The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 24 August 1911, Page 1655

The Catholic World

ENGLAND

THE BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM.

Congratulations (says the Universe ) are due to his Lordship Bishop Ilsley of Birmingham, who, during the last week in June, attained the golden jubilee of his priestly life. On June 29 his Lordship celebrated his Jubilee Mass in St. Chad’s Cathedral, when the members of the Cathedral Chapter and a large number of the clergy of the diocese were present. The Bishop addressed a lew words to the congregation expressive of his gratitude upon attaining such a stage in his life. A solemn ‘Te Deum ’ was sung in conclusion. The public celebration of the. Bishop’s jubilee will not take place until later in the year. Bishop Ilsley was born at Stafford in 1838, and received a portion of his education at Sedgeley Park School. In 1853 he went to Oscott College, and was ordained in 1861. He became Auxiliary-Bishop of Birmingham three years after he had been elected a member of the Cathedral Chapter in 1876. Bishop Ullathorne resigned the See of Birmingham in 1888, when Bishop Ilsley succeeded him. On the occasion of the ceremony in St. Chad’s Cathedral, which inaugurated his jurisdiction, the Mayor of the city and the Councillors attended in their official capacities. The Episcopal silver jubilee of the Bishop was kept at the annual reunion held an the Town Hall in January, 1905, the Earl of Denbigh presiding.

THE MOTOR CHAPEL.

The motor chapel took up its position at Havershill, East Anglia, on Sunday, July 2 (writes a correspondent of the Catholic Weekly). Father Bernard Vaughan, who had preached in the morning at Saffron Walden to a closely packed congregation of Catholics, and non-Catholics, came over with Father H. Vaughan and Father Norgate in good time for the evening service. The little town of Havershill had been worked up to a pitch of intense excitement and indignation because Catholic missioners were daring to invade this little preserve for Nonconformity in East Anglia. Not only'had many indignation meetings been held by the anti-Popery agitators, but a body of Kensitites had paraded the town and had inveighed against the iniquity of giving a hearing to Popish priests who had in their company a sort of arch-fiend in the person of Father Bernard Vaughan, a Jesuit. So fully had the town folk realised the danger to which they were being exposed by the advent of real Catholic priests that they did not think it safe to allow their Town Hall to be rented by them. Hence the Fathers hired the Corn Exchange. In opening the proceedings Father Bernard Vaughan rather took the wind out of the enemy’s sails by declaring that he could not adequately express his thanks to the Havershill people, and more especially to the town authorities, for having, perhaps unwittingly, so splendidly heralded their coming. He quite understood their refusal to let their halls to a body of men whom they regarded not only as blasphemers, but as evil-doers and murderers. If it had been his misfortune to share their ignorance and prejudice — a word, if he could be as utterly un-English as some of his countrymen in Suffolkhe too would have had to act as they had done. He did not blame; he rather pitied them. Father Vaughan, continuing, said that if they had all shared his faith, believing what he did, he would have had no mission in Havershill. Before condemning the Catholic Church and her teaching because of what theyhad heard uttered by paid assailants of everything Catholic, let them hear the other side, and let them come to a verdict condemning or acquitting the Church after they had summed up, judging her impartially.

FRANCE REWARD OF SPOLIATION. The plunderers of the French Church are not going, it seems, to have it all their own way (says the

Catholic Weekly In spite of the braggadocio we heard about the expenditure on laicised schools and oldage pensions, the French Government are after all to be cheated out of their ill-gotten gains. Never was a more ironic revanche than the result of their contested millions. Not for nothing did the ; Religious authorities contest their assailed rights: the law demanded that a Government which posed as its protectors should abide by its decisions, and out of the forty millions once grasped by the spoilers, after legal expenses have been paid, there remains a sorry million and a half ! And while 36,000 parish churches in France are facing the calls upon them on a stipend of less than one hundred a year, the lawyers are pocketing their fees. No one envies them such questionable gains, but the Government must, feel it has lost the stake for which it hazarded so much. '

ROME

THE FEAST OF SS. PETER AND PAUL. At eight o’clock on the Vigil of the Feast of . SS. Peter and Paul (writes the Rome correspondent of the Catholic Times) the Holy Father came down into the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica to pray at the tomb of the Apostles. After passing the ‘ Loggie,’ the Ducal and Royal halls, and the stairs which lead into the Chapel of the Sacrament, his Holiness entered the Basilica, where he was received by the Vatican Chapter. After having paid his homage to the Blessed Sacrament, he went to the Altar of the Confession, where he stopped some time in prayer before the tomb of the Apostles, and, having kissed the foot of St. Peter’s statue, returned to his apartments. The picture of the tenth Pius, with his care-worn looks and somewhat bent figure, kneeling before the tomb of the humble Fisherman of Galilee in the mystic light of the greatest basilica that the world has ever seen, with the last rays of the setting sun, as it went to rest behind Monte Mario, lighting up the magnificent pile, was of the most impressive character. The appearance of the hard-worked Pontiff, rapt in prayer, invoking the aid of the Prince of the Apostles to enable him the better to bear the great burden imposed upon him and to direct the storm-tossed Church into calmer waters on such an evening and in such a place, could not but move all present.

SPAIN

THE HOLY FATHER AND THE CONGRESS. The Catholic press of the Continent (remarks the Catholic Weekly) publishes an interchange of telegrams between the King of Spain and the Holy Father concerning the recent Eucharistic Congress at Madrid. On his return to the palace of La Granja, King Alfonso hastened to wire to Pius X. ?nanifesting the enthusiastic impressions he had derived from the Eucharistic triumph achieved at Madrid, congratulating the Pontiff upon the signal success of the celebration, and asking the Apostolic Blessing for himself and Spain. To this the Holy Father, through his Secretary of State, replied at some length, expressing the consolation he had derived from the splendid results of the Congress, and thanking the King for the solemn share he took in the proceedings, notably in delivering a public address in terms truly worthy of a Catholic Sovereign. The Pope also noticed the official homage paid by the Civil State to the Eucharist. In conclusion, the Holy Father observed that the events of the Congress proved beyond doubt the deeply-rooted Catholicism of the vast majority of Spaniards, in contradiction to what had been contended last year by those interested in deCatholicising Spain.