ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



677 



or faculty soever, cleric or lay, or what religious or- 

 der soaver, in what places soever, publicly or private- 

 ly teaching, or giving lessons or exercises, and, final- 

 ly, to those that were to take degrees. 



But now, soon after the meeting of the Holy Vati- 

 can Council, and before it was suspended by the 

 Apostolical Letter, Postquam Dei munere, issued on 

 the 20th of October, 1870, two Constitutions of dog- 

 ma were solemnly promulgated by that council first, 

 on Catholic faith, bjginniug: Dei Filius ; tho other 

 on the Church, beginning: Pa&tor ^Eternu* it has 

 been judged not only seasonable but necessary that 

 in the Profession of Faith, the dogmatic definitions 

 of this Vatican Council should not only be believed 

 in the heart, but confessed by the mouth by a public 

 and solemn declaration. Wherefore, our most Holy 

 Father Pope Pius IX., having sought the judgment 

 on this point of a Special Congregation of the emi- 

 nent fathers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, 

 has ordered, directed, and commanded, as by the 

 present decree he orders, directs, and commands, 

 that in the aforementioned formula of Profession of 

 Faith by Pius IV., there shall be said, after the 

 words "Especially by the Holy Synod of Trent," 

 " and given, defined, and declared by the (Ecumeni- 

 cal Council of the Vatican, particularly concerning 

 the primary and infallible magistery of the Roman 

 Pontiff," and that in future the Profession of Faith, 

 by all who are bound to make it, shall be thus made, 

 and not otherwise, under the comminations and 

 penalties declared by the Council of Trent, and by 

 the aforesaid Constitutions of Pope Pius IV. Let 

 this, therefore, be obeyed diligently and faithfully 

 everywhere, and by all whom it concerns, notwith- 

 standing, etc. 



Given at Rome at the Secretariate of the Sacred 

 Congregation of the Council, January 20, 1877. 



He maintained the attitude he had assumed 

 toward the new state of things in a brief to the 

 Society of Catholic Youth at Bologna (January 

 29th), censuring all who proposed to accept the 

 situation and take part in politics, or in the 

 election of members of the Italian Parliament. 



In his allocution to the Lenten preachers, he 

 dwelt especially on the increase of vice in 

 Rome. 



As a general wish had been expressed to 

 make the Golden Jubilee of his episcopate 

 (June 3d) a day of general solemnity, he issued, 

 February 27th, a brief, granting a plenary in- 

 dulgence on that day, with the usual conditions 

 of approaching the sacraments. 



On the 12th of March, he addressed an al- 

 locution to the cardinals, which excited general 

 interest, as it reviewed the whole condition of 

 the Papacy from the occupation of Rome, the 

 seizure of religious buildings, the law of guar- 

 antees, the suppression of pilgrimages and pro- 

 cessions, the open encouragement of vice, and, 

 finally, the projected law of Clerical Abases. 

 Allocution addressed by Pope Pius IX. to the Uardi- 



nils of the Holy U>min Church,' in the Vatican 



Palace, March 12, 1877. 



VENERABLE BRETHREN : On many occasions al- 

 ready, during the trying times of our stormy Pontifi- 

 cate, have we convoked your most illustrious order 

 in this palace, to deplore, in your presence, the great 

 evils which the Church unjustly suffers, and that you 

 might hear our protestations against nets perpetrat- 

 ed to the detriment of the Church and of this Apos- 

 tilio See, whether in Italy or in other countries. 

 During the last few years especially, we have been 

 obliged to witness the repeated and always more vio- 

 lent attacks, together with the many outrages which 



the Church of God has been obliged to bear in dif- 

 ferent parts of the Catholic world, at the hands of 

 implacable enemies, who regarded as a most fitting 

 opportunity for assailing the Church of Jesus Christ 

 the sad situation of abandonment in which we find 

 ourselves, bereft us we are of all human succor. We 

 would, therefore, have desired to-day, venerable 

 brethren, to submit to your wisdom and to your 

 consideration this cruel and BO vast persecution now 

 waged against the Church in many countries of Eu- 

 rope ; but although it is our intetuion to present this 

 sad picture to you on another occasion, we cannot re- 

 frain, in the mean time, from calling to your minds 

 the trials and vexations, daily increasing in severity, 

 which the Church is undergoing in this Italy of ours, 

 and to point out to you tho perils, daily increasing in 

 magnitude, which are threatening us and this Ifoly 

 See. 



The seventh year is already upon us since the in- 

 vaders of our civil principality, riding rough-shod 

 over every right, human and divine, breaking t'uith 

 in solemn compacts, and taking advantage of the mis- 

 fortunes of an illustrious Catholic nation, by violence 

 and force of arms, occupied the provinces still re- 

 maining in our power, taking possession of this holy 

 city, and by this act of sovereign iniquity overwhelm- 

 ing the entire Church with grief aud mourning. The 

 false and worthless promises, which in those woful 

 days they made to foreign governments concerning 

 our dearest interests, by declaring that they desired 

 to pay homage and honor to the freedom of the 

 Church, and that they intended that the power of the 

 Roman Pontiff should remain free and unabridged 

 these promises did not succeed in beguiling us into 

 vain hopes, and did not prevent us, from that very 

 moment, from fully realizing all the tribulations and 

 afflictions that awaited us under their dominion. On 

 the contrary, fully aware of the impious designs en- 

 tertained by men who are leagued together by a fond- 

 ness for modern innovations and by a criminal oath, 

 we at once openly proclaimed that this sacrilegious 

 invasion was not intended so much to oppress our 

 civil principality as it was to undermine all the more 

 readily, through the oppression of our temporal pow- 

 er, all the institutions of the Church, to overthrow 

 the authority of the Holy See, and to utterly destroy 

 the power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, which, all 

 unworthy as we are, we exercise here on oartb. 



Indeed, it may be said that this work of demolition 

 and of general destruction of everything connected 

 with the structure and order of the Church is almost 

 consummated : if not to the extent of the desires and 

 hatred of the persecutors, it is nt least so far as con- 

 cerns the sad heap of ruins they have succeeded, 

 up to this time, in piling up. It is only necessary to 

 glance at the laws and decrees, promulgated since the 

 commencement of tho new administration, up to the 

 present day, to realize fully what they have m'tiUd 

 from us, piece by piece, little by little; how, day 

 after day, and one after another, they took the means 

 and resources we so much needed for the proper guid- 

 ance and direction of the Catholic Church. Thus it 

 is that the iniquitous suppression of religious orders 

 has unfortunately deprived us of valiant and usrful 

 auxiliaries, whose work is absolutely ncc^wary for 

 the transaction of the affairs of Ecclesiastical Con- 

 gregations, and for the performance of so many of 

 the duties of our ministry. This iniquitous ui>prcs- 

 sion has at the same time destroyed, hero in this holy 

 city, many asylums in which wore domiciled the re- 

 ligious of foreign nations who were wont to repair to 

 this metropolis at stated periods to revive their mind*, 

 and to render an account of their stewardship. And 

 it has gone so far as to tear un even the very root < 

 healthful and saving plants which horo fruit* or ben- 

 ediction and peace to tho furthermost ends of the 

 earth. This same fatal suppression which h* struck 

 these colleges, established in Rome for holt miMions, 

 for tho training of worthy laborers, willing foarWMy 

 to bear the light of the Gospel even Into the most r*- 



