THE IRISH BISHOPS AND THE POPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 38, 10 January 1890, Page 31

THE IRISH BISHOPS AND THE POPE.

At the recent meeting of the Imh Bishops held at Clonliffe College, i be following letter of sympathy to < he Pope, deploring the occurrence* connected with the Bruno celebration, was adopted :—: — Most Holt Father— We, the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, in general meeting assembled, prostrate at the feet of your Holiness, express our deep sense of grief at the execrable and unprecedented insults which most ian pious men have lately offered toOhiUt our Lord himself, and to yon who are his Vicar on earth. Under your very eyes, tbese enemies have loaded with the highest honours an apostate who had abjured the Christian religi n, and who wag destitute of all virtue. In the holy city of Borne tbey have sacrilegiously worshipped the detestable enemy of mankind. Assuredly, your paternal heart, Most Holy Father, is filled with grief at the a abhornoess of your children, exclaiming, with lue prophet :— 11 Mlios envtriti et exaltavi, ipsi avtem, sprevertmt me." But we, in accordance with the spirit ot our Irish people, foremost in seal for the house of God and the honour of your Holi jesa. cry with one voise : " Exurgat Dem, et ditipenter inimiei ejut, et fugiant pui oderunt cum a fade ejus : ticiit deficit fumut defioiant ; ticutfluit oera a facia ignis." It behoves us, moreover, Most Holy Father, to affirm the necessity made more and more clear of preserving unimpaired the Temporal Sovereignty of yonr Holiness and the Holy Apostolic See. •' Nwno reqes inteUigite, erudimini gui judicati* terram." For if, in the city of Rome, wbich has been consecrated by the g orious blooi of the two Princes of the Apostles, and which is honoured through the entire world for its venerableness and sanctity , these crimes have been perpetrated, how much mor* ought secular princes to fear. But since Your Holiness can neither prevent nor restrain in any way tbese insults and blasphemies, perpetrated under your eyes, it is manifest that Yonr Temporal Sovereignty is necessary for the fall and free exercise cf the Apostolic duties, and to curb the persis.eat enmity of the impiouß. Prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness we humbly implore for ourselves and the flocks committed to oar care the Apostolic Benediction.

Given at Holy Cross College, Dublin, the 16th day of October,