Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 6, 11 February 1925, Page 55

Catholic World

\ THE POPE AND THE LEAGUE. Captain Eppstein, who was responsible for the successful Reading Conference on the National and International Responsibilities of the Catholic Citizen (says Catholic News Service, London), and who has taken a prominent part in the founding of the Catholic Council for International Relations, declares that the actual inclusion of the Pope within the League of Nations would be detrimental to the Catholic Church, and would involve the Holy See in political and financial commitments alien to its spirit. Developing this theme at Manchester, Captain Eppstein said that Rome had never desired that the Holy See should enter the League of Nations. But while the Holy Father could not personally enter the League, there was no reason why the Apostolic See should not be represented by a Nuncio. The mobilisation of Catholic opinion throughout the world was a requisite, Captain Eppstein said; and with the Holy See properly represented at the deliberations of the League, and Catholic opinion rallied to its support, there might then be world-wide confidence by Catholics in the moral judgments passed by the- League, which, to that extent, would be immeasurably strengthened.

GRAVE SCHOOL PROBLEM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. One of the gravest problems of the Cath- - -olio clergy and the Catholic parents in Czecho-Slovakia is that of countering the campaign being carried on by a section of the school teachers. These teachers, who are mostly Socialists or Free-thinkers, who by every means in their power are trying to destroy the religious sense of those Catholic children who are obliged to frequent the schools in which they teach. And the worst part of the situation is that, by law at all events, religious instruction forms part of the curriculum in the schools, and teachers are forbidden by law to try to exert any . anti-religious influence over their pupils. All kinds of devices are used to affront tho religious sense of the Catholic children in the public schools. For instance, the last observance of the National Holiday was utilised by teachers of this kind to exploit the national anti-Austro-Hungarian feeling against the Catholic clergy, who were described as the servants of the Hapsburgs and disloyal to the national sentiments of the Czech people. And this sort of thing comes from all 1 quarters, high and low. Even the head of the State has not scrupled to declare that “Rome should be judged and condemned.” And the Czechs have been advised to leave the Church, which is described as the handsmaid$ maid of obscurantism, and tj free them- * selves from tho clerical yoke. All this kind of thing cannot but have its effect, and particularly on the growing minds of the children. In some districts the local educational council is made up entirely of

Socialists, and these, instead of allowing the usual hour of instruction in tho Catholic religion, submit the children to an harangue on then precious doctrines of Socialism. The patience of the Popular Party is nearing an end, and already a strenuous demand has been made in Parliament that this interference with the religious rights of the children must cease, and the offenders punished. The anti-Catholic element, which is powerful in the head offices of the educational department, is blamed a great deal for allowing these things to go on.

NEW DAILY FOR GERMAN CATHOLICS. The Catholic Germans in the Czecho-Slovak Republic have raised a fund amongst themselves sufficient to start a daily paper of their own. This paper, which will be called the Deutsche Zeitung, will be published in Prague, and represent the interests of the Christian Social Party, which is to all intents a Catholic party. The editorial staff of the now daily will include a journalist from Pozen in Poland, a member of the Vienna Iteichpost, and a former editor of the Jagerndorf Volk. Already a certain opposition to the projected daily has come from the Prayer Taghlatt, a German Jewish concern, which resents a serious rival amongst the Catholics. As to the chances of the new paper, the German Catholics in the Republic have subscribed a million Czech crowns, so that the paper shall be started on a sound financial basis.

THREE ENGLISH PRELATES NAMED. The official announcement of the creation of a new English diocese by Rom© has been quickly followed by the nomination of the new Bishop. This is Dom Wolstan Pearson, 0.5.8., Prior of Ealing, who will be the first Bishop of Lancaster. The appointment of a Benedictine as Bishop is appropriate, as a large part of the new diocesan territory is worked by the English Benedictines, of which Ampleforth Abbey has the greater share. The now Bishop will not be handicapped by the lack of a suitable cathedral church. The church of St. Peter, which now will become the Lancaster Cathedral, is a fine building with a lofty nave, aisles, and transepts and a Lady Chapel. It contains, too, a couple of very fine chantry chapels, erected by two prominent Catholic families of Lancashire. The Newcastle church of St. Andrew loses its rector, Father Joseph Thorman, who is promoted by Rome to almost the next street, where he is to rule as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, in succession to the late Bishop Collins. The Bishop-designate takes over a smaller territory; for two counties have been taken away from this diocese to form part of the new See of Lancaster. Tile Chapter of Ampleforth Abbey has

filled tho vacant abbatial throne by the election of Dom Edmund Matthews, 0.5.8., to be Abbot of Ampleforth. The new Abbot studied as a boy in the monastery over which he is now called to —he was headmaster of the abbey school until his election. Abbot Matthews is an Oxford man. He studied at the Benedictine house of studies founded by Abbot Hunter-Blair, and has the unique distinction of being the first English Benedictine monk since the Reformation to proceed to a degree at Oxford.

NOTES FROM PARIS. Paris lias ibeen observing, with great religious enthusiasm, the sixth centenary of the canonisation of St. Thomas Aquinas, the chief event being the triduum held in Notre Dame. Cardinal Charost, Archbishop of Rennes, preached the closing discourse of the triduum in the presence of Cardinal Lu9on of Rheims and Cardinal Dubois of Paris, as well as a great gathering of archbishops and bishops. For the whole of the three days Notre Dam© has been crowded with very large congregations. But the oratorical fame of Cardinal Charost attracted an even larger congregation, so that the great Cathedral of Paris was crowded to the very doors. Of the Cardinal’s discourse it is not possible to give a resume. But the closing phrase of his Eminence was particularly apposite “Laws which are against justice and human reason (wrote St. Thomas) are no longer laws, but the corruption of law.” The rounding up of Communists by the Government, which some of the papers profess to connect with Mr. Austen Chamberlain’s brief visit to Paris, is an interesting sequel to a message written by Cardinal Dubois, Archbishop of Paris, in the last issue of his official organ. In the most outspoken manner the Car-dinal-Archbishop asks what is France coming to, whither is she tending? His Eminence then continues: “What a spectacle in the streets of Paris, on that Sunday in November ! Following after the coffin of Jaures, as it was solemnly drawn to the Pantheon, there was a crowd of politicians, amongst whom were numerous Freemasons, decked out with their insignia. And remarkably few were the Tricolors that escorted them! And there one could see the Communist army, compact and disciplined. A crowd of 20,000, all mobilised under the shadow of a multitude of red, flags, decorated with the hammer and sickle of the Soviets. They marched along to the chanting of the Internationale, mouthing their cries of disorder and making loud appeals to violence 1” After six years since the —asks Cardinal Dubois—has France merely become the victim of revolution? His Eminence, who signs the letter with his own name, calls on the Catholics to rally to the side of public order, and to arouse themselves to the nature of the danger that threatens both their Church and their Motherland.