ITALY. 



413 



. those crrK'sinstir* re.sidin:; in 



' ,-\.-IIIMOM in their 



f tli-- council. 'I'll.- 



11 in reply bears date No- 



l, !!..u.-: 



: : I h iv i- only to-day received tlic letter 

 Mress to me 

 . l.'.th institnt, on the 

 ul>jc .'II of the bishops to their sees. 



My agreeable to me from the 



.isons fur which your lordships approve 



,1 in which" I am happy to concur 



\\itli 1:1 the request that the permission 



scs conceded to the bishops 



'f October 22d, should be also 



J-liMps residing at Rome, thus do- 



will and reverence toward the 



.mil tin- laws under whose shadow you 



1 rcjou-e that I anticipated your wishes in this mat- 

 ed your sentiments aright, bv de- 

 MO ilay as that on which your letter 

 was disp.itchi-il, that the -exception complained of 

 should he removed. Of this I believe your lord- 

 \> ill already have had full and official cogni- 



The decision adopted by the government arises, as 

 vour lordships state, from the desire that perfect 

 liberty in the relations between church ana state 

 should pass from the abstract region of principle in 

 whioh it hau hitherto remained into the reality of 

 fact. 



The government, therefore, no less earnestly than 

 vour lord-hip.*, desires that Italy may very soon en- 

 magnincent and imposing religious spectacle 

 now afforded to the free citizens of the United States 

 of America by the national council of Baltimore, 

 i:i religious doctrines are freely discussed, and 

 whose . approved by the Pope, will be pro- 



it. -d in every town and village with- 

 . 



I then-Core I >(.<; your lordships to consider that it 

 ; ty which has produced this admirable specta- 

 cle liberty, professed and respected by all, in prin- 

 ciple and in fact, in its amplest application to civil, 

 political, and social life. In the United States every 

 citizen is free to follow the persuasion that he may 

 think best, and to worship the Divinity in the form 

 that may seem to him most appropriate. Side by side 

 with the Catholic church rises the Protestant temple, 

 ' .issulman mosque, the Chinese pagoda. Side 

 by side with the Komish clergy the Genevan consis- 

 ..;!.! the Methodist assembly exchange their 

 ThU sta'.e of things generates neither confu- 

 sion nor clashing. And why is this? Because no 

 iier special protection or privileges 

 ! '. ich fives, develops, and is followed 

 under the protection of the common law; and the 

 law, equally respected by all, guarantees to all an 

 equal lihei ty. 



The Italian Government wishes to demonstrate as 

 possible that it has faith in liberty, and is de- 

 sirous of applying it to the greatest extent compati- 

 ble with the interests of public order. 



It therefore calls upon the bishops to return to 



their sees whence they were removed by those very 



motives of public order. It makes no conditions save 



tii- <>ne incumbent upon every citizen who desires 



to live peaceably namely, that he should confine 



:' to In* own duty, and observe the laws. The 



stato will insure that ho be neither disturbed nor 



-.1; but let. Km not demand privileges if ho 



- no bonds. The principle of every free state 



that the law i.s equal for all admits of no distinction 



of any kind. 



Th<- government would be glad to cast off all sus- 



. and abandon every precaution ; and if it does 



uot now wholly act up to" this wi#h, it U because the 



principle of liberty which it hu adopted, and put 

 into practice, is not equally adopted and practised 

 |.\ ft 



your lordships remark the difference between 

 the condition of the church in America, and the con- 

 dition of the church in Kurope. 



In those virgin regions the church ? ^tnblinhed 

 amid a new society, but which carried with it from 

 the mother country all the elements of civil life, 

 lli-prcscnting the purest and most sacred of the so- 

 cial elements, the religious feeling which sanctions 

 right and sanctifies duty, and carries human aspira- 

 tions far above all earthy things, the church has 

 there sought only the empire pleasing to God the 

 empire of souls. Companion of liberty, the church 

 has grown beneath its shelter, and has found all 

 that sufficed for free development, and the tran- 

 quil and fecund exercise of its ministry. It has never 

 sought to deny to others the liberty which it enjoyed, 

 nor to turn to its exclusive advantage the institutions 

 which protected it. 



In Europe, on the other hand, the church arose 

 with the decadence of the great empire that had sub- 

 jugated the earth. It became constituted amid the 

 political and social cataclysms of the barbarous 

 ages, and was compelled to form an organization 

 strong enough to resist the shipwreck of all civi- 

 lization amid the rising flood of brute force an.l 

 violence. 



But while the world, emerging from the chaos of 

 the middle ages, reentered the path ->f progress 

 marked out by God, the church impressed upon all 

 having any relation with it the immobility of the 

 dogma intrusted to its guardianship. It viewed with 

 suspicion the growth or intelligence and multiplica- 

 tion of social forces, and declared itself the enemy 

 of all liberty, denying the first and most incontesta- 

 ble of all, the liberty of conscience. 



Hence arose the conflict between the ecclesiastical 

 and civil power, since the former represented sub- 

 jection and immobility, and the latter liberty ami 

 progress. 



The conflict, from peculiar circumstances, has 

 greater proportions in Italy, because the church, 

 thinking that a kingdom was necessary to the inde- 

 pendent exercise of its spiritual ministry, founded 

 that kingdon in Italy. The ecclesiastical power, from 

 the same reason, is here in contradiction, not only 

 with the civil power, but national right. 



From these causes originated the distrust and 

 precaution described in my circular, which pro- 

 voked your censure, but which were only dictated 

 by necessity. 



The bishops cannot be considered among us as 

 simple pastors of souls, since they are, at the same 

 time, the instruments and defenders of a power at 

 variance with the national aspirations. The civil 

 power is, therefore, constrained to impose those 

 measures upon the bishops which are necessary to 

 preserve its rights and those of the nation. 



How is it possible to terminate this deplorable and 

 perilous conflict between the two powers between 

 church and state? 



Liberty can alone bring us to that happy state of 

 things which your lordships consider so enviable in 

 America. Let us "render unto Caesar the thinks 

 that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are 

 God's," and peace between church and state will 

 be troubled no more. 



I desired to pay deference to these principles in 

 removing the prohibition to the return ot'the bishops, 

 and their residence in their sees. I believe that lib- 

 erty is good in profession and practice, and. further, 

 that it has the virtue of converting those who aro 

 called to enioy its benefits. 



I trust that your lordships, returning to your 

 dioceses with the sincere sentiment of respect for 

 the law expressed in your letter, among a people 

 who wish to remain Catholic without relinquishinc 

 the rights rind aspirations of the nation to which 



