RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1313, 16 December 1911, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY

« NEW CARDINALS; 'THE SURPRISE CONSISTORY. Tho Consistory has come at last, and has come as a great surprise (says the Rome correspondent of the London "Tablet" writing on October 29). The correspondents had ceased to prophesy lor many months, and last night not a single one oi' the papers except; the "Osservatore Romano" contained the remotest allusion lo an event which has occupied them at regular intervals every lew months. Certainly the Englishspeaking world has every right to be well pleased with Ihe selections for the high honour made by His Holiness. In spite of periodica! reports to the contrary, tho creation of tho Archbishop of Westminster has long been a certainty. The names of Mgr. Farley, Archbishop of New York, and Mgr. O'Connell, Arch-' bishop of Boston, have constantly been mentioned as alternative choices, but the Holy See has satisfied everybody by raising both to the Sacred College. Thus tho United States has at last its three Cardinals—nay, four, for Mgr. Falconio, Apostolic Delegate nt Washington for the last ten years, although an Italian by birth, was long naturalised as an American citizen, and glories in tho acquired nationality. Spain has been given Prince of tho Church in the person of Mgr. Cos y Machio, the aged Archbishop of Valladolid. France has its four new Cardinals in Mgr. Amette, Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. DuliiUard. Archbishop of Chamberv, Mgr. Do Cabrieres, Bishop of Montpsliier, and Father Billot, S.P., so well known to 'a whole generation of Roman students as the great dogma professor of the Gregorian. Austria-Hungary has two new Cardinals in Mgr. Nagl, Archbishop of Vienna, and Mgr. Bauer, Archbishop of Ohnntz. Holland enters the Sacred .College after a long absence irom it with Father Van linssum, of Hie Congregation of the IJeileniptorists. The diplomacy of the Holy See, apart from the nomination of .Mgr. Falconio, has given only two •names, those of Mgr. Vico, Apostolic Nuncio at Madrid, and Mgr. Granito di Belr.ionte, recently Ihe Envoy of the Holy Father to the Coronation of King George V. And finally Iho Roman Curia sees the elevation of three of its most distinguished members, Mgr. Bisleti, so well known for the ':'-t dozen years for Vs tact and affability as Maestro di Camera and Majordomo, .Mgr. Lugari, who, ordained (o the priesthood fifteen vears ago at the age of fifty, became .\r>sessor of the Holy OJlice live years later, and .Mgr. Pompili, the youngest of the "creations" (lie is forly-ssvcn), and h?e surprise of the Cr.nsistary, for he has been less than four years Secretary of tiie Congregation of the Council. Tho iist is a singularly interesting one in many ways. It raises the number of too Set-red College from fin I j-six to : iify-fhreo, which is still seven short of the plenum of seventy. At present the proportion of llaiian to non-Italian Cardinals is twenty-eight to eighteen: after ihe Consistory the proportion will l w thirty-three to. thirty. Very likely it will bo found that since-the days of Avignon, over live centuries ago, Italian and non-Italian Cardinals have not been so closely balanced. The Sacred College at the end of November will consist of thirt.v-threo Italian Cardinals, seven six of Austria-Hungary, five of Spain, four nf the United States (counting Mgr. Falconio), two of Germany, and one each of England. Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, and Brazil. TWO NEW ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCES. Referring to the crcation of two new occksiusticai provinces of Liverpool and Birmingham, the "Tablet," London, '-this action of tho Holy See must Ik re;,arced rather in the light of an inevitable' development than as a new departure in policy. An Archbishop with til tan Sa.i'ragans was something of an anomaly, and almost a phenomenon, ill the Church. 'Many things have hojtjsjned the establishment of the Ji.erareliy sixty years ago, and that there must soon be a subdivision of the single province .had long been, anticipated. liio question was clk'ii discussed during the iik'iime oi' Cardinal Vaughan. Then it was generally conjectured that the change would. Like the iorni ot tho creation of twi) provinces, one for the south and one for the north. Ilut the Holy See. lias iound a happier way. Certainly the natural line of division and cleavage between tile north and south did not need accentuation. _ It will bo generally felt that the division of the .. country into three ecclesiastical provinces has many recommendations and some obvious advantages; Grouped -with Westminster are tho dioceses of Northampton, Nottingham, Portsmouth, and Southwark; with idverpool, "o Hexham and Newcastle, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Salford as SufIragan Sees; and with Birmingham go tho Sws of Clifton, Mi nicvia, Newport, Plymouth, and Shrewsbury. The ITolv Soo'has been careful in several ways to the. position of prominence which ha« w long Jfccn .nprocsafocl with the f?co oi Westminster.' Jis Archbishop is to bo tho permanent' president at all meetings of the whole Hierarchy of the country, f.nd it % rests # with him to summon s"C'h meeting, in accordance with the rules in force in Italy nr.d elsewhere. Moreover. he fakes pro.-odor.ee of the other Archbishops and is entitled to the use of tho Pallium am l the Throne, and is to have the privilege of .having the archiepiseopal cross carried More him in all places in Errand and Wales. Finally, to tho Archbishop of Westminster is entru c led the duty of representing the wishes of tho whole Hierarchy whenever it is necessary to approach the Civil Authority. To the Archbishops of Birmingham and Liverrjocd are granted oil the rights and privileges ordinarily hehvigini; to Metropolians in the Catholic Cnttrch. And. as a special privilege and mark of favour on the part nf the Tlolv $?e, the present Bishops ,of Birmingham and Liverpool becrme Archbishops of the same Sew. n W r n:«ed to Metropolitan limit, without the sending of further Apostolic Letters. looking at the changes as a whole, Uiey may lie regarded as a tribute to, and an acknowledgment of, tho growth and development of the Church in England, and as the necessay nrolnde to that further subdivision of dioceses and missions which we must oil hone (lie increase in the numbers nf the Faithful may make desirable in the'not distant future.