THE CATHOLIC WORLD

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1920, Page 37

THE CATHOLIC WORLD

GENERAL. * i There are at present 376 students of theology in the .Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, the greatest number in the history of that famous institution. Eighty candidates for the priesthood are from Paris. Included in this number are 68 former army officers, who served as engineers and doctors during the war. There are also many students of an advanced age in the preparatory seminary, many of whom had obtained profitable positions in the commercial and industrial world, which they have given up to prepare themselves for the priesthood. This year, which is the eighth centenary of the foundation of the "White Canons" of St. Norbert, will be signalised by the establishment of a Norbertme college in England. The historic mansion of Temple Belwood, situated in Lincolnshire, has been acquired for this purpose. The history of* the house goes back to the times of Knights Templar, in whose possession the property was originally, passing from them to John de Belwood after the dissolution of ths Order in 1312. Since then it has had numerous owners, and has been at various times altered and enlarged. 'Six Sisters of Providence, of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indianapolis, "U.S.A., will soon leave for 'China to engage in missionary work under Right Rev. Bishop Joseph Taconi, of Honan. A convent and school are already in readiness for the nuns in Kie-Fong-Tu, Province of Honan, and they will probably sail for the Orient in September, when Bishop Taconi returns from Rome. When the matter was presented to Mother Cleophas, General Superior of the Mother-house, at St. Mary's, she asked for volunteers, and the response was practically unanimous on the part of the Sisters. The nuns who will take up this work will be the first American .Sisters to go into the Chinese missionary field. The call for the second Bishops' Conference, to be held in Washington on September 22 and 23, has been sent out by Cardinal Gibbons, in accordance with the policy adopted at the initial meeting last year of making the meeting of the Catholic Hierarchy of the United States an annual event. The conference will be held at the Catholic University, the trustees of which will meet at the same time. The second call marks the recognition of the annual conference to discuss matters of Catholic interest as a permanent institution. Until the first meeting held at the University last year, none had been held since the Council of Baltimore, of which Cardinal Gibbons is the only surviving member.

According to official records, the Golden Book of thre Clergy of France contains the names of 3276 priests dead on the field of honor and 8000 decorated with the Croix de Guerre. Of the 80 seminaries in France, one stands pre-eminently forth as having made the supreme sacrifice. The Seminary of St. Sulpice, Issy, has an honor roll of 80 priest-graduates, and 101 clerical students, who “gave their lives that France might live.” Of "these students 13 were priests and 20 had received the subdiaconate. Seventy-two were officers, and 13 were decorated with the Cross of t'De Legion of Honor, the highest obtainable military distinction in France. With the exception of military schools, - like St. Cyr, no college or university "has a eater percentage of men who died for their country. The members of the Catholic Evidence Guild had a pleasant surprise recently (says an English exchange) when, towards the close of their weekly meeting, they were visited in their new premises, the Hut (situated in the Westminster Cathedral grounds), by the Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand. His Grace was accompanied by his nephew, Mr. V. C. Redwood, who is Master of the Guild, and met with a very cordial

reception. In a brief address, the Archbishop said it was a very, great pleasure to him to be there that evening to express his high appreciation of what the Guild had already done, and especially of. what ho Hoped it would achieve in the future. Ip His Grace said that he was in Hyde Park; on the previous Sunday, and heard the excellent lectures both from gentlemen and. ladies — complete, and thoroughly . convincing. His Grace then imparted his blessing to the gathering. - The Bishop of Clifton (England), in a Pastoral Letter apropos of St. Joan of Arc and Blessed Oliver Plunket, thus refers to the latter’s relics and shrine at Downside: —We of this diocese are naturally interested more than any others in England can be in the great event of Whit Sunday, for since the year 1883 the remains of the Blessed Oliver, all but the head, which is at Drogheda, and an urn, which is treasured by the Franciscan Sisters at Taunton, have reposed in the Abbey church at Downside. At Downside, too, are preserved the last letters that he wrote from his prison in Newgate, together with those written to him by his friend and fellow-prisoner, the Benedictine Father Corker, who sent him “a capp, and an handkerchief” to wear at his execution, together with “two guineys to give the executioner at Tyburn.” Great, then, is the distinction which our diocese enjoys. In years to come the [Martyr’s Shrine at Downside, conspicuous above the high altar, will draw many a pilgrim, from near and far, there to invoke the help of him who, to use his own words, died “for his calling, his character, and his office.” There at least the Catholics of Ireland and England, whose fathers were victims of the same persecution, will kneel together, joined in the indissoluble bond of the self-same Faith, to pay their common tribute to their common patron, the great Archbishop.