Excommunicated.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20283, 27 August 1937, Page 7

Excommunicated.

ACTION BY THE POPE COUNT REFUSES DEMAND INTENSE EXCITEMENT CAUSED United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyright. (Received August 27, 11 a.m.) TURIN, August 26. The Pope has caused intense excitement by excommunicating Count Ferraris de Celle, a wealthy Cuneo land owner, after a dispute over the possession of lands which once belonged to the Church but reverted to the Count’s family after the fall of the temporal power of the Pope in 1870. The Holy See demanded the return of the lands under the terms of the 1934 concordat, with the Government, offering in return the patronage of the canonicate of the Cathedral. The Count demanded both land and canonicate, and after acrimonious negotiations he was excommunicated. Many townspeople are shunning the Count. Others are determined to remain friendly.

Some of the peasants on the Count’s estate firmly believe that terrible calamities will befall themselves and their families if they meet the Count’s eye. REPORT DISCREDITED “ GEOGRAPHY AT FAULT ” •CATHOLIC PRIEST’S COMMENT (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Friday “ The cable man responsible for the above cable Is certainly not strong In geography and history and the ignorance betrayed is sufficient to discredit the whole cable,” said the Rev. Father McKeefry, editor of the Catholic newspaper Zealandia. “ Cuneo never at any time formed part of the Papal States,” he said. “It is in the province of Piedmont and from 1720, when the ancient family of Savoy assumed sovereign rank, it formed part of the Kingdom of Piedmont and so by 1870, when the Papal States were, taken by the Italian Government, Cuneo had been recognised as part of the King of Savoy’s territory for 150 years. The VaticanItalian Concordat was signed in 1929 and the only places outside Rome that were set down for further deliberation were the Holy House of Loreto, the Basilica of St. Anthony at Padua, the Triple Basilica of St. Francis and the Monastery at Assisii. No one has seemingly heard of such a dispute.”