Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 11, 25 March 1925, Page 55

Catholic World

\ v OZEOH CATHOLICS AND THE HOLY Cfc • YEAR, Catholics throughout the Czecho-Slovak Republic expect to take a 'prominent part in the manifestation of the Holy Year ,in Rome. Under the direction of the entire episcopate there will' be a national pilgrimage to Rome towards the latter part of the year. The pilgrimage is expected to he a rather large affair, and it will be divided up into four • sections: the Czechs of Bohemia, the Moravians, the Slovaks, and a section made up of the Germans all over the Republic. v Besides this there will be several .smaller pilgrimages; but the most imposing will be the national pilgrimage, which will be headed by Mgr. Kordac, the Archbishop of Prague.

CARDINAL BOURNE AND THE LABOR PARTY. The difficulties of an Englishman who makes a statement in French that is translated into Dutch and comes out finally in English, were touched upon by Cardinal Bourne at Whitechapel, when his Eminence addressed one of the biggest meeting of Catholic men ever held in the East End. Men from East London predominated at the assembly; but the Lords and Commons were represented, as well as the learned professions and the other ramifications of society wherein Catholics are now found. Catholic , v meetings are not frequent in the great hall, >hich is more often the scene of fistic encounters between Jewish boxers. Cardinal Bourne was at Whitechapel to give a New Year's message to the Catholic working men. His Eminence declared that he was no politician; but, as before in his career, the statesmanship of his advice could have given many points to the professional politicians. .The Cardinal warned his hearers, in the first place, that it was with politics in their wider sense the whole future, not only of the nation, but of the whole British Commonwealth, was concerned. The Church, Cardinal Bourne went on, is quite outside all political parties; but it has very definite rules in regard to morals, which go down to the root principles of, politics. Cardinal Bourne then referred to the now famous interview with the representative of a Dutch newspaper, when he was represented as saying (in English) that on certain occasions the policy of the leaders of the Labor Party in England unconsciously had changed to something much nearer to Catholic principles than had formerly been the case. This phrase, wandering through French V,and Dutch, and finally into English, made j the Cardinal appear to say that the leaders j of the Labor Party were unconsciously apl proximating towards Catholic views. Nor did it end there. For during the last election someone represented the Cardinal as ..saying that "the views of the Labor Party

in England approximated more nearly to Catholic principles than did those of any other party." But, Cardinal Bourne continued, there were one or two things to make Catholics a bit anxious. The first was a point which he put more to some of the leaders of the Labor Party. It was a tremendous mistake from every point of view that the Labor Party called itself, or allowed itself to be called, the Socialist Party. Labor was one thing, Socialist Avas something entirely different, and many people talked about Socialism without knowing actually what Socialism meant. It might mean social reforms and schemes for social betterment; but there was also a technical Socialism, and that was a Socialism condemned by the Catholic Church. And to show that what the Church condemned was not progress and works for .social betterment, Cardinal Bourne quoted passages from the great Encyclical of Leo XIII, the lierum Novarum, whose words of wisdom had been recently re-echoed by Pope Pius XI.

ENGLAND AND THE PALESTINE MANDATE. , Cardinal Bourne's recent outspoken article on the question of the Palestine Mandate, has aroused considerable interest on the Continent, where French influence has been very much exerted lately to represent Great Britain as the villain of the piece. The British Government is even accused of trying to get an English prelate appointed Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem for the purpose of furthering purely political interests. Cardinal Bourne's article has demolished a great deal of this structure; and General Serrail's exhibition of anti-clericalism at Beirut has done the rest. It is only a few weeks ago that a report was published in some of the Continental Catholic journals that the Anglicans in Jerusalem, with the secret connivance of the British authorities, had got up a religious service to which they invited Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, and Moslems, with the underlying purpose of driving the Latins out of Jerusalem. The report was documented, and the case looked very bad, until an enquiry in.official quarters brought to light the fact that all these religions, with the exception of the Latins, had met in the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem for the official celebration of King George's birthday. The Anglicans took the lead simply because Anglicanism is the official religion of the Administration. But this purely official function was misrepresented as a concerted movement to drive the Catholics out of Jerusalem. Cardinal Bourne's insistence that all the Allied Powers, and not England alone, are responsible for the promise to the Jews of a national home in Palestine, has put the issue in its proper aspect, and it looks as if. a good deal of the religious disquiet, which has been bolstered up for purely political purposes on the Continent, is about to die out. ■■ < ' c - ~ :i 'r "■ "' ": : t'"'rZ

?>** •■■-; NOTES FROM ROME. - '■";'- On the evening of the Epiphany (says Catholic News Service, London, for January [ 19) the Pope received in audience some. 300 persons, all connected in various ways with j the organisation of the Missionary Exhibit tion. Cardinal Vanßossum made the presentations, begging the Holy Father that he ; would bless all;, those who had done so much towards the achievement of the Exhibition. I His Holiness made an excellent speech, in which he praised not only those responsible for the success, of the exhibition in Rome, but also the absent missionaries scattered all over the world, without whose help the exhibition could never have come into being. Cardinal Gasparri's special memento of the Epiphany was a gold medal from the Holy Father, specially struck to commemorate the "16th centenary of the Lateran. Accompanying the medal was a dedication: "To Cardinal Peter Gasparri, his Secretary . of State, a pledge of special goodwill. Pius XI, Pope." The collection of vestments and other material for use in the Catacombs during the Holy Year, gave occasion for an audience to the committee of ladies, organised by the Sisters of the Cenacle and the Servants of the Sacred Heart. A very large collection of Mass vestments has been got together, and these were inspected by the Pope, who seemed much pleased with what had been done The usual audience to the Roman patricians and nobility took place on the tenth Prince Mark Antony Colonna, Prince Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, read an address of congratulation, in which he mentioned how the Roman nobles, both by tradition and by sentiment, were very closely linked with the life of the Pope. There was an interesting meeting at Milan on the 11th, followed by one in Rome yesterday, when preliminary matters were discussed for the formation of an Association of Catholic Publicists. Later on a plenary meeting will be held, when the statutes of the association will be decided upon. One of the things aimed at is a course in journalism at the Catholic University of Milan. On the feast of St. Francis de Sales, the Patron of Catholic journalists, it is hoped that the new association will be formally constituted. Among the new, appointments is that of Cardinal Fruhwirth, to be Grand Penitentiary, in .succession to the late Cardinal Giorgi. Mgr. Cajetan Cicognani, former Auditor of the Nunciature in Brussels, has been nominated as Internuncio to Bolivia. His Excellency will be promoted to the episcopate as titular Archbishop of Ancvra, and his consecration will take : place shortly at the hands of Cardinal Gasparri. Cardinal Vincent Vannutelli, now in his ; 88th '/year,Ms the sole survivor of the Cardinals who ; took part in the Holy Year of 1900, when his Eminence opened the Holy Door at St. Mary Major as he did last Christmas Eve. It is interesting to know . that when Cardinal Vannutelli opened the casket extracted from the recess in the Porta Santa at St. Mary Major, he drew out the medals of Leo XIII, which recorded his own opening and closing of the Holy Door in 1899 and-J9OO, •■;; r" ' •