Our Roman Letter

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 32, 30 July 1924, Page 23

Our Roman Letter

(By "Stannous.")

~.-'; . : June, 1924.>;; Vf i Recent years have witnessed here an intensified interest, in the apostolic work of the. "Foreign Missions. *tM fehureh' has never forgotten her Divine commission to teach all nations and to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor and lowly. The missionary has ever held 'a place of- : ~ special honor in the hearts of the Roman generations, almost as much for the natural value'of his unquestioning '•'" courage as for the supernatural quality of his willing sacri-' fice; to the mind of'the ordinary Roman, whether priest £ or. layman,, the missionary is one who may be called upon, . at any time to lay down his life in proof, of his Faith. In ' this connection' it is of interest to recall that more than.national college here in the. Eternal City has its roll of honor in ; its student mattyrolbgy; indeed, as one-counts time ..here, it is but yester;day. since Irish students lin Rome s werp faced with the constant prospect of living -the'. hunted;*^» lives of outlaw priosts in -Ireland and of forfeiting, their " earthly existence in final token of their faith in the message of the Incarnation. Not always has the modern missionary that dark shadow of tragedy lying across the path of 'his' future, yet he too must walk the ways of sacrifice. must be " prepared to go forth to lands unchartered"■ and- to regions

unknown, he must bid adieu to home and friends and kindred, for the love of the Divine Master he must pledge himself to a mode of existence that always implies personal abnegation and that sometimes means utter loneliness, and ho must do all this without prospect of human acknowledgment or. hope of earthly reward. Wherefore there is little cause for wonder in the fact that we who dwell near the tombs of the first Apostles should follow with affectionate interest the details ,of those others, our apostolic brethren, who speak the Master's message in the mission-fields of to-' day. That fraternal interest has manifested itself very clearly on several occasions here since the war. There was, for instance, the Missionary Congress held here two years ago, there was the renewed activity that issued in the establishment of the Supremo Council for the Propagation of the Faith, and there are all round us here to-day the busy preparations for tho coming Vatican Exhibition of tho Missions. * * * In all this growing interest in missionary effort and missionary achievement an Irishman cannot help noticing a general tendency to belittle, and indeed even to deny the very existence of, any such thing as Irish missionary activity. One constantly encounters ecclesiastics from France or from Belgium or from Holland who are apparently unaware of the fact that St. Columbanus was not the last of the Irish missionaries; and more than once one has heard prominent ecclesiastical personages here who, fortified with facts and figures about the missionary work of Dutchmen or Frenchmen or Belgians, are not above instituting offensive comparisons between Ireland and, say a country like Holland, very much to the credit of the latter. Quite recently in the course of a conversation with a prominent ecclesiastic, that dignitary expressed his surprise at the apathy with which Irishmen sometimes allow such comparisons to pass unchallenged, and. he voiced his wonder that Irish ecclesiastics at home had been content to allow the growth of a legend to the effect that their country lags behind in the field of missionary endeavor. In reply to a friendly query as to what he considered to bo the source or cause of this false impression in regard to. Ireland's contribution to the work of propagating the Faith he found the question one that was perhaps a little bit too direct; he remarked by way of answer that a discussion of that aspect of the facts of the situation would doubtless involve considerations of a very delicate nature which personally he would prefer to pass over in silence for the present. However he added one piece of excellent advice that I ask Irish ecclesiastics to take note of: ho said that in his opinion the time had come for Ireland to give to the world the facts about her propagation of the Faith and that Irishmen possessing a knowledge of such facts would do well to publish figures and statistics illustrative of Ireland's efforts to spread the faith in other lands. Why do not Irish ecclesiastics collect such figures and publish them, he asked. As an example of misrepresentation he took the case of the. Holy Ghost Fathers; members of the Irish Province of that Congregation have charge of more than one important -missionary district in Africa, yet because the head house of that body is in France all the credit in. tho .matter is given to. the latter country and none at all to Ireland. What he said about the Irish members of. the Congregation of the Holy Ghost is,'in its measure, equally true ,of other religious bodies, such as the Society for Afri- ' can Missions, the -Marists and the Oblate Fathers. He went on to urge that a few magazines like the Dutch Missionary Quarterly Jlct Missicwerk, or even a series of newspaper, articles, would shed a flood of light on the subject and would remove a world of misconception, if not of deliberate misrepresentation. He proceeded to.point out that apparently there was ample room for even a small volume setting forth the facts about Irish missionary effort in tho British Dominions during the last century. In this connection he •'remarked that it is worth noting that hot infrequently the pioneer work done by Irishmen and Irishwomen in. building up the Catholic Church in such countries has been set aside on the' ground that they were merely vorking among their .Own fellow-countrymen; whereas every credit is given to Dutch missionary priests and Brothers, and nuns for their missionary labors in Dutch settlements, and their generous

sacrifice does not seem to be discounted by the fact that not rarely they are-recognised as official functionaries of Holland and are in receipt of definite subsidies from the Dutch Government. Other things of more than passing interest he gave expression to, but his idea of a special volume wherein one might read the brilliant story of Irish effort and Irish achievement in the mission fields had fired my imagination. When I returned to my study I picked up the latest issue of the Annuaire Pontifical Catholique, the volume that for the past twenty-six years has annually to]d the tale of French missionary enterprise, and I could not help hoping that some Irish ecclesiastic in close touch with the work of Irish missions might be inspired to put his hand to the task of writing the Irish story, a story that is not one whit less glorious in its records of unselfish sacrifice and of unbidden heroism than any such story that might be told of any of the Catholic nations of to-day. <e» ... < * * * The Annuaire for the current year is a large volume of nearly nine hundred pages and its cost is less than two shillings. It is in its twenty-sixth year of life, having been founded in 1898 by Mgr. Battandier, a very capable and busy French ecclesiastic; he died two years ago in his native place, St-Felicien (Ardeche). His .successor as editor of the now famous Annuairc is Father Eutrope Chardavoine, and the careful reader of the pages of the present issue cannot help noticing how some of Mgr. Battandier's little characteristics have disappeared. For instance, in the list of the Cardinals according to the nations to which they belong Battandier used to print the name of his Eminence Cardinal Logue under the word Angletcrre, but the new editor has completely separated the English Cardinals from our Irish Cardinal and the name Logue duly appears under the heading Irlande. Again in the Tables displaying the various national.episcopates that constitute the Catholic Hierarchy of the world one is pleased to find that Ireland and Great Britain are represented as two distinct and separate nations, whereas the good Monsignor Battandier used to carry the principles of the Entente cordiale to the point of including the Irish episcopate as a subdivision of the section marked England. A third striking change is in the chapter giving Catholic statistics, numbers of Catholics in the various countries, numbers of Protestants, etc. Mgr. Battandier, in his note on Catholics in the British Empire, used to include Irish Catholics with Asiatics, Africans and Fiji Islanders. Father Charda'voine fia's approached the question in another way; he has a section on the development of Catholicism in the British Empire wherein he makes use of the figures given in the English Catholic Directory for last year in regard to the state of Catholicism in England, Scotland, and Wales. He apparently fully accepts the English valuation of the fallacious argument from the numbers of converts, an argument which I discussed in the March issue of these Notes from Home.' The remarkable thing about Father Chardavoine's treatment of the subject is that, in a chapter of .statistical notes purporting to give an account of the development of Catholicism, the name of Ireland does not once appear nor is any Irish contribution taken account of either in regard to pastoral work in the British Empire or anywhere else. In the chapter on the Apostolate of the Missions the new editor takes no account whatever of our Irish activity in that respect. The hundreds of priests sent out to the Foreign Missions by All-Hallows, Carlow, Kilkenny, Thurles and Waterford, to say nothing at all of the_ Irish Fathers of the Holy Ghost, .the Fathers of the African Mission Society in Cork and several other such missionary bodies in Ireland, find no mention whatsoever in the twelve closely printed pages of statistics and missionary facts while the sole reference to anything even remotely resembling an Irish contribution to the work of the mission fields is the simple word Maynooth in the list of Missions accredited to China. One hesitates to blame the good Father who has edited this brilliant review of the« present state of Catholicism in the world. Irishmen have been apathetic in the writing of their own records. They have let the legend grow. Surely it is time that some priest in intimate touch with the Irish missionary enterprise, should tell the world" the inspiring tale of Irish sacrifice in the mission fields.

' ■ WANGANUI NOTES . ; • v (From our own correspondent.) •_ ;* July 22.. We are enjoying the coldest spell we've had this winter, snow on the hills almost at our doors, and several lots of hail and sleet. It was most gratifying to find that in other parts of the Dominion the good folk were even colder than we, by as much as four, .half-a-dozen*and even ten degrees. Winter Show last week, our first attempt and not over thrilling, I fear. There was quantity anyway, four days and nights of it, any amount of fowls, side-shows and visitors, thousands of dogs and one solitary cat. It was a very fine show, but what some of us would like to know is, why these shows which are trying their level best to die gracefully, are kept alive in spite of themselves. The poor things are resurrected persistently into a state of semi-something, and the agony is needlessly prolonged while the public is expected to pay a higher price each season to witness this ''Dying Swan" business. I wonder will We have ''shows" in Heaven, or elsewhere? We are pleased to welcome into our midst Mr. and Mrs. Fennell and family, lately arrived from the south. Mr. Fennell has been transferred to the local office of the Public Works' Department, from Grey-month.---. .Mr, and Mrs. George Parsons have left for Australia taking with them our very good wishes for success and the good health they are seeking. The other night Mr. Parsons was farewelled by the Marist Cricket Club of which he had been the president. It was a pleasant gathering, Mr. A. Greener, on behalf of the club, presenting Mr. Parsons with a fountain pen and a gold pencil. Other speakers were Messrs. J. Hayhew. (lion. sec. W T anganui Cricket Association), H. Grieg, T. Souter, and G. Herd. The Gaiety Orchestra, consisting of Messrs. L. Koorey, C. Smithies, J. Greener, T. Souter and A. Foster, made music. Mr. Parsons in responding assured his friends that what he had done for the club had been a great.pleasure to him, and said that he would be happy to do the same again if he comes back here some day. Good luck to the , little family. Mr. and Mrs. Parsons were children here in Wanganui and have.spent most of their lives amongst us. . Congratulations to Mr. Paul Fremont, of the Aramoho parish, who has been appointed to an important position in the Borough Service. Mr. Fremont is a Wanganui old hoy, and he started right at the bottom of the ladder several 'years ago. That he has proved himself is evident from the fact that he has risen to be Borough Overseer, replacing Mr. Reynolds lately resigned. His friends wish him every success and good health necessary to carry out his responsible duties. Died recently at the Waipukurau Sanatorium after a very long illness, Mr. G. F. Biggins, lately of Castlecliff. Mr. and Mrs. Biggins came from the Home country, and during Mr. Biggins' illness, the family of father and mother and six children were received into the Church. Courageous and ever hopeful this devoted family whose breadwinner was disabled, did all they could, but the dread disease crept on, and finally claimed its victim. Rev. Father Minogue attended the sufferer during his stay at" the Sanatorium and performed the last sacred offices; Our sincere sympathy is extended to Mrs. Biggins and her young children—R.l.P. CHILDREN OF MARY SODALITY, TIMARU (From our own correspondent.) Last Wednesday evening the Children of Mary held a most successful euchre party and dance in St. Patrick's Hall, Browne Street. Over eighty couples were present, and Mesdames Martin, Hall, and O'Leary acted as chaperones. The card prizes were won by Mrs. Tovey and Mr. Buchanan, and the consolation prizes by Miss Harding and Mr. Barnet. Mr. Ted Travis, in a neat speech, congratulated the winners and presented the prizes. Rev. Father Hurley (spiritual director) and Fathers Barra and O'Ferrall were present during the evening. The hall and supper room were tastefully decorated with blue and white streamers, and a dainty supper was dispensed by_the members of the sodality under the supervision of the secretary (Miss N. MeAteer). Miss Campbell's Orchestra supplied excellent

music, extras being played by Misses .Spring, Egan, Richardson, -and Sullivan, and. dancing was indulged in for the Test of .the; evening. Mr. P. Stapleton controlled the floor, and altogether the ; function was a happy one, merely the foreviiTjruM* \+ in lienor! r\¥ r.+v«tivc of such a social nature