PERMANENT SECRETARIAT FOR C.P.E.A.

Southwark Diocesan C.P.E.A. are to set up a permanent secretariat with a paid secretary and central offices.
This decision was reached at a special meeting ot the Diocesan Council in Notre Dame Convent Halt, Southwark, on Sunday last. The scheme, which has the approval. of the Archbishop Amigo, Bishop of Southwerk, calls for a guarantee of E1,000 a year—more than 000 was promised by • delegates at Sunday's meeting—to be raised by March 31. The post of secretary is to be advertised in the Catholic press and a further meeting of the Council will he held in April at which the Executive will suhmit the name of the chosen candidate together with details of the arrangements for the office accommodation, Miss Rook-Davis (Northffeet) and Mr. J. Costello (Brighton) were appointed joint secretaries for the interim period, The Catholic population oF the North-East shows a small increase for the year 1944, according to the Northern Catholic Directory for 1946, although there was a slight decrease in marriages... More than one in every ten people in the counties of Durham and Northumberland are Catholic, the number of Catholics in the Diocese of Hex. ham and Newcastle being 231,518 out of a total population of 2,242,700.