Religion: Trends Apr. 12, 1926

On Ship. Catholic passengers on North German Lloyd vessels last week prayed, with content and quietude unusual aboard ship, before altars permanently built in. They knew too that Herr Direktor Adolf Stadtlander of the line had told His Holiness of this convenience for voyaging Catholic immigrants and church missions, had indicated that his was the only line so permanently equipped, had received the Apostolic blessing for the ventures of the North German Lloyd.

Bells, Coins. In Rome on Holy Saturday 3,000 bells rocked and pealed over the thousands thronging to church. These heeded the bells, yet cocked their ears for the first deep boomings of the bell of the Roman Capitol. The elders had last heard it in 1870 when the Pope was deprived of temporal powers. The younglings knew of it as a tradition. No explanation of the resumption of its ringing was given out by Church or State.

While it rang, Monsignor Seampini, parish priest of the Apostolic Palaces, was proceeding through and blessing all the rooms of the Vatican. His duties done, he appeared before His Holiness, knelt and prayed, while holy water was sprinkled. Then the Pope placed coins in the holy water, to symbolize the Church’s charity.

Swedenborgians. As everyone knows, Emanuel Swedenborg (originally Swedberg; 1688-1772) was one of the most original geniuses in history. He dealt capably and creatively with poetry, history, philosophy, art, geology, mathematics, astronomy (nebular hypothesis), crystallography, anatomy (texts on blood, brain and nerves); conceived an air-tight stove, a musical instrument, a submarine, a “mechanical carriage,” a means of testing boats by models, a dock system, an air gun, a method of hydraulics. The last 28 years of his long life he turned to speculation on the human spirit, organized a code of conduct, pictured a continuous existence for the soul.

His followers, the Swedenborgians, form a quiet, modest sect, which nevertheless sends out persistent propaganda of their faith. Last week they announced in their chief periodical, The New-Church Messenger, an appeal for $100,000 to make facile a reprinting of their master’s works—32 volumes. Clarence Walker Barron, editor of Barren’s Financial Weekly and of the Wall Street Journal, heads the funds committee, promised to get $50,000 himself, urged other church members to contribute another $50,000.

Atheists v. Chaplains. Publicity-seeking perhaps, religious conviction certainly, last week led the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism to file suit in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to prevent the Government from paying chaplains attached to the Senate and House and the Army and Navy. The chaplains have had as yet no opportunity to rebut this unexpected attack upon their long-established functionings.