Roman Catholics and the Education Bill.—At a Meeting of the South London Catholic League, it was stated that a representative deputation had waited upon Mr. Macnamara, M.P., to obtain his views on the new Education Bill. Mr. Macnamara replied that he was not in the secret as to the provisions of Mr. M’Kenna’s measure, but the Liberal Party was resolved to stand by the principles of full popular control and no religious tests for teachers. He regretted he could hold out no hope to the Roman Catholic body of any modifications which would satisfy the claims they were making.—Morning Post.
Convent Bill Defeated.—Mr. T. L. Corbett presented his Bill on Tuesday, 25th February, to appoint Commissioners to inquire as to the need for the inspection of monastic and conventual institutions. In deference to the desire of the Speaker, expressed to him privately, Mr. Corbett intimated that he did not propose to make any speech in support of the Bill, which was absolutely identical in every clause with that submitted last Session. The House divided: Against, 151; For leave to introduce the Bill, 101; majority against, 50. The announcement of the figures was received with Nationalist (Papistical) cheers.
A Papal Legate.—An international gathering of Roman Catholics, which will be the greatest of its kind that has been held in England since the Reformation, is foreshadowed in the preparations that are being made for the Nineteenth Annual International Eucharistic Congress. The Pope has decided to send a Cardinal Legate, who will be the first Papal Legate despatched on official embassy to these shores for some hundreds of years. Most probably two or three other Cardinals will also attend, with some 200 Roman Catholic Bishops from England and all parts of the world, and a thousand clergy, drawn from the various countries, apart from laity.—Daily Telegraph.
Rome’s Numerical Strength in the United States.—We learn from our contemporary, the Boston Pilot, that, according to advance sheets of the American Roman Catholic Directory for this year, the Roman Catholic population of the United States increased during 1907 by 787,573, and now stands at 13,877,426. In the increase Roman Catholic immigrants are included, but during the twelve months the percentage of Roman Catholics who entered the States was not large. Including the natives of the Philippines, Porto Rico, and the Sandwich Islands, there are now in the territories of the United States no less than twenty-two million Roman Catholics. They form the largest religious denomination in the Republic, constituting over a third of the citizens who profess adhesion to any form of religious belief. The great Republic of the West is becoming a mighty stronghold of the Roman Catholic Church