Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 43, 15 October 1924, Page 47

Catholic Worl d

CATHOLICS TO HEAD CITY GOVERNMENT. Tho election of Alderman Sir Alfred Bower, as Lord Mayor of London, for the coming civic year that begins in November, is (says Catholic News Service, London, for August 18) considered to he extremely likely; in which event the high governors of the City of London, for the first time since the reign of Mary Tudor, will all be Catholics. Sir Alfred Bower is a Catholic,, and so also are the two Sheriffs, Alderman Barthorpe and Mr. Harold Downer. And the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs are all powerful within the limits of their City of London; so much so, that even the King asks permission to enter London when he arrives at the entrance to the city in state. The election, of the Lord Mayor is practically automatic, and has no connection with popular votes, and it takes place towards November. The Sheriffs are nominated on the Nativity of St. John Baptist preceding, though they do not enter upon office until the feast of St. Michael tho Archangel—a custom which is one of the relics of London's honorable Catholic past. AUXILIARY BISHOP FOR BIRMINGHAM. Mgr. Glancey, Provost and Vicar-General of the Birmingham archdiocese, has been nominated to the episcopate by the Holy See as Auxiliary to the Archbishop of Birmingham. The nomination has been made at the request of the Archbishop, and it is a clear proof of the progress now being made by the Church in this flourishing Catholic centre. The Bishop-designate is an old student of Oscott, and since his ordination in 1877 has Idled many important ecclesiastical posts and taken a full share in public life, particularly on the side of education. Nor is Mgr. Glancey unknown as a writer, having several scholarly volumes to his name. He is also editor of the iOrbis Catholic tin, a Catholic year book very much on the lines of the famous Aimuario Pontificio that is published at tho Vatican Press. GERMAN CHANCELLOR ATTENDS MASS. Dr. Marx, Chancellor of the German Republic, whose presence in London at the head of the German delegation has helped to bring the Conference to a satisfactory ending, found time amid his arduous duties to attend Mass at the German church of St. Boniface in the East End. The church is in the care of the Fathers of the Pious Society of Missions, and the Rector, who preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion, reminded his hearers that during this year is being celebrated the 1200th anniversary of St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and that the Apostle of Germany was an Englishman. A good many German Catholic societies are attached to this church, and after Mass the Chancellor attended a reception in the parish room when the heads of the local societies were presented to him. The German religious, the Poor Handmaids of Christ, who have three convents of their Order around London, came in a strong contingent to welcome the Chancellor. PRIESTLY JUBILEE OF AUSTRIAN PREMIER. Monsignor Ignatz Seipel, Prime Minister of Austria, who has almost recovered from the wounds inflicted on him by a would-be assassin, celebrated very quietly the silver jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. Nothing could have been more, characteristic of the priest-premier than the humble surroundings in which he received the members of the diplomatic corps and other

distinguished visitors who brought their congratulations. At the head of the diplomatic corps was the Apostolio Nuncio, who conveyed the congratulations of his fellow diplomatists, but those also of his Holiness the Pope. For the first time since the attempt on his life, the Chancellor was able to celebrate Mass, on the occasion of his 48th birthday, in the Sacred Heart church. A huge congregation filled the church for the Premier's Mass, and both on entering and leaving the church Mgr. Seipel was cheered by large crowds that blocked up the approaches to the building. PAPAL CONSTITUTIONS FOR THE HOLY YEAR. The Pope has issued three Apostolic Constitutions relating to the Holy Year. The first of these suspends, during the Holy Year all indulgences, except those in articulo mortis, that of the recitations of the Angelus, of accompanying the Viaticum, the Portiuncula of Assisi, and those granted by the Nuncios, archbishops and bishops in Masses and pontifical benedictions. At the same time the indulgences pro defimctis remain in force. There are also suspended the faculties granted to confessors outside of Rome to absolve in reserved cases, except those provided for in the Code of Canon Law. In the second constitution special faculties are granted to the Canons Penitentiary of the greater basilicas and to the other confessors, delegates of the Cardinal Penitentiary. Among these is one reducing to only three the number of days prescribed for visiting the basilicas, whenever there are impediments to making the prescribed ten days visit. The third constitution refers to enclosed nuns and other religious in novitiates, to those engaged in teaching in colleges or in communities approved by ecclesiastical authority, to the eremitical religious such as the Trappists and Carthusians, to prisoners, the sick, to workers who cannot interrupt their work, and to the aged over 70 years. To all these is granted the privilege of having commuted by the local ecclesiastical authority all those prescribed works for gaining the indulgence in favor of equivalent works. Nor is it, under the constitution, necessary to visit the basilicas on foot; any means of conveyance is permitted. * ALSACE PREPARES TO RESIST. The municipal council' of Kaysersberg, in the Upper Rhine, has sent a strong protest to the Government regarding the anti-clerical part of its programme. In almost identical terms, the municipal council of Saint-Louis has passed a resolution of protest. And as most of these protests echo the same thought, that of Kaysersberg reveals the state of public feeling in Alsace and Lorraine. This protest reads: • Faithful to the venerable traditions of ancient Alsace of that Alsace for which the words fatherland and religion are inseparably united and form a whole symbolised in the tricolor, the Municipal Council of the town of Kaysersberg is profoundly and painfully surprised at the report of religious persecution by the Government of the motherland. It protests with all its energies against the rupture with the Vatican and against the introduction of the secularist laws in Alsace. It protests also against the abolition of the Concordat, that admirable instrument.. for domestic pacification, invented by the political genius of the First Consul,' ard which Bismarck himself, the promoter of the Eulturkampf had to respect, and which has allowed our country with all its different confessions to enjoy the benefits of religious peace. It protests against all attempts on religious institutions, against the open or. disguised sabotage of the denominational schools, against any watering down of the right of parents to. decide on the education of their children, and against any meddling with freedom of conscience', which is the first and foremost of all liberties.