Cardinal Mundelein—East Side Hero
EAST Side, N.Y., the birthplace of E Cardinal Mundelein, teems with stories of the great man. He is the local hero among the strong Catholic minority.
For instance, his prowess at the noble game of marbles is not forgotten. He was " Champ" of his own alley at the age of nine. East Skiers treasure other details of the Cardinal's youth. He was a film fan, they will tell you, and hts early devotion to the " flicks" accounted in their eyes for his life-long interest in the film industry. They can even supply the names of the Cardinal's favourite film stars—Will Rogers and Janet Gaynor.
A Poisoned Dish
UIGHER and higher rose the Cardinal's reputation in the admiration of those former neighbours of his, after the Poison Plot incident when an attempt was made at a banquet to kill the archbishop.
At another dinner two weeks later, the story goes that the Cardinal announced that he had received a letter saying that the soup bad been poisoned; he insisted on tasting the first spoonful himself.
He was loudly cheered when he announced: "It's all right'
A Courteous Request
FR. DIBSI, the writer of a consoling letter from Transjordan printed on our letter page, adds the following postscript, which tits in more suitably here.
"May I dare to ask you, Sir, to allow me to show publicly my gratitude to those kind readers who help me so much?
" May I dare, too, to ask some kind reader to send me, if possible, an anthology of English and Irish writers and poets?
"May I dare to ask them to send me monthly the Month, or the Sign, or the Weekly Review, or the Tablet, or America, or Commonweal?"
I feel sure that Fr. Dibsi's daring will be well rewarded.
General von Fritsch: Catholic Champion
TYorkshire Post reports as follows about General von Fritech, whose death in Poland caused so much speculation :
"General von Fritsch was the leading Catholic layman in Germany, and was always looked upon as the chief barrier between the Nazis and the final crushing of the Catholic Church. It is said of him that when young Germans came from the Labour Corps, having been ruthlessly Nazitied, and gave their religion as 'German Christianity ' or ' atheism, General von Fritsch would have none of it. He issued an order that in the German Army there were only two recognised religions—Catholicism and Protestantism—and recruits could choose between them.
"The removal of such an uncompromising champion of Christianity has, I hear, plunged German and Austrian Catholics into gloom."
Sisters of Charity in Poland
ASISTER OF CHARITY spoke to me the other day of the terrible losses that are likely to be inflicted on her congregation through the rape of Poland. In the days of St. Vincent de Paul himself a great many sisters went out to Poland, and to-day there are some 200 houses in that country. She described Poland as '' the mother nation of our company."
I remember being told some years ago by another Sister that their order might suffer less in times of persecution because their work was loved by the poor. Alas, I doubt whether the modern revolutionaries, who do not care two pins for the poor, would spare even these Sisters dedicated to work and poverty. Were they to work as they do for the love of Stalin or even "Humanity " they would be universal heroines. But they work for the love of God and their neighbour, in whom they see Christ.
I append a beautiful new photograph of one of these Sisters which brings
out the qualities of dedication and recollection so characteristic of these workers for God in their French eighteenthhabits.
The Cornet
THE origin of the famous cornet by which the Sisters are recognised all over the world is, I am told, as follows: When the congregation was founded the approval of the king of France was required for everything. The ordinary dress of the farmer's wife of the time was chosen, but the head-dress was left for Louis XIV's approval, The business was put before that monarch while he was heavily engaged in eating, and the king, annoyed at the interruption, threw the piece of linen of which the cap was to be made at the Sister's head. Tt stuck in the shape of the cornet. Or so it is said.
C.T.S. and War
THE Catholic Truth Society has shown most praiseworthy energy in providing reading material and religious help in time of war. Fr. Bede Jarrett's War, Loyalty, Defence is available for twopence. The views of the great Dominican Provincial will help many who are perplexed by recent writings on the conditions of a just war. Noteworthy too is the little Prayer Card of Our Lady of Czestochowa with a picture and a prayer specially writen by Fr. Martindale, to which Cardinal Hinsley has attached an indulgence of 200 days. This card is issued in conjunction with the appropriate Polish Fund and costs a penny.