Popery in Holland.—According to The Universe, fourteen Catholic daily papers, thirty-three bi-weekly, and seventy-one weeklies are published in Holland, while its monthly Catholic publications number forty-nine. This is a truly remarkable number for so small and so Protestant a country. The editor bemoans the fact that in England not a single Catholic paper is issued, which fact “does little credit to our reading public in an age of progress.”—Vanguard.
Pius X.’s Pontificate.—By the strangest of ironies, in spite of his goodness and humility, the Pontiff whom popular favour had so affectionately acclaimed, has become within four years the most unpopular of Popes. From one end to the other of the peninsula anti-clerical manifestations break out and cannot be repressed. All the younger priests are weary of seeing the Church become the refuge of those who are afraid—afraid of science, afraid of democracy. The Vatican need not go far to note the rapid change that has taken place in public opinion. It can see for itself what is happening even in Rome. The overthrow of the clerical party at the municipal elections, the unprecedented keenness with which the citizens of Rome went to the ballot boxes, the unanimity with which even the clients of the Vatican voted the anti-Papal list, would constitute a singularly eloquent lesson, if lessons could be addressed to a power which has none to receive. Pius X. meanwhile will continue to wage war against those who have the misfortune not to share his political ideas, he will declare them rebels to the Church, and launch against them the most solemn denunciations. But all these outbursts have been without effect, or the only effect they have had has been to weaken the sense of authority.—Times.
Los Von Rome in Canadà.—Pastor A. L. Therrien, the minister of the French Baptist Church of Montreal, says concerning the great breaking away from Romanism in all Roman Catholic countries:—“Signs of a movement Los Von Rome in the Province of Quebec appear on the horizon. Much discontent is manifested in various places, especially among the priesthood. Every now and then we hear of priests who long to break the bonds that hold them chained to the old system in which they no longer believe. Two such cases have come to our knowledge again recently. But how hard it is for those poor slaves to break loose from the old moorings. They have been so moulded that they are fit, most of them, for no other occupation, save that which they now follow, by mere routine, against their convictions. May the Lord break their bonds, and bring them like the Normandéans, . . . . . the Chiniquys, . . . . . and other priests, who here, in ‘dark Quebec,’ have had courage to come out and take their stand boldly on the side of truth.”