Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 2, 14 January 1925, Page 55

Catholic World

1 - NOTES FROM ROME _ ■.'; .Among the nations how negotiating a - Concordat with the Holy See is Latvia, or . . Lettland, one of the new Baltic republics : . formed out of former Tsarist Russia. Lithu- ;: ania is also arranging a.. Concordat, which : will result in diplomatic status being con- ,: ferred on Mgr. Zecchini, who is acting at ..:;. present as Apostolic Delegate for the three ; nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Esthonia. The Bishops of the world, who were invited to subscribe towards the golden mallet ..and trowel, with which the Pope will open' and close the Porta Santa at St. .Peter's at • the beginning and end of the Holy Year, have subscribed a sum of 150,000 lire. Signor Mussolini has received a strong protest from the Catholic Union for the Holy Places, calling the attention of the League ■ of Nations to the tactics of the Zionists in Palestine.- Mussolini has promised to. see that Catholic interests are not prejudiced. LATERAN OBSERVES ITS SIXTEENTH :"-.,.; CENTENARY. With all the splendors of a Papal ceremony, save only that the. presence of the Pope . himself was lacking, the 1600th anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran was begun in the Mother and Head of all the churches of the city and the world on November 9. A Papal Chapel was held with Pontifical Mass celebrated at the Papal Altar,... all things being so ordered as though the Sovereign Pontiff were, himself present. Cardinal Pompili, Vicar of his Holiness, sang the Mass at the Papal Altar at which, until 1870, none but his Holiness the Pope, Bishop of Rome, officiated. Tire Papal Brief, authorising Cardinal Pompili to officiate at the Papal Altar, : was issued by His Holiness a few days before, and by the authority of a similar Brief Cardinal Merry del Val celebrated at the Papal Altar on the closing day of the octave. Certain ceremonies, such as are rendered only in the actual presence of the Supreme Pontiff, were necessarily omitted. But the first Mass of the octave was a wonderful ceremony. All the Cardinals in Rome were present, with the Chapters of the greater basilicas and members of the Pontifical Court; while there was a brilliant display of uni-], , forms from the portion of the great church allotted to members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, who were vicariously in. attendance upon his Holiness. v ;.. As part of the dedication ceremonies there was the unveiling of the two tablets that have been put up, one to Benedict XV, the other to Pius XI; both of whom the Lateran Chapter has good cause to number amongst its benefactors. .. A day or two before the Lateran centenary there was a crowded function at St. Ignatius' when Cardinal at the solemn Mass celebrated as the beginning of the academic year at the Gregorian University. > Later: on there was an inaugural discourse from Father Dominici, and the reading of the annual report by Father Lazzazini, who > stated among other things, that , the last

- academic year, at the Gregorian a ended with 1139 students on the roll. - ,' The Pope's gold medal was awarded to Doctors Reves and Lamas,, both of the Spanish College, while Dr. Gabriel Mendez, of .the Pio Latino Americano, has obtained the doctorate in Theology, Canon Law, and Philsophy cun laude. NOTABLE ORDINATIONS. •/ Among the students of the Catholic Institute of Paris who were ordained this year, there were two whose origin and attainments deserve special mention. One was a Japanese, Dr. Vincent Totsuka, who before entering the seminary was assistant professor-of surgery at the Imperial university of Hokkaido. The other was a Dane, Abbe Cay, of Benzon, who was the first priest to be ordained in Denmark since the Reformation. SEVENTH CENTENNIAL OF OXFORD ■ FRANCISCANS. Of the ancient monastery of the Franciscan friars at Oxford nothing remains but the site. There is here erected a small memorial to that great Oxford Franciscan, Friar Roger Bacon, which was inaugurated a few years ago, when the ceremony was attended by the present Pope. Two members of the little band of original Franciscans who reached Canterbury on September 10, 1224,. made their way to Oxford at the end of October .in the same year, and having tramped through the mud over half the breadth of England, their appearance did not, at the first moment, add to the cordiality of their reception. But it was this humble advent that has just been celebrated, seven hundred years after the event. Pontifical Mass was celebrated, in the church of St. Aloysius by the Bishop of Northampton, acting for the Archbishop of Birmingham, within whose jurisdiction Oxford lies. The Archbishop's newlyconsecrated Auxiliary, Bishop Glancey, was present, and with him many friars of the

Franciscan Order, as well as Jesuits, Benedictines, Dominicans and Salesians—aUHhese Orders having their own colleges 1 ' of study, 'affiliated; with the; University. The 'Mayor, and Corporation of Oxford attended in state, wearing their, robes of office, and the authorities of the University were represented. The Mass was sung unaccompanied by Vai; choir of friars,-to the beautiful setting; of; Brother Leo of the Crawley Monastery, which was composed specially for the sept-centenary celebrations at Canterbury. ' A Te Deum of thanksgiving followed the Mass, and then the liturgical prayer for the King: Domin&\ salvum fac Begem nostrum Georgium, for the friars have a seven -hundred years old record of loyalty to the Throne. " There was a luncheon at mid-day at the historic Clarendon Hotel, where the Catholic Church, the University and the City were represented in full force. The' Mayor was = there, and so were heads of colleges, and' representatives of all the religious Orders t that are now firmly entrenched in the Uni- r versity. The loyal toasts of the Pope and the King were proposed, and in the speeches that followed it was made clear to all that the history of the University of Oxford with the history of the friars left out is a tale very; short- the telling. :" r , ; There was a procession during the after-: noon, starting from Bishop King's Palace, 1 now possessed by the Catholics, and making its way along the narrow streets of the city,: to the spot in St. Ebbe's . parish where the| Franciscan monastery formerly stood. Only the site remains, and of that part has been built over. But a station was made at the Roger Bacon Memorial, where prayers were| recited for the eternal repose of departed. Franciscans, and the friars sang Ego sum 1 resurrectio and the In Paraclisum. ■'- ;;< Fourteen years ago the Franciscans returned. to the University, after an absence of more than three centuries. Their college, which is presided over by one of the three: Provincials, is called Grosseteste House, this perpetuating the memory of that great Oxford professor, who some seven centuries ago became one of their first English converts and the founder of their academic prestige I at Oxford. - ,- ■-'->s!