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Show ' " '-', V- L I t the Yictorj 1 - . : which over- : Universal : j CHURCH CALENDAR. I ; Third Sunday of Advent. Gospel,' St. I John i, 13-28: John bears witness u 1 Christ. . J Sunday, 14 Bl. Andrew Bobola. i Monday, 15 St. Florence, Ab. I Tuesday, 16 St. Alice, Kmp. ( Wednesday, 17 St. Olympias, V. I Thursday, 13 Kspectation of the B. j V. M. i Friday, 19 St. Nemesion, M. Saturday, 20 St: Christian, B. THE BLACK MISSIONARY. Colored Priest's Experience Among His Own People. Hiph mass in the only Catholic church in this city exclusively used by the colored col-ored people, says. . the Nev Orleans Picayune of a recent date, had more than Its usual solemnity and interest for the very larg;e concourse of worshippers worship-pers that, filled the sacred edifice. They came to assist at the holy sacrifice in j which a. priest of their own race was both celebrant and preacher. There j are only two colored Catholic priests In the whole United States Rev. John Henry Dorsey, at present in New Orleans, Or-leans, and who officiated at St. Katharine's Kath-arine's yesterday, and Rev. C. R. Uncles, Un-cles, a professor in a 'college in Baltimore. Balti-more. Father- Dorsey was born in 1874 ; in Baltimore, and was ordained in June j last by Cardinal Gibbons. He is mak ing a tour of the southern cities to find out how the sentiment is with regard to a priest of the colored race, and up to this time he has met with uniform kindness on the part of the people. ' He is of medium height, spare built, ' and of an intelligent and amiable cast ! of countenance. His voice is sonorous and under perfect control, and his dic- tion elegant and flowing. Father Dorsey preached just before 1 the last gospel was read. J 'I am a priest , of , the Holy Roman Catholic -church," said he, ''and there ' Is -only one other priest of my race in 1 the whole United States. This is not a ' question of social equality with me, but 1 pimply of being recognized as a priest I 1 Of the grand, noble and enlightened I 1 Koman church. In all my travels I 1 have met with ovations. In Boston, ! ' Philadelphia and New York I was re ceived by the colored people and -by men of prominence of the white race, ' and was warmly congratulated. The 1 white people vied with the colored peo- i pie to do me honor. In Washington a l leading Catholic put his team at my ( disposal. In Boston I said high mass in the Boston cathedral before a congregation con-gregation three-fourths composed of , white people, and at the conclusion of i the mass they pressed forward to ask j i my blessing. Just think of it, my Christian friends. The white ladles of i Boston kneeling before a colored priest! Of course they did not recognize me as I a man, but were reverencing the priest ly character I bore; and this shows the i respect to which the priesthood is en- titled. J "It was the same thing in the south. The white people understood that I was I not seeking social equality. I was con- . gratulated by the best citizens of the J Fouth. In Nashville I was received most cordially by Father Plunkett and Bishop Byrnes, who gave me the place of honor at their table. In the evening I visited the Dominican convent and was received by the white Sisters as if I was a priest of their own race. They knelt and asked my blessing. I. "I was told by a prominent gentle- ! man: 'Father Dorsey, your ordination J as a priest has advanced your race 100 I years." In a certain sense that is true, I because the colored priest can be a , ..- power for good among his people. This ; ; J is why I am touring the south, to show ' : I , what the Roman Catholic church has done for the colored man, so that my ' people will be impressed thereby and 1 resolve to be good, law-abiding citizens; j respecting not only the laws of the i state in which they live, but also the i laws of God." 1 M"gr. Falconio Unfair. ! Mgr. Falconio, the new apostolic ' delegate to the United States, appar- ' ently does not share the fears of those Mho discern heretical and dangerous ' tendencies in such Catholic organiza tions as the Knights of Columbus. . Speaking recently at a farewell recep- , , tion held in his honor at Ottawa by the local councils of the last named society, Mgr. Falconio said: j "It pleases me to see enrolled under , your flag people of every nationality. ', This is truly a Christian brotherhood . bound together by the sacred ties of religion and patriotism. Here you need j this unanimity of sentiment for the I welfare of your beloved country and for , the sake of that peace and fraternal , love which are the true distinctive j characteristics of Christian souls. For I puch union Christ our Divine Lord i : prayed and prayed fervently. His di- 5 ' vine words before his passion and , death cannot easily be forgotten. "Holy , Father," said he, "keep them in my . name whom thou hast given me that j they may be one as we also are." These i . words of our Lord, . though addresed to the whole human family, are ap plicable in a particular manner to those . , fraternities which spring up among the j children of the church, for works of beneficence and charity. By such union . you beget strength and your institu- tion will be able to- accomplish very much good. Remember that the l apostolate of the laity is not a novelty i In the church. It has existed in all ; time since the first days of Christi anity." Monitor. Dr. Bouquillon's Fame. JCovember, the month of the dead, witnessed the passing of three distinguished dis-tinguished Catholic scholars: Archbishop Arch-bishop John Mac Evilly of Tuam, who wrote learned commentaries on the ; epistles and attained the good old age of S5; Cardinal Masella. the best, or next to the best, theologian of the Sacred Sa-cred college, and our. own, Dr. Bouquil-Ion, Bouquil-Ion, better known and more honored among European scholars than among the wise men of his adopted country. This humble prjest, despite much evidence evi-dence to the contrary, was a prodigy of erudition.. He knew books, and wrote books in his da5 Serious students of theology easily acknowledge that his was a mind of exceptional depth, clearness clear-ness and vigor. His writings on funda-' funda-' mental theology are voted of great au- !! thority by the professors of the continent, con-tinent, and his reputation, though fiercely assailed by his intellectual Inferiors, In-feriors, did not suffer much where his real merit was known. Perhaps hw wrote inopportunely. The public was not prepared for his most Catholic views on education, but he had behind I him the approved writings of the first j t eologlans of the church. The Lyceum, . t 3 organ of the Irish Jesuits, one of i r the ablest, and most meritorious Cath- I olic journals ever published in the Eng- ' lish language, declared, when interest seemed to point the other way. that Dr. Bouquillon's fame had advanced rather than declined through means of the unfortunate controversy which was , supposed by some to have invalidated his claims to sound Catholic scholarship. scholar-ship. " But Dr. BouquUlon was. right. ' He doubtless preferred to be right rather than popular, and, with Ham-i Ham-i let, cared more for the approval of the Judicious than for pitsfull of "howling t .' approval from the unskillful groundlings. ground-lings. He was, perhaps, the greatest scholar that ever came to us from Europe. Eu-rope. His death deprives the Catholic university of its most mature and best informed professor. CathoHc Transcript. "Mariolatry" of the Catholic Church. One of the important acts of the" international in-ternational congress held in August at Fribourg, Switzerland, was the unanimous unani-mous adoption of the following declaration: declara-tion: "This assembly of sodalitlsts in Fribourg Fri-bourg lifts its voice aloud in order to protest solemnly against the calumny, three centuries old, that Catholics make the august Mother of God an object ob-ject of adoration. The assembly, in the name of truth and justice demands de-mands that this lie and calumny, systematically sys-tematically spread by official teachers and masters of religious communities separated from us, should at , length cease. It calls attention to the irrefutable irre-futable truth that the Catholic. church knows of no other adoration but that of the Triune God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, and that all love of and confidence con-fidence in the Blessed Virgin Mary is strictly limited to such love and veneration ven-eration as, according to the words of the Archangel Gabriel, the eulogy of St. Elizabeth, and the requirements of reason itself, is owing to a creature who was elevated to the position of Mother of Jesus Christ, and to whom even an apostle was committed from the cross as a child to its mother." "This solemn and explicit declaration," declara-tion," remarks the London Tablet, "deserves the serious attention of many of our separated brethren, who still have lurking suspicions of the Mariolatry of the Catholic church." Jesuits May Return. There is said to be a good prospect for the repeal of the law which forbids the Jesuit society to return to Germany. Ger-many. A dispatch from Berlin tells of a definite statement made by a Catholic Cath-olic journal that the present reichstag will pass another resolution asking the government to repeal the law against the Jesuits. The dispatch further states that the action of the government is understood to be due to a compact wjth the center, or clerical party, in return for the lat-ter's lat-ter's support of the compromise tariff bill. The "Bed Mass" in France. If there be much to grieve the Catholic Cath-olic heart in contemplating the state of affairs in France, there are also some gleams of consolation on the other hand. Thus the . suppression by the French government of the "red mass" the mass of the Holy Ghost, which used to be celebrated in the Sainte Chapelle at the opening of the law courts term has only led to a striking demonstration that the religious spirit is not yet extinguished in the breasts of the magistracy and lawyers of France. On the 6th inst., Cardinal Richard arranged to have a "red mass" for the; legal profession celebrated at the Church of St. Germain 1' . Auxer-rois, Auxer-rois, when upward of 600 of its members mem-bers of all ranks assisted in a body, the church being crowded in every part by their relatives and friends. The attendance at-tendance was more numerous by 50 per cent than at the celebration held in the same church in January last. Bishop Jansson Not to Resign. The statement that the Rt. Rev. John Janssen, bishop of Belleville, Ills., had sent his resignation as bishop to the pope, with a view of entering a Franciscan Fran-ciscan monastery, is denied by Father Hagan in the following letter to the press: "The rumor that the Rt. Rev. John Janssen, bishop of Belleville, has sent in his resignation and that as soon as he was formally released by the pope he would retire to a Franciscan monastery, mon-astery, is absolutely without founda tion. The entire rumor Is a pure fabrication, fabri-cation, and there is not a grain of truth in it. The reasons given for the extraordinary extra-ordinary stop to be taken by the bishop are groundless and false. The bishop is not in feeble health, as was reported, but, despite his sixty-two years is full of vigor and fully able to attend to his episcopal duties. That the bishop should be sorely troubled on account of factions in the diocese is utterly false, since . there is full harmony of action J between the bishop ond his clergy." "That Prayer." It is hard to head off a lie. There is one embodied in a prayer said to have been found in the tomb of Christ. The promises are many and wonderful, but the whole affair is a fraud even if it be a pious one. We advise those who treasure that "prayer" as a prize to cast it-into the fire as a superstitious thing. Catholic Universe. |