ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



C75 



mg the decrees, warn- 



inl <>i<ler* of the Pontiff, submit themselves 

 .! ever enter, least suspi- 



.. act* are eul'j- I to the- will and impulse 

 . or any civil power. Wo cannot 

 .ablishcd bv tho'Divine 

 i'r the pood of the universal 

 ',. \Ve nro bound, on the contrary, to defend 

 veninient, iiixl o protect the rights of that 

 Mplain strongly of the sacri- 

 legious uMir|>utin of the provinces of the He' 

 as we Inve already done, and aa wo do now, re- 

 -ting to the utmost of our 



: v one know* that the bishops of the Catholic 



: ceased to defend \\iili zeal, orally 



and in r civil sovereignty, and tliat of the 



I all have proclaimed that that sov- 



'.v in tin- actual condition of the 



uflmr ill, is absolutely necessary to cstab- 



i'end tbe perfect liberty of the Roman 



V. \\lio fei-ds all the Catholic flock a liberty 



win- h is so intimately connected with all the freedom 



.ntire Church. 



-e same men fear not even to go about, crying 

 that we ought to reconcile ourselves to 

 ;liat is to say, with the enemies of our religion, 

 whi> boa.-'t themselves of having founded Italy. But 

 'i we, the appointed champions and defenders 

 of our most holy religion, and of the salutary doc- 

 I' virtue and justice, who have to watch for the 

 salvation of all, march in concert with those who, 

 !'*j holy doctrine, and refusing to 

 ;ith, keep themselves away from us 

 those who would never condescend to grant our de- 

 tires, or to meet our demands, to the effect that so 

 many dioceses, of Italy, deprived of their pastoral 

 consolation and protection, should have their 



jiS? 



Another allocution was pronounced by the 



Pope on the same day against Russia. After 



mentioning several instances of what wu con- 



! by him as individual ill-treatment prac- 



against Catholic ecclesiastics in Poland, 



the Pope continued : 



In addition, my venerable brethren, the Russian 

 promulgated decrees by which the 

 '.ie Church, its authority, its laws, and its dis- 

 cipline, are trodden under foot. By them almost all 

 the monasteries of the regular orders of both sexes 

 bare been suppressed, all their property transferred 

 public treasury, and the very small number 

 of religious communities which still exist separated 

 from the authority of their superiors ; they have been 

 'il to (lie jurisdiction of tbe ordinaries, and 

 nil the Catholic clergy, as well in Poland as in the 

 empire ot'Hussia, have been despoiled of their wealth, 

 Although belonging to the bishops, chapter*, 

 parishes, incumbents, or institutions for pious pur- 

 poses ; the revenues of these properties hav. 

 confided to the administration of the public finumial 

 -o same decrees, contrary to the 

 .1 laws, to the authority of the Hi'! 

 and to every right, anew organization of the Catholic 

 has been established, new regulations effected 

 <i>r the chapters of canons in all the dioceses, and a 

 new ili\i-ion of parishes made; the chapters of the 

 ate churches have been abolished: the au- 

 thority and liberty of the bishops destroyed, as they 

 o longer, without the consent of the secular 

 ', name any cure, administrator of a pat . 



nattier decree, the Catholic diocese of 



Kamenieky has been suppressed and taken away from 



1 > be added to the administration of that 



of Zitomir. The lawful cures of those of Sandomir 



and Cracow have been, at the caprice of the govorn- 



vnt from one parish to another, their ela- 

 tion changed and replaced by others. The edifices 



f the diocesan training-school for young priests at 

 Flock have been confiscated, and the buhop com- 

 pelled to send the ecclesiastics into the monastery 

 w hi. li belonged to the Franciscans outside tbe wall*. 

 All liberty of communication being besides refused to 

 the priests, who can no longer go more than a mile 

 from their residences, to have any communications 

 among themselves, the intercourse of the faithful 

 with tin- Apostolic See is thus interdicted and sup- 

 pressed by the Russian Government, with such se- 

 verity that we have ceased absolutely, to the great 

 grief of our soul, to be able to give the cares of our 

 Apostolic ministry to that cherished portion of the 

 Lord's flock, or to afford any succor to individual 

 siiH'erings. Would to God that the sad news which 

 has recently reached us may not be confirmed, that 

 the bishop of Chelm and the larger part of the can- 

 ons of the Cathedral have, by order of the govern- 

 ment, been transported into unknown regions 1 We 

 do not speak of the ruses, artifices, and efforts of all 

 kinds, by which the Russian government endeavors 

 to tear her sons from the bosom of the Church, and 

 to draw them with all its force toward the most fatal 

 of schisms; we say nothing of the prisons, exile, and 

 other punishments, with which the bishops and other 

 holy ministers, as well as the religious bodies, and 

 the simple faithful, have been painfully visited for 

 their firm attachment to religion, and the defence of 

 the rights of the church. All this will be more man- 

 ifestly proved in the detailed account of the facts, 

 whii'h we have ordered to be printed, and to be 

 speedily laid before you with the necessary doc- 

 uments in proof. Thus all the Catholic world will 

 become acquainted with the prolonged war which 

 the Russian government has declared against our 

 holy religion, in order to efface it entirely from tbe 

 kingdom of Poland and the empire of Russia. 



The Russian government replied to this allo- 

 cution by declaring the concordat of 1847 ab- 

 rogated. The reasons for this step were ex- 

 plained in a circular dispatch forwarded by 

 Prince Gortschakoff, together with a memoran- 

 dum, to the representatives of Russia at foreign 

 courts. The memorandum is of great length, 

 and is entitled an " Historical Summary of the 

 Acts of the Court of Rome that have brought 

 about the Rupture of Relations between the 

 Hqjy See and the Imperial Cabinet, and the 

 Abrogation of the Concordat of 1847." Prince 

 GortschakofTs dispatch is as follows: 



ST. PETERSBURG, January 7, 1867. 

 The acts of the court of Rome having rendered 

 it impossible for his majesty the emperor to con- 

 tinue diplomatic relations with the Pontifical 

 government, the necessity has resulted of abro- 

 gating the concordat of 1647, which settled the 

 relations of the Imperial Cabinet with the Holy 



The ukase of nis majesty the emperor sanc- 

 tioning this decision is known to you. This doc- 

 ument confines itself to stating the abrogation of 

 the concordat. It was not accompanied by the 

 reasons destined to explain the adoption of that 



,ie. The reserve dictated to the Imperial Cab- 

 inet by regard for the Holy See, has not been ob- 



! by the Pontifical government. It has just 

 made public a collection of documents, the idea and 



i which is intended to relieve the Holy See 

 From all responsibility, letting it rest solely upon the 

 Imperial Cabinet. By this means the collection 

 t he progress of this regrettable conflict in a 

 partial and inexact manner. By so doing the court 

 of Rome releases us from the scruples by which we 

 have been held back. It summons us to the 

 ground of debate, and even making it our duty to 

 follow it thereon. The acts of our august master d* 

 not fear the light. Hereto annexed you Kill find a- 



