ALLOCUTION OF OUR HOLT FATHER, POPE PIUS IX.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 214, 1 June 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

ALLOCUTION OF OUR HOLT FATHER, POPE PIUS IX.

Delivered to the Cardinals, assembled in Consistory, Monday, March 12.

Many times, Venerable Brothers, in the heavy days of our muchtried Pontificate, have we assembled you around us to deplore the evils and protest against, the crimes committed, whether in Italy or elsewhere, to the injury of the Church and the Apostolic See. In these last years, however, we have been witnesses of- attacks still more violent which the Catholic religion has had to endure in various pirts of the C itholie world through the work of our enemies, to whom the occasion was opportune for assailing the Spouse of Jesus Christ both on account of our unhappy position and the abandonment in which we stand of every human succour. We should have wished to recall your attention to this almost general persecution to which the Church is subjected at. present in various parts of Europe, but, reserving the painful description for another occasion, we cannot do less than point out to you to-day the increasing gravity of the situation of the Catholic Church in Italy, and the still harder trials which await us and this Apostolic See. It i<? already the seventh year since an usurping Government treading under foot every Divine and human right, in despite of the most solemn treaties, and profiting by the ill-fortune of a generous nation, occupied by main force all that remained of our provinces, and invaded this Holy City, filling the Universal Church with mourning at the consummation of so iniquitous a deed. In spite of the hypocritical and disloyal promises made at that moment to foreign Governments, by the usurpers, that they would respect the liberty of the Church and the independence of the Roman Pontiff, we were never under any illusion whatever as to the sad and miserable future in store for us under their dominion. On the contrary, indeed, well knowing the fell designs proper to men bound together by the spirit of revolution and iniquitous ties, we then foretold that the aim of such sacrilegious invasion was not so much the conquest of our State as the wicked design of destroying the more easily, through the suppression of our temporal dominion, all the institutions of the Church, of annihilating the authority of the Holy See, and of cuttino down the supreme power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, to us, although i undeserving, confided. ° Now this work of the demolition and destruction of every ecclesiastical organization may be said to be completed, if not up to the intentions and hatred of the persecutors, at least in as far as the most grievous injuries which up to the present day have been heaped upon nsj and it is only necessary to cast a retrospective glance upon the laws and decrees made in this short lapse of time ' to see clearly that, qneby one, all the means have been taken from I us of suitably governing the Catholic Church. Thus the iniquitous suppression of the religious orders has unfortunately removed from our side valuable and valiant auxi- : hanes, whose co-operation was absolutely necessary for the transaction of the business of the ecclesiastical congregations, and of so many other duties of onr ministry. This iniquitous suppression has at the same time destroyed here, in this sacred city, numerous religious houses where foreigners were in the habit of resortin<* at stated periods to acquire renewed strength and render an account of their stewardship, and it has cruelly torn up by the very roots innumerable healthy and prolific plants, which carried fruits of benediction and peace to all the countries of the earth The same unjust suppression, also, which dissolved the houses of the Missions, established in Rome in order to prepare worthy workers to be sent into the most remote and inhospitable regions of the universe, has deprived so many Christians of so Dious and charitable a succour, with immense injury to the propagation of the faith, and to Christian civilization itself, proceeding from the holiness and doctrine (teaching) of our religion. And these laws, already in themselves very bitter and adverse to religion, not less than to human society itself, were not lon<* since made more grievous by new Ministerial ordinations, which severely prohibit both the forming of religious communities and new admission of regulars of both sexes. The religious Orders beiug suppressed, next came in its turn the destruction of the secular clergy, and we, together with the Bishops of Italy, were constrained to see— alas, with what grief !— the fairest hopes of the Church torn from the sanctuary, youn* clerics in the very moment of consecrating themselves definitively to God forced to take arms and lead a life in every way opposed to the spirit of their vocation. What more? With another unjust law we saw the whole patrimony which the Church by sacred and inviolable title possessed, usurped in great part, and in part substituted by slender assignments, subject to the eventualities of the times and the caprice of Governments. We saw usurped and reduced to profane uses innumerable edifices which the faithful had erected at enormous sacrifices, and which formed the fairest ornament of Christian Rome, destined to receive the spouses of the Lord or other monastic families. We saw taken from us, and from the holy ministers of the altar, all the works and institutions of charity and beneficence, some of which the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, had erected here in- Rome with so much muuificence, and some of which were due to the charity of foreign nations; and if some remains of pious works still remain under the vigilance of the Church, it will not be long before a law is presented which will ' take them also from us and cause them to disappear altogether, as the open words and acts of the present Government convince us. We have seen, and we repeat it with the most intense bitterness of our soul, both public and private instruction, whether scientific or literary, withdrawn by degrees from the authority and direction of the Church, and the office of teaching entrusted to men of suspected faith, or to open enemies of the Church who had no scruple in making public profession of atheism. But for the apostate sons of the Church, it was not enough to

have assailed or destroyed so many institutions of such great importance so long as they had not also placed obstacles in the way of the free exercise of the spiritual mission of the ministers of the _ sanctuary. And they have compassed this criminal object by the law recently approved by the Chamber of Deputies, and which they designate as the law on clerical abuses, by virtue of which, they charge with crime and offence so many bishops and priests, and strike with heavy penalties those acts which the authors of the aforesaid law comprise under the insidious name of disturbance of conscience, or disturbance of the peace of families. la virtue also of this law which We point out, the words and writings of every sorb by which the ministers of religion believe that, by reason of their sacred charge, they are bound to denounce and disapprove laws, decrees, and every other act of civil authority, as contrary either to the rights of religion or to the laws of God and of the Church, will be equally liable to punishment and penalties ; as also the acts of those who may publish or circulate those writings, no matter what may be the rank of the ecclesiastical authority, or the place from which those writings are issued. So soon as this law can be sanctioned and promulgated, a lay tribunal may judge if and how a priest in the administration of the Sacraments disturbs the conscience of the faithful and the peace of families, and the word of the Bishops, of the priests, shall remain shackled and stifled, and not less shall be that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, who, although he tniy be personally called irresponsible for reasons of policy, shall nevertheless be punished in the persona of his accomplices ; as a Minister had no hesitation in declaring in public Parliament, when alluding to our person, he stated that it was neither a novelty nor an anomaly in penal legislation to punish accomplices when the principal author was be von d reach. From which it was evident that the blow aimed by this law, according to the meaning of the rulers, refers also to us, so that when our wnr Is or our acts are in opposition to it, the bishops and the pries's who shill publish or shall curry out our resolutioi s shall bear the penalty of that pretended crime which in their judgment is attributed to us, as to the principal author of the crime aud offence. Beliold, Venerable Brethren, how not only so many aids and institutions which had stood the test of centuries and other tempestuous epochs, institutions so necessary to the administr^tiou of the i Church, have bjen violently destroy d ; but see how the extreme is reached even of impeding tli.it sublime tnUaim whicli the Church had from her Divine Pounder, of teaching, directing, admonishing, by closing under threats of .severest penalties the mouth of her ministers, who, wliilp they teach ilia people to obseive all thut Jesus Christ bus commanded, while they are instant in season and out of se.kson — reproving, entreating, exhoi ting, teaching with all patience —are doing i exactly whit is imposed upon them by Divine and Apostolic j authority. We puss over in silence other dark machinations of the enem'es of the Church to which we are awaie gome in public aubho ity do not refuse their aid and encouragement — mitchiuations I through which they would desire to prepare for the Chmch day-* of yet greater desolation ; whether iv prompting occasions of schism at the moment of the election of the future Pontiff ; whether in disallowing the spiritual authority of the Bishops placed by us for the rule of the churches of Italy, which has forced us to declare that the presentation to the civil Government of the acts of their canonical institution may be tolerated, in order thus to prevent, as much as in us lies, most grave evils and dangers, which no longer refer to the simple possession of temporal goods, but which seriously threaten the peace of consciences and the sj.lva.tion of souls, which is for us the supreme law. But in this that we have done to prevent very serious evils, we desire that publicly, and once again, it may be known that we utterly reprove and condemn this unjust law, which is called of the regio plaoito, declaring openly that the Divine authority of the Church, is offended by it, auJ her liberty violated. After this painful exposition, which does not include many other deplorable things to which we could have extended oar discourse, we ask how is it possible that the Church can be governed by us under the dominion of an authority which deprives us of every means, which closes every way, which at every instau t imposes obstacles and embarrassments, .and which lays for v s at every moment new lynx-like traps? In truth, we cannot understand how men can be found who, we cannot tell whether with, greater levity or bad faith, endeavour, either by means of the daily papers, by pamphlets, or by speeches delivered in opportune meetings, to create the belief that the situation of the Roman Pontiff is such, here in Rome, that, even in the presence of a usurping Government, he can exercise his supreme ministry with tranquillity and freedom. And in support of this idea of theirs they let no opportunity escape, when bishops come to Rome, and are received by us in audience, when pilgrims crowd to the Vatican, or when discourses are from to time pronounced by us upon the attempts committed against the Church, maliciously to endeavour to convince the incautious that we are really free whether to receive, to speak, or even to govern the Universal Church. In truth, we are surprised at the shamelessneas with which these things are repeated, as if the exercise of the acts about which they make so much noise was left in our full and free power, and as if in them consisted the work of governing the Church confided to our care. For who are they who do not know .that the acts which to-day it is boasted are free are not dependent upon our power, but upon that of the present rulers, so that we can only perform them within certain limits, and for as long only as they are not prohibited ? That upon them depends the exercise of these acts called free is — even if other evidence were wanting — clearly shown by the last laws we have already deplored, in virtue of which, with new and intolerable oppression, the free exercise of our apiritual power and that of the ecclesiastical ministry is limited and shackled. But if they permit us to perform certain acts because they know it is to their interest to have it believed we are free, how many

other grave things of the highest importance and necessity there are, on the contrary, that when required we, in point of fact, cannot do, deprived as we are, through the chains laid upon us, of the requisite liberty and independence ? We would gladly have it that they who write and speak in the manner we have described should turn their eyes upon what occurs around ourself, and for a moment dispassionately judge, if it can in reality be said that the government of the Church is possible in the situation in which the Government of Usurpation has placed us. We would that they should hear the injuries and the insults which are daily launched, even in public Parliament, against our humble person — injuries and insults for which, individually, we pardon those unhappy ones who pronounce them, but which cannot do other than offend the whole Church in the person of its chief, whom they would seek to deprive of that high respect, in the minds of the faithful, which the Vicar of Christ requires for the supreme government of the Church. They would then be witnesses of the opprobrium and calumnies which, in every way possible, are vomited forth daily against your sublime Senate, and against tlie high dignitaries of the Church, with great disadvantages to their respective administrations. We would that these sustainers of our pretended liberties were here in Rome to look on while all the most august rites and teaching of the Catholic Church are derided and trampled under foot day by day, to be present at the many profanations of the most august mysteries, and to see impiety and atheism honored daily with public demonstrations and solemn processions, while prohibition prevents those religious processions which the ancient piety of the Italians was always free to organize on every sacred occasion. We would that they should hear the blasphemies which, without a word of protest on the part of the authorit ies, are vomited forth against the Church in the Parliamentary Chamber, where they have gone so far as to qualify her as subversive and aggressive, her liberty as wicked and fatal in principle, her doctrines as perverse, anti-social, and immoral, and her influence as hurtful to society. They would themselves be able to judge of the continued, varied, and powerful opportunities offered to incautious youth to demoralize and corrupt it, and to root out from its heart the faith of its fathers. We would, in short, that they should wander through the streets of this city, which, because of the Chair of St. Peter, is the seat and centre of religion, and then judge of the temples erected to false doctrines, the schools of error found at every corner, the many houses of perdition opened at every step, the most obscene and repulsive spectacles presented to the eyes of the public, make the position tolerable of him who by the duty of his Apostolic ministry ought to prevent, and would prevent, all these disorders, but, who on the contrary is deprived of every means and of all power of preventing even one and of guarding against the ruin of so nanny souls. This, Venerable Brethren, is the exact and truthful description of the position to which the ruling Government has reduced us ; this is tlie much boasted liberty and power we enjoy — liberty, it is true, to assist daily at the progressive destruction of all ecclesiastical organization, and of the certain ruin of souls, without being able to oppose the slightest remedy. After all this, is it not an atrocious irony and mockery to repeat to us, as is continually done, that we ought to come to an accord and a conciliation with the Government which oppresses us, when this pretended conciliation would be equivalent to a total abandonment on our part, not only of the rights of the Holy See, transmitted to us as a sacred and inviolable deposit by our august predecessors, but also in a more specific manner of the Divine mission confided to us for the good of souls, into the hands of an authority which puts everything into operation to destroy, if it were possible, even the name of the Catholic religion? Now, indeed, the world must be thoroughly enlightened as to the value of those pretended guarantees which, to delude the simplicity of the inciutious, a show was m ide of giving to the Head of the Church to ensure his dignity and independence ; guarantees which have no other foundation beyond the caprice and ill-will of the Government which applies, interprets, and carries them into effect, according to it 3 desires and its particular interests. No, the Roman Pontiff neither is nor ever will be free and independent under the dominion of an extraneous power. In Rome he must either be a sovereign or a prisoner, and the Catholic world can neveir be tranquil as long as the action of the Roman Pontiff shall be exposed to the agitation of parties, to the arbitrary power of the rulers, to the results of political elections, and the calculations of crafty and interested men. But do not believe, Venerable Brethren, that in the midst of so many difficulties we lose courage, or that there is any diminution in that trust we repose in the eternal decrees of the Omnipotent. Rather than seek a tranquil asylum in a foreign country we have remained here in Rome in order to defend — like a vigilant sentinel at the Sepulchre of St. Peter — tlie interests of the Catholic Church. We have struggled, and struggled daily, for the preservation of her rights. We defend inch by inch the little that still remains to save it from the usurpation of the Revolution. We have, in conformity with our duty, made our voice and our reclamations heard, and you, who have shared our trouble and the dangers with us, have been witnesses of the words we have publicly spoken, whether to condemn new attempts, to protest against the insolence of our enemies, or to warn the faithful against the seductions of hypocrites and the teachings of false brethren. Would to Heaven that these our words might in the end be heard by those whose duty and interest it should be to sustain our authority and to protect the most holy and legitimate cause of any upon the earth. And how can they be unaware that there cannot be prosperity for the nations, tranquillity and repose for the peoples, and firmness and stability for thrones, if the authority, of the Church, which is the foundation of all well-ordered society, is down-trodden and outraged, and if the person of the Supreme Hierarcb is not free and independent in his elevated ministry ?

for the rest, it is a cause of rejoicing' that our voice has, happily, been heard by the Catholic peoples, who have with alacrity received it -with filial piety and equal advantage j and the repeated and continued proofs which they give us, while they are a glory to them, and to the Church, are earnest of better days for the Church herself, and for the Apostolic See ; and in truth we cannot sufficiently express to you, Venerable Brethren, the consolation which, amid the general abandonment in which we are, we experience in seeing this spontaneous and generous movement which is manifesting and diffusing itself among the peoples of even the most remote nations in favour of the Roman Pontificate and of our humble person. The generous succors which come to us from every corner of the earth to supply the most urgent needs of the Holy See, and this gathering of the nations to the Vatican to testify to the Head of the Church the sentiments of their filial piety, are facts for which we cannot enough thank Divine Providence. We wish also that all might fully recognise the value and the significance of these pilgrimages, which, being thus multiplied in the very moment of peril for the Roman Pontificate, are not so much a demonstration of simple affection and reverence towards our humble person, as a clear and eloquent manifestation of the internal uneasiness which reigns in the hearts of all Catholics as to the abnormal position of their common Father ; an uneasiness which will not cease, but rather increase until the Head of Catholicity returns into the possession of his full and real independence. We would wish tba-t our voice, issuing from this inclosure, might penetrate to the utmost limits of the world, to attest to all the Catholics of the universe the gratitude of our soul for the generous and repeated proofs given us of their affection and filial devotion. We would thank them for J he sacrifices they make to the necessities of their Father, even to the forgetting sometimes of their own straitened means, knowing that they offer to God -what they give to the Church; we would wish to congratulate them for the courage they show in despising the anger and derision of the impious ; we would prove to them how much we are beholden to them for that alacrity wherewith they propose to give us a. new pledge of their love in celebrating the anniversary of the episcopal consecration which, albeit unworthy, we received now fifty years ago. We would wish that our voice might reach at one and the same time all the pastors, even the most distant, of the Catholic Church, to invite them to signalise to the faithful committed to their care the ever-increasing perils of our difficult situation ; we would wish that they might cause them to understand well that whatever be the fate awaiting us, we shall never cease to raise our voice against the iniquities committed under our own eyes; but it may well happen that by the recent laws, and by others which are announced as still more oppressive, our voice may not be able to reach them except rarely, and at the cost of grave and wearisome difficulties. Meanwhile, therefore, we exhort them to forewarn their flocks against the false and hypocritical insinuations of tho3e who with insidious arts attempt to misrepresent oar true and real situation, whether by concealing the gravity of it, whether by extolling its liberty and independence, while the whole situation is epitomized in these wtn-ds — the Church is persecuted in Italy ; and the Vicar of Jesu3 Christ is neither free nor independent in the exercise of his supreme power. And, this being the caso, nothing seems to be more opportune, nothing do we desire more ardently, than that those same holy pastors who have given us so many proofs of union and good-will, whether in defence of the sacred rights of the Church and in obedience and affection to this Holy See, should study to rouse up their faithful flocks to act upon their Governments through the means allowed by the laws of their respective countries, in order to induce them to cast a. glance upon the situation of fehe Head of the Catholic Church, and provide in an efficacious manner for the removal of the obstacles which prevent bis full and real independence. And a3 it is proper to God alone to illuminate minds and turn tlie hearts of men, we invite not only you, Venerable Brethren, to offer warm prayers to God, but we exhort the pastors themselves of all 'the Catholic peoples to assemble together their faithful in the temples, that they may not cease to pray from the depths of their heart for their common mother the Church, for the conversion of our enemies, and the cessation, of evils so great and universal. God will receive, we are confident, the supplications of His people who tura to Him, for He has pleasure in those who fear Him and hope in His mercy. Meantime, Venerable Brethern, let us comfort ourselves in the Lord and in the power of His might ; and, clothe-i in the armor of the strong 1 , let us not cease to combat with valor and vijjor, as we have hitherto done, against the powera of darkness and the perversity of this age. Already the torrent of revolution threatens to sweep away all things, and not a few of the authors and promoters of it look back terrified at their own work. God is with us, and will be with us until the consummation of the ages. Let those fear of whom it is written — " I saw those who committed iniquity and sowed troubles and reaped troubles perish at the breath of God, and they were consumed at the breath of His anger." Bat for those who fear God, who fight in His name, who hope in His power, is prepared mercy and aid ; nor is there room for doubting | that Hi 9 bein.* the causa, His the battle, Hj will guide the combatants to victory. - ___^_^ - _^^__^