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Show I jJ I r'1-, Church 1 V . ' I which oyer- I I ' ' ! 1 1 l ; ". Church Calendar. ' ' I Sunday. Sept.' 21 Eighteenth Sunday i 1 after Pentecost. St. Matthew, Ap. Ev. I Monday, 12 St. Thomas cf Villanova. Bt. Maurice and Comp., MM. Tuesday, 23 St. Thecla, V. M. St. Linus, P. M. ' ij ' 'Wednesday, 24 Our Lady of Ran- i Bum. ; - Thursday, 23 St. Firmin, B. M. Friday, 26 SS. Cyprian and Jus- i Una. MM. Saturday, 27 St. Commas and Da-inian, Da-inian, MM. 1 A Bishop on Agnosticism. 1 The word "agnosticism," says the I Literary Digest, is believed to have I : teen coined by a man of our own gen- 1 I eration, the late Professor Huxley, I but the idea behind the word, as is I pointed out by Bishop Spalding of Pe- I ria, in., in his new book on "Relig- I i ' ion, Agnost'ism, and Education," is I by no means a new one. He traces It I from Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Fichte, and Schopenhauer, to the life and thought of today, and sees in Herbert Spencer's "theory of the : unknowable" but a form of Kant's doctrine that tne pure reason cannot know the real, the thing itself." He writes further: "This creed is Intimately associated with the deepest speculations in which " the human mind has engaged. The problems that it raises the fundament-' fundament-' fcl, and to imagine that this is a ques tion in which wit or sarcasm can be of any avail is to show oneself ignorant ignor-ant of its real import. "Some of the defenders of agnosticism, agnosti-cism, as, for instance. Mr. Fawcett, the American novelist, wrote' on this t subject in a style of which neither a scholar nor a philosopher can approve. 'Truly,' he says, 'the most extraordinary extraordi-nary idea which ever entered the brain of man is that of a personal over-watching over-watching Deity.' Again: 'If he (the ' agnostic) leans toward absolute athe ism he does so because the vast weight of evidence impels him in that direction.' direc-tion.' Like one who might have cur-cumnavigated cur-cumnavigated all the worlds of thought. Mr. Fawcett affirms 'the total to-tal insolubility of the problems of life and death. Such writing is its own condemnation. This l-nnivimmpso an i this dogmatism is the very last thing to which a true agnostic will commit himself. His attitude is negative, he , .; neither affirms nor denies the exist- ) : ence of God, the soul, and life in, the t ' unseen world. His profession is that he does . not and cannot know anything any-thing of all this. An overweening fondness for outrageous assertion is also characteristic of the writings of Mr- Ingersoll, who, though he is con-i con-i fcidered a champion of agnosticism, ! does not hesitate to pronounce judg- 1 ment offhand in matters on which the greatest minds, after a lifetime of pa-tient pa-tient meditation, ypeak dispasstonate-; dispasstonate-; ly at least and with hesitation. The l ' confident assurance of an amateur is always suspicious; and to have lived ; ; with deep and serious minds is to turn : instinctively from declaimers." "The religious impulse," maintains Bishop Spalding, "is founded in the very nature of man as a rational being. In all consciousness there is an implicit im-plicit knowledge of God, and were this not so, thought would become chaotic." cha-otic." He concludes: "Whoever thinks, finds that he is in the grasp of something which is not I himself, and which is stronger than he is and abides while he passes; and this he will worship whether he call it na ture or God." Tendency Towards Mediaevalism. Mr. Gilbert Ray Hawes writes to the New York Sun on "The Tendency Towards Mediaevalism," which he says t "a movement fatal to Protestantism and helpful to Catholicism." Mr. Hawes particularizes thus: It cannot successfully be disputed that the "Catholic" party of the Episco pal church is doing violence to the law and doctrine of its church, unmistakably un-mistakably laid down, when it adopts the "reserved sacrament," and the doctrine doc-trine of the Real Presence, and encourages encour-ages the administration of the viaticum viati-cum and the use of Incense, which have always been denounced by Protestants Pro-testants as, "Popish inventions and heresies,." The attempt to justify these strange doctrines and practices by ap-, ap-, pealing to the first Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549) is both weak and illogical, as they are directly in conflict con-flict with the Thirty-nine Articles which are the foundation of Episcopalian Episco-palian faith and form of worship. All this would seem to indicate that the great gulf which has heretofore separated the Episcopalians from the other bran-hes of Protestantism might be closed at last, and all Protestants brought into one fold. But while the other denominations have been taking . many leaves from the Book of Com mon Prayer, the Episcopalians have ; been getting farther away from the standards of their church and nearer to Rome. i This was emphatically called to my attention by an incident which hap- , pened while crossing- the Atlantic a I few years ago. On board ship I made J the acquaintance of a scholarly and agreeable gentleman, one of the promi- "-lent Episcojalian rectors of this city. Our conversation turned upon polem ical subjects and I deplored "the superstition su-perstition of the Roman Catholic faith which adhered to the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist.' " To my utter amazement my clerical friend demurred to these strictures and remarked re-marked that it could hardly be called superstition, as many Episcopalians believed the same. "What!" I exclaimed, ex-claimed, "do you mean to say that Episcopalians believe in Transubstantiate Transubstan-tiate ?" "Well, not exactly," he replied, re-plied, "but we do believe in Consub-stantiation." Consub-stantiation." When I suggested that it seemed to me as though the differ- ' 'nee was as little as that between tweedledum" and "tweedledee," he remarked that I displayed too much levity, and that in any e-ent he could ! not discuss such fine distinctions with a mere layman who had never enjoyed the advantages of theological training in a seminary. However, to my ear- nest inquiry, he did vouchsafe the information in-formation that practically " all the Episcopalian clergymen of New York ? accepted the doctrine of the Real Presence, as expounded by the subtle ; definition of the term "Consubstantia- i . lion." If this be true, and I have no ; reason to doubt it, whither is that ; vhurch drifting? II Pnests Placed on Salary. I The announcement was made in St. . Patrick's church, Dubuque, Sunday th-t in the future the members of the I congregation .will have charge of the running of the finances of the church ! and that there would be an accounting f 'rem time to time of the receipts and j , I expenditures. J i This is in accordance with the rule I f introduced by Avr ; N,p Keane when I ' "e became head of th- diocese of Du- 1? buque. A convnitt';t. will doubtless be appointed to .look jrr the finances. The priests will be placed on salaries I and in a short time there will be a Cort made of the money received and ' expended for the new parochial school. Iowa Messenger. Another Viperous Work. Applefon's Cyclopedia has been thunderously thun-derously denounced in the first place by an eminent Jesuit; public speakers j societies and editors have followed in his wake. Thf denunciation has not been more widely spread than the exploitation ex-ploitation of the Mesesnger. An humble hum-ble Polish priest among us has discovered discov-ered an e-juahy viperous work, the "Stanton Popular Educator," published pub-lished in Chicago, Give this good priest as wide an audience and let the work of enlightenniejit spread. Priest Quells a Riot. The mining village of Hudson, Pa., where a house occupied by a non-union workman named Lawrence Farahaski was wrecked last Friday night by a mob, has been quiet since. Father Spotanski, the Polish clergyman clergy-man of the town, is receiving much praise for the part he took in the affair. af-fair. The mob. that had gathered was very angry and threatened to wreck all the houses occupied by non-union workmen. The priest pointed out to the men the mistake they were making, and his good counsel finally prevailed. "Church Loot" on a Transport. San Francisco, Sept. 11. At a special meeting of the executive council of the Catholic Truth society it has been unanimously resolved to send a dispatch dis-patch to President Roosevelt regarding regard-ing the ecclesiastical property and the objects of Catholic veneration discovered discov-ered on the United States army transport trans-port Buford. The dispatch, which was signed by Philip O'Ryan, spiritual rector of the society, requests "an immediate and thorough investigation as to the original orig-inal ownership and nature of this property prop-erty and the manner in which it came into the possession of the United States army officers. If ' investigation shows that it is church loot, we ask that it be immediately returned to the true owners, and that the officers in whose possession it was found be summarily dealt with according to army regulations." Changes Not to Be Made. The statement published in various papers lately that Bishop Thomas J. Conaty. rector of the Catholic University Univer-sity of America, would be appointed bishop coadjutor to the Rt. Rev. Richard Rich-ard Phelan, bishop of the diocese of Pittsburg, and would be succeeded by Rev. Horgan M. Sheedy, rector of St. John's, Altoona, Pa., is pronounced a canard. In well-informed Catholic circles at Washington there is no disposition to believe there will be . any, change whatever in the rectorship of the university. uni-versity. Bishop Conaty will probably be his own successor. The office of vice rector will, it is believed, be left vacant a session. Sisters of the Holy Cross. From Notre Dame, Ind., we learn that the mother house of the Sisters f-ih Holy Cross. St. Mary's, was the M-ene ot a double" ceremonial on the feast of the Assumpation. On that day seventeen young ladies renounced the world for the religious life and received re-ceived the white veil of the noviceship, and twenty-four pronounced their final vows and received the insignia of profession pro-fession as Sisters of the Holy Cross A Serious Charge. Rev. Father MccKeever, pastor of the Church of St. Rose of Lima, Newark, New-ark, has publicly charged certain physicians phy-sicians in the Newark city hospital with trying to overhear the confessions of Catholic patients and with preventing prevent-ing him from properly administering the sacrament of extreme unction to a dying Catholic patient. Father' Mc-Keever's Mc-Keever's charges have created a sensation sensa-tion and an investigation is promised. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. Interesting Paragraphs Gathered Prom "Church Progress." DOMESTIC. A Driest in an American legislative body is not unprecedented. Rev. Gabriel Richard, prominent in the history of the church in Michigan and elsewhere in the west, was a member of congress. The oarishioners 'of St. Joseph's cathedral. ca-thedral. Bulfalo. N. v.. on last Sunday week observed in modest manner the thirty-ninth annivertarv of its dedication Bv the will of Emma Stalls of Philadelphia Phila-delphia an estate' of $379 has been left to Kev. William Kieran. rector of St Patrick's Pat-rick's church in that citv. A lady why requested that her name be not mentioned has presented a beautiful pulpit to St. Mary s church at Norwalk, The erection of anew church has been decided on at Niaeara.- Wis. The estimated esti-mated cost will be between $3,000 and I u.juo. Work will be started at once Nazareth academy, near Bardstown, Ivy., has been appointed a local center fc-r examinations for entrance to Trinity Trin-ity college, Washington, by the regents of that institution. Arrangements are now being made in New York Citv for the emigration of a numbzer of Belgians from that place to Canada. Rev. Father Constantineau is now in New York looking after the details. de-tails. Captain Jonathan "e. Tickstun of Jef-fersonville. Jef-fersonville. Ind.. was last week elected state president of the Catholic Knights of America, at the Terre Haute meeting ot" that society last week. - Bishop Garrigan will establish an orphanage or-phanage in Sioux Citv. A subscription list was started bv the priests in retreat at LeMars and will be circulated throughout the diocese. Members of St. Bridget's congregation, Chicago, are makinK an effort to pay its debts preparatory to erecting new church and school buildings. Miss Elvira Svdnor Miller, who is one of the editors of the Louisville Times, and a Catholic, publicly addressed a poem hvmnins: the virtues of the Y. M. 1.. to the convention of Catholic youns men which met at that citv last week. The. Princess Von Auersyerg has been received into the church bv the Rev James A. Reynolds, pastor of St. James' church. Red Bank. N. J. She was fo--merlv a Miss Hazard, of an Episcopalian family of New York. Bishop Garrigan of Sioux City, through his agent, purchased the hotel Wales, corner Tenth and Pearl streets for Jlo.OiK). Archbishop Keans of Dubuque has sent the board of library trustees a check for $200. his contribution to the fund of $10,-C00 $10,-C00 now being raised to defray the additional addi-tional expense contracted in the erection of the Carencie-Stout free public library. Accompanying the check was a letter felicitating fe-licitating the board and encouraging them in their work. St. Michael's asylum. Pittsburg, Pa., has been lately the object of earnest efforts ef-forts on the nartof burglars, but so-far nothing has been' stolen. The Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Perpet-ual Rosary of Camden, whose resent home is located at Parkside. Camden, have engaged a Philadelphia architect to prepare plans for a new convent to be erected on the site of the present home. The new building will cost $40,000. St. John's new parsonage at Canton, O., is progressing rapidly. It will soon be under roof. The freshman class at Marquette college. col-lege. Milwaukee, this year is the largest la the history of the institution. Many of the more ambitious students are passing pass-ing over from the commercial to the classical clas-sical course. It mav be a matter of surprise sur-prise for some to know that there were -nore members in the. freshman and sophomore so-phomore classes of the college during the ast ypar than in -corresponding classes !St. Michael's fhurch. Chicago, is preparing pre-paring for its golden jubilee next month. I A new altar h;is been dedicated; two I Munich glass windows are being installed; new side altars will be in place' within j another week, as will also 2.000 incan-j incan-j descent electric lights. I Louis Bnlden, a brilliant youn? colored j seminarian, is preparing for the priesthood. priest-hood. He is a native of New York state. I He will finish, his education at St. Joseph's Jo-seph's college, in Baltimore, in about three years. 3. Collections are being taken iip daily by n committee for a new Polish church at Dunkirk, N. Y. Much liberality is manifested. man-ifested. Four thousand Knights of St. John and their friends were present at the twenty-fourth twenty-fourth annual outing and field dav of the First Ohio brigade, held last week at Manhattan Beach. . The Polish Catholics of Meyersville. La..-and La..-and vicinity are building a new church about three miles from that place. - i the Irish picnic at Schlitz park. Milwaukee, Mil-waukee, was the most successful held in years. Fully 5.000 persons passed through the gates. The feature of the picnic was the address of Profesor Managhan of the state university. 1 Ground has been broken for a club house for the Catholic Y'oung Men's association asso-ciation of St. Joseph's church, Rochester. Roches-ter. X. Yi Crotian Catholics at Rankin. Pa., aro Planning to build a church. Mass is now said, in a oublic hall. Workmen are drilling for gas on the grounds surrounding Annunciation church. Cleveland. O. The pastor is confident con-fident that thev will be successful in locating a well. The clergy of Milwaukee and vicinity assembled at the archbishop's house oh Tuesday. Sept. 2. and unanimously approved ap-proved of the present movement lor federation fed-eration of the Catholic societies. FOREIGN. The children of the Church of England school t Dorchester are required to sav the "Hail Marv" as far as "Holy Mary, Mother of God": to attend the children's mass (Protestant) on saints' days, and to bow to the altar, those refusing to bow receiving chastisement. The affair has caused indignant comment In the house of commons. S The German minister of war has addressed ad-dressed to thfe commanders of all German Ger-man army posts a circular touching the observance of various religious feasts on the part of the army. The Catholic soldiers sol-diers are dispensed from all military dutv on the feasts of Easter. Pentecost. Christmas. Circumcision. Ascension and Corpus Christi. From every department in France and from districts overwhelmingly liberal and anarchistic comes reauests to the government gov-ernment for authorization for the Little Sisters of the Poor. Thev have thirty houses in France, and their case will be given precedence before all others when the examination begins before the council of state. The war with cholera that the army is now waging in the Philippines is described de-scribed in an interesting report received in Washington from the Phlippine board of health. Maior Maus calls attention to the splendid work nerformed by the Sisters Sis-ters of Charity, who were sent there an nurses. These noble women devoted themselves fearlessly to the work of nursing the sick, and spared no effort in behalf of their patients, who, as a rule, belonged to the lowest native classes and among whom the disease was malignant. The marriage of the Hon. Stuart R. Erskine. second son of Lord Erskine, to the only daughter of Mr. Heaven, in the Catholic cathedral at Aberdeen, early In August, recalls the fact that Mr. Heaven is a - wealthy Catholic gentleman gentle-man who Durchased the manor and lands of the Forest of Bersa a few years ago. He married the Marauise de Braceras, and has done much for the promotion of Catholicity since his arrival .in the north of Scotland. A special nuptial blessing was sent by Pone Leo XIII to the bride and bridegroom. Rt. Rev. Mgr. Kennedy, rector of the American college in Rome, is now in this country. Since Mgr. Kennedy's installation in-stallation as rector the American college in Rome has been in a most flourishing condition, and a number of Ions-needed improvements have been introduced, the most important being the addition of a new building at a cost of $48,000. Of this amount $16,000 has already been subscribed, sub-scribed, and one of the oblefcts of Mgr. Kennedy's visit is to raise the remaining remain-ing $32,000 necessary to liquidate the remaining re-maining portion of the debt. Cardinal Capecelatro. having issued a call for the restoration of the grave of St. Benedictus. the naval officers of Spezia responded with a big check, prom-bang prom-bang further contributions. This is the first time that Italy and the Vatican have acted toward the same purpose. Anton Lang, the "Cristus" of the Oberammergau Passion Plav of 1900, was. married last week to Matilda Rutz, daughter of the blacksmith of Oberammergau. Oberam-mergau. It is feared that the Catholic missionaries mission-aries of Corea will be in danger as a result of the present uprising against foreigners. for-eigners. .Bishop Favier. the French Catholic bishop of northern China, has had a stroke of paralysis. His condition is serious. se-rious. The monks of the Chartreuse, who are leaving France, have, it is stated, ceded the business of manufacturing the famous fa-mous Chartreuse to a company for the sum v of S.OOO.OOu francs. The superior excellence of Catholic schools in Sydney. Australia, is evidenced bv the fact that thev have an attendance of 23.000 Catholics and 6.000 Protestant children. . The lnternationallucharistic congress, which has been In session at Namur, Belgium, Bel-gium, closed on Sunday with a great public procession of the Blessed Sacra-aent. Sacra-aent. The art of illumination was one of the rreat triumphs of the monks of the Middle Mid-dle Ages. A copy of the New Testament was executed in the fourth century in letters let-ters of silver, with the initials in old, and is still preserved in the roval library at Unsal under the title of the "Codex Argenteus." 'V Miss Kathleen Raleigh, a lineal descendant de-scendant of Sir Walter Raleigh, recently made her final vows in the church of Syon Abbey, Chudleigh, Devonshire, England, Eng-land, in the order of Our Most Holy Savior, Sa-vior, popularly known as St. Bridget's. 'ine catnolic missions in the Soudan have suffered a terrible blow by the sudden sud-den death of the voung and zealous vicar-apostolic. Bishop Roveggio. who has fallen a martyr to dutv at the early age of 36. Bookkeeping by double "entrv was made public by a monk. Paccioli. over 400 years ago. On Nov. 10. 1494. he published a biOk. "De Summa Arithmetlca," in one chanter of which the svstem of double entrv as now used was described. Paccioli Pac-cioli had learned the art when tutor to the sons of a Venetian merchant, and though not the inventor of the system, was the first to make it known to the world. |
