NEWS FROM ABROAD

The Pope has now resumed his normal Wednesday public audiences. This week he received the British Minister in private audience.
As frown April 19 Vatican Radio will broadcast in Russian on Mondays at 6.45 p.m., Ci.M.T., CM wavelength 50.26.
The German wireless tuts Issued a denial that King Leopold has protested against the deportation of Belgian workers to Germany. The secret newspaper, La Libre Belgique, however, produced in Belgium by patriots, recently published the text of a letter sent by the King to M. Nolf, president of the Belgian Red Cross, in which he himself stated that he had sent a protest to Hitler. Moreoveo the Bishop ofjr•ige. in hie introduction to the collecti rotest of the Belgian bishops against the deportations, publicly declared : " The protests of the bishops and of the King have remained without effect," A Requiem Mass has been celebrated in the Baguinage Church at Diest, in the north-east of Brabant, for two Belgians. the brothers Taskin, who were arrested by the Germans on May 21, 1940, at Ourton, in France, and—because one of them had an English book in his pocket—were immediately shot. In spite of National-Socialist threats, a large gathering attended the religious service. A draped Belgian flag was placed in the church, and at the end of the Irfass the Belgian national anthem was played on the organ.
II is reported from Belgium by the Belgian Ministry of Information that Cardinal Van Roey, the Belgian Primate, has post published a strong denial of and a solemn protest against the lies of the German propaganda services, and those broadcast by the Bremen and Hilversum stations in particular. These stations asserted that the Cardinal had issued a pastoral letter urging reconciliation with Germany and a crusade against Communism, under his patronage.
Jacques Maritain, internationally famous Catholic author and philosopher, has been awarded the Mark Twain Gold Medal for 1943 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to modern thought, it has been announced by Cyril Clemens, president of the International Mark Twain Society. Previous recipients of the award have been President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, John Masefield, James M. Barrie and Alfred Noyes.
There will be no election to name a new Superior General of the Marist Brothers until all the provincial delegates are able to attend a meeting of the canonical chapter, it Was stated by Brother Paul Stratonique, Assistant General for Canada and the United States. The former Superior General died last year and the community is being directed by a Vicar General, Bro. Michaelis, now residing in Occupied France. near Lyons.
Plans for Catholic participation in the American "Natinnal Family Week," to be observed May 2 to 9, were made at a meeting held in Washington of the Catholic Committee on National Family Week. Those attending the meeting agreed that the matter of focusing attention in a national way on the family problems of the country was one " of much interest and concern to the Catholic body and should be made the most of."
Farther Instance of the extraordinary fervour of the present devotion to Our Lady in Italy is the fact that as the result of special leave granted to the Holy Father, Mass was continuously offered in the Holy House of Loretto from midnight on March 24 to midnight on March 25 on the Feast of the Annunciation to implore the Divine Blessing on the world in its present misery. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to Loretto on the day.