ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



761 



was developed in a synodal letter, Au trust 1 1th. 

 It was organi/ed with Monsignor Capel as 

 r, ami :i hirulty numbering Hovcral distin- 

 }.'iii-li.-.l in. ii. 'I'ho agitations relating to the 

 Catholic riiiuvh mi the- Continent were felt in 

 England. Lord John Kussell wrote to tl 



i.f ( lei-many, sympathizing warmly with 

 tho Fjilk laws, and in his reply tho Kraperor 

 appealed fur tho moral support of England. At 

 a later date (i!n!>t"ii.-, in a very skillful pam- 

 phlet, attacked tho Vatican Decrees as making 

 loyalty to tho state impossihlo for a Catholic-. 

 irew replies from Archbishop Manning, 

 I >r. N. \\ iiuiii, Capel, and others, to all of whom 

 lie replied in a second pamphlet. The discus- 

 sion was read by thousands in England and 

 America, showing a general interest in the posi- 

 tion of Catholics and their relation to the state. 



1 n the East there were also troubles. Among 

 the United Armenians in the Turkish Empire, 

 a party arose similar to the Old Catholics. The 

 Turkish Government sided with them, and ad- 

 judged to them all the churches of the Arme- 

 nian Catholics. In 1866 Hassoun, Patriarch of 

 Constantinople, was elected also Patriarch of 

 Cilieia, uniting in his person the two patriarch- 

 ates of the empire ; and the Pope, by a bull 

 Keversurus, extended to Cilicia the electoral 

 system of Constantinople. During the Vatican 

 Council and the absence of Ilassoun in attend- 

 ance upon it, Ohan Kupelian was elected patri- 

 arch by some discontented Armenians. He was 

 recognized by the Porte, which exiled Patriarch 

 Hassoun in 1872. The delivery of the Ca- 

 thedral of Trebizond, and the Church of St. 

 Saviour, June 20, 1874, to the adherents of 

 Kupelian, only 2,000 out of 100,000, called put 

 a protest from the French, Russian, English, 

 Austrian, American, and Italian embassadors, 

 but the Turkish Government did not recede. 



Remarkable progress isclaimed for the Roman 

 Catholic Church in India, especially in Ceylon; 

 but in the Empire of Anam a terrible persecu- 

 tion took place. On the 24th of February an 

 army attacked the Christian villages of Trun- 

 lam, Movink, Bantach, and a multitude of 

 others, burning the villages and massacring 

 most of the people. Three priests and twenty 

 missionary students were slain, 800 villages 

 ravaged, 70,000 Christians dispersed, slain on 

 the spot, or subsequently beheaded or forced to 

 seek refuge in the mountains, where many per- 

 ished. Two hundred churches and ten con- 

 vents were destroyed, the total loss of the An- 

 amite Christians amounting to $3,000,000. 



In America the revival of pilgrimages in 

 Europe led to an American pilgrimage to Lour- 

 des and Rome, which sailed from New York in 

 May. A Provincial Council was held at San 

 Francisco April 26th, and the bishops of the 

 province addressed a letter of sympathy to 

 Archbishop Ledochowski. A local pilgrimage 

 was made to Whitemarsli, in Maryland, long a 

 place of devotion. The position of Catholics in 

 public schools and public institutions was agi- 

 tated in several parts. At Rochester, >. V., 



the authorities of tho Western House of Refuge, 

 November 29th, on the ad vice of learned coun- 

 sel, decided that Catholic inmates should be 

 free to attend tho worship and religious instruc- 

 tions of their own Chun -h ; but the- Legislature 

 of N ,-w Jersey (March 28th) refused to grant * 

 like freedom in similar institutions in that State. 

 . -sigmnent of the Indian tribes to religions 

 bodies had deprived Catholic Indians in various 

 parts of their missionaries, and appeals were 

 made to the Government by the Osages and by 

 the Catholic clergy of Oregon in behalf of the 

 Catholic Indians in that State. A case arose in 

 \ . rrnont which also excited attention. One 

 hundred and twenty pupils in the public school 

 at Brattleboro were absent to attend mass on 

 Corpus Christi, a feast of obligation in the 

 Catholic Church. For this they were expelled 

 from the school, and a judge held the expulsion 

 legal. 



The Catholic Church in the United States, 

 at the close of 1874, had 7 archbishops, 53 

 bishops, 4,873 priests, 4,731 churches, 1,902 

 chapels and stations, 68 colleges, 1,444 parish 

 schools, 611 academies, 302 asylums and hos- 

 pitals, and claimed a Catholic population of 

 more than 6,000,000. 



In New Brunswick a new school law was 

 resisted by the Catholics as unjust and illegal ; 

 but it was steadily enforced. They had main- 

 tained schools of their own, and refused to pay 

 the tax for non-Catholic schools ; but the prop- 

 erty of the bishop was seized and sold, and one 

 priest, Rev. Mr. Michaud, imprisoned October 

 17th. At a subsequent period the excitement 

 led to acts of violence. 



Brazil continued the course begun in 1873. 

 Although Bishop Oliveira claimed that under 

 the law (No. 809) of August 18, 1851, bishops 

 could be prosecuted in the civil courts only in 

 causes that were not purely spiritual, he was 

 arrested in January, and taken to the arsenal 

 in Pernambuco, from which ho was conveyed 

 to Rio Janeiro. lie was brought to trial on 

 the 18th of February for refusing to remove 

 the interdict laid by him on certain religious 

 confraternities for declining to expel members 

 who belonged to Masonic lodges. One of the 

 judges, known to be favorable to the bishop, 

 was challenged by the crown. The bishop re- 

 fused to plead, but two volunteer counsel were 

 heard in his defense, and on the 21st the bishop 

 was found guilty under the 96th Article of the 

 Criminal Code, two judges dissenting, and he 

 was sentenced to four years' imprisonment 

 with hard labor. Bishop Macedo, of Para, was 

 subsequently tried and condemned to four 

 years' imprisonment in the island of Cobras. 

 When the troubles began, the Brazilian Gov- 

 ernment dispatched Baron Penedo to Rome, as 

 was officially stated, "to try to induce the 

 Pope to avoid encouraging the bishops in their 

 disobedience." Baron Penedo had presented 

 a note to Cardinal Antonelli, October 29, 1878, 

 maintaining that the rules of the confraterni- 

 ties did not exclude Masons, and that the de- 



