FATHER CURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 246, 18 January 1878, Page 13

FATHER CURCH.

This Tablet' h Human Correspondent .says : Father Curci is undoubtedly possessed of great abilities as a preacher and writer. He founded the Civiltu Cattolica. But he has had no connection with that review for mauy ye ir^ past. Although formerly a strenuous advocate for 'the temporal power of Hie Tope, he changed his opinion* after September, 1870, find advocated conciliation with- the /Iviiuuphant revolution. In the preamble to his work on the four Evangelists he gave pi'iblic utterance somcwlnvt; vaguely to these extraordinary ideas, and'in Juno, 18i5^*rdtc a long and extremely impertinent epistle )Lo thb 1 Pope, dictating to His Holiness the course to be adopted for ratifying the usurpation andTnftking terms with Victor Emanuel. That letter remnincdunnoticed b} r i>be press and unknown to the public until it Wiis printed in March, 1877;' in the RicUta Envopw* It was repriftteid 1 hvthe Liberal journals of Italy in October^ 1877. The conduct Or -father tJUi»ci occasioned trouble nud pain to the members of Ihe Society of Jcstis. The leather General, leather Beckx, endeavoured to restrain 'the" fiilly of Father Curci and diminish the scandals he caused to the faithful > Father Curci was not permitted to preach in places where life audience would \>z likely to expect political discourses, and every effort was made to prevent him from compromising Ihe Society by iniprudciifc language. It is said, and doubtless with truth, thkt'Fatlier Cxu'di himself did not publish in the newspapers the lcttcrbc sent to the Pope iii Juno, 187«. but its publication in 1 877 made it imperatively necessary that Father Curci should either leave the Society of Jesus Or else retract the statements of the letter, and promise not" to- repeat them by word or by pen. Father Curci could nut 1 bring himself to confess himself in the wrong, and to make the required' reparation. He came to Home for the purpose of arranging the affair and of consulting the authorities, and eventually lie consented to withdraw from the Society rather thau obey the commands" of his superiors. He then wrote to Father Beckx, demanding his dismissal from 1 the Society, and intimating at the same time that if Father' Beckx did not grant the dismissal ho would apply to a Roman Congregation to compel the General to grant it. It is quite untrue to say -that Father Cnrci was harshly treated by the Pope, or that the Pope peremptorily ordered the expulsion of Father Curci. The assertions that Father Curci was arrested and detained in a Jesuit convent in Frascati mwt be set down to ignorance and malice, for the Jesuits have no convent or country house in or near Frascati, unless the boarding school at Mondragono be alluded to. and Father < 'urci was not either iv Frascati or Mondragonc but stayed in the German College in Home during his recjut visit. It is certain that Father Curci lias been treated with much tenderness and kindness. Ample time was given him to make hi* act of obedience, and final separation from the society was effected iv compliance with his own urgent request. He has announced his intention to prepare for publication a defence of his behaviour. The following is a letter ot the General of the Order giving Father Curci his dismissal :—: — ••Fiesolc, Oct. 2^. 1877. •' Rev. Father in Christ. I. C. (I'ax-Christf) •• I have received the letter <>l' your Hcvereucc. in which you express your de-iire to receive from me separation from the Company of Jcstis. For me it i« always a painful act to have to loose the sacred bond which joins a member to our Company : but in the present case such an act brings to my heart an affliction which it is not possible to describe in words. " For some time back jour Reverence has had fixed in \ our mind certain opinions which you :<re pleased to call political, but which in reality toucli the sacred interests of the Church and the mode of governing her under the present circumstances : and to sustain these your opinions you have not feared to rashly constitute yourself the judge of those whom the Lord has constituted rulers of His Church. Acrainst the will of your Superiors, you have determined to persist in maintaining:, and even in insinuating into the minds of others, which is worse, and in disseminating by voice and writing these your ideas, which were inorco\cr a grave offence against the Yiear of Jesus Christ and a scandal to the faithful. After admouishing you. many and many times by word of month and by letter, but alwa\s in vain and without effect : having lately seen these your principles and maxims published and debated iv the public newspapers of evoiy colour ; and recognising the duty of giving satisfaction to the Holy Father, of removing or diminishing the scandal given to the faithful, and of ' manifesting publicly that our Company, which professes according lo its institute, supreme veneration, and the fullest obedience to the ' Holy Sec, does not admit, bat reproves and rejects all these opinions put forth by one of its members : I thought it my duty to command your licvcrenee to publicly retract and reprove thosj opinions. Now. j however, your lievereiicc. instead of obeying, as you solemnly vowed , to (.rod and the Superiors of the Order that you would obey, demands from me, in preference, to be separate 1 from the Company. When I consider that your Heverenee has lived in the Company ' BUj^pnc years : that mil you received jour literary and religious WB^BUion ; that you have renderd, by your rare talents, to religion in general and lo our Company in particular signal services, and might still render them if you wished to follow the rules of obedience prescribed bj r our Institute ; and when I see you now in determination rather to abandon the Order than renounce your strange ideas, I cannot but most deeply grieve for the dcnruvl of your separation. But inasmuch ns you will not submit yourself to obedience, n.ay have declared that you wish no longer to receive my commands, and once and again have invited me "to break the thin ffirrnrl'' which | still holds j'ou to the Company, nothing remains to me save the sad ; necessit3 r to do as you desire, and to give you, iv the name of God, ! and, with the authority of His Holiness, the .separation you have ' required. In performing this painful net I beseech the Lord that you ' Reverence, at the hour of death, may find quiet of conscience and ' peace for eternity, which may God grant to be for you a happj r one. | Your Reverence's Seivant in Christ, ' PIETIIO BkCKX, i Provost General of the Company of Jesus.