THE CATHOLIC WORLD

New Zealand Tablet, 31 July 1919, Page 39

THE CATHOLIC WORLD

GENERAL. Possession has been taken by the Catholic authorities of England of the old Palace of Bishop King in St. Aldate's, Oxford, which is to be converted into a seminary for the training of candidates for the secular clergy, who will, while in residence, pursue their studies at the University. The seminary has been placed under the direction of Mgr. Stapylton-Barnes, M.A., of University College, formerly a clergyman of the Church of England, who was received into the Church by Cardinal Merry del Val in 1895. For some years he held the post of Catholic chaplain at the University of Cambridge. . Rome's new rule of appointing young bishops has found fresh application in the case of the See of Clonfert, where the Bishop-elect is the Very Rev. Canon O'Doherty, 8.D., Dean of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Born in 1877 near Loughglynn, Co. Roscommon, the new. Bishop is a native of Elphiu diocese, went from its Diocesan College to Maynooth in 1895, was ordained in 1902, became Professor in Summer* hill College, and in 1910 Professor of Liturgy in Maynooth. "Hard work'' is mentioned as his hobby. On questions of liturgy lie is (says the Freeman") recognised "as one of the first authorities in the Irish Church." Ad multn* anno*!

Mgr. Cerretti. the chief assistant of Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, arrived recently in Paris in connection with questions relating to the future of Catholic missions in foreign countries where hitherto Catholic missionaries of German nationality have been working. The Treatv of London concluded by the British Government with its Allies provided that the Holy See should be excluded from the Peace Conference. But Catholic interests throughout the world are too widespread and too important to permit of literal adhesion to such a stupid pact. Mgr. Cerretti was to submit to President Wilson the suggestion of the Holy See for the safeguarding of Catholic missionary interests in former German colonies.

The House of Lords has allowed the appeal of Cardinal Bourne and Rev. Terence Donnelly, S.J., and decided that gifts of personal estate in the will of Edward Egan for Masses are valid. Their lordships' decision reverses that of Mr. Justice Eve and also that of the Court of Appeal. The testator left large bequests to the Bishop of Ardagh, the Jesuit Fathers, Farm Street, London, Westminster Cathedral, the Dominicans and Franciscans, Kilkenny, all with the request that Masses should be said for the repose of his soul. The Lords have now decreed that such bequests are valid in law and will stand. The London Tim says that this judgment is a historic one, and will meet with general approval as being in accordance with the principles of toleration and of religious liberty. It also says that the public will agree with Lord Wrenbury (who dissented from the judgment) that the settled law of earlier generations should be changed rather by legislation than by a new interpretation of the old Statute.

On Sunday, May 25, a great procession took place through the principal streets of the City of London in the immediate vicinity of Westminster Cathedral, as an act of thanksgiving and intercession. In a letter from the Cardinal Archbishop which was read in all the churches, and which received considerable publicity in the daily press, his Eminence says: —"At home there are many signs of unrest which only the wisest statesmanship and the prudent patience of the people can calm. Throughout the world sufferings- of every kind, uncertainty as to the future, and political agitations are still disturbing the peace of many countries. A great Conference has been sitting for many months in Paris to determine the destinies of the nations, and there has from the beginning until now been no official recognition on the part of the members of the Conference of the fact that unaided human wis-

dom,- however great, must of necessity" ultimately fail and be confounded. God has been ? excluded from the deliberations of that assembly; and who, then, need wonder if its findings and conclusions have so far given little satisfaction, and "but scanty hope to the .anxious world The procession, which 'for magnificence resembled the solemn occasion of the Eucharistic Congress some 11 years ago when for the first time since the reign of Mary I. a Papal Legate walked in I the streets of London, was composed of over 12,000 Catholics from all parts of London, while the streets along the route were thronged by something like a million observers . Every guild, sodality, and confraternity was represented, and members of almost every religious Order were present in the habit of their institute. The Cardinal Archbishop, who wore the scarlet robes of a Prince of the Church, was preceded by his archiepiscopal cross. Immediately following the bishops and prelates, who walked after his Eminence, were representatives of the British and Overseas Forces, among them officers and men of the United States Army and Navy, carrying the flag of their country. At the conclusion of the procession Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was imparted to a vast concourse of people in the grounds of the Cathedral.