Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 28, 2 July 1924, Page 47

Catholic World

INTERESTING-WIRELESS EXPERIMENT FAILS. What promised to be a very interesting wireless experiment had to be dropped, for the time being, owing to the. defective reception of the Pope’s receiving set at the Vatican (says Catholic News Service, London T for May 12). It was proposed that Cardinal Bourne, speaking from -Westminster, should address a few words of greeting from London to his Holiness. But the Vatican set not quite perfect for long distance reception, and at the last moment the experiment had to be postponed. But the 1 promise of the unique proceeding aroused a great deal of interest, more particularly on the Continent, and even in Spain the wireless enthusiasts were all- in readiness to listen in to the Cardinal of Westminster speaking direct „ to the Holy Father ,in Rome. * -/ But although Cardinal Bourne was not able to address his Holiness, the Westminster Cathedral choir gave an excellent selection of sacred liturgical music and there was ' a sermon from the Cathedral by Mgr. Hewlett, the Administrator, and according to the Spanish newspapers Bilbao heard fairly well both the choral singing and the sermon. VATICAN POST FOR FRENCH PRIEST. The important task of classifying the Ethiopian mann- — scripts in the Vatican Library, has been entrusted by the ’ Pope to the Abbe Grebault,,,. priest of Neufmarche in the'diocese of Rouen. The Abbe Grebault is one of the .greatest living authorities on ancient languages, and frequently has been to transliterate ancient /documents and texts that have puzzled even expert students of the older languages of the East, • ! ■ Among the Ethiopian manuscripts of the Vatican Library are some of the rarest and most priceless documents in the world. Their classification will make them more readily accessible to the many scholars from all parts of the world who visit the Vatican Library to consult docu- , ments that can be seen nowhere else. ARCHBISHOP CIEPLAK ARRIVES IN ROME. . Archbishop Cieplak has at last arrived in Rome, coming on from Warsaw, where he has been resting after a year spent in the Soviet dungeons at Moscow. His arrival was invested with a great deal of significance; for, at the special wish of his Holiness, Cardinal Gasparri was at the station to welcome Mgr. Cieplak to Rome. The Cardinal Secretary of State doe, not' as a general thing, go to the station to greet visitors, however exalted. With his Eminence at the station was the Polish Minister to the Holy See. - Archbishop Cieplak has had his private audience with the Holy Father, who was Apostolic Delegate at Warsaw when the Bolshevist hordes were threatening the capital. .Very pathetic must have been the meeting between his Holiness and the prelate who has suffered so much for the faith but conjectures as to what took place must remain purely conjectures. The Archbishop says his visit has no political significance, and that he has come to Rome to v thank the Pope for his intervention with Moscow. J CARDINAL LEGATE CONSECRATES AUSTRIAN BASILICA. -, ■- The great new Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which has taken over sixty years in building and W accommodates 20,000 worshippers, and has been built en-. * . tirely by the voluntary gifts' of the Austrian Catholics, > was very fitly consecrated by the Austrian member of the Sacred College, Cardinal Fruhwirth, who came specially from Rome as Cardinal Legate of the Holy See. U; - The Cardinal made his first stop in Austria at Vienna ~before proceeding to Linz, which is the capital of Upper K Austria. In Vienna his Eminence was received in great state by., the Government, which, rendered to him *the serep : monies and honors usually "accorded to sovereign rulers.

: At Linz Cardinal Friihwirtb was the chief of a brilliant assembly of high N prelates, among whom were Cardinal von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich; the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, and 33 bishops who came from the different ■ dioceses -of Austria, as well as from Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Jugo-Slavia, and Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Hainisch’ President of the Austrian Republic, -and the Prime Minister, Monsignor Seipel, took part in their official capacity in the festival at Linz, which attracted many thousands of people to the city. ■» x, THE TURN OF THE TIDE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. The recent supplementary-- municipal , elections have gone very much in favor of the Popular Party, which has made quite considerable gains. On account of this, no doubt, the opponents of Catholicism, particularly the Socialists and Communists, have started up a campaign ■against the Popularists as being representative of the Catholics-. This campaign consists mostly in the demand for severe and radical measures against clericalism, and a renewed outcry for the .separation: of Church and State, winch is merely another word for a wholesale Confiscation! There is an outcry against the pl-escni/.Coalition Government, and a demand for a-. Red "government by councils that is, a series of Soviets. _ 'v//.-** .' - • : - But the population does not appear to have any great inteiest in this sort of thing. 'The people are suspicious of Communism, and the present tendency is for them to. align themselves on the side of order and reason. '-t' Coinciding with this state of mind in the political sphere, there are abundant signs of a religious awakening. Catholics are rallying in large numbers to religious practices, which many of them, under the stress and turmoil of recent years, had unhappily abandoned. Retreats and conferences, held in numerous parishes by missioners both secular and regular, have been remarkably well attended. And it is very agreeable to be able to state that the Catholics, whatever may be their individual political affiliations, have approached the altars in overwhelming numbers, andhave taken part in countless external demonstrations such as the processions of the Holy Cross with which the various missions have closed. There is, therefore, quite ample proof that the Czech people, no less than the Slovaks, qre Catholic at heart, and are coming back in ever increasing numbers to their ancient religious loyalty. \ NOTES FROM ROME. The Abbe^ Basil Tak-ac, spiritual director of the Grand Seminary at Uzhorod,- in Russian Carpathia, has been nominated by. the Holy See as Bishop -for the Greek Catholic Ruthcnians of North America. The informatory process relating to -the/ bi-hop-eiect has been held at the Nunciature in Prague by his Excellency Mgr. Marmaggi, Apostolic Nuncio. Abbe Takac will receive episcopal consecration at Uzhorod, at the hands of bishops of the Greek Catholic Rite Mgr. Papp, Bishop of Lzhoiod, Bishop Njaradi of Presov, and Bishop Fischer of Kosice. ' ‘ The Nuncio is interesting himself in the Prague branch of the Apostolate of SS. Cyril and Methodius, the society that is working for the union of the Slav Orthodox schismatics with Rome. The new Bohemian branch elf-- the organisation includes amongst its members the .Archbishop of Prague, with his Auxiliary, the prelates and canon's of tho Metropolitan Chapter, and many other prominent churchmen. There are already two churches in Prague For Catholics other than those of the Latin Rite; one for Russians of the Catholic Russian- Rite, the other for the lluthcniops and Ukrainians k of. the Greek Catholic Rite. The Nuncio has taken upon himself to defray the cost of installing electric light in the church for the Russian Catholics.