the Friars is, according to one of the Washington press letters, "to avoid steps which might be attended with some political embarrassment here." Meanwhile, it is foolish to take the newspaper cablegrams as final in this matter. The Vatican Committee has reports which even our Senatorial Investigating Committee has not considered.

Senor Buencamino.-Felipe Buencamino, who has been giving information in Washington about the Philippines, is known as "a deacon," because of his religious fervor, says the Washington Post (quoted by the Ave Maria of June 21). Having become convinced of the errors of Romanism he first became a Methodist, then a Presbyterian. A few years ago he lauded the Friars and the Spaniards to the skies, but lately was largely instrumental in drawing up the petition of the "Federal Party" to have all the religious orders, "commonly known as Augustinians, Jesuits, etc., and all other similar ones," expelled from the Philippines. "He has proven false to every cause he had sworn to defend," says the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Standard and Times (June 21). When the insurrection broke out he raised soldiers for the Spaniards; with these he deserted to Aguinaldo, who later proscribed him as a traitor. Now he says the Filipinos love Uncle Sam sincerely, and want to be all Americans, but want no Friars amongst them. The correspondent of the Standard and Times adds:

"The American civilization that the poor people are receiving is completely divorced from ethics.

"A few Federalists have made the American government believe that all the natives desire the expatriation of the Friars, and the authorities have reached the abyss of stupidity in sending nothing but Protestantism to these Catholic Islands.

"Let them continue the farce by inviting the renegade and traitor Buencamino to the White House, and let him return to us in the garb of a Methodist 'bishop.'

CUBA.

The Work Before the New Government.-It could not be expected that complete political harmony would ensue in the new Republic just emerging from beneath the sheltering folds of the Starry Flag. There have been made threats of extreme measures, some of them antireligious; but sensible Uncle Sam still holds out a helping and pacifying hand. The Church will, no doubt, be free to fight her own battle, and the people of Cuba have no hesitation in proclaiming themselves Catholics. They will need our assistance and learn from our ways.

It is reported that there are five priests in the lower house of the Cuban legislature.

A conference of charities and correction was held in Havana toward the end of March, in which many prominent persons, representing public and private works of beneficence, took part. A feature of the conference was the manifested inclination to secularize all works of charity. This is against the temper of the Cuban people, who are remarkable for the way they provide for indigent relatives, aged servants, and the afflicted.

The Church Rejoices with the Republic.-On the proclamation of the Republic, Archbishop Barnada ordered the ringing of the bells in all the churches of Havana, and the assembling of the clergy in the Cathedral for the singing of the Te Deum, President Palma and the officials of the new government being invited to attend. A prayer of thanksgiving was added in the Masses for three days, it being then changed for the prayer to the Holy Ghost, to invoke the guidance and blessing of Heaven. The Archbishop exhorted all the citizens of Cuba to sedulously unite in peace and concord.

The collection of burial fees, which was hastily forbidden for a short time by General Wood, even for cemeteries belonging exclusively to the Church, was at once allowed by him when the injustice of the order was duly represented to him by the Archbishop.

PORTO RICO.

Schools.-Several newspapers have stated that there was no school in Porto Rico before the American occupation. Spain left the Island without a school-house, without teachers, illiterate, and with a system of taxes which protected the property of the rich and burdened the labor of the poor." But our own Government Educational Reports, furnished by General Eaton two years ago, say, on the contrary, that there were 500 schools in the Island, and of an excellent character. Spain imposed no school-tax, but we exact a dollar a head from the poverty-stricken people.

ROME.

The Encyclical on the Blessed Eucharist.—On May 29, the Osservatore Romano published Pope Leo's Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist. The aged Pontiff touchingly recalls that Our Lord gave the Blessed Sacrament as His sovereign gift on the eve of His Passion; and so His Vicar wishes that his last official utterance should commend the same pledge of Love Divine. This Encyclical completes, he says, his former ones on the Divine Redeemer and the Sacred Heart. The Blessed Eucharist is the chief source of Christian life, and especially of charity, the greatest need of our modern age. Pope Leo urges upon all the faithful the practice of frequent Communion.

-The new Minister of War, General Ottolenghi, is a Jew and a "furious anti-clerical." In 1895, when the Catholics of Turin were forming associations or unions amongst the soldiers for the purpose of promoting religion and morality, Ottolenghi prohibited them, saying that he preferred to see the soldiers frequent haunts that cannot be mentioned rather than meetings over which priests presided.

-A Cabinet Minister, Signor Prinetti, has had an escapade in the form of a duel, and another was announced, but apparently has not yet come off.

A Protestant at the Pope's Mass.-(From Velhagen und Klasing's Monatshefte, May, 1902). Baron Otto von der Pforten describes his impressions while assisting at the Pope's Mass. "At his entrance into the Vatican his heart hardens' at the sight of all the splendor. In the plain chapel he with his wife seeks a rearmost pew to avoid having to kneel. But as Leo XIII, bent far forward and leaning upon two priests, enters and greets the assemblage with a mild and kindly smile, he sinks unconsciously upon his right knee. 'Before this man it causes no wrench to one's self-respect. It were well if no man had to bow before any one less worthy.' The Pope kneels down and prays. Through the breathless silence of the congregation a sound penetrates slowly, growing firmer, gaining strength as it were from the words of the prayer, the words are uttered with deepest expression of a contrite heart: mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! 'That came home to me like a personal revelation. Those words came from the inmost heart, or else everything is a lie here below. Yes, yes, nostra culpa, a voice cried within me, and my head fell forward till I could see nothing more. And then I felt something in the corners of my eyes that I had not felt there for a long, long time. I cast a sidelong glance at my wife who was kneeling by me, to see whether I was shamed before her. I saw enough. Two Protestants, who were weeping!' During the progress of the Mass he feels as though he had never heard Mass before, as if now for the first time he understood the deep meaning of its parts.

"The Pope's benediction touches him particularly, it is accompanied by an indescribably mild smile of the shining blue-grey eyes. 'If it depended on him, on this old, kind-hearted, truly pious man, there would be peace on earth.' The Baron did not take part in the audience which followed, but he saw that no one came away unconsoled; he saw in spirit how the endless procession of grief-burdened humanity passes before him who is willing to give courage and hope to all that they may bear their burdens. And he would not tire till his arms would sink nerveless to his sides; and as long as they could would these kindly lips try to speak soothing words, and these eyes consol

ing glances. The impression can never be obliterated; the Pope's Mass will remain unforgotten by the Protestant.'"'

Audience Granted by His Holiness to the Directors of Historical Institutes. At the suggestion of Professor Pastor, Director of the Austrian Historical Institute, the representatives of the foreign Historical Institutes in Rome sought an audience of the Pope to congratulate His Holiness on his jubilee. The following institutes were represented at the audience which took place on May 4: The Austrian, Belgian, French, the Görresgesellschaft, Hungarian, Prussian, English, Danish, Swedish. Bishop Fraknoi, of the Hungarian Institute, delivered a Latin address thanking the Holy Father for opening the archives and founding the Leonine library, and pointing to the 100 volumes of publications, the fruit of the labors of historians in the Vatican, labors that owed their existence to the Pope's liberality and generosity. The Pope answering in Latin, said he congratulated himself on having thrown open the Vatican archives to historical scholars, since it had led to the creation in Rome by many noble nations of such learned institutes. "It is the desire of our inmost heart," said His Holiness in conclusion, "that your diligent labors may contribute to the exaltation of the truth. For the Church rejoices in the splendor of the truth (veritatis enim splendore ecclesia gaudet) and only under the guidance of the truth does history become the teacher of life (magistra vita)."

Professor Pastor thanked the Pope for the excellent selection of officials at the archives and in the Vatican libraries, who facilitated historical studies in every way. After the addresses all the gentlemen were individually presented to the Holy Father, who said a few kind words to each one.

GERMANY.

Death of the Archbishop of Cologne.-Within five years the Catholics of Cologne have lost four Bishops. In 1897 died in Rome the banished Cardinal Melchers, in 1898 his successor, Cardinal Krementz, in 1899 the eloquent and much admired coadjutor, Bishop Schmitz, and on May 23, of this year, Archbishop Hubert Simar, after a short rule of a little more than two years. He was born in 1835, ordained in 1858, and was professor at the University of Bonn for more than thirty years. In consequence of the troubles of the Kulturkampf his appointment as ordinary professor came to him only after twenty years of University labors, in the year 1880. After the Vatican Council the University of Bonn became the hotbed of the OldCatholic sect, and while many of his colleagues, who had been regarded as "leaders in Israel" fell away, Professor Simar stood firm as a rock and became the main prop and support of the Theological

faculty. He was a voluminous writer, his chief works being a moral Theology and a much esteemed Dogmatic Theology. It was in the very heat of the Kulturkampf that the young professor, in conjunction with his friend von Hertling, founded the now famous Görresgesellschaft. How faithful he was to the Church, his University career abundantly proved; and when the storm of the Kulturkampf ceased, it was seen that he, as well as the hundreds of Catholic champions, were more loyal to their country than their persecutors. The present Emperor held him in high regard. In 1891 he was elected bishop of Paderborn, and in 1900 transferred to Cologne. His private fortune he bequeathed to the Archiepiscopal See in trust for the Theological House of Studies at the University of Bonn.

Pastoral Letter of the Bavarian Bishops.-The two Archbishops and six Bishops of Bavaria have addressed an important joint pastoral letter to the clergy of the kingdom. After speaking in noble and touching language of the Pope's jubilee, almost unexampled in the history of the Church, the Bishops point to the gloomy shadows that are overclouding these bright days. With the Holy Father they complain that powerful States, under pretense of being indifferent to all religion, persecute the only true one. In consequence, while there still is much private piety and virtue the public life of the nations becomes more and more severed from Christianity and their laws become every day more hostile to the Church. "When, therefore, the Holy Father casts a glance at our country, and particularly at our own Bavaria, he must feel consoled, for, thanks to the courage and selfsacrifice of many excellent Catholics, our holy religion is not robbed of that influence upon public and social life which enables it to fulfil its divine mission and penetrate and sanctify all conditions of life. But it is precisely this blessed influence of the Church in our country that arouses the enmity and hatred of many. They seek to throw ridicule and contempt upon our most sacred institutions; they seek to destroy the Church by transplanting into Bavaria the Austrian Los-von-Rom movement. It is a futile attempt, and cannot take us by surprise by its novelty. For since the days of the sixteenth century we are accustomed to it.

No, it is not the attacks from without that cause us alarm, but the struggles that seem to be on the eve of breaking out within the Church in our country. Not our enemies; no, with profound grief we say it-our friends, Catholics; nay, even priests, are preparing to undermine the foundation of our unity, and the obedience which so closely binds up the clergy with the episcopate, and thereby renders them invincible." After these weighty words the zealous bishops address their priests in language of grave and loving warning and instruction,