(578 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



of the century. He also issued an apostolic letter 

 expressing his approval of the constitution of the 

 Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States. By a 

 motu proprio issued in June lie confirmed and as 

 far as was necessary granted anew to the Sacred 

 Congregation of Indulgences and Relics all the 

 faculties and rights vested in it by its founder, 

 Clement IX, July 6, 1669, and declared these to 

 belong solely to this congregation. 



The Pope in November caused an article to be 

 written for the "Civita Catolica" warmly approv- 

 ing the Czar's proposal for disarmament. The arti- 

 cle recalled the fact that the Pope supported the 

 peace congress at Buda-Pesth in 1896, and concluded 

 by urging the Catholics of all countries to support 

 with all their strength, even by popular meetings 

 and public demonstrations, the idea of a peace 

 congress. 



The Pope at the same time sent to all the repre- 

 sentatives of the Holy See abroad instructions to 

 do what they could with the Government to which 

 they were accredited, and with the Catholics in 

 their vicinity, in favor of disarmament. His Holi- 

 ness said to one of the cardinals : " I hope God will 

 permit me to live long enough to see the objects of 

 the Czar realized, and the peace of Europe estab- 

 lished on a firm and definite basis." 



The twentieth anniversary of the election of Leo 

 XIII to the pontificate was celebrated on Feb. 20. 



His Holiness in December received a deputation 

 of the officers of the disbanded pontifical army. 

 He also received several deputations during the 

 year, among others one of Mexican pilgrims in 

 March, one of Italians in August, and one of Eng- 

 lish pilgrims in October. 



The Church of St. Joachim at Rome, erected by 

 contributions from Catholics in all parts of the 

 world as a memorial of the golden jubilee of his 

 Holiness (1893), was finished in August, and the 

 fathers of the Redemptorist Congregation solemnly 

 placed in charge of it. 



The Roman branch of the Confraternity of Notre 

 Dame de la Compassion for the conversion of Eng- 

 land was inaugurated at Rome on Feb. 2. His 

 Eminence Cardinal Gaeton Alvisi Massella was on 

 March 14 named protector of the Sisters of the 

 Christian School of Mercy. Among the decisions 

 of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, not elsewhere 

 noted, were the following: The carrying of images 

 and statues of the saints in procession with the 

 Blessed Sacrament was prohibited ; the recital in 

 the public functions of the Church of litanies not 

 having the approbation of the Holy See was not 

 approved. A litany of the Sacred Heart was ap- 

 proved for liturgical use in the dioceses of Mar- 

 seilles and Autun, in France. The canonization 

 process by the Sacred Congregation of Rites was 

 concluded in the questions of Blessed Hroznata, 

 martyr, and Blessed Innocent V of the Dominican 

 Order. By a decision of the Sacred Congregation 

 of the Inquisition national and other flags belong- 

 ing to secular societies were forbidden to be intro- 

 duced into the church on the occasion of religious 

 functions, or in funeral processions accompanied by 

 the clergy. 



Statistics. Two cardinals died in the year: 

 Eleazer Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec, born 

 Feb. 17, 1820, created cardinal June 7, 1886; and 

 Sylvester Sembratowicz. Ruthenian Archbishop of 

 Lemberg, born Oct. 3, 1836, created cardinal Nov. 

 29, 1895. 



The Sacred College of Cardinals when complete 

 consists of 6 cardinal bishops, 50 cardinal priests, 

 and 14 cardinal deacons. There were in 1898 57 

 cardinals and 13 vacancies. Five of the cardinals 

 were created by Pius IX and 52 by Leo XIII ; 123 

 cardinals died in the present pontificate. Of the 



57 cardinals, 30 were Italian, 9 Austrian, German, or 

 Polish, 7 French, 3 British, 4 Spanish, 2 Portuguese, 

 1 American, and 1 Belgian. Of the 46 cardinal 

 priests, 2 were patriarchs, 26 were archbishops, and 

 7 bishops of residential sees, and the others had re- 

 ceived episcopal consecration. 



There were in the Church 14 patriarchal sees, 971 

 archiepiscopal and episcopal sees; and the number 

 of patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, 

 including those retired and the archbishops and 

 bishops of titular sees, was 1,284. 



United States. The Supreme Court of the 

 United States, in February, handed down a decision 

 adjudicating a bequest for masses to be a charitable 

 bequest. Cardinal Gibbons, under date of Decem- 

 ber 5, sent a petition to Congress on behalf of him- 

 self and the archbishops of the United States, 

 praying that the subject of Indian education under 

 Government and contract systems be reopened. 

 Under the contract system appropriations were 

 made annually for Indian education, and contracts 

 were let to the various religious societies which had 

 previously established schools in the reservation. 

 At no time, said the cardinal, was complaint made 

 in regard to the quality of education furnished, the 

 objection which led to the abrogation of this sys- 

 tem being that sectarian schools were supported at, 

 public expense. Under the law at present in forces 

 unsectarian Government schools have been estab- 

 lished and the appropriation for denominationa. 

 schools had been cut down 20 per cent, annual!} 

 since 1895. The latest report of the Commissioner 

 for Indian Affairs asked for a law compelling the 

 attendance of all Indian children at Government 

 schools, with or without the consent of their parents. 

 Cardinal Gibbons advocated a law making educa- 

 tion compulsory, but permitting the Indian parent 

 to send his child to a mission school if he chose. 

 The petition closed with the request that the whole 

 subject of contract and Government schools be re- 

 opened, and the results of the different systems 

 compared. 



Earlier in the year Bishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, 

 addressed the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 

 to sustain the appropriation for maintaining pupils 

 at the Indian contract schools, and on Oct. 13 the 

 Committee of Archbishops on Indian Affairs, in 

 session at Dunwoodie, N. Y., appropriated $67,000 

 for the Indian schools. 



Mgr. Byrne, Bishop of Nashville, in December, 

 presented a petition to his Holiness praying that 

 the constitution of the brothers of the Christian 

 schools be altered so as to allow them to teach the 

 classics in the schools and colleges in the United 

 States. The brothers had hitherto been permit ted 

 to teach these branches, although such instruction 

 was contrary to the letter and spirit of their original 

 constitutions. On this account the central authori- 

 ties of the order forbade the continuance of this 

 practice in derogation of the rule. Many ecclesias- 

 tics in America, who desired to retain the successful 

 services of the brothers on behalf of Catholic higher 

 education, seconded the plea of the Bishop of Nash- 

 ville that the United States be exempted from this 

 provision of the constitution of the order. 



A bill was passed in July by the House and Sen- 

 ate of the United States authorizing the Secretary 

 of War to permit, in his discretion, the erection of 

 religious edifices on the military reservations of the 

 United States. The law was the result of a petition 

 by Catholics for permission to build at their own 

 expense a chapel on the United States reservation 

 at West Point, a Government chapel being already 

 there, with a chaplain paid by the United States. 

 Subsequent to the passage of the bill, the required 

 permission was given by the Secretary of War. The 

 law was made necessary by the ruling of the Attor- 



