Saturday, May. 19, 1923
Trends
Sister Therese, a nun of the Barefooted Order of the Carmelites, entered her convent at the age of 15, and proved herself to be a gifted poet, writer and artist. Although she died only 24 years ago, Pope Pius XI., with gorgeous ceremony, conferred upon her name last week the first degree of sanctity in the process of beatification. The elaborate pomp of the ceremony was a significant change from the simplicity with which the canonization of Jeanne d'Arc was celebrated by Pope Benedict XV. during the war.
Sagamore Hill. The American Bible Society held its 107th annual meeting at the home of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Oyster Bay. Messages from President Harding, Secretary of State Hughes and Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania were read, and an address was delivered by Churchill H. Cutting, President of the Society. He spoke of the increasing influence of the Bible, which has been translated into 55 languages, "is distributed by the thousands daily, and is undoubtedly the most influential book in the world."
Mountains. Pope Pius XI, " prisoner of the Vatican," has published an illustrated book called Climbs on Alpine Peaks. As Father Achille Ratti, librarian of the Ambrosian at Milan, the present Pope made the dangerous ascent of Monte Rosa in 1889. This journey and others are spoken of in his book, which is really a collection of papers which were read before the Italian Alpine Club. When the British party set out to climb Mt. Everest last fall the Pope gave them his pontifical blessing with a full understanding of the dangers and difficulties they were going to meet.
Poland. In 1894 the Russian government, then ruling Warsaw and Poland, erected the magnificent Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Alexander Nevski, far larger than the Catholic Cathedral of St. John. This month the Poles will start demolishing the Russian cathedral. (Poland is 76 per cent Catholic and only 3 per cent Russian Orthodox.)
Mormon Evangelists. One hundred and fifty Mormon missionaries, armed with knapsacks and printed propaganda, operating in pairs, started on a Maine to Maryland campaign to convert the East to Mormonism. They depend for food and shelter on the hospitality of house holders along their routes.
As the summer draws to a close they will gather at Palmyra, N. Y., for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Mormonism.
"Grow Old Along With Me." Rabbi Kaufman Kohler, whose 80th birthday was celebrated last week by his friends in the great Temple Bethel in New York, is an incurable optimist. He thinks that progress moves in a zigzag, and that we have reached the extreme of materialism, and are now returning to idealism. He sees the increasing influence of women as one of the signs of the times which is favorable to idealism and religion. At the age of 25 Dr. Kohler spoke on evolution and creation in the synagogue, reconciled the two, and pointed out the passage in Darwin's book where the author declares his belief in God as the creator. Dr. Kohler is President Emeritus of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. He and Rabbi Wise are to Judaism what Dr. Fosdick and Dr. Woelfkin are to Protestantism and what the Modernists were to Roman Catholicism.