ACTION BY POPE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 87, 9 October 1937, Page 24

ACTION BY POPE

COUNT EXCOMMUNICATED

The pope has excommunicated Count p Vittorio Ferraris di 'Celle, a wealthy landowner of Cuneo, ne&r Turin, and £ ;he city and diocese of Cuneo is in a x state of intense excitement. The c trouble, arose through a dispute over some land, says the "Daily Telegraph. For a considerable time before the i fail of the temporal power of the Pope 1 in 1870 the di Celle family had the } patronage of a Canonicate of the cathe- ( dral, which was richly endowed m 1 lj >Jter 1870 the'land reverted to the Eamuy! which lost patronage - of the . Canonicate. In 1934 the 1 Concordat between the Holy See and . the Italian Government, the Holy See began to negotiate with Count di CelU , offering him patronage cate again, but. demanding that the land should be given back to. the Church. Count di Celle demanded both the land and the patronage. The negotiations have been long: and acrimonious, and the Count refused to g ve in. PAPAL ALTERNATIVE. Recently the Sacred Congregation of the Council, one of the departments of State of the Holy See was instructed'to look into the matter. The.Pope looked through the papers and decided that unless Count di Celle gave up the land he must be excommunicated. Mgr Rosso, the Bishop of Cuneo, has now declared that the Count has been excommunicated. As a -result the Count may not enter the Church and the clergy may not communicate with him. . , - He may not be married m the Church. In the event of his death he would be refused Christian burial. Many of the townspeople shun the Count. Others are detennined to keep up their friendly relations with him in spite of the decree of excommunication, j- -j j The peasants on his land are divided in their allegiance and cannot decide whether or not to obey the excom-i munication order, which means refusing to speak to the Count. Many of them firmly believe that terrible things will happen to themselves, their families, or their livestock if they even meet their landlord's eye. I Count di Celle, perhaps fortunately for himself, spends most of his time in Turin.