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 NEW POMERANIA

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NEW POMERANIA

gation of the Faith, which traces its origin to Bishop Dubourg of Louisiana, the Society of the Holy Child- hood, and the Priests' Eucharistic League. ReHgious life in the diocese is regular and characterized by strict discipline and earnest spirituality. Monthly confer- ences are held and ecclesiastical conferences three times a year.

The religious communities in the diocese are: (1) Male: Benedictines, Fathers and Brothers of the Holy Cross, Dominicans, Jesuits, Josephites, Lazarists, Marists, Redemptorists, and Brothers of the Sacred Heart; (2) Female: Sisters of St. Benedict, French Benedictine Sisters, Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Sis- ters of Mount Carmel, Poor Clares, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Sisters of Christian Charity, Sisters of Divine Providence, Dominican Sisters, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sis- ters of the Holy Family, Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, Sisters of St. Joseph, Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross, Sisters of Mercy, School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Ursu- line Sisters, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacra- ment. Coloured Catholics: The works in behalf of the coloured race began in the earliest days in Louisiana, when the Jesuits devoted themselves especially to the care of the Indians and negroes. After the expulsion of the Jesuits the King of Spain ordered that a chap- lain for negroes be placed on every plantation. Al- though this was impossible owing to the scarcity of priests, the greatest interest was taken in the evan- gelization of negroes and winning them from super- stitious practices. The work of zealous Catholic masters and mistresses bore fruit in many ways, and there remains to-day in New Orleans, despite the losses to the Faith occasioned by the Civil War and during the Reconstruction Period when hordes of Protestant missionaries from the north flocked into Louisiana with millions of dollars to proselytize the race, a strong and sturdy Catholic element among the coloured people from which much is hoped. The Sis- ters of the Holy Family, a diocesan coloured order of religious, have accompUshed much good. In addition to their academy and orphanages for girls and boys and homes for the coloured aged poor of both sexes, located in New Orleans, they have a novitiate and conduct an academy in the cathedral parish and schools in the parishes of St. Maurice, St. Louis, Mater Dolorosa, St. Dominic, and St. Catherine in New Or- leans, and schools and asylums in Madisonville, Don- aldsonville, Opelusas, Baton Rouge, Mandevilles, Lafayette, and Palmetto, Louisiana. Schools for coloured children are also conducted by the following white religious orders: Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Sisters of Mercy, Mount Carmel Sisters, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of St. Joseph. Six coloured schools in charge of lay Catholic teachers in vari- ous parishes, St. Catherine's church in charge of the Lazarist Fathers, and St. Dominic's in charge of the Josephite Fathers in New Orleans are especially es- tablished for Catholic negroes.

Archives of the Diocese of New Orleans: Archives of the St. Louis Cathedral: She.i, The Cath. Church in Colonial Days (New York, 1886) ; Idem, Life and Times of Archbishop Carrol (New York, 1888) ; Idem, Hist, of the Cath. Church in the U. S.. 1808-85 (2 vols., New York. I'S'W; r;M\RHE, Hist, de la Louisiane (2 vols.. New Orleans, !Mt' 7 : * ii wu.evoix. Journal d'un Voyage dans I'Amiriqu. > \I (Paris, 1744); DE LA Harpe, Jourrea/

Hist, de /'/-'' ' '"■ d^s Francais d la Louisiane (New Or- leans, 1831) . Ki:-u. .v.. ,u ,le Bienville (New York, 1893) ; DlMlTHT, Hist, of Louisiana (New York, 1892); Dumont. Memoires Histor. sur la Louisiane (Paris. 1753); Le Page dh Pr.itz, Hist, de la L. (3 vols., Paris, 1758); Fobtieb, L. Studies (New Orleans, 1894); Idem, Hist, of L. (4 vols., New York, 1894); Martin, Hist, of L. from the earliest Period (1727) ; King and Ficklen, Hist, of L. (New Orleans. 1900) ; Archives of the Ursuline Convent, New Or- leans, Diary of Sister Madeleine Hachard (New Orleans. 1727-65); Letters of Sister M. H. (1727) ; Archives of Churches. Diocese of New Orleans (1722-1909); Le Propagateur Catholique (New Or- leans), files; The Morning Star {New Orleans, 1868-1909), files; Le MoniteuT de La Louisiane (New Orleans, 1794-1803), files;

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French and Spanish manuscripts in archives of Louisiana His- torical Society; Chambon, In and Around the Old St. Louis Cathe- dral (New Orleans, 1908); The Picayune (New Orleans, 1837- 1909), files; Camille de Rochementeix, Les Jisuites et la Nou- velle France au X VHP Siecle (Paris, 1906) ; Castellanos, New Orleans as it Was (New Orleans, 1905); Member op the Order OF Mercy, Essays Educational and Historic (New York. 1899); LoW'ENSTEiN, Hist, of the St. Louis Cathedral of New Orleans (1882): Member op the Order of Mercy, Cath. Hist, of Ala- bama and the Floridas: Centenaire du Pkre Antoine (New Orleans, 1885); Hardey. Religious of the Sacred Heart (New York, 1910).

Marie Louise Points.

New Pomerania, Vicariate Apostolic op. — New Pomerania, the largest island of the Bismarck Archi- pelago, is separated from New Guinea by Dampier Strait, and extends from 148° to 152° E. long, and from 4° to 7° S. lat. It is about 348 miles long, from 12 1/^ to 925^ miles broad, and has an area of 9650 sq. miles. Two geographical regions are distinguishable. Of the north-eastern section (known as the Gazelle Peninsula) a great portion is occupied by wooded mountain chains; otherwise (especially about Blanche Bay) the soil is very fertile and admirably watered by rivers (e. g. the Toriu and Kerawat), which yield an abundance of fish. The white population is practi- cally confined to the northern part of this section, in which the capital, Herbertshohe, is situated. The western and larger section also has extensive mountain chains, which contain numerous active volcanoes. The warlike natin-e of the natives, who fiercely resent as an intrusion every attempt to land, has left us al- most entirely ignorant of the interior.

The natives are finely built, coffee brown in colour, have regular features, and, when well cared for as at the mission stations, approach the European stand- ard, though their lips are somewhat thick and the mouth half or wide open. While resembling the south- eastern Papuan, they use weapons unknown to the latter — e. g. the sling, in the use of which they possess marvellous dexterity, skilfully inserting the stone with the toes. They occupy few towns owing to the con- stant feuds raging among them. One of their strang- est institutions is their money (dewarra), composed of small cowrie shells threaded on a piece of cane. The difficulty of procuring these shells, which are found only in very deep water, accounts for the value set on them. The unit is usually a fathom (the length of both arms extended) of dewarra. The tribes have no chiefs; an individual's importance varies according to the amount of dewarra he possesses, but the final de- cision for peace or war rests with the tribe. This en- tire absence of authority among the natives is a great obstacle in the way of government. The natives are very superstitious: a demon resides in each volcano, and marks his displeasure by sending forth fire against the people. To propitiate the evil spirits, a piece of dewarra is always placed in the grave with the corpse. The celebrated "institution of the Duk-Duk is simply a piece of imposture, by which the older natives play upon the superstitions of the younger to secure the food they can no longer earn. This "spirit" (a na- tive adorned with a huge mask) arrives regularly in a boat at night with the new moon, and receives the offerings of the natives. The standard of morality among the natives of New Pomerania is high com- pared with that observed in New Mecklenburg (the other large island of the Bismarck Archipelago), where the laxity of morals, especially race suicide and the scant respect shown for marriage, seems destined rapidly to annihilate the population. In Nov., 1884, Germany proclaimed its protectorate over the New Britain Archipelago; New Britain and New Ireland were given the names of Neupommern and Neumeck- lenburg, and the whole group was renamed the Bis- marck Archipelago. The great obstacle to the devel- opment of the islands is their poisonous climate, neither native nor European being immune from the ravages of fever. The native population is estimated at about 190,000; the foreign population (1909) at 773