THE CHURCH OF ST. FRANCES OF ROME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 98, 13 March 1875, Page 11

THE CHURCH OF ST. FRANCES OF ROME.

One. of the objects of greatest interest in the wondrously interesting Forum of Rome— a spot filled to overflowing with memories of Pagan and Christian Rome, within whose comparatively small limits one never wearies of wandering, and where one is ever sure to light upon something to arrest and fascinate the attention, is the pretty church dedicated to the honor and glory of God, under the invocation of St. Frances of Rome. It is a temple very dear to the Roman population, and thither on her feast-day they flock in crowds, every 9th of March, to do honor to her cherished name, and implore her prayers in their behalf . But the usurping Junta at Rome cares little for holy traditions ; and the monks of Mount Olivet, to whom the church belongs, have been served with short notice to quit their beloved convent. The insatiable treasury of the Lombardian bticcaneer is nearly empty once more, and its needs must again be met by robbery and eviction, by an inrpious disregard of the laws of God and human right. Last year the Junta seized seized a portion of the monastery and converted it into a soup kitchen ! The work of plunder is to be consummated, and "in the month of December," says a letter from Rome, " the venerable superior and his spiritual children will be driven from their cloisters, and the Government of Victor Emmanuel will sell the place, with all its possessions, to help to sustain its ruinous extravagance." M. Roza, the superintendent of the excavations now being made in the Sacred City, has notified that he will pull down the church in order that he may search underneath for the outlines of a temple of Venus, supposed to have existed there. But, continues the writer, whose letter we have already alluded to, this is only a flimsy pretext of an atheistical archaeological conclave. The real object, he maintains, is that in the destruction of the church two great Christian memories may be obliterated as well. One is the memory of the tradition that it was here — on this very spot— that Simon the Magician lifted himself into the air that he might thereby prove the divinity of his mission, and was fearfully punished for his daring iniquity. The very stone on which St. Peter knelt down and prayed, that God would manifest his omnipotence, and undo the impostor, is claimed as a venerable relic of the church. Hither it was, too, that Gregory XI, when, guided by the advice of St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Sienna, and amidst the universal rejoicing of Rome and the world, the Papal Court came back to the Eternal City from its temporary abode in Avignon, repaired, attended by a splendid retinue, that he might thank God for the blissful restoration, and pay homage to the patroness of Rome. But considerations such as these avail little with Victor Emmanuel's archaeologists, and it would seem a foregone conclusion that this beautiful church — gorgeously restored little more than four years sinee — rich in its works of art, with its costly shrine enclosing the body of its patron saint, should no longer exist to hallow the profaned capitol of Christianity and civilization.

Delegates from the Provincial Governments of Ontario, Quebec, INew Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, met last week at Ottawa, Can., to confer with the Dominion Government regarding some united scheme of immigration from Europe. It is understood that a system proposed by the Minister of Agriculture, which aims at enticing a large exodus from Great Britain, will be adopted and tried.