Evening star., 1903-12-23

the pope that the Franciscans. Augustine
ans and Recoletos have made fictitious
transfers OF their property to laymen ana
other trustees, and to bogus companies or
ganized among their secular employees. Tor
the purpose OF placing It beyond the reach
OF the church.
lie was instructed to forward to Rome an
inventory Of all of the real estate and other
property owned by the religious orders, In
cluding that used for religious. educational
and charitable purposes. and the other in
vestments which the government desires to
buy. But the returns made by the diner
ent orders In response to his Inquiries rep
resent that they have practically no prop
erty at all, and the value Of their holdings
has suddenly shrunk from $100OOOOO or
s12,000OO0 to few hundred thousand dol
lars of unproductive and useless real eS-
tate Mgr Guidi asked the pope for in
structions. His report was referred to the
generals of the orders at Rome. who sus-
tained the friars. and there the matter
stood at the death Of Leo XIII.
Reports Of the Bishops.
In the meantime three American bishops
were consecrated and sent to the Philip
pines to assume charge of the affairs of
the church-Bishops Rocker, Dougherty and
Hendricks-under the direction of Archbish-
op Harty. All of these are able, energetic.
highly educated and thoroughly patriotic
Americans. who are instructed to American
ize the Philippine church as rapidly as pos
sible. They came into collision with the
Spanish friars Immediately upon their ar
rival, and their reports to Rome have not
only confirmed everything that Mgr. Guidi
had already written, but proved that he had
described the situation in much more mod
crate language than the facts would justify.
1t is stated that there are now between
300 and $50 Spanish friars remaining Idle
in Manila who will not be received by the
people of the parishes and are so hated that
they cannot even return to their former
homes without endangering their lives; and
they refuse to leave Manila until they re-
ceive the value of the property claimed by
their several orders These representations
from Mgr. Guidi and the new bishops are so
serious that Plus X has decided that the in
terests of the church require immediate and
decisive action. Hence he has given the in
structions referred to to the superiors of
the several orders in Rome. Thus the con-
troversy has been removed to this city and
will be watched with great interest and
anxiety by all concerned.
A Determined Pope.
Plus has the reputation of being very
positive and determined man. He is also
supposed to have little sympathy with the
monastie orders. He had considerable trou-
BILE with them in the diocese of Venice. They
complained to Leo XIII that he refused to
protect them against the civil authorities,
but the late pope sustained his action. At
the conclave every monk in the sacred COL
iege opposed his election, but that circum-
stance will make no difference with his
action, If we may judge by the relations he
has already established with Cardinal Ram
polia, his chief opponent The cardinals
VINO are most familiar with the situation
tell me that when the case comes up to the
pope again he will promptly exercise the
right of nigh domain and require the heads
or the religious orders to transfer to him all
OF their possessions in the Philippines.
he has the right to make this demand.
Inc pope of Rome is the church and theO-
retically, all its property belongs to him.
Just as all the property of the church in
Chicago belongs to the bishop of Chicago,
who never dies. Theoretically the pope is
the only man in the church who can hold
property; not as a person, however, but as
pontiff, and unless the friars yield it is pre-
dicted that he will assert his prerogatives
and require them to turn over everything
they own or have owned, including all that
they have put away in the hands Of trus-
tees and have transferred to fictitious COM
panieS.
Some people here think that the monks
will fight, that such a plan as I have out
lined cannot be enforced in this day and
generation, but the prevailing opinion is
that when they are convinced that Plus X
is in earnest they will yield. The pope
however. and all those who are supporting
him in this controversy are especially anx-
ious that the government of the United
States and the civil and military Officials in
the Philippines shall keep their hands or
and do nothing to complicate the situation.
AS have already said, the controversy has
already been transferred to Rome and un-
til 1t is determined nothing can be done In
the Philippines.
Need Of Priests in Philippines.
The new bishops in the Philippines report
a great need of competent priests At
least one-third of the parishes are entirely
without pastors. chiefly those which were
formerly administered by the obnoxious
friars, and they hope to secure volunteers
from the United States
1t is proposed to send over to the United
States large number of young Filipinos to
be educated for the priesthood, and to be
inspired with American ideas and trained
in American methods. Cardinal Gibbons
who has the matter in charge has been
given instructions to appeal to the various
educational institutions under the care of
the Catholic Church to offer free scholar
ships to as many young men as they can
take care Of. If several hundred American
lied natives can be sent back from the
United States every year the reformation OF
the people will be rapid.