ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 53

ROME LETTER

t (From our own correspondent.) * April 7. EASTER SUNDAY IN THE VATICAN. V From an early hour on Easter Sunday . morning more than usual activity was in evidence in the Vatican. Carriages bearing those privileged to assist at the Holy Father's Mass rolled swiftly over the square of St. Peter's, the "military corps of the palace wore their gala uniforms, prelates and funtionaries hurried to the Sala Matilda to wait for the Pontiff, and by 7.30 Benedict XV. stood on the altar to offer up the Holy Sacrifice. Already the Swiss Guard had* hung out their flags at the front and rear of the Vatican. And from the quarters of the Palatine Guard of Honor, the .Pontifical Gendarmes, and the Swiss Guards, the colors peculiar to each corps floated in the breeze. Joy filled the air for the great Feast of the Resurrection. And later in the day crowds were permitted to enter the Court of St. Damasus where the band of the. Papal Gendarmes— of the finest in Romeexecuted pieces from Verdi, Perosi, Morena, and other masters. THE POPE AND THE PRESS. Not only in Italy, for which Benedict XV. has founded the work mentioned below, but throughout America, Australasia, and Europe, will this decree tell in favor of Catholic newspapers. In the letter written . in the Pope's name by the Papal Secretary of State to Cardinal Maffi, Archbishop of Pisa, founding the national movement for a sound press, every parish of , Italy's dioceses is required to put forth its energy. The appointment of Cardinal Mafli as honorary president, and Monsignor Faberi, Canon of St. Peter's, as acting-president, augurs well for the success of the undertaking. The following is the decree: Our Holy Lord Benedict XV., having received from various parts recommendations and petitions for the institution of a work having for its end the diffusion of sound literature in Italy by means of which an obstacle may be put to the baneful and deleterious propaganda that, through the medium of the anti-religious and sectarian press, continues to become more dangerous, and of the greatest detriment to religion and the morals of the people, and having given his sovereign consideration to the project of the 'Opera Rationale per la Bnona St-ampa, (National movement for a sound press), which competent persons with filial confidence submitted to him, has been graciously pleased to approve of the constitution of this work. The ' Opera ' is to be directed and administered by a central council, composed of a president and ten councillors. The president is nominated by the Holy See, and remains in office according to the beneplacHum of the Holy See. The ten councillors are nominated by the president from a list previously approved of by the Holy See. They will remain in office for throe years, and they are eligible for re-election. Among the councillors the president nominates a vice-president, a secretarv, and a treasurer. NOTES. Many readers, who were the recipients of his kindness during their visits to Rome, will deeply regret the death of Very Rev. John Dolan, Rector of the Church of St. Silvestro in Capite. It was mainly due to him that St. Silvestro was converted from being a mere English church into one, as he used to put it, ' for all Catholics of the English-speaking —America, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Scotland.' Among those who visited this good Irish- *■' American priest were their Eminences Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli and Cardinal Gasquet, and Bishop Kennedy, Rector of the American College. Her Majesty Queen Margherita on visiting St. Silvestro on Holy Thursday, expressed her deepest sympathy for him. More sudden has been the death of Very Rev.

Father Chiandano, S. J., editor of the Civilta Cattolica, the celebrated Roman bi-monthly. Only" a couple of weeks' ago the great priest-journalist/ after a long-con-versation with the writer, presented him with his recently published work on Catholic journalism. His death will certainly be felt keenly in the journalistic world, in which he was a shining light.