A SPANISH FRIEND OF THE ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 162, 3 April 1919, Page 5

A SPANISH FRIEND OF THE ALLIES

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP OF TARRAGONA. Mgr. Aniolin Lopez Maez, Archbishop, of Tarragona, died recently in Madrid, after u short illness, lit the early age oil 52 By his death the Spanish episcopateloses 'its most distinguished member. Author of many brilliant works on religion, politics, and morals, lie was perhaps better known by -his speeches in the Senate on tho burning questions of the day. Those he delivered during the Government of Senor Canalejas alone fill 512 pages. Many of them were of such force and brilliancy as to contribute powerfully to tho passing of (lie Catalonian Home Rule Bill, and to place their author in the front rank of Spanish Con-son-alive statesmen. While politically a stroii" Conservative, tho Archbishop' was none the loss an enthusiastic advocate of reform in many branches of Spanish life.' His pastorals against usury and his tract on drunkenness will long be remembered for their vigour and sincerity. The Guardia Civil owes many recent ameliorations in its lot to tho zeal of tho Archbishop, who never forgot his early associations with that corps. A man of his time in the best sense of the word, ho was keenly alive lo the power of the Press. Ho founded .-. Catholic News Aeency, nml contributed many valuable article's to the daily Press in furtherance of his social and political ideals. _ His generous temperament and rare independence of character le"il him early in the war to proclaim hi? pro-Ally sympathies, an attitude in which ho persevered to tho end, despite warnings from his lucrarohienl chiefs oi.d the notorious disapproval of his more cautious colleagues on tho Episcopal Bench. In the autumn of WIG he addressed, in a published interview, a varnilig to the Spanish clergy against allowing therusolves to become the iistriiments of tho German pronnsnndn, an act of courage which in'oiißht'liim s <ime momentary unpopularity, but which eventually enhanced his reputation willi the majority of his countrymen us a sincere Catholi* and true oiilriot.