674 



KOMAN CATHOLIC CHUECH. 



heirs presumptive to two of the peerages, viz., 

 Lord Arnndel, of Ward our, an English peer, 

 and Lord French, an Irish peer, are Jesuit 

 priests ; one of the baronets is a Jesuit priest ; 

 and the heirs presumptive to two of the baron- 

 ets are Jesuit priests. In five out of the thirteen 

 dioceses into which the Catholic Church has 

 divided England, the Jesuits have established 

 seminaries for the education of priests of their 

 order. 



The negotiations of the Italian Government 

 with the Pope for obtaining a recognition of the 

 annexation of the larger portion of the Papal do- 

 minions to Italy, and a regulation of the church 

 affairs in the kingdom of Italy, led to no result. 

 The Pope deemed it his duty to defend the in- 

 tegrity of the temporal possessions of the Papacy. 

 He gave a solemn utterance of his views in an 

 allocution, delivered in November; the most 

 important portions of which were as follows : 



VENERABLE BRETHREN : More than once, venera- 

 ble brethren, exercising our apostolic office, we have 

 deplored, either in our published letters, or in divers 

 allocutions delivered in your most august assembly, 

 the affliction which has bung for a long time in Italy 

 over the affairs of our very holy religion, and the 

 very grave insults offered to us and the Holy See by 

 the sub-Alpine government. Moreover, you must 

 comprehend with what grief we are seized, now that 

 we see that government, with a passion that is in- 

 creasing every day, constantly attacking the Catholic 

 Church, its wholesome laws, and all its sacred min- 

 isters ; when we see, alas, venerable bishops, and the 

 most virtuous clergy, both secular and regular, and 

 other most excellent Catholic citizens, sent into exile 

 by that government, without the least regard for reli- 

 gion, justice, or humanity, or thrown into prison, or 

 condemned to forced residence, molested in the most 

 unworthy manner; dioceses deprived of their pas- 

 tors, to the great detriment of souls; virgins devoted 

 to God taken away from their convents, and re- 

 duced to beggary; God's temples violated; diocesan 

 schools closed against the members of the clergy ; 

 the education of Catholic youths taken out of the 

 pale of Christian discipline, and confided to the pro- 

 fessors of errors and iniquities, and the patrimony 

 of the church usurped and sold. 



That same government, in contempt of ecclesias- 

 tical censures, and without paying the least regard 

 to our most just complaints, and those of our vener- 

 able brethren, the bishops of Italy, has sanctioned 

 similar laws, totally contrary to the Catholic Church, 

 to its doctrine and its rights, and condemned by us ; 

 and it has not hesitated to promulgate a law re- 

 6pecting civil marriage, as it is called a law quite 

 contrary not only to the Catholic doctrine, but like- 

 wise to the well-being of civil society. Such a law 

 tramples under foot the dignity and sacredness 

 of marriage. It destroys it as an institution, and 

 encourages a concubinage that is perfectly scan- 

 dalous. In fact, a marriage cannot take place among 

 the faithful without there being at the same time a 

 sacrament. It belongs, therefore, exclusively to the 

 Church to decide on every thing concerning the sacra- 

 ment of marriage. 



Moreover, that government injuring in an evident 

 manner the condition of those who make public pro- 

 fession of religious vows, which have always had 

 and ahyays will have force in God's Church, and not 

 recognizing the very great advantage of the regular 

 order, which, founded by men of holiness, and ap- 

 proved by the Holy Apostolic See, have, in an espe- 

 cial manner, deserved the thanks of the Christian 

 Republic, civil and literary, by so many glorious 

 labors, and so many pious and useful works has 



not feared to sanction a law suppressing throughou 

 its entire territory all religious corporations of botk 

 sexes; it has appropriated all their property, and a 

 great deal of other property belongingto the Church, 

 and has ordered it to be divided. Before entering 

 into possession of the Venetian province it did 

 not hesitate to extend thereto the same laws, and it 

 enjoined, contrary to all law and justice, the total 

 abrogation and annihilation of the convention which 

 was come to between us and our very dear son, in 

 Jesus Christ, Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria. 



Therefore, faithful to the very serious duty of our 

 apostolic ministry, we raise anew, in your most au- 

 gust assembly, our voice on behalf of religion, of tho 

 Church, of its holy laws, the rights belonging to the 

 authority of this chair of St. Peter; atid with all our 

 strength we deplore and condemn all and each of the 

 things which, contrary to the Church, its laws, and 

 its rights, have been decreed, done, and attempted by 

 the sub-Alpine government, and by all other sub- 

 ordinate authorities ; and by our apostolic authority 

 we abrogate and proclaim null and void, and with- 

 out force or effect, all the aforesaid decree, and every 

 thing that appertains to it. 



We likewise beg their authors, who glory in the 

 name of Christians, to bear in mind, and seriously 

 to consider that they have unfortunately incurred 

 the censures and the spiritual pains inflicted by the 

 Apostolic constitution and the decrees of the general 

 councils, upon whosoever should attack the rights of 

 the Church. 



You know, venerable brethren, that certain astute 

 men oppose us, and interpret in their own sense the 

 blessings which we gave to Italy, when, assuredly 

 without any merit of our own, but, thanks to the im- 

 penetrable judgment of God ! we spontaneously pro- 

 nounced the words of pardon and peace, out of love 

 for the people of the Pontifical State. 



In truth, full of solicitude for the welfare and hap. 

 piness of the entire flock, asking, by our prayers 

 from God, the good of Italy, we besought him with 

 fervor and humility that he might deliver her from 

 the evils that afflicted her, and that the most pre- 

 cious gifts of the Catholic faith might be all power- 

 ful in Italy, and that rectitude of manners, justice, 

 charity, and all Christian virtues, might flourish there 

 more and more. Once more, to-day, we do not cease 

 to send up our most fervent prayers to God, that in 

 his goodness he would deign to remove from the 

 Catholic people of Italy the many and great calami- 

 ties of every kind which are afflicting and assailing 

 them through the fault of the governors of Italy, and 

 in consequence of a multiform persecution. But, 

 above all things, we beseech our most merciful 

 Lord to aid and fortify, by his heavenly help, the 

 people of Italy j in order that they may remain firm 

 and immutable in the Divine faith and their religion, 

 and that they may be able, with Christian fortitude, 

 to support and endure so many misfortunes and 

 evils. 



Foolish, however, are those who, on the strength 

 of this, do not cease to demand of us, already de- 

 spoiled, and with the most manifest injustice, of sev- 

 eral provinces of our Pontifical territory, that we 

 should renounce our civil sovereignty, and that of 

 the Apostolic See. Surely, every one must see how 

 unjust and prejudicial to the Church is such a de- 

 mand. By a singular arrangement of Divine Provi- 

 dence, as we have said on a former occasion, it hap- 

 poned that, the Roman empire having fallen, and 

 being divided into many kingdoms and divers states, 

 the Roman Pontiff, in the midst of such a great va- 

 riety of kingdoms, and in the actual state of human 

 society, was invested with his civil sovereignty, in 

 consequence of which, never being subject to any lay 

 power, he exercises in entire liberty supreme au- 

 thority and jurisdiction over the Church, which has 

 been divinely confided to him by our Lord Jesua 

 Christ. 



And the faithful, with full tranquillity of conscience 



