3 i2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 



Coronation or " on the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament next after his or 

 her coming to the Crown." In this reply it was assumed that the Parliament which 

 met on February 14, 1901 was the first Parliament in the reign of King Edward. Jn 

 1910 a different view prevailed. It was successfully contended that the last Parliament 

 elected under King Edward, and sitting at the time of his death, continued to be a 

 Parliament of the old reign, and therefore was not " the first Parliament next after " 

 the accession of George V. There was, therefore, plenty of time to amend, or to abolish, 

 the Declaration. On their side the Roman Catholic body did all they could to facili- 

 tate legislation by making it clear they had no wish in any way to weaken the existing 

 securities for the Protestant succession. All they asked was that the fundamental doc- 

 trines of their faith should no longer be selected for special repudiation by the sovereign. 

 In these circumstances, Mr. Asquith had no difficulty in inducing the House of Commons 

 to substitute a new formula, by which the king simply declared himself a faithful Prot- 

 estant, prepared to uphold the Protestant succession. A bill giving effect to this change 

 was passed on August 3, 1910. 



In September 1910, for the first time, the International Eucharistic Congress was 

 held in the New World. As the most Catholic city in the British Empire, Montreal 



made great efforts to Welcome the Papal Delegate, Cardinal Vincent 



Vanutelli. The national, provincial and municipal authorities all worked 



together for the success of the greatest Roman Catholic demonstration ever 

 held in Canada, or indeed in the American hemisphere. The culminating scene was 

 the mass said by the Cardinal Legate in the open air, at an altar built on the slopes of 

 Mount Royal. The next day a vast procession, headed by the Cardinal Legate carrying 

 the sacred host, passed through the streets of the festooned city to the same spot. 

 It is estimated that 50,000 people, including the Canadian Prime Minister and other 

 members of the Government, and representatives of every phase of the public life in 

 Canada, walked in the procession three and a half miles to the mountain side, where a 

 crowd of 200,000 men and women were waiting the Benediction of the blessed sacra- 

 ment. The success of the Congress from the Roman Catholic standpoint is sufficiently 

 attested by the emotional declaration of the Archbishop of Montreal, Monseigneur 

 Bruchesi, at its close: " To me it seems like a dream, for the like of that demonstration 

 ending to-night was never seen before, and probably never will be seen again in this or 

 in any other country." Unfortunately some of the speeches and sermons were of a 

 rather flamboyant nature, so that a good deal of anti-Catholic feeling was aroused. 



On August 8, 1910 an important decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacra- 

 ments was issued in Rome, fixing the age at which children are to make their first 



communion. A child must begin to go to confession and communion 

 First Com- wnen it begins to use its reason, that is " about its seventh year, or later, 

 Decree. or even sooner." The decree goes on to prescribe frequent communion for 



children in these words: " Those who have charge of children must take the 

 utmost care that after their first communion the said children should approach the holy 

 table very often, and if it be possible, even daily." 



The solemn consecration of Westminster Cathedral in London took place on Tuesday, 

 June 28, 1910. At the beginning of the year the debt on the Cathedral had been 7,340, 



and this had to be paid off before the building could be consecrated. A 

 Cathedra****" s P ec i a ' appeal was made to the Roman Catholic public, and before the end 



of April it was cleared off. 



In Belgium, the elections in May 1910 for half the Chamber kept the Catholic party 

 in power. They lost one seat at Nivelles, but returned with a majority of six. As in 

 Belgian Belgium there are no such things as by-elections, this majority though 

 election. small was sufficient. 



In August 1910 Pius X, in a letter addressed to the archbishops and bishops of 

 France, condemned the principles which underlay the teaching of the organisation 

 known as Le Sill-on. Founded about 1898 by M. Marc Sangnier, Le Sillon represented 

 a democratic movement at once social, political and religious. Described as " more 



