Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 51, 23 December 1925, Page 55

Catholic World

X |! The white population of the British Emfi> pire is only 60,000,000 persons, while the I number of its native race subjects is 5^00,000,000. The proportion, of sons who read and write in India is seven times as high as that of the daughters. : Jewellery, watches and diamond studded decorations received from various European monarchs, of a total intrinsic value of approximately $50,000 were stolen from the apartment of Domingo Merry del Val, brother of Cardinal Merry del Val, and of Don Alfonso Merry del Val, Spanish Ambassador to England. While the celebration of Founder's Day was being closed at the University of Notre Dame, fire destroyed one of the great buildings on the campus which marked a definite stage in the growth of the university since its founding in 1842. "There wouldn't be empty Protestant pews if Protestants confined themselves to inculcating lofty ideals in the mind of youth and ceased to concern themselves with other denominations," said Supreme Court Justice John Mac Crate in the course of an address on "True Values," recently, delivered in the Goodsell Memorial M. E. Church. A touching story of the Holy Year as a time of mercy and forgiveness lately reached London from Malta, famed for its heroic Catholic history. In commemoration of the Holy Year, says the dispatch, the governor of Malta has exercised the royal prerogative % of mercy to grant amnesty to a group of inmates of the Corradino Civil prison. Miss Alice Toomey, of New Bedford, U.S.A. attributes the cure of an injured foot, after eight and a half years of suffering, to the intercession of St. Teresa, the "Little Flower." Physicians have now certified that the foot is normal, although previous to a novena to St. Teresa the sufferer had consulted 23 doctors and still was forced to make her visits to the church with the aid of a cane. For the first time in its history, the Vatican has called an American priest to Rome for assignment to a post in the office of the papal secretary of state. The action is taken as a recognition of the rapid growth and development of the Catholic Church in America, which makes it desirable that an American priest be available in the office of the cardinal secretary of state. The Rev. Francis J. Spellman, D.D., of the staff of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, was selected for the position. He will depart shortly for Rome to take up his new duties. i Canon Courbe, eminent preacher, pastor of the Church of Saint Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, and one of the most popular priests in Paris has just died. Canon Courbe had a record I which, while not without precedent among the clergy, was, nevertheless, sufficiently rare. He was the father of twelve children. Entering Saint Sulpice at the age of 17, he left the seminary before ordination, married and had a large family. Three of hia sons entered holy orders. Becoming a widow-

er at the age of 47, the father re-entered Saint Sulpice and after his ordination a few years later, became pastor of Saint Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, the parish of the University of Paris. The deplorable condition of housing, and the decline in the religious influence and social conscience of the clergy of the English Established Church in the villages, are subjects of some astonishing revelations by the anonymous author of England's Green and Pleasant Land, which contains a series of articles written for the Nation in the Cobbett vein, though there is neither the range nor the power in the book of the famous Rural Rides. Supplementing his own accusation of the slothfulness and lack of social zeal among the clergy, the author said he has spoken with two County Council officials who are continually travelling about. One of them is reported to have said: "There are 470 parsons in the villages of this county; I do not believe that more than fifty or sixty are up to their, job." The verdict of the, other man .was" Very many below any reasonable standard, incapable, or don't trouble." On this showing, the Archbishop of Canterbury's vigorous remonstrance addressed to the clergy of his communion was by no means premature. From Paris we learn that Archbishop Ireland is the subject of a character study in a volume just published by the French writer, Madame Claude d'Habloville, entitled The Great Figures ■of the Contemporary Church. M. Raoul Narsy, the critic, reviewing the book for the Bulletin des Amities Catholiques Francoises, said: . "In a very happy manner Madame d'Habioville has defined the particular merits of the eminent Archbishop of St. Paul, his gifts as a born chief and leader of men, his prescience of new conditions of apostolate and Catholic expansion. She has done this without falling into the panegyrical, without overlooking the fact that the ardor, and even the temerities, of Archbishop Ireland at times called for justified reserve, but she has compiled sufficient concordant testimony to lead us to conclude with her that this virile spirit, this great bishop, was never behind the times in a single piece of advice a single day or by a single idea." Commenting .favorably, upon the security pact negotiated by the Allied and German delegates at Locarno, the Osseratore Romano calls attention to the fact that the spirit animating this pact is the same spirit of arbitration and pacific settlement of international disputes advocated by Pope Benedict XV in his famous peace message of 1917 and by Pope Pius XI in his letter dealing with the. Reparations question. When Cardinal Gasparri, Papal Secretary of State, received . the diplomatic . corps accredited to the Holy See, he expressed satisfaction at tho conclusion of an agreement at Locarno. "; :, '[ y " : ■■''■"■'■"•■'■' ' .-••'•.'■' ■