The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 2 July 1903, Page 24

The Catholic World

CANADA.— The Far North The Vicariate-Apostolic of Mackenzie (Canada) comprises the Klondike and Great Sla"ve Lake regions. Its ecclesiastical head, Bishop Breynat, 0.M.1., gives some interesting information about religion in the far north. Some fifty years ago, Monsignor Provencher was charged with the Vicaria'te of St. Boniface and all the northwest territories up to the Arctic Ocean. He had at his disposal a mere handful of secular priests and two Oblates, one of whom was the late venerable Archbishop Tache. To-day St Boniface is an ecclesiastical province, comprising three dioceses and three vioariates. In the region formerly Under the jurisdiction of Monsignor Tache there are now about 70 secular priests, a number of Jesuits, Redemptorists, Trappists, and other religious, with no fewer than 300 Oblate Fathers. CUBA —The Catholic Hierarchy The ' Osservatore Romano ' publishes the constitution of the Catholic hierarchy in Cuba in its new form, according to which the existing order is maintained, while a number of new dioceses are created. ENGLAND.— A Bishop's Estate The Right Rev. Dr. Bilsborrow, Bishop of Salford, who died on March 5, left property the value of which has been proved at £253 17s> Id. A Numerous Guild The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, which numbers over 100,000 members, amongst whom is the Pope, held their annual festival in the Church of the English Martyrs, Great Frescott street, Tower Hill, London. A special sermon was preached by the Rev. Bernard Ka\anagh, of the Redemptorist Congregation. A Memorial A marble tablet bearing an excellent likeness of Cardinal Manning has been erected to the memory of his Eminence in the Church of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, London. It was unveiled by Canon, Vere, of Soho.

A Successful Mission The Very Rev. Kenelm Vau«han, brother of the late Cardinal Vaughan, has collected £14,000 in Spain and South America towards the erection and decoration of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the new Westminster Cathedral. He is now in the city of Mexico, where he hopes to raise another £4000 to complete the sum required. Q iris* Protection In tlio London residence of the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle the annual meeting of the International Catholic Girls' Protection Society was held the other day. The chair was taken by the Rev. Father Antrobus, and amongst those present were Lady Mary Howard, Lady Edmund Talbot, and Viscountess Clifden. Lady Edmund Talbot read the annual report, reviewing the work of the society "timing the past twelve months, and attention was drawn to the urgent need for a stricter surveillance of so-called ' employment registry offices.' Catholics at Oxford The Duke of Norfolk, speaking at the annual dinner of the Newman Society at Oxford, said he was /sure every Catholic who had come to Oxford must feel the keenest sense of thankfulness to the authorities and to those connected with the university for the way they had been welcomed back within the old walls. They should determine to take their share of the life which Oxford was helping to carry on. Those who were now taking part in this reopening of the Catholic life in this university, those who were bringing to themselves and through themselves to the Catholic body the direct and farreaching advantages of university education were placed at Oxford at a moment when the whole hie ot the country gave them opportunities for carrying on a great work in the future. He did not think any man could well say now that he had not work to do for his country if he chose to face the fact. The whole governing of the country, the whole carrying on of its public life were now taken away from the few and thrown broadcast to the whole people of the country. Referring tb the Education Act, he pointed out that the education of the rising generation was now committed to local bodies throughout the country, and therefore those who could obtain places on these educational bodies and thus influence their countrymen of the future had a great opportunity which it would be most unwise not to take advantage of. Members of this society were the last who could put aside duties of that sort. FRANCE. — Expulsion of the Benedictines Thirty Benedictine monks and 65 students who were expelled from Douai College, France, are settling at Portsmouth. One hundred Catholic clergy and representative laymen welcomed them at Charing Cross last week and presented them with an address signed by 19 Elnglish Catholic bishops, nine peers, and 24 abbots. The Pope sent his blessing and good wishes. Writing a few weeks ago on the expulsion of the Benedictines from Douai the ' Catholic Times ' said : — ' Woolhampton and the generous Bishop and Chapter of Portsmouth, who have offered a home to the Douai Benedictines, will certainly not suffer by the persecuting policy of the French Government. The hand of God is still directing the affairs of the world and drawing good out of evil. The Benedictines have been treated badly in France. In 1793 a number of them were arrested and kept in prison for more than a year. Their property was confiscated at that time, and they subsequently recovered but moieties of it. Now it appears that the process of confiscation is to.be repeated, lor the French Government is showing a determination to resist their claim for compensation. What matter. The Benodictines do not care for money. Their wealth lies in the grand traditions of the Ordertraditions of scholarship, artistic work, musical skill, and missionary -zeal. In returning to England from Douai they are, as it were, renewing all the links of those traditions, and. with Abbot Larkin, we look forward to a great future for Woolhampton. At the same time a word of hearty gratitude is due to Canon Scannell and his staff. Under the Canon's able presidency most admirable work has been done at Woolhampton for the Church and for Catholic interests. A Sufferer for the Faith It is no longer possible to assert (says the 'Catholic Times ') that all French Catholics are sunk in religious apathy. A young lady of twenty years has been discovered with courage to express and courage to suffer for her faith. Mademoiselle de Lambert, for too freely manifesting her indignation against the persecution of monks and nuns, was brought before the court and sentenced to eight days' imprisonment * And to gaol she went. She. refused to appeal against her punishment, and calmly marched into her prison cell, at Versailles. This modern Joan of Arc may have done a deed capable of stirring up others to imitate her courageous action. But whether sho has so done or not, she deserves every credit for the noble stand .she has taken on behalf of religious liberty. It is the wonderment of Catholics here that the French gaols arr> not full of victims who could bo accused of no crime bit defence of Christian right and common justice. The air hurtles with protests, episcopal, sacerdotal, lay; but protests that stop short of prison will never frighten M. Combes. We agree with the ' Univers ' that the prison-protest of Mademoiselle de Lambert is more effective than all the rhetorical frippery which the last month has seen fluttered against the persecuting party in power. ITt was not by literary fireworks that the early Christians conquered the pagan

Roman statesmen ; nor will such means enable the 1< rench Catholic* to overcome the modern pagan Politicians of the KepunHc. ROME.— The Pope's Portrait *v 7*ll L f, n< J on T , ' Daily Chronicle' says it is rumored that the Holy Father is to give sittings for his portrait to a painter commissioned by his Majesty Kin* Edward VII. B A Reception *7 he iF oly - Father in the early part of May received father Baptist, of the Passionist Order, deputed by Cardinal Gibbons to convey to the Holy Father on the occasion of his jubilee the good wishes of President Hoosevelt, and a present consisting of ten volumes of messages and official letters of Presidents of the United States from 1789 to 1897. The Kaiser's Visit The Emperor of Germany's visit to the Pope made a very deep impression on the Italian people, especially as it was carried out with more than ordinary pomp. The Emperor (writes a Rome correspondent) . went to the Vatican with a maginificence that was unequalled in Papal Rome during the space of a generation. Before proceeding thither he conferred at his Legation to the Holy See with Cardinals and Prelates, and thus devoted the central part of Sunday, May 3, to the Church. Business and negotiations and exchanges of civilities between the members of the Imperial suite and the officials of the Papal Court occupied very much of the ensuing days. But as if this negotiating of the Chancellor von Bulow with the Secretariate of State and the Emperor's meeting with the Cardinal-Secretary of State, the Car-dinal-Prefect of Propaganda and the Cardinal-Adminis-trator of Propaganda were not in sufficiently marked relation with the trend of Catholic affairs in France, the Kaiser and his sons visited a monastery, and one typical ot all, the pharos of the Benedictine rtile and civilisation, Monte Cassino. Nor are the cordiality and sincerity of all this inferior to its importance as displayed through splendor. The Emperor's jubilee irift, a precious and artistic clock, stood on a table in the Pope s study. Three mosaic pictures, one of the Roman Tu rx % n> J he seco » d °* St. Peter's Square, the third of the Bridge and Castle of Sanf Angelo, which the Pope had ordered for three Imperial personages, were also placed in a conspicuous position. The Pope presented them to his guests. The Emperor also presented his gift of massive, mounted photographs of the Metz Cathedral, the restoration of which has been undertaken since this once French city has become German. The real significance of the visit must be sought in the choice of occupants for the line of 11 carriages, in which were the Emperor himself, his eldest and second sons, the Chancellor of the Empire, the veteran Marshal von Waldersee, tho Grand Marshal of the Court, and the other great military and beaurocratic dignitaries, and in' the relations with the Vatican which these entertained on that and on the subsequent days. No such great event has occurred since 1870, and no fitter time could be found for its occurrence. SCOTLAND.— The King and the Prelates King Edward, who already numbered Cardinal Vaughan and Father Bernard Vaughan among his personal friends, extended his range of Catholic acquaintances in Rome, when he met Archbishop Maguire and tho other Scottish prelates at the British Embassy in Home. " A Presentation Rev. George Grant, St. Peter's, Aberdeen, has been presented with an address and a superb chalice by the parishioners. Tha Patron Saint On May 9, in the Cathedral, Edinburgh, there were said the Mass and Office for the translation of the relics of St. Andrew from Amalpihi, in I tidy, to the Scottish metropolis. The relics were brought to Scotland by Bishop Rigg, and delivered to Archbishop Strain in 1879. SOUTH AFRlCA.— Praise for the Nuns General Kelly Kenny, in his address at Newcastle-under-Lyme on the second day of a bazaar for the Con\ent of Mercy in that town, which was opened on the first day by General Butler, paid an enthusiastic tribute to the Sisters of Mercy. Their work, and the work of kindred communities, he said, appealed to them all, more especially to the hearts of sympathetic Irishmen. After the battle of Driefontein he had four or five hundred wounded, whom he had to carry with him, or they had to follow after him, to Bloemfontein. At that place he lound a home of rest and comfort, and comparative luxury for his sick and wounded, in the Convent of the Holy Family. Bloemfontein became the depot for the sick and wounded of 80,000 men operating in the neighborhood, and there were 4000 enteric patients. Two of the nuns lost their lives in nursing and tending the sick. The men were mostly of another religion, but that made no difference.