ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



757 



tween his empire and the Papacy, but of the 

 hearty sympathy of Pope Leo with the efforts of 

 William to better conditions among the masses. 



In April, Leo XIII spoke on the industrial 

 question in a letter to Archbishop Krementz, of 

 Cologne, which was made public simultaneously 

 with the universal labor demonstration of May i. 



Catholic Congresses. During the year great 

 congresses assembled at Coblentz, Lille, Ant- 

 werp, Liege, Saragossa, and Lisbon. They were 

 all marked by an unmistakable desire to grapple 

 with the problems of the hour and to bring the 

 masses in close sympathy with the Church as, 

 their defender. Resolutions favoring shorter 

 hours that more time for improvement and en- 

 joyment may be had ; the withdrawal of child 

 and female labor from the mines and more ex- 

 hausting works ; the investigation of sanitary 

 conditions, the protection of life and limb, the, 

 improvement of land tenures, and other measures 

 of a like tendency were passed. Messages of con- 

 dolence with the Pope, and a demand for a res- 

 toration of the temporal power of the Church, 

 went forth from all. 



The Sacred College. At the Consistory of 

 June 23, the Pope created four new cardinals, 

 viz. : Vincenzo Vannutelli, Nuncio at Lisbon, 

 born at Genazzo, diocese of Palestrina, Dec. 5, 

 1836 ; Sebastiano Galeati, Archbishop of Raven- 

 na, born at Imola, Feb. 8, 1822 ; Caspar Mermil- 

 lod, Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, born at 

 Caronge, Sept. 22, 1842; and Albin Dunajew- 

 ski, Bishop of Krakau, born at Stanislawow, 

 March 1, 1817. 



The College sustained four deaths : On Feb. 8, 

 Joseph Pecci, brother of Pope Leo XIII, born at 

 Carpineto, Dec. 13, 1807. He was a most ardent 

 promoter of the St. Thomas School of Philoso- 

 phy. Appointed to a professorship in the Roman 

 University by Pius IX in 1860, he aided in the 

 preparatory labors of the Vatican Council, and in 

 1870 resigned his office rather than take the oath 

 prescribed by the Italian Government upon the 

 conquest of Rome. He devoted himself to sci- 

 ence until the election of his brother as Pope. 

 At the urgent request of the Sacred College, he 

 was elevated to the dignity of Cardinal, May 12, 

 1879, and was also made Prefect of the Congre- 

 gation of Studies and President of the Academy 

 of St. Thomas. 



Cardinal Lagi Maria Pallotti, who died July 

 31, was born March 30, 1829, at Albano, Italy. 

 He was distinguished for his sanctity and learn- 

 ing from boyhood. He was made bishop by Pius 

 IX and archbishop by Leo XIII, of the See of 

 Montepulcino, and raised to the cardinate in 

 1887. 



Cardinal John Henry Newman died Aug. 11. 

 Born in England Feb. 21, 1801, he rose to emi- 

 nence in the established Church, and while, pro- 

 fessor at Oxford instituted a reform movement 

 that ended in his conversion to, and reception 

 into the Catholic Church on Oct. 8, 1845, an 

 event described long after by Lord Beacons- 

 field as " a blow dealt to the Anglican Church, 

 under which it still reels." He was made cardi- 

 nal in 1879. Cardinal Manning says of him: 

 " No living man has so changed the religious 

 thought of England. His withdrawal closes a 

 chapter which stands alone in the religious life 

 of this century. In the Church he was the cen- 



ter of innumerable souls drawn to him as teach- 

 er, guide, and comforter, through long years, and 

 especially in the more than forty years of his 

 Catholic life." (See NEWMAN, JOHN" HENRY.) 



Cardinal Joseph Hergenroether died Oct. 3 at 

 the Convent of Meheran, near Bregeuz. Born at 

 Wilrzburg, Bavaria, Sept. 15, 1824, he has made 

 a record as one of the ablest canonists and his- 

 torians of the Church. He was the most power- 

 ful opponent of Dollinger, and his Histories of 

 the Church and the Pontiffs are the most com- 

 plete of recent times. He had been thirty years 

 Professor of Canon Law and Church History at 

 the WUrzburg University when made cardinal, 

 May 12, 1879, by Pope Leo XIII, and assigned to 

 labor in the Vatican Library among the pontif- 

 ical archives. 



At the close of 1890 there were 64 members 

 of the Sacred College, there being 70 members in 

 all when the membership is complete. 



The Pope on Slavery. By decree, Nov. 20, 

 the Pope ordered a collection throughout the 

 world, on the feast of the Epiphany, each year, for 

 the benefit of the negro missions in Africa. " The 

 Catholic Church," he begins, " has always dis- 

 countenanced slaver}' since Christ came on earth 

 to teach men that a fraternal bond held them in 

 unity. The pontiffs have spoken times without 

 number. Nevertheless, it is our duty to continue 

 that splendid tradition." He recalls his con- 

 gratulations to Dom Pedro on the emancipation 

 in Brazil. Then, he says, he was moved by the 

 afflictions of those helpless ones in South Ameri- 

 ca ; now the miseries of Africa call for redress. 

 His nuncios tell him that 40,000 unhappy creat- 

 ures are carried off by the slave-hunter yearly. 

 Longing to do something for these, he commis- 

 sioned Cardinal Lavigerie to rouse the conscience 

 of the nations. The result was those conferences 

 and the Convention for the Suppression of the 

 Slave Trade, signed in Brussels, in June, by the 

 representatives of seventeen powers, proving that 

 fit and sufficient pressure will be brought to bear 

 by them against these troubles and griefs. May 

 prosperity bless the rulers who have set this 

 noble example ! 



Besides the freedom they need, the decree goes 

 on, there is another gift denied them which it is 

 necessary to bring them the blessings of the 

 Gospel. When they are brought the old slavery 

 disappears like the ghost of the old pagan night. 

 There are many who have sacrificed much in 

 behalf of this ideal, many who have spent their 

 sweat and their blood for it. But more still are 

 ready to follow ; more still are needed : Messia 

 quidem multa, operarii autem pauci. So ^reat 

 a work, however, requires great expense. 1 here 

 are the heavy journeys and the means of live- 

 lihood, the raising of churches, the support of 

 pastors. The Pope himself would like to do all, 

 but he is prevented by his difficulties. There- 

 fore, he appeals to the whole Catholic world. 

 The feast of the Epiphany is chosen for the col- 

 lections, because on that day Christ made himself 

 known to the Gentiles, and this has for its object 

 the preaching of Christ to the benighted. 



The two remaining documents of importance 

 were the blessing of the projects to honor Colum- 

 bus in his native Genoa, in Spain, in Buenos 

 Ayres, and elsewhere, on the completion of th 

 fourth century of his discovery of the .New 



