ROHAN CATHOLIC CHUKOT. 



G73 



Immaculate and Most Holy Virgin Mary, and mani- 

 fested His doctrine and the rule of life brought from 

 heaven, attesting it with so many excellent works, 

 and giving Himself up as an offering for us and as a 

 victim to God in the odor of sanctity ; and, having 

 vanquished death, He, before ascending into heaven 

 to sit upon the right hand of the Father, sent His 

 apostles into the world to preach the Gospel to every 

 creature, and gave to them the power of ruling the 

 Church purchased by His own blood, and thus con- 

 stituted what is the column and firmament of truth ; 

 and, enriched by celestial treasures, shows the certain 

 path of salvation and the light of true doctrine to all 

 people. In order, then, that the government of the 

 Church should be ever maintained in a right and 

 well-ordered course, and that the whole Christian 

 world should uphold one sole faith, doctrine, charity, 

 and communion, He promised His aid unto the end 

 of time, and chose Peter, whom He had declared to 

 be Prince of the Apostles, His Vicar on earth, and 

 head, foundation, and centre of the Church, so that, 

 invested with this rank and honor, and with ampli- 

 tude of chief and full authority, power, and jurisdic- 

 tion, he should feed the sheep and the lambs, confirm 

 the brethren, rule the universal Church, and be the 

 gate-keeper of heaven, and arbiter to bind and to 

 loose ; the effect of his judgment remaining unaltered 

 in heaven (St. Leo, sermon 11). 



And that the unity and integrity of the Church 

 and her government might remain perpetually im- 

 mutable, therefore the Eoman pontiffs, successors of 

 St. Peter, sitting in this same Eoman chair of Peter, 

 inherit and possess in full vigor the very same su- 

 preme authority, jurisdiction, and primacy of Peter 

 over the whole Church. 



Hence the Eoman pontiffs, using their pastoral 

 care and authority over the whole flock of the Lord 

 divinely intrusted to them by Christ Himself in the 

 person of the blessed Peter, have spared no fatigue 

 in making every possible provision, in order that, 

 from the rising to the setting sun, all people and all 

 nations should have knowledge of the evangelical 

 doctrine, and, by walking in the way of truth and 

 justice, attain eternal life. 



It is known to all with what unwearying care the 

 Eoman Pontiffs have sought to preserve the deposit 

 of the faith, the discipline of the clergy, and the 

 holy and learned teacnings, and the sanctity and 

 dignity of matrimony, and to promote, and extend 

 the education of the youth of both sexes, to foster 

 the religion and piety of the people, and virtuous 

 manners, to defend justice, and to assure the tran- 

 quillity, order, prosperity, and rights of civil society. 

 Ixor have the Pontiffs omitted, when they have 

 deemed it useful, especially in tunes of great per- 

 turbation and calamity for our most holy religion 

 and civil society, to convoke general councils, to the 

 end that, by consulting with all the bishops of the 

 Catholic world, whom the Holy Ghost has appointed 

 to rule the Lord's Church, they might, by their uni- 

 ted strength, providentially and wisely ordain all 

 those things that would chiefly serve to define the 

 dogmas of the faith, dispel errors already propagated, 

 or that might thenceforward be propagated, illustrate 

 and elucidate doctrine, uphold and reform ecclesias- 

 tical discipline, and correct the corrupt manners of 

 peoples. 



^ It is already known and manifest to all how hor- 

 rible a tempest now agitates the Church, and what 

 grievous ills afflict civil society. The Catholic 

 Church, her salutary doctrine, her venerated power, 

 and the supreme authority of this Apostolic See, are 

 opposed and set at naught by the bitter enemies of 

 God and man. All sacred things are contemned, 

 ecclesiastical property is plundered, bishops and 

 honored men attached to the divine ministry, and 

 men distinguished for their Catholic sentiments, are 

 troubled in every way, and religious families sup- 

 pressed. Impious books of every kind, pestilent 

 journals, and multitudinous and most pernicious 

 VOL. viu. i3 A 



sects are spread abroad on all sides. The education 

 of the unhappy young is nearly everywhere with- 

 drawn from the clergy, and, what is worse, is in 

 many places confided to masters of impiety and error 



Thus, to our poignant grief, and that of all good 

 men, and with mischief to souls that can never bo 

 sufficiently deplored, impiety and corruption of man- 

 ners have everywhere propagated themselves ; and 

 there prevail an unbridled license, and a contagion 

 of depraved opinions of all kinds, and of all vices 

 and immoralities, and so great a violation of divine 

 and human laws, that not only our most holy religion, 

 but human society also, is thereby miserably dis- 

 turbed and afflicted. In the heavy accumulation of 

 calamities whereby our heart is thus oppressed, the 

 supreme pastoral charge confided to us requires that 

 we should ever increasingly exert our strength to 

 repair the ruin of the Church, to heal the souls of the 

 Lord's flock, and to repel the assaults and fatal at- 

 tempts of those who try to uproot from their founda- 

 tion, if that were possible, both the Church and civil 

 society. And truly, by the help of God, from ibe 

 commencement of our Pontificate, we, conscious of 

 our solemn obligation, have never ceased to raise our 

 voice in our consistorial allocutions and apostolic let- 

 ters, and to defend constantly by every effort the 

 cause of God and His holy Church, confided unto us 

 by the Lord Christ, to uphold the rights of this 

 Apostolic See. and of justice and truth, and to un- 

 mask the insidious devices of its enemies, to con- 

 demn errors and false doctrines, to proscribe impious- 

 sects, and to watch over and provide for the salvation 

 of all the Lord's flock. And following the practice 

 of our illustrious predecessors, we have deemed it 

 opportune to assemble a General Council, which we 

 have already long desired, of all our venerable breth- 

 ren, the bishops of the whole Catholic world, who 

 are now called to take part in our solicitude. These 

 our venerable brethren, prompted by the warmest 

 love for our Catholic Church, and remarkable for 

 eminent piety, and for reverence toward us and this 

 Apostolic See, anxious also for the salvation of spula 

 and excellent in wisdom ; in doctrine, and erudition-, 

 and greatly lamenting with us the grievous condition 

 of sacred and profane things, they will hold nothing- 

 more precious than to communicate to us their judg- 

 ment, and confer with us in order to provide salutary 

 remedies for so many calamities. 



All these things have to be most carefully examined 

 and regulated in this (Ecumenical Council, more par- 

 ticularly with regard to all that in these evil tunes 

 concerns the greatest glory f God, the integrity of 

 the faith, the respect for divine worship, and the 

 eternal salvation of men, the discipline of the orders 

 of the clergy, and their solid and salutary training, 

 the observance of ecclesiastical laws, the amelioration 

 of manners, the education of Christian youth, and 

 the peace and concord of all. And further, the 

 Council must seek by anxious study that, by the help 

 of God, all ills may be removed from civil society, 

 that erring wanderers may be led back into the right 

 way of truth, and that vice and error may be elim- 

 inated, our august religion and her salutary doctrine 

 may everywhere be quickened by fresh life, and may 

 still further extend their influence, and thus piety, 

 honesty, probity, justice, charity, and all the Chris- 

 tian virtues may gather strength and flourish, to the 

 great benefit of human society. None can ever deny 

 that the strength of the Catholic Church and her 

 doctrine does not alone regard the eternal salvation 

 of men, but is essential also to the temporal welfare 

 of peoples, and to their real prosperity, order, and 

 tranquillity, and even to the progress and solidity of 

 human science, as the annals of sacred and profane 

 history clearly prove, by a series of splendid facts v 

 and still constantly demonstrate. 



And since Christ the Lord so greatly consoles- and 

 comforts us with those words, " For when two or 

 three are gathered together in my name, there I am- 

 in the midst of them," we cannot doubt that, in tha- 



