

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



613 



and Jeanne de Lestonnac. The last named was 

 foundress of the Filles de Notre Dame. She was 

 born a Calvinist, and received her instruction in 

 the Catholic faith, curiously enough, from her 

 uncle, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne. 



Pope Leo's greatest undertaking in the material 

 order was concluded in October by the consecra- 

 tion of the abbatial Church of St. Anselm, on the 

 Aventine Hill. The building was not only de- 

 signed and planned by his Holiness, but the funds 

 to erect it were supplied by him. The ceremony 

 of consecration was performed by Cardinal Ram- 

 polla, delegate of his Holiness a latere. More 

 than 50 abbots of the Benedictine order were 

 present from all parts of the world, for the new 

 abbey is an international school. In accordance 

 with a Benedictine custom, the consecrating prel- 

 ates began the ceremony with a vigil which lasted 

 all night. 



The entrance of the Pope upon the ninetieth 

 year of his age was celebrated by the presentation 

 to the Pontiff of an address signed by more than 

 600 nonagenarians, and a dinner to 900 of the poor 

 of Rome in the Belvedere courtyard of the 

 Vatican. 



A Congress of Christian Archaeology was held 

 at Rome April 17 to 25. Among the most im- 

 portant of the subjects discussed was a motion 

 for the rediscovery of the stairs leading to the 

 crypt in which lie the remains of St. Peter, upon 

 the theory advanced that the ancient entrance 

 was utilized in the building of Constantino's 

 basilica, and that under the tribune to the chapel 

 of the confession would be found the door. It 

 was determined to begin explorations at this 

 point, in case the Pope's consent could be ob- 

 tained. 



Pursuant to a summons from the Holy See, 

 the Friars Minor Capuchin, the Friars Minor 

 Conventual, the Friars Minor, and the Third 

 Order Regular met in Rome in September to the 

 number of 10,000. These four orders comprise all 

 'the Third Order of St. Francis. The end of the 

 congress was the social regeneration of the world, 

 especially by means of the re-establishment of 

 domestic life among the poor, the raising of 

 wages, the equalization of taxation, and opposi- 

 tion alike to socialism and the tyranny of capital. 



At a chapter general of Ursuline religious at 

 Rome the different branches of the order were 

 unified, a superior general elected, and constitu- 

 tions for all houses of the order agreed upon. The 

 initiative to this movement was given by the 

 Pope, who has in the past few years unified many 

 of the great religious orders. 



An International Catholic Scientific Congress 

 was held at Munich in September, and was at- 

 tended by scientists and theologians of all re- 

 ligions to the number of about 1,000. 



Five cardinals died in the year: Cardinal Trom- 

 betta, aged seventy-nine; Cardinal Jacobini, Vicar 

 General of Rome, aged sixty-three; Cardinal di 

 Canossa. aged ninety, the Dean of the Sacred Col- 

 lege, and senior to his Holiness ; Cardinal Mazella, 

 aged sixty-seven; and Cardinal Haller, aged sev- 

 enty-five. 



The United States. Early in the year the 

 Pope approved the decision of the Propaganda 

 forbidding the Christian Brothers to teach clas- 

 sics. This was the letter and spirit of the original 

 rule, and the Sacred Congregation saw no alterna- 

 tive but to compel them to return to it. By the 

 decision the teaching of classics by this order was 

 permitted only to the end of the year. 



( 'onsiderable agitation took place among Cath- 

 olics as a result of the efforts of Bishop McFaul, 

 of Trenton, to redress the grievances suffered by 





his coreligionists in the United States. Organiza- 

 tion was the means suggested by his lordship 

 of giving strength to any Catholic plea for equal 

 civil and political rights. In support of his thesis 

 that members of the Roman Catholic Church 

 have not a fair chance for political office, or even 

 for the enjoyment of civil freedom and possession 

 of property, he cited some important events of the 

 year. Upon neither of the Philippine commis- 

 sions was a Catholic appointed, although the 

 great body of the Philippine people belonged to 

 the Catholic faith, and one of the gravest ques- 

 tions to come before the commissions was that 

 dealing with the status of the friars in the islands 

 and the disposition of ecclesiastical property. 

 His lordship further instanced the fact that while 

 in 1901 the Catholics of the country numbered 

 12,000,000 out of a total of 70,000,000, or about 

 one sixth, their representation in the House of 

 Representatives consisted of 24 members out of 

 355, and in the Senate 2 out of 88. A confed- 

 eration of Catholic societies under the direction 

 of an advisory board was the plan outlined by 

 Bishop McFaul. Although the scheme was met 

 with considerable favor, little had been accom- 

 plished before the end of the year toward the 

 organization proposed. 



The need of better Catholic representation in 

 high political circles was manifested by the fail- 

 ure of Congress to renew its appropriation for the 

 Jesuit contract schools in its annual Indian ap- 

 propriation bill. Senator Vest, of the Committee 

 on Indian Schools', addressed the Senate in favor 

 of the appropriation, giving it as his view that, 

 apart from religious instruction whose dogmas 

 he could not subscribe, the Jesuits were giving 

 the Indians the only form of education which pro- 

 duced any results. Under their system the In- 

 dians received an industrial education, while in the 

 Government schools only the usual elementary 

 branches were taught. The percentage of attend- 

 ance in the latter was 3 per cent, of the enroll- 

 ment, and in the former 85 per cent. The appro- 

 priation was defeated. 



The formal protest of the superioress of the 

 Order of the Sacred Heart against the seizure 

 of the convent of the order in Porto Rico by the 

 military authorities was laid before President Mc- 

 Kinley in April, was sent by him to the Porto 

 Rican officials, and returned without action on 

 their part. Meanwhile the convent, which was 

 appropriated by the military authorities for use 

 as a barracks during the war with Spain, was 

 still so occupied at the close of 1900, the owners 

 having been compelled to erect another building to 

 take its place. The protest of the superioress 

 of the order asked either the return of the build- 

 ing or some compensation for its seizure. 



A similar protest was made in October by Arch- 

 bishop Chappelle against the continued holding 

 by the Government of the College of San Jos in 

 Manila. The college was seized during Gen. Otis's 

 administration, and the archbishop asked that the 

 property be restored to the Church, to which he 

 declared it belonged. The question as regarded 

 this and other similar institutions was. whether 

 the United States could succeed to the rights en- 

 joyed by Spain as patron of ecclesiastical institu- 

 tions under a contract which provided for royal 

 support and endowment of the churches; in other 

 words, whether the present government could 

 claim the rights of a contract without assuming 

 its burdens. The college by the will of its founder 

 was put in charge of the Jesuits. When they were 

 suppressed the Spanish throne claimed the right 

 to siicceed them as patrons under a grant from 

 the papacy to interfere in church matters as a 



