GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 183, 29 September 1876, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS.

A TBtrsTwoBTHT person is the authority for the truth of the following fact, which occurred in the beginning of the present year in a Protestant town in Germany. A Catholic met in an hotel a young Protestant who was just reading the best liberal newspapers. A conversation began between them, which soon turned on the early years of the Holy Father. The Protestant mocked at the sickness the Pope had before his Priesthood, boldly affirming, that he contracted it through his own fault ; because all who suffer from that sickness, are always themselves the cause of it. And then, said he, your Holy Father does nothing but swear and blaspheme, condemning every one that does not hear him as often as he opens his lips. The Catholic defended the Holy Father bravely, and did his best to persuade his opponent not to believe the newspapers only, which say every thing except the truth. The Protestant would not heed and continued swearing at the Holy Father. What happened? Within 24 hours the young healthy man had the falling sickness ! — ' Bombay Catholic Examiner.' The ' Pall Mall Gazette/ adverting to the great celebration at Louides on the 2nd July, says ;that the incredulous are surprised " that this ceremony, ordered, by the Pope, is not a dogmatic definition of apparitions of the Virgin, and people may still doubt the miracle . . . /' Catholics feel no such surprise, because they jknow that no dogmatic definition of a miracle, or of any other religious fact subsequent to the Divine Revelation contained in the Deposit of Faith, ever has or will be given. Belief in theapparition and miracles of Lourdes is simply a matter of^evidence. The approbation of the Pope given to the devotion assures us that the statements on which it is based are credible. Such apprebation is"not given until the investigations of competent authority have disproved the possibility of fraud or delusion. But in this case we are not aware that the Holy See has given any formal judgment as to the truth of the apparition. It must be evident, however, that such statements, if believed at all, cannot fail to produce devotion in pious minds. This devotion may be permitted, or approved, nay even encouraged ; but to impose a compulsory reception of the statements in question would be repugnant to the whole practice of the church. She does not even make the rigidly proved facts on which, a saint's canonisation is "based matter of dogmatic definition or of compulsory reception by the faithful. On Tuesday, 27th July, the Pope gave an audience to the students of the foreign colleges in Rome. He called upon them to combat impiety and defend religion, and spoke of the attempts of the enemies of the Holy See to destroy its authority. His Holiness reminded his hearers that the present age rested for its foundation upon the Church of Christ, and he proceeded to remark upon the condition of Rome, deploring the disorder which prevailed, and especially the great number of suicides which had recently been committed. He also alluded to the project advocated by dissenters of choosing the next Pope by a popular vote, in order to dissolve the mystic tie which unites the faithful throughout the world. The Pope concluded by exorting the students to become worthy ministers of God. There was a large and enthusiastic meeting of the people of Castlerea and its vicinity on the night of 4th July to celebrate the American Centenary of Independence and recent escape from Western Australia of the political prisoners. There was an immense bonfire lighted in the centre of the town, which kept blazing up to a late hour. Many of the houses had their windows fully illuminated. The Lord Bishop of Ossory has raised a voice of warning against the society of the Ancient Order of Forresters, which he stigmatises as " a new form of Freemasonry," and as having entailed the greatest misery on its unhappy dupes. His Lordship issued a pamphlet on the subject to prevent a .branch being established in Kilkenny, and authorised the clergy to announce the withholding of the sacraments from the members of the society. The notorious assassin Luicani, by whose dagger Sonzogno the Italian Radical journalist fell, and who has been condemned for this crime to the galleys for life, was Venerable in the first Masonic Lodge established in Rome. This fact is recorded in the Italian ' Masonic Review/ May 1, 1 874. It is also mentioned as a fact, that the man named Cavaletti, who recently assassinated his son, was a dignitary in Freemasonry. — ' Bombay Catholic Examiner.' The total number of Catholic Indians in the TTnitei States is 151,049, divided as follows : — In the State of Maine, 1,400; in New York, 990; in Michigan, 4,000 ; in Wisconsin, 1,430 ; in Minnesota, 10,800 j in Dakota, 2,000; in Kansas, 2,800 ; in Montana, 7,829 ; in the Indian Territory, nearly 100,000; in Arizona, 1,500; in Idaho, 700; in Washington Territory, more than 10,000 ,• in Oregon, 1,600; in California, more than 6,000. Most people will be glad to know that the Suez Canal, as a property, yields something to the bold shareholders who originally subscribed its capital when the rest of the world looked coldly on, as well as to the investors who came in at a later period, and only acquired a preferential interest in the undertaking. At the general meeting held in Paris on the 27th June, the report by M. deLesseps stated that, out of a total revenue last year of rather more than a profit of remained, after paying all charges and preferential interest. This is not much, and, of course, if the shares which England has acquired participated in a dividend at present, the rate of distribution would be even less than the modest sum per share which M. de Lesseps has been enabled to give to his not always placable fellow-proprietary. Pic-nic parties in the environs of Metz muat sometimes be subjected to rather unpleasant surprises. A woman who was recently gathering wood in the neighborhood came upon a nest containing six young wolves. She called to her husband, and he, with the assistance of two other men, secured the prize. About the same time last year a nest containing seven young wolves was discovered not far from the game spot.