Catholic Missions in Africa.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 15

Catholic Missions in Africa.

The Right Rev. Dr. Hanlon, Vicar-Apostolic of the Upper Nile district, delivered a leoture recently at the seat of the Sodality of St. Peter Claver, Rome (writes the correspondent of the Catholic Standard and Times). The subject of his lecture was the progress of the Church in his own vicariate and then throughout Africa generally. The Sodality of St. Peter Claver is an association of recent foundation for the support and aid of the foreign missions of the Catholic Church. It consists of three divisions. The first of these is a number of pious women living in common under the guidance of the foundress of the sodality. This foundress is the Countess Ledochowski, the youthful niece of the Cardinal Prefeot of Propaganda, in whose family zeal for the propagation of the faith has now been a publicly displayed characteristic for three generations, which are represented, the first by the Countess Ledochoweki, the mother of the Cardinal, the second by the Cardinal himself, and the third by his pious niece. Under the direotion of the Roman community there exists the second considerable body of zealators, men and women, living in various parts of the world, and then the third order, as it may be called by analogy, consisting of promoters, men and women living in various parts abroad. By offerings of money and of material objects, by every kind of moral effort and by prayer all the members of this new but promising organisation work together on behalf of the foreign missions and fulfil a need which is both very real and not covered by other existing organisations. Summarising his lecture in conversation, Mgr. Hanlon said : 'By far the majority of the Catholic missions spread throughout the African continent came into existence after 1840. Perhaps I might even say that the majority of them came into existence after 1880.' I thought of the bas-relief which is the symbol of the reign of Gregory XVI. (1831-1846), on the tomb of that Pontiff in St. Peter's. The characteristic of hiß pontificate was the expansion of the Catholic Churoh in missionary countries. Mgr. Hanlon took manuscript with the names, dates and parts of each vicariate in the African oontinent and read from it. A very few misßiom had had a p*»t very much more remote. Such were the Jesuit missions by the Zambesi and that at Cape Town, but there had not in every case of the kind been continuity, so that the African churches of to-day might be said to date from 1840. 'Moreover,' he said, 'the early missions, those founded after 1840, did not make much headway. The new missions have made great progress. They are now, on the whole, making remarkable strides.' Their future is also of the best promise. The ending of the Boer war, for instance, will be the beginning of a new era for the Catholic Church. The Boers looked with oontempt on Catholics and set obstacles in the way of the Churoh and, as you know, thiß is not the case with the British." • Are Protestant missions making notable progress ? ' The Protestants are making good progress, but on the whole their success will bear no comparison with that of the Catholio missions, Nor is their progress equal to the outlay, while ours is unequal to the outlay made for it, but in the other way. Our outlay is a minimum to a maximum of achievement. ' The continent of Africa,' he went on to say, ' has been divided into three parts by the Congregation of Propaganda : the Northern, the Central and the Southern. In the Northern twenty societies are working ; in the Central, nineteen ; in the Southern, eight. Each society is a prefecture, or Vicariate Apostolic, and this fact giveß a fair measure of the vastness of the organisation. It is true that some of the later or less progressive centres may not have many ramifications, and thus they count a fewer number t>f Christianß, converts and catechumens, but, then, the older and more progressive centres have great development, so that it is as if you counted the forty-seven societies as standing for as many dioceses. ' Everything may be hoped from the future,' the Bishop said with ardor, ' because this great development of Catholicism in the African oontinent has been achieved against many and formidable odds. Until recently everything depended upon the autocratic and fickle humors of the native chiefs. There was no stability. Slavery and barbarism were prevailing conditions. If the organisation of the missions may be dated after 1840, the preparation of conditions favorable to Catholic missionary endeavor may be dated after 1880. The Berlin and Brussels conventions created eminently favorable conditions. They should be universally applied, and they will be applied, and fortunately tbey are being kept after having been applied everywhere under British protection or influence. In the proportion in which their enactments receive effect, the progress of Catholicism in Africa will be great. ' And as time goes on the European protectorates will become more efficient, and there will be more security. As things are, only the British allow within their sphereß of influence the working of missionaries who are not subjects cf the home country, but then France has Catholic missionaries of its own ; so has Germany and Italy and Belgium. Slavery is being effectively put down and stability is being established nearly everywhere, so that a new era for Catholicism has set in, and a never and better era has come into view.' So that if so much was done between 1840 and 1880, and f-o much more in proportion between 1880 and 1900, very greater results may be confidently expected hereafter. The Vicar Apostolic admitted that Catholic progress in his district, Uganda, had been quite exceptional, but he read out the number of converts made in each mission of the African continent, and the figuree were a demonstration of general and substantial progress. ' When I went to Africa, after my consecration seven years ago, I had but four priests, and now I have 30. I found only 200 Catholics, and we have baptised 8000 converts, and we have 24,000 altogether, the remaining 16,000 being catechumens. We had to live in tents at the outset, but now we have 10 regular missions.

Naturally, both the Holy Father and the Propaganda have been extremely gratified at my report. But I have a terrible financial difficulty, ac lam obliged to keep the vicariate going ac beet I oan. I receive no Bupport from my missionary society of Mill Hill.' It is to supply this sort of aid, as well as to meet other needs not ooped with by the existing societies, that the Sodality of St. Peter Olaver has been founded.