The Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 26 June 1913, Page 55

The Catholic World

ENGLAND / DEATH OF A CANON. • 7 The death is reported of the Very Rev. Canon Lane, Rector of St. Mary’s, Levenshuhne, which oc- - curred with tragic suddenness in a waiting-room at the Bolton Railway Station. Canon Lane, who was the Diocesan Visitator to Convents, was returning from one of his inspections, and was waiting on the railway platform for his train when he was noticed to collapse. He was at once taken into a waiting-room, and died a few moments afterwards. Deceased priest, who had served in the Salford diocese for thirty-seven years, was a native of County Kerry, and was educated for the priesthood at Maynooth College. FRANCE FESTIVAL OF BLESSED, JOAN OF ARC. The festival of Blessed Joan’of Arc has been celebrated with unusual enthusiasm in Paris. The blue-and-white banners of the Maid of Orleans, variegated with the tricolor and other flags, were to be seen in nearly every quarter of the city, and the demonstrations before her statues were exceptionally large. Monsignor Touchet, Bishop of Orleans, has explained in a • letter to the faithful that the responsibility for the fetes there on the 7th and Bth May, being robbed of their religious character rests with the Mayor. : ITALY GRAFT IN HIGH PLACES. Since the Italian Government (writes a-Rome correspondent) opened the investigation regarding the scandal of the Palazzo di Giustizia with a - view to fixing the responsibility for the facts that have brought to much obloquy upon many concerned with its erection, the Italian press has not been sparing in the amount of space given to the matter. Six columns are not considered superfluous for the subject by some of the more important dailies, and opinion is unanimous with respect to it for the Palazzo di Giustizia, which was originally estimated to cost 8,000,000 lire, has actually cost 46,000,000. Needless to say, many interesting particulars relating to the famous building are being recalled now that deputies, knight-commanders, and others, whose names heretofore were synonymous with honesty and uprightness, are*taken to task so severely. Among other particulars, it is recalled that Zanardelli, a Freemason of high degree, when approving of the project in 1889, said We must plant the Palazzo di Giustizia right in front of the Vatican, and I wish it to be a monument to the immortal majesty of Italy.’ The U nit a Cattolica, of Florence, commenting on this, says:—‘lt became a monument (as the investigation shows) to the majesty of Italy, of Third Italy, that which entered Rome by the breach in the Porta Pia. Every little man had the idea of planting something before the Vatican, and this one succeeded in planting a nest of thieves.’ ROME ECCLESIASTICAL COLLEGES. > With the termination of the present academic year (writes a Rome correspondent) will come the closing of the Roman Seminary, the Seminario Pio, and the College of St. Apollinare; for the Holy Father has . decided that the vast building in course of completion V on the Coelian Hill, beside the Basilica of St. John Lateran, will open in August to receive the students and staffs of those institutions. The new college will be capable of housing-five hundred -students as well as providing them with class-halls. According to the regulations, the professors will be provided with rooms and board free in case they wish to live in the college; but if they wish to reside outside no allowance will be made for the advantages which they forego. The Holy Father has already given the buildings which the students are leaving into the charge of the Vincentian

Fathers on the Montecitorio who have received notice from the Italian Government that ; the church and residence .now. occupied ‘ by these ecclesiastics must be evacuated by them. These buildings of the religious are needed for offices for the Ministers of Third Italy; The new buildings beside the Lateran are on the position overlooking the broad Roman Campagna. : ' - ; SPAIN THE EDUCATION QUESTION. : U The -Spanish Central Association or Junta for Catholic Action has issued a manifesto in which are explained the grounds of their objection to the Royal decree on education. The manifesto says that contrary to a principle of the Constitution and a definite prescription of the law, contrary also to a clause in the Concordat between the Holy See and the King,’ and in the teeth of public opinion, never more strongly , expressed, a Government calling itself , democratic alters a fundamental point iir the educational programme of the schools, which the Constitution places under the protection of the legislative power, supposed in Spain to reside in the Cortes in union with the King. ‘lf,’ adds the manifesto, ‘ the rule-is to prevail that questions of the very highest importance to the nation are to be dealt with independently by the executive the legislative functions may as well be transferred altogether to Ministers.’ » GENERAL ( THE JESUITS IN THE CONGO. Speaking at the opening of St. Gerard’s bazaar in Liverpool on April 28, Sir William Lever, who had only recently returned from the Congo, paid a meed of praise to the work of the Jesuits in that country. The Jesuit Fathers (he said) were carrying on in that far distant land a very noble work. He had met amongst them men who had devoted their lives to missionary work,-and who had been in the Congo for twenty years. They were teaching the natives there how to farm and how to take care of animals. The natives of the Congo knew practically nothing of horses, mules, or donkeys, or cattle of any kind. Usually the Congo natives farmed for three years, and then went to a fresh pasture, leaving the land in weeds; They were now. being taught to cultivate continuously. They .-were likewise taught printing, and' were shown how to , print the Bible and other books, and they were able to read them in the Congo language. They were also taught a knowledge of carpentry and joinery, the manufacture of bricks, and, as far as possible, the Fathers endeavoured to break them of the habit of having so many wives. The natives lived in huts that were unfit for habitation, but they were now being taught to build better houses. That was all practical Christianity. He did not care what denomination did such work so long as 'it was done, sympathetically and with a desire to elevate the natives. THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION IN THE BALKANS. The Note which, according to a telegram from Cettinje, has been sent by Austria to Montenegro in reference to Father- Palitch is a plain .indication that her temper is warlike (says the Catholic Times). Father Palitch, it will be remembered, was killed by Montenegrin troops. At first it was reported that he was murdered because he refused to conform to the * Orthodox ’ creed. The Montenegrin authorities alleged that he was 'under arrest and had been shot whilst endeavouring to escape. A ■ mixed commission was appointed to investigate the "circumstances of the affair, and an announcement was recently published to the effect that the Montenegrin account of what occurred was confirmed by the enquiry. At the same time Montenegro admitted that some Catholics in Albania had joined the ‘ Orthodox ’ Church. The conviction in Austria is that the new' ‘ Orthodox ’ recruits were forced to become ‘converts ’at the peril of their lives, and that both the Montenegrins and Servians have carried on a fierce crusade against the Catholic Albanians as well as against the Turks. Letters from

Albania state that thousands of the inhabitants,-in-cluding women and children, have been slain. Such statements' may err* by excess,* but they have' given Austria ground for intervention and she is utilising it. She insists that Father Palitch’s remains shall be transferred, in the presence of a Montenegrin functionary with the rank of a general, to a tomb, over which shall be erected a cross, that facilities shall be afforded for the erection of a projected Catholic church,'and that Montenegro- shall guarantee religious freedom to the ‘ converted ’ Catholics who desire to return to the Catholic Church. ' The Montenegrin Government, whilst awaiting the report of its delegates, has promised to give satisfaction to the legitimate Catholic sentiments. of the occupied towns. It would seem as if the need of greater restraint l on the part of the Montenegrins and the .Servians were urgent.