IM 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



that each one of them may take, as if spoken to him- 

 self ami to bis people, whut wo write to you. 



While we prey Divine Mercy to vouchsafe to grant 

 oar desires and our thoughts, us the presage nf celes- 

 tial succor and of nil L'II'IS from ou high, and as a 

 token of our special good-will, we accord you and 

 send you, with oil the effusion of our love, to you, 

 Venerable Urt!i.T. and to all your diocese, the 

 Apostolic Benediction. 



(iivcn at Rome, near St. Peter's, the 29th of May, 

 1878, in the twenty seventh year of our 1'ontiticate. 



Pursuing the course thus indicated, Bishop 

 Oliveira placed some of tho confraternities un- 

 der an interdict, and, on his refusing to remove 

 it, or to allow masses to be said for members 

 dying, who were also members of masonio 

 lodges, he was arrested, and at the close of the 

 year was in prison lit I.'io Janeiro, awaiting his 

 trial for felony. Tho Bishop of Pernambuco 

 was also prosecuted. Attempts were maile, 

 however, by the Brazilian Government, to set- 

 tle matters by negotiation with the Pope. 



The question of the power of bishops in the 

 Catholic Church over the priests in their dio- 

 ceses, came before the courts in Great Britain 

 and in the United States. In Ireland, the case 

 of Her. Mr. O'Keefe, of Callan, against his 

 bishop, and against Cardinal Cullou, was finally 

 decided adversely to O'Keefe; while a some- 

 what similar case at Scranton, Pennsylvania, 

 was still undecided at the close of the year. 



The influence of Catholic bishops and clergy 

 on the Irish elections led the British Govern- 

 ment to prosecute several ; but when Bishop 

 Duggan, of Clonfert, was acquitted, February 

 15th, the other prosecutions were abandoned. 



The schism among the Armenians, in tho 

 Turkish Empire, continued, and called from 

 the Pope an Encyclical letter, on tlio Oth of 

 January, 1873, reviewing the whole question. 

 But Andrew Chaldean. Patriarch of Piarbe- 

 kir, an opponent of the Vatican decrees, finally 

 submitted in 1873, and thus put an end to tho 

 schism which ho hod begun. 



Tin on in Japan was finally arrest- 

 ed, the Mikado carrying out the laws granting 

 full liberty to the Christians, and releasing the 

 survivors, who were still in prison. Of the 

 4,100 arrc-ted from 1868 to 1870, 060 hod per- 

 ished in prison. The whole number of native 

 Catholics in Japan was estimated to be from 

 13,000 to 2!,' 



In China, Father Hue, a French missionary, 

 and his cntechist, Ise Tchoiu-n, were put to 

 death by the people :it Ivicn-KiaiiL' -llion. 



The revival of piL-rima-res. continued during 

 this year, and itmncn-:' crowds of pilgrim* 

 visited the grotto of Lonrdes, Lasak-tte. I 

 le Moninl, St. Anno d'Auray, and other 

 tuaries. The movoinent extended to It;iU, but 

 the Government which hud declined to urn^t 

 of attack* on Christianity, nr- 

 pilgrim.T.. r os under various prti 

 nn 1 '..i-ilicaof St. Fram-in of Assisi. 



Aiding of tho relies of St. Philip imd St. 

 'nirch of the Holy Apostles at 

 P.oinc drew many of the devont to that church, 



but the frequenting of churches was attended 

 with Homo, risk, and the attack made on some 

 coming from the (Icsii (March ittith), in which 

 a Mr. Vansittart, an English gentleman, was 

 injured, led to sumo invotigation. To enable 

 the Catholics of Italy to join in the pilgrim- 

 ages spiritually, it' thus bodily unable, the Pope 

 on the 19th of August issued the following: 



PlDS IX., fort. To all the Faithful of Chrut to 



whom thtte PrtteaU thall come, health and Afot- 



telie Benediction. 



God, who is rich in mercy, hath so ordered it in 

 them) calaruitouH times, that while our hearts arc tilled 

 full of bitterness by reason of the wickedness of inc-ii, 

 very many of the faithful should, on the 

 hand, arise out of the great Catholic world and strive 

 to bring relief to our sorrow and affliction by nu- 

 merous proofs of their love and by their manifold 

 works of Christian piety. Among these lust are 

 surely to bi- iliose frequent and very nu- 



merously attended pilgrimages which have been 

 made to tho mnru reii'.'.v ius or saneJi;. 



with tho design that by the ottering up of prayers 

 they might obtain from the God of all consolation, 

 through tlic merits and suffrages of the in 

 and Immaculate. Virgin Mury, and of the Saints in 

 heaven, the desired peace :m<i triumph of the Church 

 a'id the liberty of the Holy Apostoli 



Hut forasmuch as certain holy pilgrimages which 

 were to have been made to the 

 sanctuaries of Italy have within these last few days 

 been prohibited, to the grief of all good men, c, 

 of the faithful of our city of Bologna have fonm -d 

 the design of inviting all Catholics to join in mak- 

 ing a pilgrimage in the month of September next ; 

 and they have proposed thut the said pilgrimage 

 should bo divided into throe decades, or peri- 

 ten days each. In the first decade the faithful are 

 to bo present in thought in the Holy Land, and at 

 the places there sanctified by Christ our Lord and 

 Redeemer, and to offer up pious prayers pro)" 

 that end; in the second decade, at the principal 



larics of Italy; and in the third, at tin 

 foreign nations. 



And fiira-imneh as the faithful above men;' 

 have earnestly besought us, that out of our Ap 

 benignity we would deign to bestow some indul- 

 gences for this pious exorcise, we, very highly 

 mending their holv and earnest design, have with a 

 willin.' Aved to grant the petitions pre- 



sented to us as below. Wherefore, confiding in tho 

 mercy of Almighty God and on the authority of his 

 blessed Apostles. "Saints Petor and Paid, we do, in 

 the accustomed form of the Church, remit to all and 

 singular tho faithful of Christ of both sexes, who 

 being . 'rite in heart, shall, on any day of 



the month of September next ensuing have 

 firmed the aforesaid pious exercise or a spiritual 

 iiilgrimngc to ho made as above set forth, three 

 hundred day of peirince enjoined them, or in any 

 other way 'duo by them. Moreover, to nil and 

 Isr the faithful of Christ of both sexes, who 

 nhall, for one entire decade, have fully rnmi 

 the same pious exercise of the aforesaid spiritual 

 pilgrimage, and who. on one day of tho siinr 

 i hem at their own dl 



tion, being truly penitent, and having conf. 

 and bring fortified with tho Holy Communion, 

 shall have devoutly visited any church or public 

 oratory, and them have offered their pious pray- 

 ers to God for the concord of Christian pi 



virpution ot altnlion of 



"Church on that decade out of 

 '] whii-h they shall have so done, we merci- 

 fully grant in the Lord a Plenarv Indulgence ami 



-ion of all their sins. All and sinizu 

 Indulgences wo allow to be applied by way of 

 suffrage as remissions of sins to the. relaxation of 



