706 



OLD CATHOLICS. 



OREGON. 



Old Catholic professors of this faculty, who 

 last year withdrew from the Synod because 

 they disapproved the abolition of priestly celi- 

 bacy, had continued to keep aloof from active 

 cooperation in the work of the Church. For 

 the same reason, most of the priests and con- 

 gregations of Bavaria have suspended their 

 relations with the Bishop and the Synod. Dr. 

 Dollinger, who has never sympathized with 

 the organization of an independent Church, 

 contents himself with protesting against the 

 Vatican Council, and takes no active part in 

 the building up of an Old Catholic Church. 

 He resisted, however, the efforts made by an 

 Austrian prelate, at the special request of the 

 Pope, and by Archbishop Steichele of Munich, 

 his former pupil, to induce him to rejoin tho 

 communion of Home. The Old Catholic 

 Church lost in 1879 some of its most distin- 

 guished members, as Professor Huber (see 

 OBITUARIES, FOBEIGN) and Classen Kappel- 

 mann. 



The Synod of the " Christian Catholics " of 

 Switzerland held its fifth annual session on 

 June 5th at Solothurn, the capital of the can- 

 ton of the same name. The Church has begun 

 and will continue to suffer great losses in prop- 

 erty and power in the Canton of Berne, in 

 consequence of the determination of the Ro- 

 man Catholics (those who adhere to the reso- 

 lutions of the Vatican Council) to accept the 

 church law of the canton, which provides for 

 an election of all priests by popular suffrage, 

 and subjects them to a reelection every six 

 years. At the first election which took place 

 in the Catholic parishes, the Roman Catholics 

 refused to take part, and thus nearly all the 

 parishes passed into the hands of the Old 

 Catholics. The latter, though in power, con- 

 stitute only a minority in most of the parishes, 

 and must be prepared to lose most of them 

 whenever the Roman Catholics conclude to ex- 

 ercise their right of voting. In this way some 

 parishes have already been lost, and others 

 will follow. Bishop Herzog reported this year 

 the number of parishes as 56 (against 61 in 

 1878), and the number of priests as 72 (against 

 75 in 1878). The number of students of theol- 

 ogy in the Old Catholic theological faculty of 

 Berne was 11. Communion in both kinds, 

 which by the Synod of 1878 was declared per- 

 missible, has since been introduced in the can- 

 tons of Geneva and Neuf chatel ; the parishes of 

 the other cantons have thus far retained com- 

 munion in one kind. A lively discussion took 

 place this year on the subject of a revised French 

 missal. It has been approved by M. Michaud, 

 the most prominent man of the Church in 

 French Switzerland, who strongly leans toward 

 a union with the Greek Church; but Bishop 

 Herzog condemned the attempt, and only con- 

 ceded that the manual was not un-Catholic, 

 and recommended the Synod to refer it back 

 to the Genevese for better consideration. The 

 Synod desired to enter into a closer union with 

 the Anglican Churches of England and Amer- 



ica, and passed a series of resolutions to that 

 effect. The President of the Synodal Council, 

 Landamman Keller of Aargau, resigned his 

 post on account of old age. He was succeeded 

 by Herr Philippi of Basle. 



The Old Catholics of Austria had at the be- 

 ginning of 1879 three congregations, organized 

 according to law and therefore recognized by 

 the state, at Vienna, Ried, and "Warnsdorf. 

 Being as yet without a bishop, they were doubt- 

 ful whether they had the right to call a Synod ; 

 but their legal adviser, Professor Schulte of 

 Bonn, accorded to them the right of constitut- 

 ing themselves ''an extraordinary Synod." 

 This Synod met at Vienna on July 5th, simul- 

 taneously with the Synods of Germany and 

 Switzerland. A provisional Synodal Council 

 was constituted, with Dr. Linder, a member of 

 the Vienna Town Council, as President, and 

 the three priests of the Church and three other 

 laymen as members. Subject to ratification 

 by a future Synod, the Synodal Council adopt- 

 ed for Austria the reforms thus far introduced 

 by the German and Swiss Synods. These re- 

 forms are classified under eight heads: 1. The 

 participation of the laity in the outer govern- 

 ment of the Church, popular election of the 

 clergy, etc. ; 2. Confession to be voluntary, 

 not compulsory ; 3. Freedom of the clergy to 

 marry ; 4. Use of the national tongue in the 

 liturgy and all ecclesiastical offices ; 6. Fasting 

 and abstinence to be no longer a matter of ob- 

 ligation; 6. Reduction of superfluous festivals; 

 7. Reforms in the matter of indulgences, the 

 veneration of pictures and relics, religious pro- 

 cessions, etc. ; 8. Abolition of mass-stipends 

 and all payments for spiritual functions. The 

 Synodal Council was instructed to take the 

 necessary steps to obtain from the Reichsrath 

 an appropriation for the support of the Old 

 Catholic Church, and further to make the ne- 

 cessary preparation for the future election of a 

 bishop. 



In France, the first Old Catholic congrega- 

 tion has at last been organized in Paris by 

 Father Hyacinthe (M. Loyson). As long as the 

 French Church has no bishops of her own, it 

 has been arranged between M. Loyson on the 

 one hand, and the Anglican bishops of Eng- 

 land, Scotland, and Ireland, who take a spe- 

 cial interest in the Old Catholic movement in 

 France, on the other, that the Primus of Scot- 

 land shall exercise episcopal jurisdiction. As 

 delegate of the Primus, Bishop Herzog of 

 Switzerland in July administered the sacra- 

 ment of confirmation to seven persons. Over 

 six hundred names were inscribed in Paris as 

 adherents to the programme of Catholic re- 

 form issued by M. Loyson in February, 1879. 

 He was assisted in Paris by two priests. 



OREGON. The progress of Oregon by the 

 gradual increase of population and the patient 

 development of its material resources, during 

 the last ten years, presents some remarkable 

 results. The population of the State in 1868 

 was 80,161 ; and that of some of the towns 



