OUR ROMAN LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 10 July 1919, Page 21

OUR ROMAN LETTER

(By “Scottus.”)

' Those who arc likely to be in correspondence with Rome would do well to note an innovation recently introduced by the post office authorities, consisting in the division of the city into some 50 or 60 numbered districts for the purpose of facilitating the sorting and distribution of the multitudinous correspondence that is daily poured in from all quarters of the globe. For the future, then, it is requested that all Tetters should bear after the word Rome the number of the district to which they are addressed. An example or two will illustrate , what is meant. Thus letters to the Irish College should be addressed “Irish College, Rome 3”; those to the Irish Augustinians, “Rome 26“ ; and. those to the Irish Franciscans, “Rome 6.” In this connection it may not be amiss to mention the advisability of writing the words of the address as clearly as possible. To use what Mark Twain thought as a joke, the postmen (and in these days the postwomen) are all foreigners, and cannot be expected to be. experts in caligraphy. That so few letters fail to reach their destination is a high tribute to the intelligence of these long-suffering workers. But at the same time, letters are often delivered at the wrong address, and thus fail to reach their proper destination as early as might be, owing to the difficulty or impossibility of making out what the writers had in mind when penning the address. Bearing this caution in mind, and taking the precaution of inserting the proper number after the word Rome, the labor of the post office workers will be facilitated, and letters will be delivered with greater despatch than was possible before.

Of course there is the censor, and the censor apparently we have always with us. When he is to take his long-expected departure no one knows. But' I imagine Irish readers do not need to be reminded of the existence or operations of that much abused gentleman who apparently is likely to be always with them also, if we are to believe an announcement appearing in the Italian papers a few clays ago. He is certainly here, as can easily be seen by glancing at the pages of the morning's papers where blank patches betray his vigilance just as infallibly as ruined fields the passing of the locust. In one way there is noticeable a slight " change here in this respect. Irish news is more to the fore than it was allowed to be a month ago, and on the whole it is now of a sympathetic nature. Naturally much depends on the turn events take at. a given moment in Paris—so long as all runs smoothly there, and so long as the Welsh Wagtail warbles in accordance with Italian wishes, we cannot expect Italian newspapers to go into ecstacies about us —but the moment there appears the slightest rift in the pipes we expect our position to be referred to in sympathetic terms, and are : seldom disappointed. One of the most authoritative of the morning's papers, the Tempo, for instance, devotes a long article to Mr. O'Kelly's efforts at Paris with which the writer is evidently . in keen, sympathy. And in a leading article of the same journal, attention is drawn in biting terms : to the wobbly policy pursued by the Big Four with regard to national aspirations. Having professed the deepest admiration for the Wilsonian decalogue the artice bursts forth into bitter lamentations: "Wilson is no longer the herald of pure justice and equity. He seems to have been frozen into a position of intransigence with' regard to certain principles affecting respect for presumed nationalities, —but he seems to be thus affected only to the detriment of those whose threats he fears "not. Why in the long run does not the Puritan ex-president of Princeton listen ; to the mournful voice of Ireland, and why does he hold that the Irish question is ens between Ireland and,"Great Britain; alone, while at the same 'time' claiming to intervene with infallible authority in our (Italian) conflict with the Jugo Slavs, whose

revoltris/ko feeble in comparison with that of the Irish? We believe that the best and only argument to invoke in this hour, so decisive of the fate of our territorial programme at Paris, is that which is offered by the attitude assumed by Wilson with regard to parallel problems of the various Allied countries. Mr. Wilson has no : right to throw! his decalogue in our teeth while he is furtively consigning it to his pocket the moment the ..assertion of it proves disagreeable to his friends at the other side of the English Channel. But then, to be sure, we are not in a position to show our teeth, or : perhaps? the " sacrifice of our ~:aspirations will not create embarrassment for the plutocracy across the Atlantic- To sacrifice Italy at the present moment, when England is being given, a, free hand in the dealing with national problems such as. that of Ireland, would be tantamount to a cool abandoning of the policy of coherence and justice. Wilson is evidently relying too much on the prestige of his name and his country. But the Peace Congress is not a school of philosophy, nor is he a Pythagoras." It would be easy to multiply passages of a similar tone; but the above should suffice to convey some idea of the trend of opinion in this country. For the present all that need be added in this connection is. to remark that while the emissaries of the British Embassy have failed to secure the repression of independent views on the subject, there is no indication that the same institution hesitates to draw the salaries of its officials, part "of which doubtless is derived from the twenty or thirty millions which Ireland is contributing towards the making of the world safe for something or other : just as there is no sign, quite the contrary, that certain English-speaking Benedictines here, who for years have done their best to inspire Catholic, and other newspaper offices with antiIrish feeling, are at all opposed to the idea of their school at St. Benedict's near Gorey being used as a feeder for the more aristocratic groves of Downside in England. I

Other and higher interests are apparently not faring better at the hands of the Quadrumvirate. Apart from the future position of the Catholic Church in Alsace-Lorraine where naturally Catholics may expect that liberty by which France herself is free, the tendency of events in the East, and particularly in the Holy Land, is anything at all but reassuring from the Catholic point of view. Proselytism is the order of the day. Protestant societies go their way, scattering gold right and left to save the poor benighted papists from the errors of the Scarlet Worn an; while societies that sail under the banner of. colored crosses, or pose as non-sectarian semi-military Christian organisations with triangular crests and aims, are joining in the cry. Small wonder that recently the Holy Father felt constrained to issue a warning, and at the same time to make a moving appeal to the faithful all the world over to come to the rescue of the Catholics of the Holy Land, whose faith is menaced by hordes, moving onward to the tune of penny rolls, and soup and hairy bacon. Recent reports go to show that not only is proselytism rife in the Holy Land, but that venerable shrines which' for centuries have been under the loving care of the Franciscans are about to be handed . over to countries or bodies that have no love for Rome. It Ms stated that in all these transactions the. Pope has been completely ignored, thus showing how serious the prophets were in predicting that a new era had dawned in which every element that could make for peace,would, be ,invited- to lend '■■a.' helping hand. ;.., • ~ ..{^.y, ,:,-■:[ oc £ K ;

r Yet there are 'compensations either actual or ' expected. A few days ago, almost on the 510th anniversary of the day when the lowly peasant maid 'of" Domremy appeared before Orleans with gleaming sword in hand and scattered the proudest knights that England had ever sent forth I to battle, a ceremony was held in the Vatican and a decree read in the presence of "the "Pope vouching for the authenticity of two "miracles ascribed to the intercession of the same maid who was

_ ‘iisacta 1- M-l put to a shameful. death under judicial forms by those who feared to meet her with steel. Replying to a brilliant address read by tho Bishop of Orleans, ; the Holy Father referred to his own anxiety to hasten the canonisation of ; one whose 1 virtues r had won" the respect and admiration 1 of- his? predecessors. He ' recalled to ' mind how he was present at the death-bed 1( of 1 Le6’ XIII. how prayers were : recited ‘-for the - spiritual comfort of the old man in his last agony; and how he that is now Pope was : deeply ; moved when ixxvocations were “ addressed to the saints and : the ! blessed who had'been raised to the honors of the altar by the Pope then nearing his end : “It will be a ; source of great comfort to my soul,” said Benedict XV., “if ixx the hour 5 of my agony those around me can invoke in ray favor* the intercession of Joan of Arc because I shall have placed on her head the aureola of the Saints.” Th the course' : of his address, the Bishop of Orleans had : pointed out certain moral affinities which appeared to him to exist between the Blessed Joan of Arc and the Pope. Referring to this the Holy Father went on to observe ; “These moral affinities have been dwelt on in connection with the war that has wrought such dreadful devastation during the fix's years of our Pontificate. And truly it could not be unwelcome to us if the example of Joan of Are before and during the war with the English is availed of to throw greater light on the fact that the attitude of the Holy See in the course of the recent struggle is precisely that which .has constantly- been.' maintained by the very saints who loved their country like Joan of Arc. This natural evocation of the patriotism of the Maid of Orleans invites us; to pluck one other flower from the eminent patron of the cause of Joan of Arc ; and it is the flower of the love of country which, just as it long ago inflamed the heart of Blessed Joan of Arc, so has it vibrated to-day in the heart of the illustrious orator. Far from being astonished at the words, we feel that from this point of view the Bishop of Orleans is the faithful spokesman of his fel-low-countrymen, both here and at home. We have said that we are not surprised ; we go further, and add that, seeing how properly the memory of Joan of Arc inflamed the love of Frenchmen for their country, we regret that we are only French at heart. , But the sincerity with which we are French at heart is such that to-day we make our own the joy that is felt by bom Frenchmen at the progress made towards the canonisation of Joan of Arc, thanks to the approbation of the two miracles attributed. to her intercession. Born Frenchmen rejoice with good right at recognising in the truth of these two miracles a witness confirming the power of Joan of Arc before the heavenly throne. With good right too will they conclude that the. more widespread diffusion of the veneration of Blessed Joan, such as is sure to result from her canonisation, will. obtain still greater graces and blessings for their country. In this desire and in this hope the Frenchman at heart finds himself in, complete harmony with the born Frenchman in wishing France an increase, of glory and happiness. • Let us be permitted, therefore, to say that the last flower attesting the love of the children of France for their cherished motherland gives forth a special perfume; and all we ask is that a share of it may be. allowed to one who, though not born in France, desires to be called France’s friend. ” The eloquent and touching words of the Pope have served but to ; confirm a rumor current here for some time to the effect that steps are being taken at the present moment to restore the former friendly relations which were so. ruthlessly swept aside by the bigotry or greed of French.statesmen some dozen years ago. Much should depend;.on the next few weeks ; all that can be said at present, is that the outlook is not rendered brighter, by the spirit now prevailing at Paris, where, as someone has wittily .remarked, peace has broken out and is now -raging with the utmost intensity. - The authenticatioxx of the .miracles of the Blessed Joan of -Arc is the last official step that has to be taken. All that now remains is to fix the day for the canonisation ceremony.- . Under ordinary circumstances this would take pi ace, within, the next few i i. -i : _,.i._ ai • VA -A. —i.:— j Xc X weeAO, uuu uuviuusi}'. LXJurt; tbit) 111 cl 11 umitu I yi d

practical-nature: in the way, particularly in the matter of travelling, to prevent people from coming to Rome either now or in the immediate future. This being so,, it is more than probable that the ceremony must be postponed till early next year, when it may be expected to. take place, if nothing unforeseen occurs in the meanwhile. One of the unforeseen things would be the death of the Pope, and the election of a successor 'with other views on the subject:' But apart from this unlikely contingency the chances are that before next Easter the faithful all over the world will be enabled to address the Maid of Orleans as St.- Joan of Arc. About the same time, possibly the same day, probably the same week, and almost certainly ‘ the same month, will be held the Beatification ceremony of the Venerable Oliver Plunkett., Those who love to speak of Empire cardinals, and Empire bishops, and Empire priests, and Empire students, will have doubtless special interest in both ceremonies; for both will concern Empire martyrs.