692 



KOMAtf CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



rated from the communion of the Church, and should 

 be regarded as schismatics. 



We publicly renew this day this declaration, and 

 we believe that it is our duty, venerable brothers, to 

 exhort you to employ all your zeal, already so well 

 tried, and all that courage which you have already 

 displayed with so much effect in your struggles for 

 the cause of God, and all the means in your power, 

 in order to preserve to the souls committed to your 

 charge unity of faith, and to remind them without 

 cessation that they should keep away from those dan- 

 gerous enemies of the flock of Christ and from their 

 poisonous pasturage. Let them keep away from their 

 religious ceremonies, from their instructions, from 

 those treacherous pulpits which they have the hardi- 

 hood to set up in order to betray sacred doctrines, 

 from their writings, and from their contact. Let 

 them have no intercourse and no relations whatever 

 with the intruded priests and the apostates who dare 

 to exercise the functions of the ecclesiastical minis- 

 try ; and who are absolutely without any legitimate 

 jurisdiction of mission. Let them hold such in 

 horror as strargers and robbers, who come only to 

 steal, and to assassinate, and to destroy. 



The sons of the Church should believe that this 

 line of conduct is enjoined to them in order that they 

 may preserve the precious treasure of faith, without 

 which it is impossible to please God, and that they 

 may by the straight road of justice arrive one day 

 at the end of faith, which is the salvation of good 

 souls. 



We are also aware that in those countries the civil 

 authority, not content with having passed several 

 laws contrary to the divine constitution and author- 

 ity of the Church, have also framed edicts opposed 

 to the canonical prescriptions concerning Christian 

 marriage, which entirely do away with ecclesiastical 

 authority and jurisdiction. 



Therefore, we strenuously exhort you, venerable 

 brethren, to explain to your faithful, by suitable in- 

 structions, the Catholic doctrine concerning Christian 

 marriage, and to recall to them what we have fre- 

 quently said respecting this sacrament in our letters 

 and our Apostolic allocutions, particularly in those 

 of the 9th and 27th of September, 1852. By this 

 means they will better understand the holiness and 

 virtue of this sacrament, and by piously conforming 

 to the canonical laws upon this matter they will 

 avoid those evils which fall upon families and upon 

 human society, when the holiness of marriage is de- 

 spised. As for you, our beloved sons, the pastors and 

 priests who have not only the charge of sanctifying 

 yourselves, but also of saving and of sanctifying 

 others, we trust in the Lord that in the midst of the 

 snares of the wicked, and the dangers that menace 

 you, you will, faithful to the piety and zeal of which 

 you have given^so many striking proofs, continue to 

 afford to your bishops great consolation and powerful 

 aid. Under their direction you will labor with cour- 

 age and determination in the cause of God, of the 

 Church, and of the salvation of souls. You will 

 sustain the courage of the faithful, you will remedy 

 the weakness of those who waver, and you will ob- 

 tain day by day a greater increase of those merits 

 which your patience, your priestly constancy, and 

 your courage, will acquire for you in the sight of God. 

 Heavy is the burden of trials to be borne by the min- 

 isters of Christ ; but our confidence is in him who 

 has overcome the world, who sustains those who 

 labor in his name, and who reserves for them in 

 heaven an imperishable crown of glory. 



And you, beloved sons, the faithful of all Switzer- 

 land, we address to you the expression of our pater- 

 nal solicitude for your salvation. You all know what 

 is the value of the Catholic faith which God has in- 

 trusted to you. Do not spare either pains or labor 

 to guard faithfully this precious gift, and to preserve 

 intact and entire the glory of the ancient religion 

 which you have received from your ancestors. 

 Therefore, we earnestly recommend you to remain 



closely attached to your legitimate pastors, who have 

 received a lawful mission from this Apostolic See. 

 and who watch over your souls for whom they will 

 have to render an account to God. 



Have ever before your eyes these words of eterna] 

 truth: "He who is not with me is against me : he 

 who does not gather with me scattereth." Be faithful 

 to this doctrine ; love his yoke, so full of sweetness. 

 Drive far from you with horror those of whom our 

 Eedeemer has said, "Beware of the false prophets 

 who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but 

 who are ravening wolves." Eesist courageously in 

 the faith the ancient enemy of the human race, " un- 

 til the right hand of Almighty God shall break in 

 pieces all those arms of the demons to whom it is 

 permitted to dare anything, so that the victory of 

 the faithful of Christ shall be more manifest, because 

 there where truth is mistress divine consolation is 

 never wanting. #. Leo. 



We have thought it well to write these things to 

 you, venerable brothers and dear sons, in order to 

 fulfill the duty of our supreme charge, which oWiges 

 us to save from all danger of error the whole flock of 

 Christ, and to defend its safety and the unity of the 

 faith and of the Church. But as every perfect gift 

 comes down from above, from the Father of light, 

 we earnestly implore him to sustain your strength 

 in the struggle, and to cover you with the eegis of 

 his protection. May He deign to bestow a look of 

 propitiation upon your country, and may error and 

 impiety disappear from it, so that it may, in peace 

 and repose, enjoy truth and justice ! Neither do we 

 forget to implore heavenly light for those poor wan- 

 derers, so that they may cease to amass upon their 

 heads treasures of wrath for the day of wrath and of 

 the revelation of the just judgment of God, and that, 

 turning from the error of their life, they may, while 

 there is yet tiuie, make a sincere repentance. 



Join your fervent prayers to ours, venerable 

 brothers and dear sons, so that we may obtain the 

 timely help of Divine grace and mercy, and receive 

 the Apostolic benediction that we, with all love, and 

 in the Lord, accord from the bottom of our heart to 

 each and all of you, as an assurance of our particular 

 affection. 



Given at Rome the 23d day of March, 1875, in the 

 twenty -ninth year of our pontificate. 



PIUS IX., Pope. 



The Catholic bishops of Switzerland met at 

 Fribourg on the 28th of April to concert meas- 

 ures for the crisis. 



In Russia great severities had been practised 

 to compel the members of the United Greek 

 Church to join the Established Church of the 

 Empire. An excommunicated priest named 

 Popiel was appointed by the Government to 

 administer the Catholic diocese of Chelm dur- 

 ing a vacancy. Clergymen of the Established 

 Church were then placed in the churches, and 

 refusal to attend severely punished. A wide- 

 spread trouble ensued, and the harshest steps 

 were taken by the Government : four hundred 

 Catholic priests were exiled to Siberia be- 

 tween 1872 and 1875, of whom, in the last 

 year, only one hundred survived, and collec- 

 tions were made in Europe to save them. The 

 severities were noticed in the diplomatic cor- 

 respondence of the American minister. Some 

 leniency may be shown toward the close of 

 the year. 



In the rest of Europe there were few impor- 

 tant events. A council of all the Catholic 

 bishops of Ireland met at Maynooth in Sep- 

 tember ; a Catholic Congress at San Gaetano, 



