The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 13, 1 April 1909, Page 511

The Catholic World

CHlNA— Church Progress

Here are the latest statistics of the Catholic Church in the Chinese Empire : — Vicariates or Prefectures, 44"; Bishops, 44 ; European priests, 1346 ; Chinese priests, 592 : students in seminaries, 1215; European Brothers, 229; Chinese Brothers, 130; European nuns, 558; Chinese nuns, 1328; Catholics, 1,071,920; Catechumens, 424,000. Golden Jubilee The Right Rev. Bishop Cesaire Schangj of Chan-tong, China, celebrates this year the golden jubilee of his priesthood. The .venerable Bishop ,has been twenty-five years among the Chinese. ■ " - _ ' • . ,-*""•- ENGLAND—AppeaI for African Missions The Rev. Father ,o'Sullivan, S.M.A., preached in aid of his society^ 'the West African Missions, on Sunday, February 7, at the High Mass: in the Brompton Oratory, Lotrdon. In the course of an impressive- appeal for British sympathy and support, he said: For fifty years the Society of African, Missions has' been doing the work of British civilisation in West Africa. The graves of more than four hundred of our martyr missionaries along the deadly Guinea Coast, and the numerous missions that have grown above them — missions where English is preached in the churches and where English is taught in the schools — are there today in testimony of the fact. And yet only twice in those fifty years have we appealed for financial aid in England : the missions since their inception having been maintained almost entirely through^ the generous charity of the Catholics of France. The result of the appeal reached a very substantial figure. FRANCE— A Sister of Charity Decorated A message from Montpellier says : — General Marion, Commander of the Sixteenth Army Corps, lias presented at a hospital in the suburbs, in presence of a large body of officials, a medal of honor to Sister -Antoinette, a Sister of Charity, for her devoted care of invalid soldiers during the past thirty years. Tyranny of the Government The following case (says the New York Catholic News) illustrates how severely Catholic teachers hi France are dealt with when a charge is trumped up against them. In this case members 'of a religious Order were engaged only in carrying out tlieir work of education. But as it Avas Catholic education, of course, they must be punished. The case is reported in the Gazette de Cre.il, an--indepen-dent Republican journal. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny at Senlis, after their boarding school was closed, had the hardihood to conduct a private school, which was attended by a small number of pupils. They were watched by agents of the Government, and some days ago had to appear before the Correctional Tribunal in company with criminals. Their offence was : (1) That they gave lessons in painting and advice as to manual labor to pupils of their former boarding school who applied to them ; (2) that they organised an infants' school for -children who were not of the school age; (3) that they established a labor bureau, the object of which was' to provide work for young girls and women. On such a charge the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny have been condemned by the Correctional Tribunal. ROME— The Holy Father's Gratitude The sailors of the United States auxiliary vessel Celtic, after having distributed supplies to refugees from the earthquake stricken regions^ were received in audience by Pius X. on. February 8. The Pontiff expressed his gratitude, and desired his blanks to be conveyed to President Roosevelt and the. commander of the Celtic for the splendid work done by Americans in Calabria and Sicily. " SPAlN— Catholic Social Work The Bishop of Madrid has inaugurated a new move-, ment for the extension of social work amongst Catholics in Madrid, and in a Pastoral letter he explains that he has been moved to do this by liis knowledge of what has happened in France. The Spanish prelate does not hesitate to say that if wlien the French parishes were ' thoroughly" Catholic measure had been taken to organise the people and get them to engage in works of mutual improvement under the aegis of religion, the condition of the French Catholics to-day would be far different from what it actually is. 'The enemies of the Clvurch are active in the capital of Spain, but the Bishop intends to establish a powerful Catholic organisation which will render their attacks ineffectual. Sonfe time ago lie called together all the parish priests of the city and a number of laymen who take a practical^ interest in social questions.' A commission was thereupon appointed and entrusted with the task of framing a scheme

for the formation of parochial societies. All the parochial bodies will work under the general direction of a Central Diocesan Council. The organisation will be .something like the Catholic Federation, and it is probable that if will branch out from Madrid into other populous centres in Spain. UNITED STATES— Death of a Distinguished Jesuit The Rev. Wiliiam T O'Brien Pardow, S.J., rector of St. Ignatius Loyola's Church, at' Park avenue, -New York, died of pneumonia on January 23. His reputation as a theologian and preacher was high. Father Pardow was born in New York sixty-two years- ago. Prom 1875 to 1880 he studied in France and England. He ivas one of the six Jesuits who represented the. United States in' the Assembly General' in Rome for the selection of their General. Development of Catholic Education One of the interesting developments of~ Catholic- education at Washington, U.S.A., is the rumored foundation of a normal school for Catholic nuns, with tho approval of the .authorities of the Catholic University. " • Returning to the Fold The Rev. Father Kolaszewski, of Cleveland, Ohio, a Polish priest who was .suspended and ' excommunicated for ' defying ecclesiastical authority and presiding over an ' Independent ' Church, having returned to the Fold, asks through the Cleveland Cath6lic Universe for pardon for the scandal he has given. The Catholic University Cardinal Gibbons has announced -that • the" Very Rev. _Thomas J. Shahan,~D.D., has been' app6.inted s by the Sacred Congregation' of Studies, of which" Carcliiial Satblliis the head, rector of the Catholie^Btaiversitjr, . to succeed Bishop Denis J*. O'Connoll, recently" 'appointed? Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of San Francisco. Dr,. Shahari, holds. the chair of Church History at the -University, >nd lias 1 been connected with the institution for the past seventeen Vears. Dr. Shahan's name has been in the public, eye ver-y-'pro-minently for the last." three "years as one of '--the editors "of The Catholic Encyclopedia, without any question the most important expression of American Catholic scholarship ever attempted. In his capacity as editor of this work, Dr. Shahan lias had occasion to' employ all, the wide knowledge which has characterised his career, and has largely contributed to the creation of the high repute in whicn the Encyclopedia is held on both sides of the Atlantic. As the appointment of the Rectorship comes direct from the Congregation of Studies at Rome, it is regarded not only as a recognition of Dr. Shahan's worth, but also of the editorial direction of the Encyclopedia.