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KOMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



with alms, the benefits of which, are shown to be BO 

 numerous in Holy Scripture ; and that the fruit of 

 love may be greater and more lasting, shall be very 

 opportune if the funds supplied by charity are di- 

 rected to aid or establish those pious institutions 

 which at the present time are considered most con- 

 ducive to the well-being of souls and bodies. If to 

 obtain these benefits your minds and efforts are 

 united, it cannot fail but that the kingdom of Christ 

 and His righteousness shall receive great increase, 

 and that in this acceptable time and in these days of 

 salvation the divine clemency shall pour upon the 

 sons of love a great abundance of heavenly gifts. 



To you, finally, all ye sons of the Catholic Church, 

 we direct our discourse, and you, each and all, we 

 exhort with paternal affection so to make use of this 

 opportunity of the Jubilee to obtain pardon as the 

 sincere pursuit of your salvation requires of you. If 

 at all times it is necessary now more especially is it 

 so most beloved sons, to cleanse the conscience 

 from dead works, to offer the sacrifices of righteous- 

 ness, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance and. 

 to sow in tears that you may reap in joy. The Di- 

 vine Majesty sufficiently shows what he requires 

 from us, while now, for a long time, through our de- 

 pravity, we are laboring under His threatenings and 

 under the inspiration of the spirit of His anger. In 

 truth, " men are accustomed when they are suffering 

 under a too hard necessity, to send embassadors to 

 neighboring nations to receive some aid. We, as is 

 better, send an embassy to God himself; " from Him 

 we implore aid, to Him we turn with all our hearts, 

 with prayers, and fastings, and alms. For, " the 

 nearer we are to God the further shall our enemies 

 be driven from us" (S. Maxim., Horn. xci.). But 

 do ye chiefly hear the apostolic voice because we are 

 embassadors of Christ. Ye who labor and are heavy 

 laden, and who, departing from the path of salva- 

 tion, are oppressed by the yoke of depraved desires, 

 and by the slavery of the devil, do not despise the 

 riches of the goodness and patience and long-suffer- 

 ing of God, and while there is opened out before you 

 so easy and broad a way for the obtaining of par- 

 don, do not, by your obstinacy, render yourselves 

 inexcusable before the Divine Judge, and lay up for 

 yourselves a treasure of wrath in the day of wrath, 

 and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. 

 Return, therefore, sinners, be reconciled to God ; the 

 world passeth away, and the lust thereof; cast off 

 the works of darkness, put on the armor of light ; 

 cease to be the enemies of your own souls, so that 

 you may at the last merit peace in this world, and in 

 the world to come the eternal rewards of the just. 

 These are our desires, these things we will not cease 

 to ask from the most merciful Lord ; and these same 

 benefits all the sons of the Catholic Church being 

 united to us in this society of prayer we trust we 

 can obtain accumulatively from the Father of Mer- 

 cies. Meanwhile, for the successful and salutary 

 fruit of this holy work, let the auspicious omen of all 

 grace and heavenly gift be the apostolic benediction, 

 which from our inmost heart we affectionately grant 

 in the Lord to you all, venerable brethren, and to 

 you beloved children, aa many as are numbered 

 within the Catholic Church. 



Given in Rome, near St. Peter's, the 24th of De- 

 cember, of the year 1874, and twenty-ninth of our 

 pontificate. POPE PIUS IX. 



A document purporting to be a brief of 

 Pius IX., regulating the next papal election, 

 was issued in Germany, but proved to be spu- 

 rious, and was disavowed at Rome. The ques- 

 tion of the coming election was, however, 

 taken up by the German Government in its re- 

 lations with that of Italy. During the year 

 the Pope, in answer to various delegations, 

 pronounced a number of allocutions, all bear- 

 ing on the actual condition of the Church in 



Italy and throughout the world. On the IVth 

 of June, in reply to an address from Cardinal 

 Patrizi, Dean of the Sacred College, on the 

 occasion of the twenty-ninth anniversary of 

 his election, Pius IX. delivered the following 

 allocution, bearing on attempts made to bring 

 about terms between the Holy See and the 

 Italian Government : 



As afflictions grow greater, as contradictions and 

 the infernal rage against the Church of Jesus Christ 

 and against the Holy See increase, so also there in- 

 crease in this Sacred College its firmness and con- 

 stancy in sustaining the rights of the Spouse of Je- 

 sus Christ and the seat of His Vicar. The words 

 spoken by his Eminence, the Cardinal Dean, prove 

 that with the growth of evil there corresponds the 

 growth of your efforts and of your labors to combat 

 it. And it should be S0j because it is your duty to 

 share with me in the administration and the govern- 

 ment of the universal Church. In fact, at this mo- 

 ment, while the Church is so maltreated and perse- 

 cuted, we see flowing to Rome demands for instruc- 

 tion, for counsel, and for decisions. The congrega- 

 tions are more frequented, and it appears that the 

 Catholic world more than ever has its eyes fixed 

 upon the centre of unity and this chair of truth, that 

 it may receive from it light to guide it in the midst 

 of the terrible storms that agitate it. And, since it 

 has pleased God to permit me to begin the twenty- 

 ninth year of my pontificate, this occasion appears 

 to me opportune to renew certain acts which cannot 

 long be neglected, so as not to lead into error men 

 of good faith, and not to give any pretext to the 

 enemy to offer in opposition customs and prescrip- 

 ' tions. Then, in the presence of this august assem- 

 bly which surrounds me, I repeat the most solemn 

 protests against the usurpation of the temporal do- 

 minions of the Holy See, against the spoliation of 

 the religious orders, and, in fine, against all the sac- 

 rilegious acts committed by the enemies of the 

 Church of Jesus Christ. In renewing these protesta- 

 tions I have, besides, a motive suggested by an ex- 

 traordinary circumstance. A little time ago some 

 people addressed me, as well visa voce as by writing, 

 certain desires tending to establish a rapprochement 

 between us and the new-comers. The last letter, 

 which is still upon my table, is written with much 

 calmness and respect. They tell me in it that, being 

 the Vicar of a God of peace, I ought to pardon all 

 the enemies of the Church, and remove the excom- 

 munications with which I have loaded their con- 

 sciences. 



And observe here that the revolutionaries are of 

 two kinds one has imagined and brought to its 

 term the revolution ; the other has adhered to it 

 while dreaming of happiness, of progress, and of 

 some unknown earthly paradise, without seeing that 

 they would reap tribulations, torments, and a thou- 

 sand miseries. The first, obstinate in their hearts, 

 are the Pharaohs of our age ; hard as the millstone ; 

 an act of the greatest goodness would not soften 

 them. The second (to whom belong those who 

 speak to me in a low voice and who write to me with 

 sentiments of moderation), seeing that the earthly 

 paradise has vanished, that to wealth, to riches, to 

 the prosperity of which they dreamed, there has suc- 

 ceeded a deluge of evils, with taxes and enormous 

 oppressions, experience stings of conscience for hav- 

 ing cooperated in producing this state of things, and 

 they appeal to my u sentiments of peace." But 

 what peace can I have with them ? They experience 

 stings ! And for what good ? Saul experienced 

 them also when, wounded to death, and to be deliv- 

 ered from them, he prayed the Amalekite soldier to 

 kill him. " Stand over me and slay me, since dis- 

 tress overwhelms me." And the_ soldier dared _to 

 kill him, and took away from him that little life 

 which remained to him, for which he was mortally 



