ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



691 



power of darkness. But the hour is the last, the 

 power is quickly passing. Christ is with us, the 



Eower of God, and the wisdom of God, and the cause 

 } His. Have confidence ; He has conquered the 

 world." St. Bernard, Ep. 



Meantime, with great courage and sure faith, let 

 us follow the voice of eternal truth, which says : 

 Strive for justice, for thy soul ; and even to death 

 fight for justice, and God will overthrow thine ene- 

 mies for thee. 



Finally, venerable brethren, praying to God from 

 our heart for the richest blessings of heavenly gifts 

 on you, and on the faithful, clergy and laity, com- 

 mitted to your care, as a pledge of our especial and 

 intimate love to you and to them, we impart to you, 

 and to the same our beloved children, most lovingly, 

 the apostolic benediction. 



Given at Kome, at St. Peter's, on the 15th of May, 

 A. D. 1871, the twenty-fifth of our pontificate. 



In point of fact, the guarantees remained a 

 dead letter, and, though they provided for the 

 Pope's civil list, on the basis of that existing 

 under his sovereignty, no tender of the money, 

 or any part, was made during the year 1871. 



Pius IX. was now rapidly approaching the 

 end of the twenty-fifth year of his pontificate, 

 which was unexampled since the days of St. 

 Peter, to whom a pontificate of that length is 

 attributed. In his Encyclical Letter of June 

 4th, he summarily described the more im- 

 portant acts of his reign, and called for the 

 prayers of his flock, granting a plenary in- 

 dulgence on June 16th, the anniversary of his 

 election, and June 21st, that of his coronation. 

 The acts of his reign are thus described : 



It is most clear to you, venerable brethren, from 

 the whole tenor of what has happened, that the 

 Church militant is holding its course, tossed always 

 between combats and victories. Most surely, God 

 tempers all that takes place, and rules on this globe, 

 that is His footstool. Most surely, that He may ful- 

 fil all the counsels of His wisdom, He makes use, 

 often, of instruments weak and scorned. 



It is Jesus Christ our Lord^ the Author and 

 Highest Ruler of the Church, which He bought with 

 His own blood, who, moved also by the prayers of 

 St. Peter, the most blessed prince of the Apostles, 

 and who ever lives and governs in this See of Kome 

 for the greater glory of His name, and for the good 

 of His people has, by his free grace and strength, 

 vouchsafed to govern and uphold our weakness and 

 littleness, even to this lengthened time of our 

 apostolic calling. 



Hence it is that, leaning on His aid; and ever 

 using the counsels of our venerable brethren, the 

 cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; and, more 

 than once, calling you hither, venerable brethren, 

 who have flocked to us at Eome, adorning this see 

 of apostolic truth by the beauty of your virtue and 

 of your united devotion ; we have availed, in the 

 course of this, our pontificate, by our decree, and 

 that of the Church throughout the world, to declare, 

 by a dogmatic definition, the immaculate conception 

 of the Virgin Mother of God. 



We have, in the like manner, decreed the honor 

 of cultus as saints, to a large number of heroes of 

 the Catholic faith, by whose intercession as espe- 

 cially by that of the Mother of God we have full 

 hope that, speedily, help will be brought, in these 

 distressing times, to the Catholic Church. 



It has been, equally, to the advantage and to the 

 renown of the Catholic Church, that in far removed 

 and unfriendly regions of country, we have spread 

 the light of the true faith by Catholic missionaries, 

 and have established the order of an ecclesiastical 

 hierarchy in sundry places. 



"We have also stamped, with condemnations the 

 most solemn, prevalent errors, springing forth mark- 

 edly in our days, against human reason ; against right 

 morals ; against the civil as well as the Christian 

 commonweal. Also, God helping, we have tried to 

 put in harmony, both in Europe and in parts of 

 America, ecclesiastical and civil rights. 



In many parts of the Eastern Church^ also, which, 

 from the beginning of our apostolic ministry we have 

 held in special regard, we have taken counsel for the 

 Catholic welfare. 



Of late, also, it has been granted to us to begin, 

 and to carry forward, the (Ecumenical Council of the 

 Vatican, some of whose fruits have been received 

 to the very great profit of the Church, while others 

 have, for causes well known, been postponed by our 

 order. 



Nor, venerable brethren, have we ever failed in 

 what the duty and obligation of our civil state re- 

 quired of us. The greetings and praises that, as 

 you well remember, made an exception of the begin- 

 nings of our pontificate, were, in a short time, so 

 changed to reproaches and hostile actions that they 

 compelled us to go as an exile from this our beloved 

 city. But, so soon as, by the united care and 

 prowess of Catholic peoples and princes, we were 

 restored to this our See, forthwith we used all our 

 power to the increasing and harmonizing, for our 

 faithful subjects, of that solid and true prosperity, 

 that we have ever recognized as the most weighty of 

 the duties of our civil sovereignty. 



Then it was, however, that the greed of a neigh- 

 boring power sighed after the possession of our 

 temporal states ; preferred obstinately the whisper- 

 ings of the sects of hell to our paternal and repeated 

 admonishments and words ; and, at last, as you 

 know, surpassing far the shamelessness of that 

 prodigal son that we read of in the Gospelj has at- 

 tacked with force and arms this our very city, that 

 he coveted for himself, and now, against all right, 

 holds in his grasp, as if it were his property. It is 

 impossible, venerable brethren, that we should not 

 be vehemently moved at this wicked usurpation by 

 cause of which we are suffering. We groan within 

 ourselves, exceedingly, recognizing in this iniquity 

 the plottings that look not only to the subversion of 

 pur civil principality, but also, and together with it 

 if that were possible that of our spiritual power, and 

 the kingdom of Christ on earth, might be blotted out. 

 We groan in anguish, in view of so great evils, of 

 those, especially, by which the everlasting salvation 

 of our people is brought in danger. 



On the 7th of July he issued a bull, fixing 

 the office of St. Joseph, whom he had, on the 

 8th of December, declared patron of the 

 Catholic Church. 



On both days he received many delegations 

 congratulating him, and the foreign ambassa- 

 dors, almost all the powers felicitating him 

 either by letter or through their representa- 

 tives. Victor Emmanuel even sent an officer 

 for the purpose. 



The number of newspapers attacking reli- 

 gion and morality called forth a letter of the 

 Pope to the Cardinal Vicar, on the 30th of 

 June, warning the faithful against them. 



By his Encyclical of August 5th, the Pope 

 returned thanks for the affection manifested 

 to him by the addresses and gifts presented to 

 him. On the 27th of October, in an allocu- 

 tion, he made known his important step in 

 appointing bishops to the vacant Italian sees. 

 This was done without any consultation with 

 the government of Victor Emmanuel. Six of 

 the new bishops were consecrated on the 5th 



