal activity," and the author of several works in sociology, which are appreciated highly even beyond the Belgian frontier. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster arrived in Jerusalem, on January 18, and on the following day proceeded to Bethlehem. On January 20 he said Mass at the Holy Sepulchre, after which he visited the Holy Places in Jerusalem, accompanied by the Acting Governor of Palestine. At Cairo the Cardinal, who was accompanied by his secretary, Mgr. Jackman, and Colonel Father Nash, D. 5.0., assistant principal chaplain to the forces in the East, was accorded a public reception by 1200 Catholic officers and men of the British forces. He delivered an address to the assembled soldiers, and was supported on the platform by the general officer commanding the division, by Briga-dier-General Maurice, and by Fathers O'Carroll, O'Neill, and Timms, chaplains to the 10th Division. At the end of his address Cardinal Bourne imparted to the assembled officers and men the Papal Blessing. Priests from St. Mary's Jesuit Church, the Franciscan Church of St. Leonard, of Port Maurice, and the Borromean Church of the Sacred Heart, Boston, U.S.-ti.., responded quickly to the call of the injured and dying in the debris -of the collapse of the great tank of molasses on Commercial Street recently. The priests hastened to the aid of the dying, : wading knee deep in many instances in hot , molasses to reach the side of the dying and those in -danger of death. At other places it was necessary to crawj. over anu un<_ier the ruins ; of buildings to. reach the suffering. The

daily press has printed columns of descriptive matter concerning one of the most unusual accidents which has ever happened in . the State, and all the papers were generous in their praise of the priests who so promptly answered the call of duty at the risk of their own lives and under the most disagreeable conditions. The flow of water in the miraculous well of St. Winifred at Holywell, which was stopped through boring operations by a mining company, has been restored completely; and, better- still, the miraculous cures have recommenced. There is no denying now that there was a deep fear in the minds of some that St. Winifred would not continue her favors, after the injury done to her well. But the first miracle to be recorded since the reopening of the well has been greeted with great joy. The subject is a Liverpool woman, a Miss Kathleen Conyer, who had been pronounced incurable by a sanatorium for consumption, and had been sent home to die. She made the journey to the well, and, after the first bath, felt considerably better, and was able to walk without assistance. After a few more baths all the coughing and other signs ceased, and she placed herself in the hands of two doctors for examination. The medical men pronounced her entirely free from disease ; and she has returned to her native place to receive the congratulations of her friends and the interested inquiries of those who knew her desperate state previously. INDIAN NATIVE NUNS. Chota Nagpur, one of the Indian Catholic Missions, has the distinction of possessing an Order of native nuns —the Daughters of St. Anne is their religions title. A writer in the Catholic Herald of India tells us that at present the Daughters of St. Anne number at least 50, and are divided into two branches; the smallest of these has its Mother-House at Moropai, and is under the direction of the Loreto Sisters; the more numerous branch has its centre in Ranchi and is under the guidance of the Ursulines. As soon as the Order is strong enough to shift for itself, the two branches will "unite and sever their connection with the European Sisters, who at present train them. An example of Europe training India to self-government. Father J. de Smet was the founder or originator. He conceived the idea in 1896 or 1897, though at the time it seemed a splendid dream. At the juncture, two girls, who had received some schooling at the Loreto Convent in Ranchi felt a call to the religious life. They refused to marry and took refuge in the convent. This created no small stir among their relatives, but Father de Smet, seeing in this a sign that Providence approved his plan, took the matter in hand. He pleaded his cause so well with Dr. Goethals, that the Archbishop, after very mature consideration, granted him leave to make a start. Soon the example of these two girls was followed by others, and slowly the Order has grown, and is now in a truly flourishing condition, having its ruler and episcopal approbation. Briefly, the Daughters, of St. Anne aim at doing their utmost to help the missionaries in the training of children and women : they are above all a teaching Congregation, intended to keep primary schools; these they conduct in all the chief centres, and yearly they open new ones in smaller stations. In Ranchi and elsewhere they are of invaluable assistance to the European nuns in managing the schools. Indeed, throughout the mission, they are the chief means Providence uses to implant the faith deep into the hearts of the women. A very pleasing feature of the institute is that the Sisters follow in all things the Indian customs; their dress, too, is distinctly Indian; in church they squat on the ground like the women of their race. This Indian Sisterhood, more perhaps than the Uraon and Munda clergy in formation, is a superb triumph for the Church of Chota Nagpur. . Think of it, barely ten years after * the faith had been planted here, to witness this vigorous growth of religious virtue, to see native girls renounce the world and choose Christ as their spouse. xs ujj.ere. any filing more glorious even in w 6 annais oi the primitive Church? r~~„- \:::~ •- ■ -h :; y ; : :.;v_;;r