ROMAN CATHOLIC CnURCH. 



683 



Hwpreoedencfl of civil over religious marriages 

 in Hungary iiml to the divorce laws in Italy be- 

 in u r sustained. 



The principal document was a letter to the 

 Italian people against, infidelity in the form of 

 I lie Masonic ramifications. Under this guise, 

 the Pope declares, a war is carried on against 

 religion and civilization. The immediate cause 

 of tin- pronouncement is the support by the Free 

 Masons of the proposed divorce bills, and the 

 effort to introduce civil marriages and civil 

 funerals. The body, lie says, is an egotistic sect, 

 getting its fir>t hold under the specious guise of 

 a philanthropic society, and dominating Italy 

 and Home and the public powers, with the now 

 avowed purpose of emancipating man from God, 

 the licensing of error and vice, the substitution 

 of a masked conspiracy for the free will of the 

 people, and the interference with the true law of 

 equality and charity by the erection of an artifi- 

 cial barrier against those who refuse to be its 

 tools and instruments. The confiscation of 

 Church property and disregard of religious right 

 of association is traced to Masonic perversity. 

 "The state, instead of holding its high and 

 noble office of recognizing, guarding, aiding in 

 their harmonious universality, divine and human 

 rights, believes itself to be their arbitrator, and 

 discountenances or restricts them at caprice. 

 . . . The religion of our fathers has been made 

 a sign for persecutions of every kind, with the 

 satanic intent of substituting naturalism for 

 Christianity, the worship of Reason for the wor- 

 ship of Faith, and the so-called independent 

 morality for Catholic morality, for progress of 

 spirit, progress of matter." After this arraign- 

 ment the body is recondemned, and the faithful 

 are exhorted to combat it by founding societies 

 of mutual succor and institutes of credit which 

 shall do not only for members but for all the in- 

 digent, showing that true charity is the daughter 

 of Him who makes his sun to rise and the rain 

 to fall on the just and the unjust. In conclu- 

 tion it is said : 



This egotistic sect strives to render the Church 

 ubservient, and to place her, a humble handmaid, at 

 the feet of the state ! And you, do not cease to beg 

 and, within legal bounds, revindicate her due liberty 

 and independence. . . . The Apostolic See has ever 

 been the inspirer and jealous custodian of Italian 

 grandeur. Be, therefore,ltalians and Catholics ; free, 

 and not sectaries; faithful to your country and ut 

 the same time to Christ and to his visible vicar, per- 

 suaded that an antichristian and antipapal Italy 

 will bo opposed to the divine order, and therefore 

 condemned to perish. 



The Temporal Power. The only direct ref- 

 erence made to this subject by the Pope, al- 

 though in all the documents of the year he spoke 

 of the difficulties which menaced the free ad- 

 ministration of his office, was at Christmas. 

 Prince Alteiri, captain of the Noble Guard, in 

 presenting the Vatican forces and wishing the 

 Holy Father the happiness of the season, ex- 

 pressed the hope of his comrades that the pleas- 

 ure would be theirs soon of escorting him 

 through the streets of Rome. Leo XIII re- 

 plied : " The day will doubtless come, but the 

 Brecise time is in God's keeping." Personally, 

 tie pontiff is said to be impatient with those 

 who put forward his claim on the old pica of 



kingly sovereignty, rejecting as he does the idea 

 that the people have no right to change their 

 form of government. He feels that his position 

 would be better under a republic, and believing 

 Italy the providential land of the papacy, his 

 trust is that eventually its people will see the 

 necessity for its and their own sake of guarantee- 

 ing a perfect independence for the conduct of 

 Church affairs. 



The Catholic Congress of Ecuador, at Quito, 

 in October, declared on this head : 



The Catholic Congress of Ecuador hopes that all 

 the Kquatorians, and all the Catholics of Spanish 

 America, will agitate with ardor and perseverance 

 for the re-establishment of the temporal power of the 

 Pope, putting in action the most efficacious means for 

 accomplishing this end that is to say, the propaga- 

 tion or sound doctrine by word and by means of the 

 press : by prayer, both m their families and in the 

 churches (in imitation of what was done in the primi- 

 tive Church to obtain the liberty of the Prince of the 

 Apostles) ; the organization of Catholic congresses, 

 and the formation of a central committee to be put in 

 relations with the committees of other Catholic 

 states, and direct, in accord, the movement already 

 commenced. 



The demonstration of Catholic workmen in 

 New York on Pope Leo's birthday, March 2 (or- 

 ganized in the spirit of gratitude for the declara- 

 tions in the encyclicals on the labor question), 

 presided over by Austin E. Ford and addressed 

 by Archbishop Corrigan and Hon. E. F. Dunne, 

 sent a message of sympathy in resolutions of a 

 like import, as did also the Spanish and German 

 Catholic congresses. 



The College of Cardinals at the end of 

 1892, contained but 49 members 5 cardinal 

 bishops, 38 cardinal priests, and 6 cardinal dea- 

 cons ; 13 deaths occurred between November, 

 1891, and December, 1892, viz.: Dominico Agos- 

 tini, Patriarch of Venice, aged sixty-six, created 

 in 1869, like many of his ancestors a distin- 

 guished Church writer. Victor Felix Bernardou. 

 Archbishop of Sens, France, seventy-five, created 

 in 1886. Rico Y. Paya, Primate of Spain and 

 Archbishop of Toledo, eighty, founder of the 

 world-famed " El Eco de la Religion," of Valen- 

 cia, created in 1884. Francesco Battaglini, Arch- 

 bishop of Boulogne, sixty-nine, created in 1885. 

 Joseph D'Annabale, Titular Bishop of Carystus, 

 seventy-six, for over thirty years holding high 

 office at the Propaganda, created in 1889. Fred- 

 erick von Furrstenberg, Archbishop of OlmQtz, 

 Moravia, eighty, created in 1879. Edward How- 

 ard. Charles Martal Allemand Lavigerie, Arch- 

 bishop of St. Augustine's See of Carthage and 

 Algeria, born in Bayonne, France, 1825, died 

 Nov. 26. Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop 

 of Westminster, who died Jan. 14, was born in 

 England. July 15, 1808. Giovanni Simeoni, died 

 the same day as Cardinal Manning, aged seventy- 

 six. Gaspard Mermillod, died Feb. 23, aged 

 sixty-eight. (For sketches of these Cardinals 

 see OBITUARIES, FOREIGN.) Paul Melchers, Arch- 

 bishop of Cologne and Church historian, died 

 the same month as Cardinal Mermillod. He was 

 born in Monster, Germany, in 1813. 



Angosto Theodoli, who died June 26, was sev- 

 enty-throe years old. 



At the close of the year it was announced that 

 at the Consistory, in January, 14 new cardinals 

 (whose names were given) would be created, and 



