THE CATHOLIC WORLD

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 39

THE CATHOLIC WORLD

i — m, _ ■ I " . : :.. «.|. ; '| GENERAL. l J .f* l ?^.M f The Catholics of Lyons,- in France, are finishing the four great towers of the magnificent Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourvieres, which overtops the city. Each tower represents in sculptured groups a cardinal virtue. The necessary i- funds have been subscribed as a thanksgiving for the Armistice. .: '--? c " - - ! • f .'..'. " -/\ | .One of "the results of the conclusion of peace is that the Catholic Church in the northern European countries is making considerable headway. k The Catholic Bishop of. Copenhagen, Mgr. Okurk, has gone to Riga "to make plans for the erection of a Catholic bishopric there. The Bishop appears to have met with considerable success, and he celebrated a solemn religious service at which there were present the deputies of the Ministry and the staffs of the different Embassies.

The Supreme Board of ‘ Directors of the Knights of Columbus, in executive session, preliminary to the opening of the K. of C. peace convention, received requests from England, Scotland, Norway, France, Chile, Bern, Argentina, and Hawaii for the extension of, the Knights of Columbus to those countries. It was decided to institute a council in Hawaii, while the matter of extension to the other countries was referred to a committee..

The Big Brothers of the Holy Name Society of Chicago had under their care 1701 boys in the year ended March 31. That number would have been doubled if Holy Name Societies with Big Brother Committees existed in all parishes of the city. Probably eight visits were made on an average to each boy, the ride being that two visits hemade each month for four months after a boy is assigned. That Avon Id make a total of 13,600 visits. Assuming that one half-hour is spent on each visit, the entire time thus consumed was 6800 hours or 8-30 days of eight- hours each. £ A service, always interesting and attractive, the celebration of Mass at a military or naval post, brought between 5000- and 6000 persons to the Army Base in South Boston on August 31, when Cardinal O’Connell officiated on the afterdeck of Hie Italian dreadnought Conte di Cavour, which had been warped in alongside the pier for the occasion. The Cardinal arrived about 10.15 a.m., and was escorted by officers to the main deck, where Admiral Conz and staff, in full regalia, were waiting. Following the exchange of courtesies, the Cardinal, accompanied by his gentleman of honor, William J. Dooley, and his secretary, Rev. Richard J. Haber! in, and the chaplain of the dreadnought. Father Pucci, proceeded to the altar, close to the rail at the extreme end of the afterdeck, and began the Divine Sacrifice. The ship’s band, near a main-deck turret, provided the very effective music. At the Gospel, the Cardinal gave a short sermon in Italian.

His Eminence Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, arrived in New York on September 10, on the United States naval transport Northern Pacific. He received an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd of soldiers, sailors, and civilians who were waiting at Pier 5, Hoboken, to greet him. It was his first visit to America, of which he had heard and read so much, and the warmth of his welcome visibly affected the Cardinal as he stood under the bridge of the transport looking down upon the pier. The Cardinal's itinerary will embrace practically every important city. On October 5 his Eminence was to be in Boston, where elaborate preparations were made for. his reception. I GERMAN CATHOLICS. An official Church Guide, which has recently been issued by the Episcopal Chancery, gives some interesting figures regarding Catholic Church life in Berlin. There are, this guide asserts, some 250 parish priests in Berlin, distributed among nine deaneries. They serve 190 churches and chapels, among which are 40 buildings not originally churches that are used for religious worship. . The most flourishing Catholic parish is that of the Sacred Heart, Charlottenburg, with 31,400 souls. In the. St. Hedwig parish are 28,000 Catholics. In this parish there are, besides the great St. Hedwig Church, the chapels of Borromaeans who attend the St. Hedwig Hospital, the chapels of the Ursulines, .the Grey Sisters, and the Dominicans, all of which are open to the public. In the parish of St. Mathias there are*2B,ooo Catholics, who attend the parish church of St. Mathias, the St. Mathias Chapel, the Church of St. Elizabeth, and the Church of St. Norbert, The parish of St. Pius numbers 25,000 Catholics, the St. Michael parish 122,000, J and the ? Sacred Heart parish 20,000. X;ln' the suburbs is the parish of St. Clara, New Kolin, with 26,000 souls; ...St, _ Louis parish, Willmersdorf, with 23,000 souls;'and the St. Maurice parish, Lichtenberg, with 22,000

souls. The need for new parish churches is plainly visible everywhere. ■ .-"IS'- - '■£&'■■ : 'fjf~"-~ |. - ■■*-■■ ■•-.:-- r- ,*»», • 3 i- ■ -■■•■&& ■ j g£.-..j5g&,.... ■-'. ■ : .- ' rvl - "•-'■'.. S T~~- '--'■■. .. *~- *c :i '-V> ■ ' -'■'■ « ;I ,: ■•. . f-t-i" ■'■' "•- ■■■' .ft'-lv- *? " ."■■' RESTORATION OF RHEIMS ~ \ A world-wide fund, which has. the ready approval of •>■■: the French Government, has been inaugurated' with the object of restoring Rheims Cathedral as a lasting" memorial to those of 4 the Allies who have' made the supreme sacrifice in the war. Representative national committees . are being formed in-Allied and neutral countries, so that the movement, which originated in Denmark, may be regarded as international. W-. would be difficult find J a more fitting ' and noble monument, for in no other setting could the gratitude .of the ; living 4i - towards the . heroic dead be so' worthily enshrined as in the Cathedral of Rheims restored to its ancient glory. Intimately bound up with the course of French history, and endowed with . a wealth of cherished associations unsurpassed in Europe, % Rheims Cathedral, situated in the heart of the country''which' must for ever bear, the scars of war, seems predestined as the shrine to which in time to come Allied and neutral nations alike will make a pilgrimage. Here, above all other places,, homage will bo paid to those whose supreme sacrifice has ensured the continuity and development of a civilisation to whose past glories the Cathedral has so long borne eloquent witness. The fortitude and endurance of the people of Rheims in .',the face of the almost total destruction of their beloved city compels the {admiration % of "' almost all the world.. The restoration is an effort in which all may unite, be it as homage to the fallen, piety, affection for France, 4 or the desire to give again to the world one of its choicest .jewels of art. Fortunately the original planshave been preserved, and can be copied exactly, and much of the original stone can be utilised. It is estimated that the work of restoration will 1 cost at least £1,000,000. The money subscribed will be taken to France by a chosen representative of each of the Allied countries and formally presented to the President of France. An influential* committee, representative of the whole British Empire, is in the process of formation, and of this : body . Sir Arthur Stanley has consented to be chairman, while our co-re-ligionist, 'Sir Edward Holden, has undertaken the office of honorary treasurer. The following letter, written by a recent visitor' to Rheims, will be read with interest in this connection: •'The devastation . and destruction .of Rheims is, perhaps, even worse than that of Sbissons, but the spirit of the place is so greatly different that one finds oneself interested quite as much as saddened, for one sees living beings about and there is already an awakened spirit and an appearance of enterprise. Before the war there were 40.000 houses in Rheims, of which five escaped shell fire. Thirteen thousand were razed level with the ground; and I do not : know how many thousand more were there with only the walls left standing. The Cathedral stands as a tragic queen, while making brave efforts to , uphold those exquisitely wrought pinnacles. Even as I stood, I could hear the boom of great pieces falling inside. The glass of the famous Rose Window was removed and preserved, but what is that when one sees the ruination of this magnificent Gothic temple as a whole! And yet it is not destroyed. It is desecrated, torn, and wounded in all its parts; but still it stands as if it might be symbolic of the Church that has stood and suffered with her children in France. It was v night, and a. full moon shed its silvery sheen over the open square, which made the; wreckage even more vivid than in the day. I looked at the great twin! towers rising in the beautiful moonlight, which magnified them, it seemed, in' its shimmering gleam, and thought of that day when tho Germans sent' 10,000 shells into the city between the -dawns,, and how this terrible deluge continued day after day, for four long years. And still this proud Gothic frame pushes { its steeples into the skies; and it, seemed a verification of the truth 'The gates of: hellshall not prevail .against her.''. . - - |