NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 190, 17 November 1876, Page 9

NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

[feom otje exchanges.] A poor woman, mother of five children, abandoned by her busband, found herself and her little ones in a starving conditiou. She applied for relief to the authorities of the Tillage, a village in the neighborhoood of the great city of Milan. Her application was received and refused. In her misery she wrote to Pio Nono, telling him of her wants and her distress. The heart that was never closed to the knock of mercy was opened to her cry of misery, and the next mail brought the poor woman an order for 100 francs. While the Ministers of Italy travel luxuriously through the country the people starve, and to their cry for bread they receive the response, "We give you liberty." But Pio Nono, the father of his people, knows their distress anH relieves them. On the 20th ult. the Holy Father gave an audience to a company of about twenty Capuchins, who devote themselves to attending the sick in the hospital of the Santo Spirito, where the municipality still tolerates them simply because they can find no persons to fill their place. The Very Reverend Father Francisco da Villafranca, the superior of these religious, expressed their sentiments of devotion towards the Holy See, and at the same time implored the Papal blesssing, both for themselves and those under their charge. The Pope replied in words of praue to the address of the religious, and exhorted them to redouble their fervor, especially in thii season when maladies are multiplied, in order that none of those who are received into the hospital of the Santo Spirito may die without the succors of religion, or leave the hospital without being purified in the crucible of sufferings. The Holy Father also recommended to them with a special affection the religious Concettini (of the Conception), of whom the Capuchins are the spiritual directors, and who equally devote themselves to attending the sick. The death of Father Perrone, of the Society of Jesus, and one of the most distinguished theologians of our century, deprives the Church of a zealous son and the world of an able teacher. Father Perrone, as is well known to most of our readers, taught theology at the Roman University, which was under the direction of the Jesuits. With what success ho labored his works will show. His celebrated work on dogmatic theology, which has passed through innumerable editions throughout the Catholic world, is now almost everywhere used as a text-book. The highest ecclesiastical dignities, even the cardinal's hat, have in the course of years been repeatedly offered to him by the Holy Father. But by his supplications, entreating the Holy Father to leave him to carry on his work in the University, and by the influence of the many friends and disciples he possessed among the Cardinals and other dignitaries of the Church, he always succeeded in prevailing upon the Pope to alter his mind. Until the last days of his life, as he had long since been hindered, by the action of the Government in closing the famous University, to carry on his work as Professor, filled the office of Prefect of Studies, and was unwearied as an Author in defence of the cause of God and His Holy Church against errors and enemies of every sort. In May, 1872, Lanza officially informed the Deputies that they had the goodly number of 72,000 prisoners confined in Italian prisons, and now in*lß76, four years later, Nicotera can inform the same Chamber that he has the goodlier number of 85,000. On the 15th of August was inaugurated on the Hill of St. Vitus, near Turin, a monastery of Trappists under the name of Our Lady of Citeaux. These recluses, as is well known, follow the rule of St. Benedict, the patriarch of the Monks of the West. Divine Providence, says the 'UnitaCattolica* which furnishes us with these particulars, has purposely chosen the severe order of La Trappe to confound the designs of the Revolution against the religious orders. Besides, the Trappists are not complete strangers in Italy, where tt« celebrated establishments of Buonsolazzo, Casamari and Mombracco have been a long time in existence. In 1794, when 20,000 ecclesiastics emigrated from France, and sought an asylum in the different countries of Europe, the Trappists -wett to Turin, to the sons of St. Philip, and were well received by the Archbishop, Cardinal Costa, who presented them to the Prince and Princess of Piedmont. They then founded the celebrated monastery of Mombracco, on the 19th of August, 1794. The present Archbishop of Turin, Mgr. Gastaldi, has received the Trappists of St. Vitus as bis predecessor received the Fathers of the Baine Order

eighty-two years ago. They cannot fail to contribute by their prayers to deliver Italy from the darkness of the Revolution, Sd present? c * PrayerS mach The International Rifle Match, in which competitors from five 14th instant. The American team won by 22 points in 3,126 • the second place bemg taken by the Irish team with 3,104 Joints Thl result of the match, at the close of the second day's loS£», was S f Wlth e T g * heers by the immense crowd of 50,000 spectators and the American and Irish teams, which all a-longwere the favorites, were enthusiastically "ovated." The IrKlm t^Lt The shooting of all is deserving of the highest commendation. It averages remarkably high. America's Jrand tota? W« ration, he said, m reply to a toast, that Cork harbor now held a M^SSJTS^SI T neCtiOn r th «» American tradS and the Mayor added that the tonnage of the port had in a few rears in creased from 600,000 to 3 000,000 tons/and that Tt was prospering more rapidly than any other port in the United KuWoni It is a very common charge brought c gainst* the "Christian Brothers that the pupils attending their° S choots are taught nothS but their prayers; that they leave school almost as "ignorant a » they entered it. No charge could well be more false than thta | either with reference to France, the country by excellence of the Christian Brothers, or to this country, where they are not yet thoroughly established on a solid basis. Facts are stubborn things and usually carry conviction to honest adversaries. But in the easa oftheunprmcipled adversaries with whom we have very of ten ?o deal, and who hardly ever refer to a refutation of their groundless charges, facts must be repeated and sent the rounds of lie papers so that they must come under the notice of the people. At the w annual competition which is held every year in Paris, for places in the higher schools, there were eighty vacancies to be filled Tht lay schools obtained fourteen of them, while those of the Brothers secured sixty-six, of whom forty-six were among the first fifty These figures speak for themselves. Nor has thfs been an eS tional case. The result is always the same, with a slight variation in the proportion. The reason why the radicals are always cal W for the suppression of the Brothers' schools is evident If Z turned out less good scholars we venture to say that they would be allowed to enjoy comparative tranquility. This is the sort of m-o-gress these good radicals want. * Pilgrimages to the Holy Grotto of Lourdes continue with unabated zeal. Three more well-attested miracles afford divine testimony to the truth of the apparition of the Mother of God in thY now consecrated spot. c In France the Radicals are growing fiercer and fiercer everyday m their manifest hostility against the Church and against revealed religion. Every occasion is seized upon to excite the passions of the people and to pervert their understanding A general had given at a public banquet as a toast, "That the Senate may live to restore the^institutions , of army chaplains abolished by the Radicals," and forthwith the Radicals kick up a great hubbub about the general's speech, and call upon the Government to cashier the gallant officer. Again, at the distribution of prizes at the Toulon public schools, the municipal councillors made speeches against religion and uttered blasphemies, and publicly denied the doctrines of the faith in the presence of the pupils at these schools. T , he^. ls^P <* EE r i° US T an £ To ? lon has the matter before the Minister of Public Instruction in a letter in which the Bishot> says:— "That on the occasion of the distribution of prizes at Toulon, people whose official character lent them a dubious authority, publicly attacked religion. Pome members of the municipal council made use of their position to utter blasphemies to give expression to revolutionary doctrines in place of wise counsels, and by the utterance of impieties to disturb the piety of mothers and children. Many of the essential doctrines of the faith were openly denied, such as the fall, providence, and future rewards and punishments, not the malice of crime and the shame of vice were described as the greatest of evils, but ignorance, and finally they abolished God Himself by declaring to the child, < Be under no delusion ; nothing exists but man and universal nature. Heaven can bring you no help!'" The Bishop in conclusion protests against this scandal, and joina in the indignation felt by the (rood and religious city of Toulon at this hateful language, and against this insolent attack on the reverence due to religion and s uarantepd to it by the State. « I know/ he adds, "that the guilty will lavS at my anathemas; after haying imposed silence upon God, travestied religion and rejected its mediation, they will not pay much, attention to a Bishop. But I know that my protest will be a consolation to the outraged Christian conscience, and the Government must acknowledge that a Bishop who acts within the limits of bia calling defends alike Church and State. Nothing is more fatal to a Government than to declare war against God; nothing degrades it more in public estimation than its license of public impiety " This timely rebuke ought at least to induce the Government of France to stay, by the exercise of its supreme authority, the floodgates of impiety let loose over this unhappy country. There has been another apparition of the ever-blessed Virgin Maty, this time at Marpingen, in the diocese of Treyes, to three little girls, attested this time, too, by several miracles. The quick ear of Bismarck caught the news, and he sent troops, fifteen of whom were quartered on the parish priest at Marpingen to hinder the Holy Mother of God from appearing unless she complied with the Falck laws, and to prevent the people from flocking to the place of her appearance. The attempt iras^unsuccessful, and the soldiers hare left the spot