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Carthusian monastery for the exhibition of Christian art; the hall of the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican; the restoration of the Churches of St. Lorenzo in Domaso and of St. Elias near Nepi, of the Pontifical Palace at Porto d'Anzio, of the walls of Neptune. Then there are the successful restorations in the Basilica of St. Lorenzo Without the Walls, of the magnificent frescoes of Fraccasini; the restorations in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere; the new confessional in the Basilica of St. Maria

Maggiore, the new tabernacle, and the new receptacle for the sacred chairs of St. Peter in the Eudoxian Basilica. All these works are only a portion of what mark the glorious Pontificate of Pius IX.

In his encouragement of painting and sculpture His Holiness has always been a generous patron. Some of the finest academical works have been produced under his patronage by Cavaliers Bonifiani and Corta; Coghetti, Consoni, Goznordi, and Poderti have painted the splendid frescoes that adorn the central nave of St. Paul's Without the Walls; Grandi and Mariani have painted in the same Basilica the martyrdom and burial of SS. Lorenzo and Stefano. Cavalier Consoni, under the direction and patronage of His Holiness, designed and superintended the execution of the beautiful mosaic on the façade of St. Paul's, a work which occupied fifteen years; the splendid paintings in the hall of the Immaculate Conception in the Vatican, representing the ceremonies when that dogma was proclaimed; the grand oil painting in St. Paul's, representing the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

As regards sculpture, among the numerous works produced under the patronage of His Holiness we mention only the celebrated groups by Commendatore Jacomnetti, "The Kiss of Judas" and the "Ecce Homo;" the statue of St. Peter in bronze, to be placed on the column designed to commemorate the holding of the Vatican Council, and the statue of the Holy Father in prayer.

All these works, representing every worthy human interest, form a magnificent record how the Sovereign Pontiff, amid cares and labors sufficient to crush the most robust and enduring, yet finds the time, and has room in his large heart, to cherish and encourage everything that tends to lessen and alleviate human misery, to succor the poor, to encourage industry, and foster whatever tends to elevate, cultivate, and refine human char

acter.

IF the telegrams from the seat of war in Europe can be relied on as correct, Turkey lies powerless at the feet of Russia. The

surrender of Osman Pasha, with all his troops, after his unsuccessful sortie from Plevna, was quickly followed by the capture of the Shipka Pass, with the whole Turkish forces defending it, to the number of twentyfive thousand men. The last remaining army of Turkey, under Suleiman Pasha, are according to accounts received while writing this, in the vicinity of Philippopolis, seventy or eighty miles west of Adrianople, with a Russian army of triple numbers pressing him in front, and an equally superior Russian force closing in upon his rear, and threatening to prevent his retreat to Adrianople. The Turkish forces seem to have become entirely demoralized, and incapable of making any effective resistance to the Russian forces in their onward progress towards Constantinople.

Negotiations for an armistice have been commenced, but Russia is evidently in no hurry to conclude them, and in all probability will protract them until Adrianople shall have fallen into her possession, and she can dictate terms of peace, with irresistible forces ready to march against Constantinople.

While the situation is as we have described in Turkey, England remains undecided and hesitating, divided and distracted at home by the opposing views of influential leaders of public opinion, and without an ally in the: world upon whom she can rely, in fact without a single friend or well-wisher among. civilized peoples.

She has brought this upon her herself by her duplicity and selfish policy. She allowed! Denmark to be weakened and dismemberedi when she could have prevented it; Austria to be beaten and humiliated without uttering a word of remonstrance or performing a single act of friendly interposition. She permitted Hanover to be swallowed up by Germany, though it had a special claim on England for protection. She allowed France to be defeated, overrun, and put in fetters: by Bismarck, until she broke and threw them. away by the patriotism and almost superhuman energy of the French people. And now, to-day, England's voice in the councils of European nations is listened to only with a supercilious courtesy, which is equivalent to contempt, and she stands in the attitude of one who is brokenhearted and defied, wishing to strike, yet afraid to deliver a blow.

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emergencies, and asking Parliament to vote the necessary supplies. A sharp debate ensued upon the answer to be made to the Queen's speech; and the policy of the ministry severely criticized. This probably only foreshadows the fiercer debate that will ensue when the proposed measures of the existing ministry come to be discussed in detail.

THE fiftieth anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of Rev. James Fitton, of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in East Boston, Mass., was celebrated on December 23d with appropriate and impressive ceremonies. Father Fitton is, in all probability, the oldest priest in the United States who was born and reared in the country. There is certainly no one who is more conspicuously identified with the growth of the Church in New England.

He was born in Boston in 1803, and was baptized in the only Catholic Church edifice then erected in that city. He was educated in part under the pioneer, Bishop Cheverus, afterwards Cardinal, and was ordained by the late Bishop Fenwick upwards of fifty years ago.

The venerable and highly esteemed Father has lived to see the erection of upwards of thirty Catholic churches and a magnificent cathedral in Boston alone. He has lived to see his own mission, which at first included all New England, divided into six dioceses, with Boston as a metropolitan see. He was the founder of the first Catholic periodical in the United States, the Catholic Press, at Hartford, of the College of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, Mass., and erected churches in most of the principal cities and towns in New England. Though upwards of seventy-four years of age he is still hale and vigorous, his mind is clear and active, and recently he composed a history of the Church in the New England States, and prepared one of the most complete prayer-books that has been published.

Previous to the ceremonies of the jubilee, mass was celebrated by the venerable Father Fitton himself. Among those in the sanctuary were the Archbishop of Boston, the Bishop of Portland, and eleven priests from different parts of the country, who had in past years served in the sanctuary as altarboys under Father Fitton.

Following the mass an appropriate sermon was delivered by the Bishop of Portland, after which a number of memorial gifts were presented to Father Fitton. First of these

was a gold chalice from the Archbishop of Boston, then a set of vestments and an address, beautifully engrossed on parchment, from those of the aged Father's altar-boys who have since been ordained priests. The present and past altar-boys then followed with a miniature yacht freighted with three

hundred gold dollars. These presents were supplemented by others from the young men of the Catholic Lyceum, pupils of the school of Notre Dame, and the scholars of the Sunday-school.

THERE have been no less than forty-six priests ordained in Prussian Poland since the enactment of the infamous "Falk laws," by the German government, in May, 1874. These priests, refusing to submit to an examination by government officials, are now engaged in the discharge of the duties of their sacred office in a way that evades the iniquitous Falk laws. Masses are said by them with greatest secrecy, the Catholic gentry keeping them on their large estates as tutors or land stewards. Thus, far from extinguishing the Catholic spirit, the persecution has in many respects only proven the means of feeding the sacred flame of faith. On the other hand, however, even the gov ernment opens its eyes to the fact that the emissaries of Socialism, who have hitherto labored in vain to seduce the poor Catholic workingmen of Posen and Silesia with their pernicious doctrines, are now beginning to gain a foothold, where Catholic congregations have been deprived of their priests, and extend their evil influences just in proportion as through the enforcement of the Falk laws the people are debarred from Catholic worship and the ministration of the Catholic clergy.

THE archbishops and bishops of Ireland have issued a Pastoral, which has been read in all the churches of that island, on the subject of "wakes." They express the deep concern which they feel for the proper and respectful treatment of the dead, and refer to the many instances of demoralization and shameful misconduct which often occur at "wakes," some of them being mere carousals. In future no one is to attend at "wakes" except the immediate relatives of the deceased; no spirituous or intoxicating liquors are to be used; and in case of disobedience of these injunctions the clergy are required not to visit the house, nor to attend at the funeral, nor to celebrate Mass for the deceased.

Of the ten archbishops in the United States, four are Irish; of the fifty-six bishops, twenty-nine are of the same nationality; of the fifty-two hundred priests, not less than three thousand belong to the Irish race. A like proportion holds good as regards the laity. Of the six and a half million who are officially returned, four millions are of Irish birth or descent.

It has long been a subject of complaint that Catholic books are too high-priced. A remedy for this will be found if an enterprise undertaken by Mr. Hickey, No. 11 Barclay Street, New York, is successfully carried out. He proposes in a circular recently issued to publish classical Catholic works in a series, to be furnished at a very low price to subscribers. The series is to be called "The Vatican Library." He begins with Fabiola for twenty-five cents.

This is an excellent idea, and we hope Mr. Hickey will be sustained, so that he may successfully carry it into effect. Low-priced Catholic literature is greatly needed, and if "The Vatican Library" enterprise succeeds it will be furnished. Library companies,

Catholic literary societies, and heads of families should subscribe for the series.

THE ecclesiastical statistics of England and Wales show an increase of sixty-four priests and nineteen churches during the last year. In the diocese of Nottingham 10 new churches were opened; in Salford, 4; in Liverpool, 9; in Hexham, 1; in Northampton, I; and in Plymouth, 1. The increase in the number of priests in the diocese of Liverpool is 10; in Southwark, 12; in Westminster, 8; with a less proportionate increase in other dioceses. The hierarchy remains unchanged. In Scotland the number of priests has increased five; of churches, fourteen.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

WHAT CATHOLICS DO NOT BELIEVE. A lecture delivered in Mercantile Library Hall, on Sunday evening, December 16th, 1877. By Right Rev. P. J. Ryan, Bishop of Tricomia, and Coadjutor to the Archbishop of St. Louis. St. Louis: P. Fox, Publisher, 14 South Fifth Street. 1878. This lecture has caused no little excitement in St. Louis, where it was delivered. It grew, in part at least, out of an invitation extended to the Right Rev. Bishop Ryan, by the Rev. Dr. Snyder," Pastor of a Unitarian Church" in St. Louis, to deliver a lecture from his pulpit and to his congregation, on "The Claims of the Catholic Church," Dr. Snyder assuring the bishop of the presence of a large number of Protestants to hear the proposed lecture. The Right Reverend Bishop did not feel that it would be proper for him to occupy a Protestant pulpit, but having already promised to deliver a lecture in the Mercantile Library Hall in aid of a new building for Catholic schools, he informed Dr. Snyder of the fact, expressing a desire that he and Protestants generally would attend.

On the delivery of the lecture at least one-half of the audience were Protestants. The subject selected by the Right Reverend Bishop was, "What Catholics do not believe.' It gave him an excellent opportunity of explaining away many of the existing misapprehensions on the part of non-Catholics on many points of Catholic belief and practice.

The statement of these misapprehensions by Bishop Ryan was so clear, fair, and his counter-explanations of what Catholic belief and practice really is were so lucid and convincing that the lecture made a profound impression and became the sub

ject of very general discussion. While in form and plan the lecture is negative, that is, takes up the leading objections of Protestants to Catholicity, and shows that in almost every instance those objections are based upon either honest misunderstanding of Catholic doctrine and practice or else wilful misrepresentation, it also incidentally but forcibly sets forth the positive side of the "What Catholics do believe." question,

The plan of the lecture and the arrangement of the topics discussed are very happy. Bishop Ryan introduces his subject by showing the importance of a correct knowledge of what Catholics do believe, first to Protestants, and second to indifferentists, skeptics, and infidels. He then takes up and entirely, with great simplicity, clearness, and force, exposes the erroneousness of the preva

lent notion that to be a sincere Catholic requires an abnegation of reason. He follows this error through the various forms and shapes it assumes, and shows that in all of them it involves an utter misapprehension of the Catholic religion.

Next, the popular charge that Catholics are guilty of idolatry, in the employment of pictures, statues, etc., in the veneration of relics, the invocation of saints, and of the Blessed Virgin, are discussed in a very felicitous manner under one general head; the prevailing misapprehensions are exposed and the actual doctrine of the Church clearly set forth.

The subject of confession is then taken up, and the popular misapprehensions and misrepresentations respecting it are clearly exposed, and the true intention, nature, and influence of the sacrament of penance is set forth.

The lecture concludes with a magnificent

description of the celebration at Rome, in the Basilica of St. Peter, of the eighteen hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prince of the Apostles, ending with a most eloquent description of the power, sanctity, beauty, unity, and perpetuity of the Church.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF MARY. By Rev. 7. De Concilio, pastor of St. Michael's Church, Jersey City, author of Catholicity and Pantheism. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1878. One purpose of Father Concilio in writing this work was to furnish a sequel to his previous work on Catholicity and Pantheism. At first thought it might be supposed that the subjects of the two works have little to do with each other. But as the author briefly shows, in his preface, the one has a necessary connection with the other. A true knowledge of Mary" is the best refutation of Pantheism," the universal error of our time. For the substance of Pantheism is the absorption of the finite in the infinite, and consequently the doing away with all created agency. Mary represents created agency in its grandest, sublimest, and most magnificent expression, in all the mysteries of God relating to the creature. Mary, therefore, is the best and most convincing refutation of Pantheism, the rock against which the waves of this pernicious, this allpervading error of the times, must exhaust their force. Pretending to exalt humanity, Pantheism degrades and deprives it of everything that gives it glory. Mary, actualizing the deepest humility, exalts humanity, fulfilling the prophecy: "Thou, the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the magnificence of our people."

These thoughts furnish a clue to the author's leading motives and ideas in preparing this work. It differs from most works that have been written in English on the general subject of Mary, in that it is not devotional, meditative (if we may coin a word) in form, but theological. This fact furnishes an answer to the objection that we already have too many works upon Mary.

It would require too much space to speak in detail of the manner in which Father Concilio develops his subject. We content ourself, therefore, with simply indicating the leading divisions of the work. In an introductory chapter it is shown that God was unknown in the world before the coming of Christ; that it was impossible for man by his unaided strength to return to the knowledge and love of God; that the world owes Emanuel and Christianity along with its results to Mary. Hence, the necessity of true, accurate, solid knowledge of Mary. Then in Book First, "Mary's place in the Divine plan of the Universe" is shown;

Book Second dwells upon "The Grandeur of Mary's destiny;" Book Third sets forth "The perfections of Mary;" Book Fourth exhibits" The consequences of Mary's dignity relatively to God, to the human race, and to herself;" and Book Fifth shows Mary's merit and glory."

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The work is intended to meet an existing want, and we believe will exert an important influence in two different directions. First, in acquainting Catholics more fully with the relation in the necessity of things of Mary to the mystery of the Incarnation, and all that it comprehends in its destined results and consequences to the human race; and secondly, in informing inquiring nonCatholics of the theological reasons why Mary occupies so large and so exalted a place in Catholic devotions and worship. THE IRISH-AMERICAN ALMANAC FOR 1878. New York: Lynch, Cole & Meehan.

In addition to the ordinary tables and other matter common to almanacs and calendars, this work contains quite a large amount of reading of special interest to persons of Irish nationality, consisting chiefly of sketches of leading events and incidents in Irish history, biographies of distinguished Irishmen, with portraits of quite a number of them, etc.

WHY A CATHOLIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY? By William Giles Dix. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1878.

Mr. Dix is a convert, and knowing from his own personal experience while a Protestant the forms which error takes in this age, and the manner in which it blinds and misleads non-Catholics, he has written this work in the hope that it may be instrumental in leading others into the true Church. There is, of course, nothing new in the substance of the author's argument, but the work is nevertheless of value as a special application, in clear and forcible style, of old truths to the errors and isms in the forms they have assumed in our own time.

THE MIRROR OF TRUE WOMANHOOD. A

Book of Instruction for Women in the
World. By Rev. Bernard O'Reilly. New
York: Peter F. Collier. 1878.

This admirable work has already been the subject of such general and high commendation by the Catholic press, that a lengthy notice here is altogether unnecessary. It is sufficient to say that, avoiding the didactic form and style, the author has produced a most interesting and charming book, full of most important practical lessons, that are of inestimable value to women of every rank and station in society, married or single, young, middle-aged, or old.

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