Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 11, 25 March 1925, Page 45

Here and There

A French Witness and the Crucifix.— An unexpected incident occurred at the t. Chamber of Deputies, where a special investigating committee was examining the electoral expenditures of various political parties during the last elections. The committee had summoned a M. Gaillard, an industrial man of Paris and president of the Grocers' Syndicate, in order to find out whether the group which he represents had subsidised any candidates. When M. Gail- ; lard appeared, the chairman of the committee M . Renaudel, a Socialist deputy, asked him to swear to tell the whole truth -Hie witness looked about him. -Is there no crucifix here?" he asked. "If there is none I cannot swear. I am a Catholic. In my eyes there is but one. oath that countsthe oath which is given before God. When you present to me an image of Christ I can swear to tell the whole truth." Rather surprised by this demand, which was hard v expected, the Socialist chairman questioned hat should be donp thG Cmmittee -± k^w Pressed _,, uone. The majority exP cssed the opimon that the scruples of -Porte o, should be respected, a-1 so the reporter of the committee, who is an antidermal deputy in the Chamber, promised to tews a crucifix to the next se'ssL so it e,Ved V ° f "• Gaillard might be re-

* * * &rM M af r^-" Carmehte Monastery of Lo„ ghl . ea Abbev, ™ ceded pnosts orders at the hands of the late Pope Pius X, when hU u+« tr • was Pn+vinvr,* rtV late Holl «ess --oneo f the lemCe ,, is Father ~,;;"'•;; ■sclhr and r r tor of ««» hcnoiais, and an orator of great hrilK™,, u la ly vl,™ I„. „ reachecl i,, T ,. is| • i i ~ lacl Uy hls »ame a number nf

Iho name “Denis 5? A i asked tlm A ' respondent has T , the d men can Ecclesiastical Review with the name “Denis” is so commonly mot . 1S is so commonly mot « th amongst the Irish people, copsidering 11 at there « no Irish saint „f that name £ -'Stjoii elicited the following reply lew names in Ohm-ch history so decidedly represent leadership in one or other if the great movements of ecclesiastical reform in final and m disciplinary matters as that of Dionysius. Thus, beginning with the Areopagite, reputed to have been the first Bishop of Athens, and again of Paris who hfmof fr d y I>io,l - °f, Corinth and Jura of Alexandria, we have in the very first pages of the Church national apostles and defenders of orthodoxy, whose teachingeven if the writings attributed to them are not 111 all cases authentic-was accepted as the basis of missionary preaching. With Pope Dionysius in the following century Ave find the same name identified with the reorganisation of the Church of Rome, which became a model for the churches of Gaul and

the Celtic establishments that latter con-" formed to the Roman usage. In a like sense Dionysius Exiguns renders the name popular as a reformer of the ecclesiastical calendar and the Easter celebration adopted by the Irish monks who stood by Rome. In consequence, saints of the name multiply, so that the present martyrologies count some sixty canonised heroes of that name. Apart trom this, the particular popularity r of Dionysius among the Celtic people is probably due to the special favor in which the first saint of the name, Dionysius the Arcopagite, was held among the Irish monks in their schools, through the commentaries and translation of his supposed writings by Duns Scotns Erigena (do Provincia 0.E.M., Hibernian), the advocate of neo-platonic philosophy and an ardent defender of the prerogatives of the Blessed Mother of Christ. Later in Irish history that popularity appears to haw taken on a distinctly national character, when a Cistercian abbot, Dionysius de Buellio (of Boyle), had to defend the dee of Tuam against the encroachments of English landlords upon Irish prerogatives in the territory of Enaghdue. The struggles if Irish Catholics after the fourteenth century against the attempts to destroy their sacred traditions, which were at once religious and national, probably contributed further to the hero-worship that renders the name Denis a distinctively Irish baptismal name.

* * * Captain McCullagh Describes Scene at Archbishop's Trial.—The following extract is from The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity by Captain Francis McCullagh. The writer, who was present at the trial of Archbishop Cieplak, lectured recently in America. " Wednesday, March 21, 1923, was the opening day of the trial. . . . "The first thing Judge Galkin did after coming in was to take a long look at his prospective victims. I never saw hatred so intense and undisguished as was concentrated into that look; and for the first time in my life, I had a practical illustration of those phrases which are, as a rule, in the less primitive society of the contemporary West, nothing but phrases— mostly to the poet and the historical novelist—phrases which speak of eyes that stab, of glances so charged with intense malignity that if looks could kill they would cause instant death. During the course of the trial I frequently caught the same terrible look on the faces of Krylenko and Krasikov, of the witnesses for the prosecution, and of the Red journalists who were supposed to be giving an impartial report of the case, and realised with a genuine shock that the world wherein for the moment I found myself was animated by, that same passionate intolerance which led the Roman mob, the Roman officials,' and even the Roman intellectuals of Trajan's time ..to loathe the Christians With a". fury so immeasurable as to embarass and alarm.' even Caesar himself." u A <f

A Golden Jubilee. —Numerous , friends’, in literary and scholastic circles in Dublin, Cork and other parts of Ireland have extended hearty congratulations to Air. Eneas J. Murray and Mrs. Murray, 4 Charleville Road, N.C.R;, Dublin, on the celebration recently of the golden jubilee of their wedding. Mr. Murray had been formany years headmaster of the Marlborough Training College, from which he retired some 1,0 or 12 years ago, having previously % filled the post of Headmaster of Cork Model. School. He was President •of the. Model School Teachers Assdsiation, a member of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language since its inception, of which his friend Air. J. J. MacSweenoy, of the Royal Irish Academy, was secretary. v Airs. Murray, who figured prominently as a most successful teacher, was head unstress of Model Schools in Cork and Dublin. She is. a daughter of the late Mr. Joseph O’Ldngan.rwhose work in connection with ancient Irish manuscripts is so well known to readers in the Royal Irish Academy, and a. pioneer in the Irish Language movement. He .was a native of Cork, the son of Michael Og O’Longan, a Gaelic writer and poet and organiser for the leaders of the United Irishmen in 1798. Since his retirement Mr. Murray has devoted his time mainly to urging forward a movement for the after-education of neglected boys and in assisting the members of the Irish Vigilance Association to prevent the exhibition of objectionable pictures and for which purpose the Dublin Corporate authorities issued special warrants to the members. [A relative of Air.- AicSweeney'' mentioned above, and also in this page of our issue for February 25, in the person of Airs. A. R. Boake, resides at Waidmio, Bav of Islands.— Ed. N.Z.TJ" ■ /,