Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 42, 26 October 1922, Page 47

Catholic World

- ILLNESS OF CARDINAL GASQUET. ; Cardinal Gasquet, who recently arrived in South America, where he is to consecrate the Abbey Church of St. Benedict in the, Brazilian city of Sao Paolo, has been seized with a sudden illness, according to an agency telegram, and has been obliged to cancel. his public engagements (says Catholic News Service, London, for September 2). Now in his 76th year, the venerable Prefect of the Vatican Archives has been a Benedictine monk for 51 years. Entering the novitiate at Belmont in his 19th year, he was professed as a monk at Downside in 1871, where he became Prior in 1878. From 1900 until 1914, with the title of Abbot of St. Alban’s, his Eminence ruled the English Benedictine Congregation as its President, and during his term of office the houses of Downside, Ampleforth, and Douai were raised to the rank of abbeys. In May of 1914 Pope Pius X. created him a Cardinal.

During his distinguished career Cardinal Gasquet has been connected with many Roman commissions. Leo XIII. appointed him in 1896 on the Commission on Anglican Orders. In 1907 his Eminence was appointed to the presidency, of the Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate, and the late Pope nominated him Prefect of the Vatican Archives as well as Librarian of the Holy Roman Church. Cardinal Gasquet is by birth a Londoner, and enjoys the distinction of being one of the very few Londoners who, in the course of many centuries, have occupied the high position of a Cardinal in Curia. <X~XxX*>XX> THE VATICAN AND PALESTINE. Cardinal Gasparri’s rejoinder on the revised draft on the Palestine Mandate, which has now been received in London by the British Government, is very likely to be accepted, since it will provide a way out of the many difficulties that have sprung up around the question of Palestine. The Holy See desires to have represented on the special commission which is to regulate the ownership and guardianship of the Holy Places, members of certain Catholic nations. And as several nations are making their own special demands in regard to Palestine, the suggestions of the Cardinal Secretary of State do offer one way out of the many perplexities that have arisen over the varying national demands. But in addition to the rights and claims of Catholics, a new condition has now arisen out of the activities of the Orthodox churches, who now insist upon being heard. For example, the Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem has now filed a petition on behalf of its claims, and the Orthodox Armenians are about to put forward demands of their own. The Spanish Government also insists upon the retention of its ancient claims, and it reserves the right of having one Spanish member among the advisers of the ' Procureur de la Gustodia, and to have a say in the election of the Superiors of the various convents and religious establishments. - So . that apart from the special claims made by the Holy See in the name of Catholic interests in general; the British Government is called on to face the different national claims, which in more than one instance are conflicting. Meanwhile the Papal rejoinder is being closely and carefully considered by the British f , Government, and it should not be surprising to hear that Cardinal Gasparri’s suggestions are to be acted upon. •X'-X-X-X-X* CATHOLICS AND . THE UNIVERSITIES. At the University of. Oxford there are six houses or hostels of study under Catholic auspices and affiliated to the University as schools, not counting the recently-founded Catholic Labor College, which forms no part of the academic life of Oxford. These Caltho(l?c establishment are

Campion •Hall, the Jesuit house of studies, the College of the Salesians (known as Salesian House), St. Benet’s Hall, the hostel of the Benedictines of Ampleforth, Grosseteste House, the Franciscan house of studies, and St. Charles House for secular clergy. , •• Besides these, there is the Catholic oratory under the direction of Mgr. Barnes, ■who is appointed to minister to the Catholic members of the University. Yet, until 1895 it was out of the question for any • Catholic to go through the academic course at either Oxford or Cambridge. Founded originally as Catholic homes of learning, the two ancient universities became, through the medium of an ingenious series of religious tests, absolutely barred to Catholics. Students and masters were obliged to subscribe to the Articles of the Church of England, to attend the worship and receive the Sacrament of that Church, and so for centuries no Catholic appeared amongst the undergraduates or teachers of Oxford. It was not until February, 1895, that a petition was addressed to the English bishops, drawing attention to the fact that the barriers excluding Catholics from Oxford and Cambridge were removed. And following on that, in April of the same year, a Rescript of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda allowed the return of Catholic laymen to the schools of the ancient universities. From that time dates the Universities Catholic Education Board to which the Holy See entrusted the task of providing for the religious welfare of Catholics at the universities. With the way made open for laymen, the 'return of the clerics and religious to the universities was not long delayed. The Jesuits were the first to open a house of studies affiliated to the University of Oxford, and since the opening of Blackfriars, the Dominican house of studies, all the great religious Orders are now back again at Oxford. Cambridge is not so well off in this respect as Oxford. The Benedictines of Downside maintain Benet House as a University school for their monks. The secular clergy have their own hostel at St. Edmund’s House, and, as at Oxford, there is a Catholic chaplain to minister to Catholic members of the university only. ~ In each of the universities the Catholic under-graduates have their own student societies. The Newman Society at Oxford takes its name from the great convert, while the Fisher Society of Cambridge recalls the fact that Cambridge in the old days was in the jurisdiction of the Catholic bishops of Rochester, of whom the martyred Cardinal, John Fisher was one of the most illustrious. FRANCE DODGES ATROCITY INQUIRY. On the ground that it cannot lay its hands on a sum of about £IOOO, the French Government has put a check to the inquiry into the Turkish persecution of Christians in the Near East. The actual inquiry was to have been undertaken by the International Red Cross, and the American Government had agreed with the British to furnish its quota of the total cost, a matter of some £4OOO. But apparently France has backed down,'alleging that the paltry sum of £IOOO, or thereabouts, is not to be secured, and that the proposed inquiry savors somewhat of politics. There is the possibility that the American and British Governments may go ahead with the inquiry, providing the total cost between them, and the suggestion receives con-, siderable support from the American, relief workers in the Near East, who are all agreed upon the : details of the barbarous persecution \of Christians that is going on still at the hands of the Turks. But unless the American and British Governments get together and push this inquiry through, there seems no possibility whatever of the. lifting of the. Turkish persecution, which has exterminated nearly half a million Greek and Armenian Christians along the Black Sea coast-line alone.