CATHOLIC GROWTH IN SWITZERLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1920, Page 17

CATHOLIC GROWTH IN SWITZERLAND.

The Swiss city of Geneva was formerly best known as the home of John Calvin. More recently it has been associated with the international administration of the Red Cross and in the future may be distinguished as the seat of government of the League of Nations (says the Irish Catholic). It is of interest to note that Calvin's town has lost much of its former Calvinistic aspect, and .is now a Catholic community by a comfortable majority. It still retains, however, reminiscences of its former position in its discrimination against . things Catholic. The Catholic churches which were delivered into the hands of the Old Catholic schism in the seventies of the last century have been restored to Catholic worship mainly through the work of M. Ador, Geneva's foremost citizen. "The Catholic majority in the -m----tire province,'' says the Missionary, "is nearly 10,000, and all political portents point to the early future for the spectacle of the city of Geneva being ruled by adherents of Rome." Though the city is far more Catholic than non-Catholic, yet religious Orders are not suffered to have a legal existence; our Sisters must wear secular clothes out of doors, and priests are forbidden so much as the use of the surplice on such occasions as funeral processions. Yet the growth of more just and even gentler feelings is acknowledged among the younger members of the ruling class. The last Bishop of Geneva was the greatest Catholic of his day in Europe, St. Francis de Sales. His successor in the title shall be. installed not many years hence, if we ire to trust the tokens of God's will seen in present conditions. '