The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1913, Page 55

The Catholic World

ENGLAND PROTECTING CATHOLIC EMIGRANTS. In the current issue of the F ederaiionist, the Bishop of Salford states that one of the subjects which engaged the serious attention of the Hierarchy at the recent annual Low Week meeting was the dangers to which * Catholic girls and x young women are exposed when emigrating across the Atlantic. A memorial on the subject was presented to their Lordships. The Bishops received it most sympathetically and approved the good work, expressing moreover a desire that it should be made known to all the Catholic convents, and also to the general Catholic public, by conspicuous notices displayed at the church doors. All this (adds the Bishop) will very soon be carried out. Dr. Casartelli also calls attention to a letter from the president of the Superior Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Australia, who states that letters of introduction from presidents of the society given to Catholic immigrants to Australia or New Zealand will receive special attention from the brothers there. FRANCE THE RESULT OF THE ANTI-CLERICAL POLICY Cardinal Vincent Vannutelli, in his visit to Paris as Papal Legate (remarks the Catholic Times), was not entrusted by the Holy See with any diplomatic mission, but as Frenchmen read in the papers the comments he made on the kindly words of the Holy Father and the hspe he expressed that by the aid of apostolic men such as Ozanam the glories which Christianity ensured to France in the past may be renewed in days to come, a great number of them must have longed to see all the old ties between their country and the Holy See restored. France has lost heavily through the sundering of some of those ties. ‘ To think,’ said the Italian journal La Tribuna a few days ago, ‘ as the French Government thought, that a £rreat nation with a policy to pursue in the East as well as at home, could without serious detriment, ignore the Roman Pontiff and do without the influence of the Catholic Church, which has a powerful hierarchy, an army of missionaries, and hundreds of millions of faithful members, was sheer folly.’ As the Osservatore Romano says, the increase of Italy’s influence in the East and the placing of Italian missionaries under their own country’s protectorate are results of the anti-clerical policy of French Governments. The unwisdom of that policy all Frenchmen are now beginning to see very clearly. PORTUGAL VULGAR VITUPERATION. The Portuguese Premier (says the London Daily News) is inflicting a grave injury upon the reputation of the young Republic by his steady refusal to answer the charges brought by Adeline, Duchess of Bedford, and by vulgar vituperation of a lady whose name is held in honor by her countrymen and whose trustworthiness as a witness has not been impeached.’ PROTEST BY THE HIERARCHY. The Cardinal-Partriarch of Lisbon and his colleagues in the Portuguese hierarchy have sent a joint letter to the President of the Republic protesting against the persecution of the Church. The letter reviews the sufferings of the Church since the promulgation of the Law of Seperation in April, 1911, and cogently argues that the Law is a violation of the constitution of the Republic, as has been proved on many occasions in the course of legal proceedings instituted against members of the hierarchy. The protest is characterised by a clearness and judicial calm which is in great contrast to the usually unbridled verbiage of the legislators. The signatories to the communication call attention in particular to the prohibition of

church functions, the closing of churches, the profanation of the churchyards and chapels, and the underunning of morality in the schools. Our voices have been raised against violence/ the letter proceeds, * but the violence has gone on. Perhaps our mouths may be closed by persecution, but the voices of Catholic bishops all over the worl d . will still be raised in protest, and will still be heard. We shall not be afraid to continue fearlessly in the discharge of our duty. With a good will we shall make all sacrifices, except the sacrifice of our honor, our dignity, and our conscience. We shall meet the threats and the violence, of which we may be the victims, with that fortitude which has given the Church so many triumphs in 'the past. “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality” —the motto of the Republic, has become a perverted triology.’ ROME THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN SPUR. The Order, of the Golden Spur, which Pope Pius X. recently conferred upon his Serene Highness Prince Albert of Thurn and Taxis, brings to mind the fact that the French nobleman is the recipient of the most coveted distinction in the gift of even the Roman Pontiff (says a Rom© correspondent). Only one hundred knights make up this ancient Order, and during the present Pontificate not more than ten have been granted the distinction of belonging to it. Four of them are already dead. The survivors are his Grace the Duke of Norfolk; Prince Lancellotti, Rome, the Marquis de Camilas, the great Spanish, benefactor of Messina; Don Filippo Massimo, of the ancient Roman family of this name Count Übaldine, sometime captain of the Papal army; and Captain Linange-Billing-tein, sometime captain of the Papal Dragoons. SCOTLAND THE ABBEY OF FORT AUGUSTUS. The Glasgow Herald , in concluding its account of the consecration of the new Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Fort Augustus, says:Abbot Hunter-Blair is the first Benedictine of Scottish birth who has been raised to that high dignity in Scotland for more than three centuries. There have been Scottish Abbots since then, it is true, but they did not rule in Scotland, but in Germany, where the Scottish Abbeys of Ratisbon, Vienna, Erfur, Wurzburg, and the rest perpetuated Benedictine life long after it had been suppressed in this country. With one of those abbeys Fort Augustus claims kindred, for the last surviving monk of St. James’, Ratisbon, took a prominent part in the foundation of Fort Augustus Abbey some 37 years ago, and Fort Augustus was recognised as a resuscitation on Scottish soil of that ancient monastery in Germany. It was fitting, therefore, that Abbot Hunter-Blair should bear on his breast on the occasion of his enthronement the golden pectoral cross of the Abbots of Ratisbon, which Fort Augustus acquired from the last monk of the German community. Another link with an earlier past may be recognised in the congratulatory message received by the Abbot from Prince Giustiniani Bandini, a Roman noble. For Prince Bandini is the present holder of the Scottish title of Earl of Newburgh, and Newburghthe ‘ new burgh of Lindores ? — owed its origin and its rank as burgh to the Abbots of that once famous Benedictine Abbey, which Knox ‘ reformed ’ in 1559. When the Reformation had become an accomplished fact the possessions of Lindores were given to a lay proprietor, whose title ‘ Lord Lindores ’ eventually developed into that of Earl of Newburgh.