736 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



that those days when we celebrate the solemn anni- 

 versary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ may be 

 blessed aud tvll of holy joy for you and for all the 

 flock of the Lord; and we pray God, who is so good, 

 to blot out the sins which we have committed, and 

 so mercifully remit the punishments we have de- 

 served by the virtue of the blood of the Immaculate 

 Lamb who has effaced the stain of our condemna- 

 tion. Jknedictio Dei, etc. 



Given at St. Peter's, Kome, Easter Sunday, 21st 

 April, 1878, the first year of our Pontificate. 



LEO Xill., Pope. 



Pope Leo XIII., opening intercourse with the 

 Emperor of Germany and the Republic of Switz- 

 erland, paved the way to negotiations having 

 in view some modification of the severe jaws 

 which had for a long time deprived Catholics of 

 churches and clergy, but no definite point was 

 reached in 1878. 



A prelate was sent to St. Petersburg to effect 

 if possible an arrangement with the Russian 

 (government by which the Catholic Poles of 

 both rites might be relieved from the regula- 

 tions under which thousands of priests and 

 people had been banished to Siberia ; but no 

 mitigation was obtained. 



No direct communication was held with King 

 Humbert, Pope Leo XIII. continuing the atti- 

 tude assumed by Pius IX. On receiving Gener- 

 al Kanzler (June 6th) he said : " We encourage 

 you to continue firm in your designs to remain 

 faithful to the glorious banner you raised. And 

 it is but just and proper that we should say this 

 glorious banner, for there is no more beautiful 

 and holy cause than that of defending the sacred 

 rights of the Church and its august Head ; there 

 is no grander military glory than that of bear- 

 ing aloft the honor of this sacred banner. In 

 defending the Papacy, you defend one of the 

 most providential of divine institutions ; in de- 

 fending the Papacy, you become the support 

 and stay of this sovereign position that Divine 

 Providence has granted to the Head of the 

 Church for the independence of his authority ; 

 in defending the Papacy, you aid it in diffusing 

 throughout the world its beneficent and salu- 

 tary effect." 



He encouraged the Catholic societies of Italy 

 to labor especially for the Christian education 

 of youth ; and when the new Government pro- 

 hibited religious instruction in the schools, 

 Pope Leo XIII., in a letter to Cardinal Monaco 

 la Valletta (June 26, 1878), said : " If from the 

 beginning of our pontificate we have enjoyed 

 countless motives of consolation and content- 

 ment in the testimonies of affection and respect 

 which have come to us from all quarters of the 

 earth, we have had, nevertheless, to drain the 

 dregs of bitterness ; whether we consider the 

 general conditions of the Church, struggling 

 almost everywhere against a cruel persecution ; 

 whether we view what has taken place in the 

 city of Rome itself, the center of Catholicity, 

 and the august seat, as is seen, of the Vicar of 

 Jesus Christ. Here an unbridled press, jour- 

 nals continually pursuing the object of combat- 

 ing the faith by sophism and irony, and of an- 



nihilating the sacred rights of the Church and 

 of diminishing her authority; here Protes- 

 tant temples, erected by the gold of Biblical 

 societies, arising in populous streets as an ' in- 

 sult to our faith; here schools, asylums, col- 

 leges, hospitals open to youth with the appar- 

 ently philanthropical object of being useful, 

 not only in intellectual culture, but also in ma- 

 terial wants, but really with the design of form- 

 ing a generation hostile to the religion and the 

 Church of Jesus Christ. And as if that was 

 not sufficient, a decree has recently appeared 

 from those who, from the duty attaching to 

 their position, are bound to watch over the true 

 interests of the Roman people; and this decree 

 proscribes the study of the Catholic catechism 

 in the public schools. This very reprehensible 

 measure, which has just broken down the ram- 

 part against heresy and unbelief, opens the flood- 

 gates on every side to a new danger of foreign 

 invasion, more dangerous and fatal than in 

 former times, inasmuch as it directly tends to 

 wrest from the hearts of the Roman people the 

 precious treasure of the faith and the fruits de- 

 rived therefrom." On the 12th of July Cardinal 

 Raphael Monaco la Valletta, the Pope's Vicar- 

 General, addressed the pastors of the churches 

 in Rome, warning them against the propagand- 

 ism of the various Protestant denominations in 

 the city, and prescribing the spiritual penalties 

 incurred by all who attended their services. 



On the 15th of July Leo XIII. in a consistory 

 appointed a number of archbishops and bish- 

 ops, and filled some vacancies in the Pontifical 

 Court. The death of Cardinal Franchi was fol- 

 lowed by the appointment of Cardinal Nina to 

 the position he had held. On the 27th of Au- 

 gust Pope Leo XIII. addressed to him a letter, 

 in which he sums up the acts of his pontificate. 



At the close of the year the Pope issued an- 

 other Encyclical. 



In Germany the prosecutions under the 

 Falk laws continued, and the few religious 

 houses to which any indulgence had been 

 shown were closed. An immense number of 

 arrests was made at Marpingen, and a long 

 series of judicial investigations, in order to 

 base Government prosecutions against the 

 Catholic priests and others who had expressed 

 their belief in the reality of an apparition of 

 the Blessed Virgin at that place, but they re- 

 sulted in the acquittal of all accused. 



In Switzerland, the churches at Chene, Com- 



rsieres. Confignon, and Verniere were seized 

 the State Council and transferred to the 

 Old Catholics. Bishop Mermillod protested 

 from his exile, August 1st, after the Catholics 

 of Geneva had laid before their countrymen 

 the extent of their sufferings in persecution. 



In Russia the stringent treatment of the 

 United Greeks continued, and the condition of 

 the vast numbers of Catholic priests and lay- 

 men exiled to Siberia was revealed by the Rev. 

 Mr. Mielechawicz, who escaped after fifteen 

 years' banishment. 



On the 12th of March Norway passed an act 



