Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 19, 27 May 1925, Page 55

Catholic World

- CARDINAL BONZANO ASSUMES NEW OFFICE. Cardinal Bonzano, former Apostolic Dele* gate in Washington, has been appointed Protector of the Friars Minor, and the p church of Saint Antony lias been assigned to him, of which he solemnly took possession a few days ago (says Catholic News Service, London, for March 23). The Cardinal was received at the entrance of the church with full state by the Minister General of the Friars Minor, Father Klumper, and the professors and students of the International College. After Father Klum i per had read an address of welcome, Cardinal Bonzano replied, praising the Order which for seven centuries had produced so many men eminent both for sanctity and for learning, v Your mission Cardinal Bonzano conclud- ]■ ed — by no means over; there are to-day fratricidal strivings and interior discords, which are tormenting both old Europe and our own Italy. And to you, blessed peacemakers, is given the stern task of bringing peace into the world. SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CHURCH IN CZECH ©-SLOVAKIA. The Socialist campaign against the Church in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, which has been launched under the pretext of opposition to the joint pastoral of the Slovak episcopate, has caused Bishop Kmetko of Nitra 'to address a letter to the central Government on the matter. , Bishop. Kmetko, who formerly sat in the Upper House as a Senator, speaks in the name of all the Slovak bishops, and says: “During the past week a number of unwarrantable charges have been circulated in the anti-Catholic press. Particularly, it has been said that certain foreign factors, by - no means friendly towards our State, had influenced the bishops of Slovakia and Subcarp athia in the composition of their pasj toral letter. “The episcopate both of Slovakia and Subcarpathia have continued to show, by facts, their sentiments of perfect loyalty and their unqualified affection for the Czecho-Slovak Republic. “In accord with all the bishops of Slov- | akia, we declare publicly that our joint letI ter was written on our own initiative, and | it had no other object in view than those | religious and moral ends in the light of which the episcopate must consider the welfare of our State; sentiments which, in the r opinion of the wisest rulers and scholars of all countries, exercise the most powerful influence for good amongst the citizens. This joint pastoral, as has been said on £ other occasions, was no more than a warning to the Catholics to have nothing to do \ with the anti-religious trade unions and other associations. But it has been raised to a political issue for purely sectarian ends. The German Social Democrats in Parliament called on the Government to proceed without delay with its scheme for separat-

ing Church and State. Not to be out-done, the Czecho-Slovak National -Socialists pressed an amendment on the Government, demanding the prosecution of the entire Slovak episcopate, and a further indictment of the bishops for having acted contrary to the Constitution of the Republic. Not only that, but both the Social Democrats and the National Socialists insisted that the Popular Party deputies should either vote in condemnation of the bishops, or else resign from the Coalition Government. The Popular Party, which is a Catholic party, has very naturally refused to condemn the pastoral, and rather than give the slightest countenance, its Ministers are prepared to resign from the Government and the whole Party to go into opposition, which means a. political crisis, since without the Popularists the Government will bo in a minority. The attitude taken up over the pastoral is purely factional, for the Socialists and their allies care nothing wluvtever for religion, and are outside the Church anyway, so the condemnations contained in the pastoral do not touch them in the least. The manoeuvre is, first of all, to weaken the Government by trying to detach the Popular Party from the Coalition; and, secondly, it is designed to attract votes away from the Popular Party when the next general elections come round. ‘O'CKMMM GERMAN PROTESTANTS GET ALARMED. There is no denying that religious peace is declining in this country (writes Baron rede rich von Rama). The campaign against the Bavarian bulwark of German Catholicism, launched by General Ludendorf and the Evangelical League ended as a dismal failure; and the nervousness in extreme Protestant circles is growing, revealing itself by continual provocations, and in attacks and acts of offensiveness. It must be freely admitted that for Protestants of this kind there is good reason for nervousness, particularly if one takes into account the continuously increasing flow of converts to the Catholic Church; the High Church movement in German Protestantism, and last though not least, the significant facts of the birth statistics. Some Figures. It is a verifiable fact that the Protestant population is constantly diminishing on account of the falling birth rate, while the Catholic population is increasing for precisely the opposite reason. Take Bavaria, as an instance. During recent years a number of secondary schools in distinctly Protestant parts of our country have been closed because of lack of pupils. This has happened at Uffenheim, Feuchtwangen, Turnau, and elsewhere. In other places classes had to he reduced: in Rothenburg, Weissenburg, Memmingen, Nordlingen, and Kitzingen. In other districts schools, are

scheduled to be closed in the future, as the supply of pupils is gradually falling off such places are. Hersbruck, Rothenburg, and

one or two others. But, on the other hand, it has been found necessary to start new secondary schools at Giinzburg, Forchheim, Lohr, Weiden, and Tirachenreuth—that is to say, in distinctively Catholic districts. Since 1900 no fewer than eleven such schools in exclusively Protestant districts have ceased to function, while nine schools more or less recently opened are found in Catholic districts. These are facts that cannot be explained away. In 1884 we had in our. lyceums in Bavaria a proportion of 61.4 per cent, of Catholics to 33.7 per cent, of Protestants; in 1914 the Catholic proportion' ■ was found to be 67.29 per cent. Catholic Increase. The augmentation of the Catholic percentage, on account of the higher birthrate, is strikingly evident in the statistics for Augsburg. In the now far-off times of the Reformation the entire city gave itself over to Protestantism; and when the Blessed Peter Oanisius preached in Augsburg Cathedral his congregation consisted of half a dozen Catholics. The elementary schools of Augsburg in 1900, had 6592 Catholic children and 2688 Protestant children; in 1905 these numbers stood respectively at 7548 and 2741. Five years later the Catholic children numbered 8794 and the Protestants 2881; in 1915 these figures stood at 15,587 and 3837; in 1920 they were 16,391 and 3556; and in 1924, which is conditioned by the consequences of the war, the figures were 13,689 Catholics and 2895 Protestants. In other words, in the space of 25 years the percentage of Catholic children had risen from 70.9 to 81.1 per cent., while that of the Protestants had fallen from 28.1 to 17.9. Protestant Alarm. It is in this change in the conditions in. Bavaria that an explanation will be found for the desperate efforts of the Evangelical League to bring the Reformation," which “had only been suspended,” to its comple- , tion; to “convert” us to the “true Gospel.” But the times have changed, and the sort of thing that might have been possible some ; four centuries ago, is not at all possible in this year 1925. And when it is realised that even now in this year 1925 the number of Catholic children in the whole of Germany : is exactly the same as that of the Protestant i children; that although two-thirds of the s inhabitants are still Protestant to the one- ■ third that is Catholic; the futile wrath of * . ■j.r-.Mv: i our -German Ken sits can be readily under- - stood. For these things can neither be - explained away nor checked by an endless i and inept vilifying of Rome, our Cardinal, 3 and the Jesuits. • , ; Inevitably and surely, events arc march- ? ing onward to the time when Germany will , become once again, as in the most glorious I epochs of her past, an entirely Catholic 3 country.