The King and the Prohibited Procession of the “Host.”
—A few days ago the Secretary of the Metropolitan Workmen’s Council wrote to the King asking if the statement was true that his Majesty sent a message to the Prime Minister suggesting that the Eucharistic Procession should be stopped, it being an infringement of his Majesty’s Royal prerogative, and that by command Mr. Asquith sent the letter to “Archbishop” Bourne to that effect. In reply, the following letter has been received by the Council:—”Buckingham Palace, 2nd November, 1908.—Sir, —I am commanded by the King to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo, and to inform you, in reply, that, in accordance with Constitutional usage, the King never interferes with processions in London or elsewhere, and there is no truth in the statement to which you refer, that his Majesty intervened in regard to the one in question.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, KNOLLYS.”—English Churchman.
Ireland and Roman Catholicism.
—Dr. Prenter, ex-Moderator of the Irish Presbyterian Church, speaking at the annual meeting of the Scottish Association for Irish Missions, held in Edinburgh, on the 4th November, said:—”The general Roman Catholic population of Ireland had decreased by 50 per cent. during the last fifty years, while the number of priests, monks, and nuns had increased during the same period 137 per cent. Ireland was fast becoming a factory for Romish ecclesiastics, and, if Evangelical Christians wished to win, they would have to cut off those supplies. Ireland was the Waterloo of Romanism and Protestantism, and if they won in Ireland they won all along the line.”
Pope John XXIII.
—In the official organ of the Catholic Truth Society, Catholic Book Notes, for April, 1907, appears a review of a collection of Essays by Roman Catholic priests. Father W. H. Cologan, Secretary of the Society, is the author of one of the essays. He tells us that Pope John XXIII. “had been a pirate in the pay of Charles of Durazzo.” The priest describes “His Holiness” as “worldly, self-seeking, lawless, passionate, irreligious, lewd. It is indeed wondrous that a council of priests and theologians and princes should have pitched upon such a man to heal the wounds of Christendom. Pirate he was, and pirate he remained to the end.”—Protestant Woman.