Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, 13 October 1921, Page 39

Catholic World

fr== ==* . THE POPE AND THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. The Red Cross Conference, according to the Gorriere (UltaUa the official organ of the Catholic Popular Party, has invited the Pope to take part in the conference which is shortly'to be held in Geneva to consider the Russian situation. The Pope has accepted the invitation, and he will be represented by Monsignor Maglione, the Papal Nuncio to Switzerland, who has been co-operating on . behalf of the Pope in the relief work of the Save the Children Fund. \ Through Cardinal Gasparri, the Papal secretary of State, the Pope has already invited all Christian and civilised peoples to assist the starving Russian peoples. The Esthonian Legation also states that Archbishop Tiklion, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, has addressed / a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, asking for the s largest possible scale of relief, and immediately. "All considerations of other character must be laid aside" says the Russian Patriarch, "as the people are perishing,-and all its future is threatened with ruin. . . Send us bread and medicines without delay. The retardation would cause calamities unheard hitherto. * Pray Our LoXi that His holy wrath against-us may be appeased." CZECHO-SLOVAKS CONFISCATE CHURCH PROPERTY. During the year 1920-21 heavy confiscations of property belonging to the Church in the Czecho-Slovak Republic have taken place. In Slovakia alone more than 300 churches have been pillaged in one way or another, and something like 500 statues have either been taken away or destroyed. Some of the great public schools, such as ■those of the Benedictines at Komarom, of the Premonstratensians at Kossice, or that of the .Jesuits at Dratislava, have been closed by order of the Government, and no alternative offered in their place. The new law, which brings about the separation of Church and State, is expected to be put into operation during the coining autumn, and the position of the Church in the Republic will be considerably altered for the worse. The greatest sufferers appear to be the parish clergy, particularly in the country parishes. Even now some of thes>4tfive been deprived of practically all their resources, and they are now reduced to an extreme state of poverty and misery, the' little stipend they are able to get being worth practically nothing as the currency has depreciated. A new governmental ordinance is reported to be put ■ into effect in Slovakia, according to which all members of religious orders in that province will be obliged to clear out, while their schools and houses will he taken over by the State. V- ... , DOMINICANS RETURN TO OXFORD. On the Feast of the Assumption Cardinal Bourne, in the presence of Cardinal Gasquet and a numerous blage of bishops and clergy, placed in position the foundation stone of the new Priory and Conventual Church of the Holy Ghost which the Dominicans are to erect in Saint Giles, one of the most famous of the mediaeval streets of Oxford. It was exactly seven hundred years ago, on August 15, 1221, that the Dominicans first came to Oxford, acting* on the instructions of the Second General Chapter of the Order held at Bologna, which decided to effect the foundation of an English Province of the Order. Twelve friars, with Friar Gilbert of Frosney as their Prior, set out for England where they were welcomed by Cardinal Stephen Langton, at that time Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the same year they made their way to Oxford, where they established themselves in the University. The return of the Dominicans to Oxford, for that is what the present-day ceremony signifies, means that there are now established at the University all those religious Orders that taught there at the time of the Reformation. The Benedictines and the Franciscans have their hostels in Oxford and the Jesuits and Salesians have their houses of studies. The Dominicans are already established in a small house, but their new Priory means the establishment of the full conventual life of the Dominican Order as well as their participation in the academic life of the University. In the new conventual church there will be stalls in the choir for one hundred friars. The capitular High Mass .will be chanted daily and the Divine Office celebrated at-

'.■-:• •-.'['. • the .canonical hours with all the ceremonies peculiar to the rites of the Dominican Order, But besides T this, the Priory will be affiliated to the University as a house, of studies, and once more the Blackfriars will be in Oxford as members of the University, as they were in the days previous to the Reformation. Saint Dominic himself, the Founder of the Dominican Order, appears to have held an ecclesiastical preferment in England; for he was presented to a benefice attached to the Church of St. Oswald, at Nostell in Yorkshire by Pope Honorius 111., who was patron of the benefice. During the more than three centuries, that the Dominicans were established in Oxford previous to the. Reformation at least three friars of the. Order werpr appointed Chancellor of the University. Friar John Bromyard, the most notable of these, was the only man known in history to have been Chancellor both of Oxford and Cambridge. In honor of the Dominicans seven hundredth anniversary at Oxford the Pope has sent a Pontifical to Dr. Bede Jarrett, Provincial of the English ; Province, congratulating the friars ,on their return to Oxford. The new Priory will stand opposite to St. John's " College in Saint Giles. CATHOLIC BISHOP ON PERIL TO SOCIAL ORDER. Dignitaries of the Catholic .Church are in .Cambridgo taking part in the Bible-Congress. Preaching yesterday (July 17), says the Daily News, London),, the Bishop of Clifton said that . with 'Catholics the- Bible got its hall mark , from the Church, not the . Church from the Bible. The teaching and example of Christ had created our Western civilisation, and whatever of good Europe "Tbs»Hiis day retained in her ethical and social system she owed to the Catholic Church. Even Pro-. testant nations that threw off her yoke had been living ever since on the remnants of her teaching and traditions, for Protestantism never created. Continuing the Bishop said that to-day the anchor of sanity had been lost. Belief 1 in all revelation was crumbling away. • Family life was in jeopardy, and our social order 'seemed to many, to be on the brink of a volcano. Only a new spirit which religion . alone could infuse could save us. POPE BENEDICT AND THE ENGLISH DOMINICANS. The decision of the English Dominicans to open a church and priory in Oxford, and to associate themselves with the academic life of the University, has secured the warmest approval of the Pope, who on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the coming l of the Friars to Oxford sent a special letter to the English Provincial, Dr. Bede Jarrett. ... "We ourselves," says the Pope in the course of his letter, "as was fitting on first hearing of your project, congratulated you on the work you proposed taking in hand, and in these letters We renew even more heartily '. these congratulations now that the work is advancing r towards its accomplishment. -We-rejoice, .moreover, to learn that the work, is not only approved but encouraged, and liberally assisted, by persons of all ranks, '; ; '. "Gladly, therefore, by these ■ words .: Wo.: declare -.= Our !■ goodwill towards this praiseworthy undertaking., and desire I to give encouragement to all''-'those.''.'who labor zealously- to ' bring these beginnings to theii\ fulfilment. "" '': '"•" ? "That thisiriay accomplished We lovingly im- \ part, as a pledge of heavenly favors; to you, Beloved Son, 1 to those persons above-mentioned, to, your brethern in religion, and to all those that shall be present at the opening J celebration, the Apostolic Benediction." :••''• ••£■-• Important developments are expected to follow on the return of the Dominicans to Oxford not the least of these. being a proposal for the foundation, by permission of the. Holy See, of a Faculty of Catjiolic:^Theology,;; under the '• direction of the religious orders. " . ' ; ■ ';!.; —: <*x> • ri <"-' '- - ;J- : >-- ■•- -•" «j A BOGUS CATHOLIC CALENDAR. i Last year a calendar was distributed throughout New : Zealand purporting to contain much information to Caih-*-olics under the heading of ■ "The Catholic Calendar." "A ; copy has been forwarded to us with the inquiry whether such a publication is what.it purports to .be. .The answer, is easy. It is not a Catholic calendar. It has no eccfesias- h tical approval, and is full of gross errors. Fortunately,: its circulation must be small, as many Catholics have not even seen it. The pity is .that several business men have been cajoled into paying dearly for advertisements;, We . now learn that orders are being solicited for the next edi- - tion, and we hasten to state that this calenda'r--auite inaccurate as to the information to Catholics is concerned —has no connection with , the New Zealand . Tablet. -We '' urge our readers, and alsoVour advertisers, to" have * nothing to do with the publication.. . i -V:; • - f^' v f^