ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 24 June 1915, Page 53

ROME LETTER

t' i -■-; (From our own. correspondent.) Ws ;/• . ■ . , . . April 23. ..:: - , It is a long cry back,; 2668 * years since • Rome was r- founded. ;. But the Romans - never fail to celebrate the; - birthday of their city, that / city ; which ‘ began; op - the Palatine as a village -of : wattle huts, and soon 1 spread -out,' conquering nation after ; nation, until Rome sat , ‘oh- her - seven hills as the mistress of the world. With what enthusiasm . and affection the Romans 'observe the 2 1st, of April each 'year ‘l In- the early . morning the 1: great V bell of % the Capitol booms out, and soon the city ;is gay with banners. The people are in their holiday attire; ' the military ; and - gendarmes - ' wear their - gala .uniforms ; and : there is a "general briskness in the air that .I betokens:’ the Roman holiday Sight-seeing people that they have been these 2668. years, the Romans •'surpass . themselves on April 21. Over on the Campus Martins" where Caesar trained his legions; down; the Tiber, the silent witness of so many battles; up on the Palatine,, where only in 1914 the archaeologists unearthed; the 1 ■ hut of Romulus ;>dqwri; in the ' Forum that once 'ret .; sounded to the r voice ofUicero, Caesar, and Pompey, and . beheld bloody struggles'between the patricians, and the • plebs; up the sides of . the Capitol on which v a pair of wolves'and a couple of eagles are kept to remind modern Romans of ancient historythese are places the people ; love to think about, for they represent to them even yet all _ that is great in peace and war, the ; perennial youth of the Eternal City. . - - . . THE KING OF BULGARIA. . How many, one wonders, saw how much was contained in the following note, which appeared in the Vatican organ the other evening ? It ,is an extract from the Drievnik of Sophia, and is headed, ‘ The piety of Ferdinand 1., King of Bulgaria.’ As is usual every year, so this year also, his Majesty the King assisted at the solemn ecclesiastical functions during Holy Week in the Catholic Church, partly in Sophia and partly in, Philippipolis. On Easter Monday, he received the Holy Sacraments, and at the Mass celebrated by Mgr. V. Pejor, Coadjutor-Bishop, he communicated in the Catholic Cathedral of Philippopolis, near the tomb of his deceased consort, Princess Maria Louisa. After the Mass his Majesty knelt at the tomb and prayed devoutly for her soul in the presence of a multitude of the faithful.’ From the above we can gather that King Ferdinand has made the crooked way straight, hard though it was for him. Four years ago this monarch weakly yielded to powerful influences, and consented to the Baptism of Prince Boris, his eldest son and heir to the throne, in the Schismatic Church. The King of Bulgaria was promptly excommunicated by the Holy See, cut off as a rotten branch from the ©nly Church founded by Christ. I need not remind Catholics that while excommunicated

Ferdinand ■;:!.;,; dated' not approach the Sacraments* , Now that we are told that he has publicly done so, we may j assume the king has complied with all that the Church would have him do under the circumstance—and --..;■ hence we can say all is well. •■: ■f% ; : :: ? v! -' ,; ;~ - ■: THE *3 CHURCH r FOR ENGLISH-SPEAKING ~ ■ ■■, CATHOLICS. *:v fPE^ 1 v . ;In a few days English-speaking Catholics living in Rome will gather in the; Church of S. Silvestro in Capite at the . Month’s Mind of ' the late/rector J : .Very .-- Rev. John Dolan. And therefore this ;- furnishes / a favorable opportunity for relating how " this good’ priest changed 1 the church from being the mere English Church >. into a church for Catholics coming- from \ English-speak- :. ing countries. This change was effected by Father ;’; Dolan on his transfer nearly • seven years ago from the - rectorship; of our Lady of Mount Carmel, New 7 York, . to that of San Silvestro, Rome. * ‘Now,’ he said, ‘.let me - make this plain. x S. Silvestro in Capite is for v the ;; Irish, the English, the Americans, .the Australians, the /; New Zealanders, the' South Africans, and the Cana--1:1 dians.’ By , these "few; words, strongly ; adhered to. 1-Father Dolan did a good . service, to . priests, wishing to : - celebrate • Maris, 0 and to ; Catholic tourists and residents ?' in Rome who wished to be ministered to in their own '£ tongue, and not to be forced :to inquire - their way '- through a great city for a t priest to whom - they could confess in English. v'd -IV. :