A Star of Hope

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 18

A Star of Hope

The later history of the Catholic Church in Brazil holds out a "bright ray of hope for the future of the Faith in lodge-ridden and persecuted France. Up to 1880 the Church! in Bra'/.il had been chained and fettered to the State. In that year there broke out a short but emphatic revolution. It lasted just two days (November 15 and l'(i), but things moved so rapidly that 'the Emipire was abolished, and the scholarly Dom Pedro 11. and his family were deported to Europe. A Republic wa9 proclaimed. One of its first acts was to rob the Church and deprive it of State support. But it had at leas* tho saving grace (noS yet accorded in France) to leave the Church free of State, control. The sequel is tokl in. a recent issue of an English contemporary : ' Tho Catholics met the penis of poverty with courage. Parochial associations were founded, money for every goodi cawso continued to flow in, and now the Ohurcfti is S'tronjgcr, religiously and financially, than, at any lime in the past. She has excellent schools and colleges for higher education ; the clergy are better trained ami instructed ; the religious Orders from Europe have given new life to the Faith ; a good Catholic newspaper prossi is growing ; and the public spirit is active andi zealous among the Faithful. Only recently, the Parliament triod to introduce divorce into Brazilian legislation, but the Catholics and their deputies raised such an outery 1 that the Bill was rejected. The Church m Brazil has begun a fresh career, and presents one more proof of the advantage of keeping religion free from the golden chains of servitude to the interests and schemes of tricksy politicians. The Faith finds its best support* on the Sacraments ; they will keep it ali\e.'