PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

New Zealand Tablet, 20 February 1919, Page 35

PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

A message from Budapest states that the Rev. John Hock, a Catholic priest, who has succeeded Count Karolyi as president of the National Council in Hungary, will play a big part in the regeneration of the nation.

Alfred E. Smith, who has been elected Governor of New York, is the first Catholic ever elected to that position. Governor Dongan, the Colonial Governor, was an Irish Catholic, but since the establishment of the United States no Catholic has been elected Governor of New York, although there were several Catholic candidates. A writer in a weekly paper says that Al. Smith's father was a Fenian. Governor Smith is a practical Catholic and is a Knight of Columbus. He recently took part in an entertainment in support of St. James' Catholic Church, New York.

Cardinal Mercier is going to the United States and Canada to thank the people for the succor given to Belgium (says an exchange). His stay will be brief, a* he has made it emphatic that he feels he is urgently needed in helping to restore Belgium. The Cardinal will be entertained at the home of Thomas F. Ryan, Fifth Avenue, New York. Mr. Ryan has also put at the disposal of the prelate his residence in Washington, B.C. Cardinal Mercier will make his headquarters in New York, and will go to Washington and Montreal. It may be that he will go to two or three other large American cities. In Washington he will be received by the President if Mr. Wilson has returned from Europe. Just when the Cardinal will arrive is not known. It is expected that it will be late in the winter or early next spring.

The two men who stood on the bridge of Admiral Beatty's flagship to receive the surrender of the German navy are worthy of note. Admiral Beatty himself is a Wexford man, and has covered himself with glory since the day of his first encounter, when he acknowledged John Redmond's congratulations on the result. The other personality, Sir John Lavery, the artist, is a Belfast boy, educated in the Christian Brothers' schools in that city, with a world reputation as being the greatest painter of his time : and despite all his honors, is prouder of the fact that his name is associated with the traditions of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Dublin that he is of all the honor that, was given him in the years when he was unknown either in Great Britain or Ireland, his reputation having been made outside this area. That two Irishmen occupied the place of honor, as the German flag was ordered to be taken down, is of import in these days. It is also important to state that the last picture painted, or being painted, by Lavery was the trial of Sir Roger Casement, and we can fancy the feelings of some Imperialists who will perhaps find that under the same roof, handing down to posterity the defeat of the German navy, Ireland's claim for justice will be staring at them from the other side of the artist's studio.

Mr. Cecil Edward Chesterton died on December 6 in a military hospital at Boulogne, from illness conse-

quent upon exposure in the trenches (says the Liverpool Catholic Times). A brilliant champion both by pen and speech of Catholic ideals, he was a man whom the Church in this country could ill spare at the present time. He was the declared foe of all shams and insincerities, and shared with his brother, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, a freshness of outlook and % a sure literary touch that gave originality to all his work. Mr. Chesterton joined the colors in 1916, and served as a private in the Highland Light Infantry. It was at his own wish that he was placed in a combatant unit, though he might have had less arduous service. He was in his thirty-eighth year. He was received into the Church in 1912. At that time he was associated with Mr. Belloc in the conduct of the Eye Witness, and he founded and became editor of the New Witness in the same year. Mr.. Chesterton had published several books, including Gladstonian Ghosts, in 1905 ; The People's Drink, 1909 ; Party and People, 1910 Nell Gwynne, 1911 ; The Prussian Hath Said in His Heart, 1914; and The Perils of Pe.ace, 1916. He also, in collaboration with Mr. Belloc, published The Party System, in 1911. Mrs. Chesterton, whom he married last year, is also interested in literature, and writes m the pen name of "John K. Prothero."

When (writes a Roman correspondent) Cardinal Tonti, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, passed away, after suffering for ten days from influenza, on December 11, an exceptionally active career in the diplomatic world closed. In 1879 he was sent to Paris as Auditor to the Papal Nuncio. In 1883 he went to Lisbon also as Auditor. In 1892 he was consecrated Titular Bishop of Samos and appointed Apostolic Delegate to Venezuela, San Domingo, and Haiti. His first care on reaching the Republic of Haiti was to try and allay the dissension that then existed between the Government and the clergy, and for this purpose he allowed himself to be appointed Administrator of the archdiocese of Porto Principe. Two years later he became its Archbishop, filling at the same time the position of Apostolic Delegate to the three Republics. He soon had the satisfaction of seeing good relations between the Government and clergy at Haiti. Later on the Republic of Venezuela confided to Archbishop Tonti the mission of re-establishing diplomatic relations between England and Venezuela. His next success was that of persuading the Republics of Haiti and San Domingo to submit their dispute as to the frontiers to the arbitration of Leo XIII. In 1902 Archbishop Tonti went to Brazil as Nuncio, and in 1906 as Nuncio

to Lisbon, whence he was recalled to Rome at the outbreak of the revolution. Pope Benedict XV. created this zealous servant a Cardinal, and only a few months ago Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious. Cardinal Tonti was 74 years of age.