THE FEARLESS CARDINAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1916, Page 7

THE FEARLESS CARDINAL.

BELGIUM'S GRAND OLD MAX. ''Belgium will ho restored. It stimds before tlie entire world a nation of heroes." The world, Germany excepted, agrees witli Cardinal Merciev, the heroic Primate, to Belgium, Archbishop Malines, who ill December, 11)14, when tlie Riillant little nation had 'been overrun .by the Huns, uttered those prophetic, words. Nothing, perhaps, lias raised the ira of the Germans against the Church of Rome more than the brave stand made by Cardinal Mercici, champion of Belgian liberty. The Huns arrested .him, made, liiiu prisoner, prevented him from attending Divine service, and in many ways to silence Belgium's l'.oroic priest, lint they have failed to suppress him, to the great chagrin of Yon Biasing, tlie Governor-General of Belgium. Cardinal Mcrcier was practically un-

known until the Eueharistic Congress in London five or six ycari ago, when he showed himself an orator of great power and distinction. Brrnat limine I'Alleud, a little town near the Held of Waterloo, on November '2l. IS.">l. Cardinal Mcrcier is now in his sixty-fifth year. He was ordained to the priesthood in ISi'i, and from 1 hat time till IIHW. when he was elected Archbishop of Malines, he was professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain. From that lime until the outbreak of the war he had been the »oul of the religious and patriotic zeal of Belgium. No professor was more popular witli the students of Louvain, and he gather ed round him at the college a band oj Belgium's greatest men. Germany hate him to-day for the braver,v with which ill the face of the devastation of hi; beloved country, he has prophesied ictriumphant revival. "Prince of the Church in Peace" am '■Lion at Bay" art! the descriptions whicl have been aptly applied to the ehampioi of Belgian "liberty, who, although stii at the mercy of his enemies maintain: that indomitable spirit which is so .-har acteristic. of the "little'-' nation for ivhicl we are lighting.