618 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



bill passed by one vote. The law is to come 

 into effect Jan. 1, 1902, when Catholic pupils 

 will be forced to attend the state schools, unless 

 the promised subsidy is made, since their own 

 schools are not large enough for all Catholic 

 pupils who come under the provisions of the law. 



Latin America. The work of revivifying and 

 reorganizing the Church in Latin America, inaug- 

 urated by his Holiness by the Plenary Council of 

 Bishops of Latin America held at Rome'in 1899, was 

 continued by him throughout the following year. 

 In March the Sacred Congregation for Extraordi- 

 nary Ecclesiastical Affairs issued a decree to the 

 bishops regulating fasts, and providing for the 

 promulgation of an eighty days' indulgence. In 

 May the secretariate of state by brief conveyed 

 to the bishops the wish of the Holy Father that 

 in each ecclesiastical province a meeting of the 

 ordinaries be held at least as often as once every 

 three years; and asked a strict, observance of the 

 enactments of the council, especially the ordi- 

 nances relating to the conversion of the Indians, 

 t la- study of the vulgar tongue, the deferring of 

 infant baptisms and negligence in administering 

 the sacraments to the sick. The Pope also sent 

 an apostolic letter to the bishops of Brazil, urging 

 the establishment of ecclesiastical seminaries, the 

 organization of literary mediums to educate the 

 people, an intelligent interest in politics, and 

 proper and systematic provision for the support 

 of Catholic institutions. His Holiness's interest 

 was marked by a great Catholic revival in South 

 American countries. A congress held at Bahia in 

 June was attended by clergy from all parts of 

 the continent, and practical methods were 

 adopted of carrying the Pope's recommendations 

 into effect. 



Australia. The new cathedral at Sydney was 

 dedicated Sept. 9 by Cardinal Moran. In the 

 sanctuary besides the bishops of Australia were 

 Earl Beauchamp, Governor of New South Wales, 

 Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland, and 

 Mr. Le Hunte, Lieutenant Governor of British New 

 Guinea. The cost of the cathedral was 220.000, 

 and it had been building since 1868. A Catholic 

 congress, lasting six days, was held Sept. 9 to 15, 

 at the initial session of which Lord Beauchamp 

 was present. The site of the new cathedral is 

 that of the first Catholic church in Australia, of 

 which the foundation stone was laid by Gov. 

 Macquarie in 1821. 



China. The outrages in China by the Boxers 

 fell with especial severity upon the Catholics, who 

 were the first victims of the antiforeign fury. 

 That part of this fury, as regards the Catholic 

 priests especially, was due to the anticlerical 

 crusade in France, was asserted by those most 

 familiar with the situation. Lord Curzon, Vice- 

 roy of India, who visited Pekin in 1894, thus 

 summed up the situation: 



" ( 'hina resents the foreigner at best, and the 

 missionary in any case must take his life as well 

 as his crucifix into his hands. This he well un- 

 derstood. But in aggravation of the normal anti- 

 foreign feeling of the Chinese population came 

 the knowledge that France herself had ousted 

 those Jesuits, those orders, whom China was to 

 be made to receive at the mouth of the Mauser, 

 whom China herself was forbidden to eject. The 

 castaways of a European country were to be her 

 enforced guests the refuse of France was to be 

 made welcome by the stranger. Insult was thus 

 added to the injury of the intrusion. The nation 

 could not draw subtle distinctions; it had the 

 plain fact before it that the soul physicians France 

 would not permit to practice on its own people 

 were to be thrust upon the devotees of another 



creed; that the men whom France accused of 

 treachery to the state were to be let loose on a 

 Government to whom no loyalty was owed. This 

 is the deed that France has done ; and the horrors 

 of to-day, in which we and the other countries of 

 Europe suffer an undue share, are but the sequel 

 of the expulsion of religious orders from the re- 

 public." 



The number of Catholic priests and bishops 

 who fell before the Boxers had not been counted 

 at the end of the year, and the number of native 

 Christians who perished can only be guessed at. 

 Among the more prominent victims were Right 

 Rev. Laurence Guillon, % Vicar Apostolic of South 

 Manchuria; Bishop Ferdinand Hamer, Vicar 

 Apostolic of Southwest Mongolia; Bishop Fanta- 

 soti, Vicar Apostolic of South Hunan; Bishop Greg- 

 ory Grassi, Vicar Apostolic of North Shensi ; and 

 Bishop Francis Fogolla. The known mas-acres 

 included 32 European priests and 10 nuns. Much 

 missionary property was destroyed, including the 

 Pekin cathedral. The Catholics in China before 

 the outrages numbered 762,758, with 942 Euro- 

 pean and 445 native priests, 4,348 churches and 

 chapels, and 4,054 schools with 65,990 pupils. 



Other Missionary Countries. Leo XIII, on 

 Feb. 5, gave 500,000 francs for the Church of the 

 Copts in Egypt, and on the same day he made 

 a similar gift on behalf of the provincial seminary 

 at Kandy in Ceylon. 



The Uniate Chaldean Church of Mesopotamia 

 received a new head by the election, July 8. of 

 Mar Joseph Emmanuel Thomas, Bishop of Seert. 

 to the vacant patriarchal throne of Babylon. 

 which embraces .'} archbishoprics and 9 bishopric- 

 situated in Asiatic Turkey and Persia. 



On May 13 was solemnly consecrated the Basil- 

 ica newly erected upon the site of the one built 

 near Jerusalem by the Empress Eudoxia in the 

 fifth century to mark the spot where St. Stephen 

 was stoned to death. 



By a decree issued in June, and signed by the 

 Viceroy of Szechuen, the first and second chiefs of 

 Bathang. and the superior of the lamasery of Tin 

 Lin-Se, the door of libet, which has long been 

 closed to Christianity, was opened to mission- 

 aries. By the decree, which was engraved on wood. 

 the natives are not only allowed to become 

 Christians, but are freed from any taxation in 

 support of the national religion. 



The work of reunion among the schismatics of 

 the East received great impulse from the recon 

 filiation of the Armenian Vicar General 

 Tauris, who was followed into the Church 

 entire villages and more than 1,800 families. 



A Eucharistic Congress was held at Goa. 

 Portuguese India, the second week in Dccem 

 and was attended by all the Catholic bishops 

 the Indian hierarchy, as guests of the Queen 

 Portugal. The chief subject taken xip was the 

 condition of Catholics in Mysore. Cochin, ami 

 Travancore. In these states all Christians an 

 sidered civilly dead, and their properly co 

 cated. The matter had been previously laid 

 fore the Viceroy of India both by the na 

 Christians of Madras and the ruler of M 

 who proposed to abolish the law. The Vice 

 however, refused to allow the repeal of the la 

 because, as he said, the number of persons 

 cerned was infinitesimal, and that they were 

 humble station and possessed but little prope 

 To the first point in Lord Curzon's reply, the 

 bishops answered that the native Christians num- 

 bered a fourth of the population: to the 

 they pointed out the obvious in justice of . \ 

 ing persons civilly dead and deprived of t 

 property to be either wealthy or proud, a co 



