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ROMAX CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



mote and barbarous regions, has unfortunately, by 

 this very act, deprived so many people of most salu- 

 tary succors of piety and charity, to the great detri- 

 ment of human welfare and civilization, both of 

 which spring from the holiness, the teachings, and 

 the virtues of our religion. But these laws, already 

 so cruel in themselves, and so diametrically opposed 

 to the interests, not only of religion, but also of 

 human society, have been still more aggravated by 

 the addition, which the ministers of the government 

 have made, of new laws which forbid, under the se- 

 verest penalties, the living in common and under the 

 same roof, of religious families, the admission of 

 novices, all religious professions among the regulars 

 of either sex. So soon as religious orders were dis- 

 persed, the work and project of destruction was di- 

 rected toward the secular clergy, and then was enact- 

 ed the law by which we and the pastors of the Italian 

 people were to see, with the deepest sorrow, young 

 seminarians, the hope of the Church, wickedly torn 

 from the sanctuary, and forced, at the very age when 

 they should most solemnly consecrate themselves to 

 God, to don the shoulder-knot of the secular militia, 

 and to lead a life utterly at variance with their educa- 

 tion and the spirit of their vocations. 



Nor is this all: other unjust laws have been en- 

 acted, by which the entire patrimony which the 

 Church held by the most sacred, inviolable, and an- 

 cient rights, has been in a great measure taken from 

 her, to substitute in its place, and only in part, some 

 paltry revenues, which are entirely at the mercy of 

 the uncertain vicissitudes of the times, and of the 

 good will and pleasure of the public power. "We 

 nave, likewise, been compelled to deplore the occu- 

 pation, and the transformation to profane usages, 

 after the lawful possessors, without any distinction, 

 had been driven forth, of a large number of build- 

 ings erected by the piety of the faithful, often at very 

 great sacrifices, and which were worthy of the days 

 of Christian Rome, and which offered a peaceful asy- 

 lum to virgins consecrated to God and to the families 

 of the Regulars. 



They Save also removed from our control, and 

 from the care of the Holy Ministry, many pious works 

 and institutions consecrated to charity and to the 

 exercise of benevolence, many of which, devoted to 

 the alleviation of poverty and other miseries, had 

 been established by the Sovereign Pontiffs them- 

 selves, our predecessors, and through the pious liber- 

 ality of foreign nations ; and if a few of these works 



of public charity still exist under the vigilance of 

 the Church, we are assured that a law, that will not 

 long be delayed, will either take them from us or 

 abolish them altogether; this is at least what is 

 clearly and unmistakably announced by public docu- 

 ments. We have, moreover, and we refer to it with 

 the deepest anguish, seen public and private instruc- 

 tion in letters and arts wrenched from the authority 

 and direction of the Church, and the mission of 

 teaching confided to men whose faith was not above 

 suspicion, or to avowed enemies of the Church, who 

 have not shrunk from public professions of athe- 

 ism. But these traitorous children of the Church 

 were not satisfied with having seized, invaded, or 

 destroyed so many institutions of such vast impor- 

 tance. They must needs throw still more obstacles 

 in the way of the free exercise of the spiritual mis- 

 sion of the ministers of the sanctuary. Thev have 

 accomplished this criminal object through the law 

 recently passed by the Chamber of Deputies, under 

 the name of the " Law on Clerical Abuses," by vir- 

 tue of which they impute as a crime and misde- 

 meanor, to bishops as well as priests, and they visit 

 with severe penalties, such acts as the authors of the 

 said law comprise under the insidious name of per- 

 turbation of conscience, 

 which they call public, 



i^. or of perturbation of the 



peace of families. By vir- 

 tue of this law, also, all 

 words or writings whatso- 

 ever, by which ministers 

 of religion may consider it 

 incumbent upon them, by 

 reason of their charge, to 

 point out and disapprove 

 of laws, decrees, or other 

 acts of civil authority as 

 contrary either to the laws 

 of religion or to the laws 

 of God and of His Church, 

 will be equally subject to 

 punishment, as well as the 

 work of those who may 

 have published or distrib- 

 uted these said writings ? 

 regardless of the rank ot 

 the ecclesiastical authority 

 or the source whence it 

 emanates. Once this law 

 is passed and promulgated, 

 a lay tribunal will be per- 

 mitted to define whether 

 in the administration of 

 the sacraments, and in the 



preaching of the "Word of God, the priest has dis- 

 turbed and how he has disturbed the public con- 

 science, and the peace of families, and the con- 

 dition of the bishop and priest will be such that 

 their voices can be restricted and silenced, equally 

 with that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, who, al- 

 though declared in his person, through political 

 reasons, exempt from all penalties, is n<me the less 

 supposed to be punished in the person of those 

 who may have been accomplices in his fault; this 

 is, in fact, what a minister of the kingdom in the 

 Chamber of Deputies did not hesitate to declare 

 openly, when, speaking of us, he freely avowed that 

 it was neither new, nor obsolete in the laws, nor con- 

 trary to the rules, the science, or the practice of 

 criminal law, to punish the accomplices in a crime 

 when the chief author could not be reached. Whence 

 it becomes clear that, in the intention of those who 

 govern, it is against our person also that the force 

 of this law is directed, so that, when our words or 

 acts shall come in contact with this law, the bishops 

 or priests who may have repeated our words, or exe- 

 cuted our orders, must suffer the penalty of this pre- 

 tended crime, of which we, as chief author, will be 

 condemned to bear the inculpation of the offense. 



