Allocution by Pius XI

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 34, 30 August 1923, Page 21

Allocution by Pius XI

Following is a translation of the Holy Father's Allocution at the Secret Consistory early in June: It gives' Us great pleasure, Venerable Brethren, to see you gathered round Us once again, to consider together the supreme interests of the Church, which is to say the interests of souls and of Almighty-God Himself. To see you and speak to you is always a pleasure; to-day it is a double pleasure, in that there is no lack of occasion for gratitude to Divine goodness, and of" matters which are a source of consolation and happiness for Us to refer to even briefly, and must surely be the same for you to listen to and remember. We are thinking, first of all, of the magnificent, really wonderful, development of Eucharistic celebrations in Italy and the whole Catholic world, truly among the most glorious and happy pages in the story of the Holy Eucharist and of the Catholic Church. The glories of heroism of the first centuries of Christianity, the immediate and energetic reaction aroused by the errors and heresies of the different ages, the Eucharistic miracles wrought in many places, the decrees and canons of the great Councils; the incessant care of the Roman Pontiffs for the devotion of the Holy Eucharist, their solemn and repeated sanctions, the help of the great Eucharistic functions— Domini, the Forty Hours, Perpetual Adoration,. First Communion, Frequent Communion— are with us to show how just as the Divine Eucharist has always been the greatest and highest thing in the Church and for the Church, the centre and reason of existence of all.worship, the source and food of all supernatural life, so from the daily unceasing devotion to the Holy Eucharist there has arisen again and again at different times among new Religious Families, wholly consecrated to the Holy Eucharist, manifestations of wonderful importance, magnitude, and beauty. What we have seen during the course of Eucharistic Congresses—ferences and sermons, frequentation of the Sacraments and real conversions, day and night Adoration, triumphal pro—surely all these manifestations are of wonderful importance, magnitude, and beauty. It is with all Our heart that, together with you, Venerable Brethren, We thank and praise the Lord; and with full heart, too, We pay well-merited tribute of praise to the bishops and clergy, to their initiative and apostolic effort from which has come a work of such glory to God and salvation, for souls and to the Catholic laity, to whose noble devoted co-operation that initiative and effort owe, under God, their success and fruit. Catholic Action. And We have another matter for great joy and profound consolation' in the welcome, full of faith and filial devotion, given by the whole Catholic world to Our first Encyclical. Proof of this welcome has reached Us and is still reaching Us from everywhere in numberless pious and religious demonstrations. A special source of joy it is to Us to see the fervent desire for good and the feeling of duty with which the episcopate, clergy, and Catholic laity have received and are carrying out Our desires and, recommendations regarding all that collection of enterprises and institutions, organisation and work, comprised under the title of Catholic Action. When one thinks of its aim, the formation of consciences according to the true principles given Us by Christ Our Lord, under the guidance of the Hierarchy and in harmony with the individual and social duties and necessities of different States and different classes, it is impossible to help seeing the benefit, the importance,' and the need of it, not only for religious life and for the Church, but also for civil life and human society. It is on this ground that in the Encyclical We expressly said that now undoubtedly it is a part of the pastoral ministry on the one hand and of Christian life on the other; on this ground that every thing that is done, or allowed to be done, on its behalf or against it is on behalf of or against the inviolable rights of consciences and of the Church. That Catholic Action is being developed and consolidated ever more widely, and that this is happening through an increasingly deep and holy Eucharistic inspiration; that clergy and laity, the young and the grown-up of both sexes, are vying with one another in activity Xi and self-sacrifice, in holy rivalry in Apostolic devotion—all this fills Us with pure and holy joy and gives Us sure hope of a better future.

A Missionary Exhibition.

A similar hope we feel, and one that extends to the furthest confines of the world in every direction, in that universal Missionary Exhibition to be held in the coming Holy Year in this Our Vatican, which Exhibition, as you know, Venerable Brethren, Wo announced at the same moment that We gave charge of it to His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. It is now a great joy to Us to be able to announce to you in this solemn assembly that, thanks to the care of his Eminence and those helping him, and to the warm welcome and the generous acceptance of the invitation sent out to all parts of the world, the success of the Exhibition seems assured. And, indeed, it cannot but be of immense help to that greatest and holiest of all Catholic works, the work of the missions, that the faithful who come from the entire world to the tombs of the Blessed Apostles for the celebrations of the Holy Year should see spread out before their eyes the whole extent and importance of that work of Almighty God, the assistance for which it craves, the difficulties and obstacles it has to fight and overcome, all that has been done and all that is still to do, the necessity and the duty that none can escapethat everyone, as far as is in his power, should come to the help of the heroic missionaries who leave all things and all men to go to pour out work and life for the salvation of souls redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Directly and immediately the missions themselves will gain, coming together to exchange views and experience; and, We have sure hope, there will be gain, too, for the technical and scientific missionary preparation and formation, the need of which is seen now more than ever, to provide ever more intelligent and efficient instruments for grace and holiness, which are and always will be in the first rank in this supernatural and Divine work. Evils of the Time. We would like to go on speaking to you, Venerable Brethren, of things which bring happiness and consolation, but in truth there are other things that We have to speak of and consider which bring no joy or consolation, but rather affliction and sorrow. In the Near East, in Europe and Asia, where Christianity has so many and such vital records and interests, the. horizon is still covered by dark and threatening clouds. Conditions are still those of unspeakable tribulation for entire peoples and countries, with incalculable harm not only to our holy religion but also to the most elementary interests of humanity and civilisation. It is almost superfluous to add that, just as We have always defended, and will always defend to the utmost of Our power, the rights of Catholics, as inalienable as they are evident and above all preponderant, over the Holy Places, so also We will continue to give all the comfort and help in Our power to relieve the many miseries to which We have alluded. We can only wish that it had been given Us to rescue all the homeless and find a refuge v for all the orphans, as We have been able to do or —very few indeed in comparison with the need—by the aid of the wide charitable generosity for which We take the opportunity of this solemn moment and meeting to express Our thanks. Europe itself, too, suffers from many serious ills. On the Continent and in the great islands peoples of old and magistral civilisation are contending and wearing themselves out in fratricidal and exhausting.strife, with actual enormous mutual damage of every sort and kind, with danger of immensely greater damage for all Europe, indeed for all human society ... a spectacle unspeakably sad and grievous for Us, Father of all the contending parties. They are divided and agitated by a different conception of, or a different desire for, political liberty and independence; of the reciprocally disastrous point of divergence is a different interpretation of treaties or a different valuation of the rights and duties emerging from them. But whether they have remained always at home or have left their homes either recently or long ago, they are always, every one of them, children of the Father who delights in sitting at the common table with his children who have remained, and desires and hopes always to see the return of those who have gone away. They are all, every one of them, sheep and lambs of the same fold to which the one Divine Shepherd is ever lovingly calling them. Among the host of those thus striving We see children endeared to Us under many different titles children of the

Isle of Saints and of the Isle of Angels, of the Eldest Daughter and of Catholic Germany, which put in the balance against the great falling away of four centuries ago such noble fervor and sound, fruitful organisation of Catholic life, even through the terrible war and the present troubles. Nor can Wo help seeing amid the damage of every kind the immense sufferings of all the religious institutions and works of those Our children who by their very sufferings are rendered ever more dear to Us. I s there need to say with what sorrow We see all these things happening, the long continuance of such miserable conditions? God knows, Wo have done and attempted everything that was materially and morally, to bring them to an end or at least alleviate them nor shall we cease to do so as long as any possibility remains, if only crying "Peace, Peace, Peace," as Wo cry to-day from the bottom of Our heart. And it is and will always be possible for TJs to pray the God of Peace that Ho bring back and establish His Peace in all hearts, inspiring in them justice and charity, leading them to friendly understandings, and this prayer We offer and will offer with all the ardor of Our soul. The Persecution in Russia. Even more terrible happenings We have seen in RussiaThere is no need here to recall in detail what all know so well, as the story has been told fully in the public press. But one thing We must note. Messengers and ministers of the Head of the Catholic religion were pouring out on the suffering and starving children of great Russia, with devotion and self-sacrifice which deserved and indeed received the praise and admiration of all, the benefits which were made possible by the help We implored and which was given so generously and unfailingly by the Catholics of the whole world. While that was happening, authorised representatives of the Catholic religion were tried and condemned to suffer in prison, and one of them even was killed. In honor we desire to put on record here the names of John Baptist Cieplak, Archbishop of Acrida, and his companion' priests, Leonidas Fedorow, Constantino Budkiewicz, Stanislas Gismont, Edward Juniewicz, Lucian Hwicko, Paul Hodniewicz, Anthony Wasilevsky, Peter Janukiewicz' Theofilus Matulanis, John Trojgo, Dominic Iwanow, Francis Rutkowsky, Augustine Pronsketis, Anthony Malecki, and the pious youth, James Sciarnas. The proceedings against these men were taken without our knowledge; and, later We were not heeded when We asked that Our spiritual subjects should be sent to Us with the documentary accusations against them, and pledged Ourself to give them the judgment they merited. And far worse is the factif the reports published are correct—that these representatives of a religion which was showering such benefits on the Russian people were condemned to prison and death with open manifestations of hatred and insult for the holy and Divine religion which they represented and had insisted on observing in its laws and upholding at all costs. Whatever there may be of value or weight in the accusations laid against Archbishop Cieplak and his companions in suffering, in particular the priest Budkiewicz who was shot, undying consolation is given Us for the grief We have suffered and suffer, both in the glory which comes to them, to our holy religion, and to Almighty God, and in the absolute trust We have that their condemnation, their sufferings, and above all their blood, will be the seed of the growth of many good Catholics as were the seed of Christian growth in the first days of the Church. And this trust lives all the stronger in Us on behalf of those who have suffered with Our brethren, and who, despite all division, are also Our loved children in the charity of Christ and in the unity of the fold for which. We. always long; and these We do not separate from the others, praying for all those measures of humanity which the whole world desires to see. Charitable Work to Continue. It is needless to add that all that has happened will not stop the charitable work, undertaken and continued now for many months," to alleviate the terrible suffering. We shall go on" with it as long as We see need and as long as we are able, remembering the Apostle's words: "Be not' overcome by evil; but overcome evil by good" (Rom. xii, 21). And this, too, will be a means of showing how We long for peace with all, preserving all rights. due in justice to the feeble, the poor, and the suffering,- especially those who suffer for justice and .truth; safeguarding above 'all

things and before all things, in the supreme interests also of civil society, the rights of the Catholic. Church, established by Divine disposition as the one and only mistress and upholder of justice and truth, because the one and only guardian of the incorruptible teaching and the Blood of the Divine Redeemer. The inviolability of these rights will always be for Us a line over which it is not possible to pass, desirous as We ever are to be in peace with all and to co-operate in the universal pacification; willing as We are, where it is- possible, to make concessions and even sacrifices which may be necessary to attain less troubled conditions of life for the Church, and pacification of minds, in tho different countries. The New Beati". But to return to happier, more consoling thoughts, over these Our prayers and intentions for peace We invoke with special trust the patronage of the Venerable Servants of Cod whom the Divine goodness has granted Us to elevate to the title and the honors of the Blessed: Blessed Therese de ['Enfant Jesus, Blessed Michael Caricoits, Blessed Robert Bellarmine, of whom We love to say with our Ambrose, Tales ambio defensores. May the patronage of these great servants and friends of God accompany, and make auspicious of all celestial favors, the Apostolic Benediction which, with all Our heart, We impart to you, Venerable Brethren, to the whole Sacred College and to the whole Church.