Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 9, 1 March 1923, Page 47

Catholic World

FATHER VAUGHAN MEMORIAL. After some consideration (.says Catholic News Service, London) it has been decided that the East End memorial to the late Father Bernard Vaughan shall take the form of a central school for higher education. The school will, accordingly, be founded in the East End close to the great Irish church in the Commercial Road at Stepney, where Father Vaughan spent several nights each week in ministering to the poor. Boys and girls from 11 Catholic parishes will he eligible for the scholarships at the school. Very many of the Catholics in this part of London are either Irish by birth or descent, and so the Irish interest enters largely into the scheme. His Excellency the Gov-ernor-General of the Free State (Mr. T. M. Healy) is one of the patrons and subscribers, and with him are associated the last Viceroy, Lord Fitz Alan, and Cardinal Bourne, who although a Londoner by birth is Irish on his mother's side. MASS QUEUES AT CHRISTMAS. For the first time in history the Mass queue made its appearance in Great Britain at Christmas, when" in many of the great towns in England and Scotland the faithful were found lined up seeking admission to the Midnight Masses. The war made the ration queue familiar: but it has remained for these days when Christianity is commonly supposed to have failed, for the attendance at Mass to he so great that the faithful have been obliged to line up to take their turn at getting into the churches. Sunderland is one of the cities where the crowds lined up for the Midnight .Mass: and at one church in the city so great Mas the crowd that the church doors had to he closed some time before the Mass was announced to begin, and hundreds waited outside on the pavement while Mass was celebrated. 2000 Communions are estimated to have been made at the Midnight Masses in this city. In Glasgow, which has an enormous Catholic population, the pressure of the crowds for the Midnight Masses was even greater. The rain came down in torrents, and a fierce gale was blowing up the Clyde. Vet for all that, crowds some hundreds of yards long, waited patiently at . the doors of the many churches in the city, hoping to secure standing room at the least for the Midnight Mass. "Westminster Cathedral was built to accommodate vast crowds, and although the queue did not show itself there, tho spacious nave and long aisles were barely sufficient to house the great crowd that came to assist at the .Midnight Mass —even the great galleries around the whole length of the Cathedral accommodated as many as the floor space would permit. - A PLAIN TALE OF THE SEA. During a recent visit to the ships in the Rothesay Docks the ship-visitors of the Apostleship of the Sea were approached by a Chinese seaman, one Han San Chow, a. native of Canton, who desired to become a Catholic. And thereby hangs a tale of wonder and of piety. For on examination the members of the Apostleship discovered that the Chinaman had been instructed and persuaded thereunto by a Goanese shipmate, who had labored at his conversion during the voyage. The neophyte / was taken to the chaplain of the local branch of the Apostleship, who found to his surprise that this pagan Chinaman had been so thoroughly instructed by his shipmate that he was ready for instant baptism.

So on the following day Francis Xavier Coutinho, of Goa, stood as sponsor at the font for his Chinese brother in the Faith, and at the altar was a communicant with him.

It is not known whether all the Goanese seamen in the •British mercantile service are as ardent apostles as Francis Xavier Coutinho; but there are some 10,000 Goanese in tho mercantile marine, and the visitors of the Apostleship report that all they have met are fervent Catholics. On the octavo day of St. Francis Xavier, to whom the Goanese

have a special devotion, St. Patrick's Church in Glasgow was thronged with seamen from Goa, at whose request a High Mass was celebrated. THE HOLY FATHER. RECEIVES DIPLOMATS. The entry of the New Year was observed in the Pauline Chapel by a solemn "Te Deum," and on the morning of the Feast of the Circumcision the "Veni Creator" was intoned before the Mass. His Holiness celebrated Mass in his private chapel, at which fifty persons were present receiving Holy Communion at the hands of the Pontiff. The formal audience of the day was that accorded by Pius XI. to the diplomatic representatives, when tho Ministers of Hungary, Rumania, Monaco, Austria,. Poland, and Czechoslovakia, with tho Charges des Affaires'of Peru, France, and Colombia, offered to bis Holiness their congratulations and those of their Governments. For the moment Great Britain is' not represented, as the new British Minister has not yet arrived from Switzerland, and thus his credentials have not been personally received by the Pope. With the Ministers in audience were representatives of the Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights of Malta. The President of the Italian Catholic Young Men's Association has been created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory. In transmitting the insignia to the new Grand Cross, Cardinal Gasparri took occasion to express the Holy Father's appreciation of the new Knight's great work for the Catholic cause in Italy.

Among those received in private audience on New Year’s day were the former President of Brazil, Sir. Epitacio Pessoa, and his wife, who spoke to them for half an hour in his private library.

The -100 Armenian orphans, to whom the Pope has offered a home in the Papal Villa at Castelgandolfo, have proved too much for the accommodation of the establishment, so a rearrangement has had to be made. Two hundred of these victims of Turkish brutality are staying on at the Papal Villa, and the others are being housed in the summer villa belonging to the College of Propaganda. However, the maintenance of all the orphans is still the charge of the Holy Father, who has adopted them, and placed them in the care of the Armenian nuns of tho Sacred Heart. THE CHURCH IN ENGLAND: OVER 4,000,000 CATHOLIC'S IN THE EMPIRE. The Catholic, Directory for Great Britain, just published for the year 1923, contains some interesting statistics regarding the Catholic Church in Great Britain. The estimated Catholic population of England and Wales (in 1921) was something just short of two millions, the actual figure being 1,960,787. For Scotland the return was 001,304; for Ireland, 3,242,670. Gibraltar and Cyprus give something over 10.000, and Malta 215,864, so that in Europe the Catholic population in the British Commonwealth territories exceeded six millions. In Asia the return gives 2,082,397: in British possessions in Africa 699,083, and in the British possessions on the American Continent, including Canada, 3,842,660. Australia has a Catholic population of something over one' million, the exact estimate being 1,174,154, so that the total number of Catholics in the British Commonwealth is estimated at' 14,439,941.

In America and its English-speaking dependencies the return is something over twenty-nine millions, so that in

English-speaking countries the present strength of tho Catholic population is 43,455,715.

Among the Catholic Dioceses in England, Liverpool comes first with an estimated Catholic population of 390,713. Salford follows with 293,400. Westminster comes third with 260,000, and Hexham and Newcastle follows with 227,807. The other English dioceses according to population include Southwark, ✓ Leeds, ~ Birmingham (all these being over 100,000), Cardiff, Shrewsbury, Middlesbrough (which have between 50,000 and 80,000 each). The smallest diocese is Menevia with 9784 Catholics.

The Catholic baptisms in England and Wales during 1921 numbered 73,322. There were 20,866 marriages and 11,621 conversions. The Catholic clergy numbered 2491 secular "priests and 1444 members of Religious Orders. There wore 1195 Catholic elementary schools in England and Wales with 319,308 pupils enrolled, and 432 secondary schools having 46,882 enrolments.