The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-01-04

Cardinals Ignore Prelate. The
Lutheran Bishop of Upsala, Sweden,
has been very busy attempting to Or
ganize a religious international con-
ference which may or may not have
had a political ground work. His eff
forts have SO far failed, but he still
perseveres in his endeavors. Among
the invitations which he sent out were
those to several Catholic personalities
He invited the Archbishop of Paris,
Cardinal Annette, to represent Catholic
France, and Cardinal Bourne to rep
resent Catholic Britain. Neither of
these prelates has taken any notice of
the invitation, unless Cardinal Bourne's
very pointed remarks on peace recent
| ly can be said to have a bearing on
this international religious effort.
The Conversion of IsraeI.-The war
has been the means, among other
| things, of bringing the grace Of Chris
| tianity to some Jews. Several in
stances which have come to light will
stimulate the confidence and zeal of
| the Associates of the Archconfratern-
ity of Prayer for Israel. One young
Jewish soldier received baptism, at
| the hour of death, at the hands of his
corporal, to whom he was ready even,
| in the absence of a priest, to make
his confession (were such possible) in
| order to be better prepared to enter
| Heaven. The incident is touching, and
| the young Jew to avail himself of
Christ's Sacramento ere the opportun-
| ity had vanished. Many similar and
| significant incidents are on record.
Religion in ItaIy.-It is matter of
common knowledge, says America"
that Professionalism has long cherished
the hope of supplanting Catholicism in
Italy and especially in Rome. The
| popular impression has been that an
attempt was doomed to failure from
the very outset, and that it was idle
to entertain any fear of it's success.
But an article in a recent issue of
LES Nouvelles Religieuses'' gives a
careful statistical survey of religious
conditions in the Peninsula, and points
out the gravity of the danger to the
true Faith, not only in Italy, but in
the Holy City. The warnings of Leo
XIII, Plus X, and Benedict XIV are
shown to have been only too well
founded, and the writer does not hes
itate to pronounce the situation ser
ious. Moreover, he feels that it will
rapidly become worse unless Catholics
find some way to remedy it.
| The Cost of victory.-Catholics
least of all will forget at what price
this victory has been won. AS Canon
Richie reminded his hearers, in his
notable sermon at Glasgow, Scotland
recently, over 81 millions of mer
had been face to face with death; ovel
81 millions had become casualties
; The English losses in dead were ovel
100000, and those of our enemies are
numbered in millions. twenty-five
thousand priests Of France alone mac
shown on the field of battle what Cath
Ollie patriotism is, and their casualties
too had been heavy. "These brave
men," said King George, have dice
for Right and for Humanity. Bott
have been indicated" Would they
have had it otherwise? So with oul
TIE Deum goes our prayer for the meT
that made the song of thanksgiving
possible. They were not forgotten in
our rejoicings, nor will they be for
gotten.
| The Pope and PoIand.-A writer in
LA Croix" says that at the moment al
which the Poles are taking possession
of Posen, and consequently of Posania
as a sequel to the occupation of era
covia and Przemysl, it is well to recall
that Benedict XIV had many times
previously spoken of Poland shown
compassion to her sorrows, assisted
her misery, and asked justice for it
When, in 1917, it seemed that wore
of persuasion could be opportunity ad
dressed to the beligerents, he demand
ed-the first and only one amongst the
statesmen of the world to do so-the
restoration of the ancient Kingdom o.
Poland. Whilst the signatories of the
Treaty of London had declared tina
the question of Poland should be con
sidered an interior question of Russia
and left entirely in the hands of the
Car, whilst Germany and Austria
Hungary had feigned to settle it by {
sham independence which bordered OF
, ancient servitude, the Pope alone
. placed the question ON the basis o
integral justice-that the restoration
, of Poland was an indispensable con
, ditiOn.
r Professionalism in ltaly-Protestant
r ism is growing and Indifference il
alarmingly on the increase in Italy. II
, 1852 there were 32,975 Professionals o
various sects in Italy, in 1901 Their
5 were $685., in 1911 the number hat
? grown to 123,253, which means tina
2 in ten years it had almost doubled
The writer believes that the officia
registration would be still create
: were it not that human respect pre-
vented certain Italians from publicl.
proclaiming their apostasy. Figure
| L