장음표시 사용
71쪽
a rich bl sing sor the clero and people of their generation. Since stat time, however, the both of our clero and religiolis hasgmWn to Wonde ut dimensiona, our Catholio institutions havo boon multiplied tensold, with a corresponding increme in the number os cur salthsul laity. The territory likeWis' OVer Which they are spread, has been greatly enlarged. The land of the far Wost, thatonce Was desolate aud impam te, inmugh God's providentiat mer , noW rejoicis and flourishos like the lily. Under His missing hand, it has boon taurat to bud sorth and blossom and rejoice With joy andand pralae. The Wildernem has exchanged iis solitudo sor tho humof b y life and industry; and the steps of our mimionaries and Catholio solitora havs invariably ei ther preceded or accompanted inow tWard progress of civiligation. Formis have gi ven a V to cities, Where Catholic templis r ocho the pruises of the Most High, Whero thoprioclem perfumo of the Cloan Oblation,'' soretoid by Malachi, dailyascenda in heaven, and where the lise-giving sacramenis of Holy Churoham dispensed is a devoted clero. In VieW of this great progress Ofour holy religion, this mamellous Widening of the tabernaclis of Jacob, it has been j md Wise and expedient, is nos absolutely necessary, to examine me the legislation of our predecessors, not with any pur se of radices change, much tres os abrogation, but to preserve and perfeci iis spirit is ad ting it to our altered circumstances. And as every day gives blath to neW errore, and lapse of timo ordistanco os placo allows abuses to gradually creep into regular dis
72쪽
lxx CONCILIUM PLENARIUM BALTIMORENSE ΙΙΙ.
to preside over ita deliberations. Ono of the most important eventa that our age has Witia sed masine assembling is Pius IX., of liappy memoΠ, of the Generat Coun-oil of the Vatican. It was held ilum years after the close of our,cond Plenary Councti, and ait, or nearly all, of iis membera, and many besides of the prelates no semblod in this Third PlenaryCouncti, e oyed the rare privilege of sitiing Willi tho other Prinoes of tho Churin in the only numenical Synod muchsasod theso lauerages. Ita inted ta8k Was to condemn the most influentiai and insidious errors of the day, and to complete the legislation on weightymatters of disciplino that had been contemplated and discussed, butiost undecidia, by tho Councit of Trent. Like ita prodecessor, the uncii of the Vatican was interrupted by the disturbod conditionos Europe; and the Fathera, leaving the work of their doliberatio
unfinished, returned to their homes, AOme to this Matern continent, Othera to remoto regions of the East. But me mouid Ain chorish tholiope, and list up to heaven our earnest prayer, that the Father os mercies and God os ali consolation, Who is ever ready to com ri Hismuroh in ali her tribulations, Who holds in His hand the oou eis of princes and the devices of peoples, may deign, in His οφ good time,
73쪽
Catholic sello W-itigens; they have though raraly) made their appeMance in the public press and even in the pulpit. Could me rely sullyon the innare good sense of the American people and on that habitualrevereum sor God and religion Whicli has Eo far been their just prideand glory, there might Mem comparatively littie danger of the generaldiffusion of those Wild theorios whicli rejoci or ignore Revelation, under ne morali , and end not unfrequently by banishing God
destre to promote his material intermis, the unconcern or rather Con
74쪽
lxxii CONCILIUM PLENARIUM BALTIMORENSE III.
75쪽
lxxiii pleuding os princes anil potentates could ever Win Rome's sympathy for error; no heresy under salse semblance of Catholio truth evre yet eluded her vigilant eye Cf. St. Cyprian, Ep. lix.).
Vatican uncti, has unequivocatly declared that her authentios hesman is the successor os St. riter in the Apostolio Seo of me, and that whalaver he, as IIoad of the Church, desinos eae
crethedra is part of tho Deposit of Faith intri ted to hor heeping by Christ Our Lord, and henco is subject to neither dental, doubi nor revision, but is to bo implicit ly received and belloved by all.
In this authoritative declaration there is nothing nem, nothingio give cause ser Wonder. It is oesy setting the solemn sint of definition umn What has always been the bellos and practico of the in ch. Yot tho gatos of Heli,' tho mwers of datan a that s ever asinii tho Chureli bulli on Petor liough knowing that theycannot prevail against it nor mahe void God's promise Matth. xvi., 18)-Mem to have been stirred to the very depilis by the proclam tion os this great truth. And their impotent rage has seund iis echoumn earin. The definition evoked a stom os fierce obloquy and
76쪽
lxxiv CONCILIUM PLENARIUM BALTIMORENSE III.
in ch. pretendod that is defining the infallibiliw of St.
ritor's successor, ine had made heraeis me ene of Caesar. Herein me see plainly Verified the strong language Os Scriptura: Iniquityhath liod lo idiolf V Ps. xxvi., 19). The Pope, eum aster the pr clamation of his insulibility, is no more the enemy of Caesar and of human govermenta, than was the insulible Petis the enomy a Nero, or Christ our Loes, who is insulible truth ilaeis, tho ene of Augustus and Tiberius, under Whom He Was bom into the woriri tauot and suffered. The goomments by Which, three centuries ago, the neW tenets of Luther, Zwingli and Calvin had Mon imposinon reluctant peoples by the sWord, Were the fidit, indein the only ones,to again u heathe it against Catholio bellevera, and especialty against bishops and clero. It was their pur se to exterminate is degremtho Catholic hierarchy, and reptam it is a servile pri thood that would subordinato ita ministry and te hing to tho mill of the Stato. To do this they had to trample on solemn treatim and organio lama. But tho Catholics of Prussia, clero and p pie, While proving siem- solvos most devoted and fiathses to their muniry's lams, Mood uplike a mali os adamant against the tyranny of ita resera. Withgenemus Vigor and admirabie constan , they availed themselvos of every legal and constitutiones meam to chech the advanore ad potism, and save their own Deedom and that of their munt . They have given to the morid a glorious example, Which it is to bohopod tho victims of tyrannova Liberalism in Catholic muniries maysome day have the Wisdom or the murum to imitate. The Etrurale has noW lasted fourinen years; but the Very frienda of iliis pers cuting legislation have been drivon at last to acknowlodgo that it has proved to M a miserable saltum; and no bellor proos os it could boso d than the faci that tho rulers of Prussia have had to sali bainon the patriotism of the Catholio body to sisy the threatening marchos socialium and revolution. In SWilaerland, ωο, the persecution
77쪽
as the early Christians held firmiy to tho divinity of the Son and of tho Holy Ghost three hundred years besere tho Churoh found it
murch oesy by the caricatures Mam is projudice, have occasion- atly r echoed the fame charge; but despite local and tempora excitementa, the good sense of the American people has alwaysprevialed against the calum . We illink we can claim to boaequalesia both with the laws, institutions and spirit of tho Catholio Churin, and with tho lam, institutions and spirit of our munt ;and we emphaticalty declare fiat there is no antagonism be, nstem. Α Catholio finds himself at homo in tho Unitod Statos; sortia influonoe of his in ch has constantly been exercisod in bellaifof individual righis and popular libertios. And the right-mindod
78쪽
lxxvi CONCILIUM PLENARIUM BALTIMORENSE III.
not one of anarchy or os license. It essentialty involves love of ordor, respect for righ ut authority, and obedience to just lams. There is nothing in the character of the most liberi y-loving American, Whichoouid hinder his reverentiat submission to the Divine authority of Our Lord, or to the like authori delegared by Ηim to His Apostlos and His Ch oh. Nor are there in the worid more devoted adhoranis of tho Catholio murta, tho See of Peter, and tho Vicis of Christ, than tho Catholios of the United States. Narrow, insular, nationalViems and jealoi ies concerning ecclesiasticat authority and Churinomantiation, may lime Sprum naturalty enough hom the scissi, pol-icy os certain rulers and nations in by-gono times; but they finit nosympathy in the spirit of the true American Catholic. His naturali tincta, no lem stan his religiolis training, mouid sorbid him tosubmit in matrers of saith to the dictation of tho State or to any
exclusi vo or limited, but an integrat pars of the one, holy, Catholicand Apostolio Ch oh of Jesus Christ, Whicli is tho Body of Christ,
79쪽
lxxviios spoliation and confiscation. At this moment, he sees that inmegram laid upon the property of the Propaganda, piousj set apari forspro ing the Gospei of Jesus Christ throughout the missionury mun- tries of the Worid. ultorly unjustifiable an aes has callia sortii acry of indignant protest smin the Catholics of ali muniries, and Dom
ican College Dom confiscation; and me liope that the protest and appeal of ali govermenta and p ples that love justice and liato iniquity V may yet Elime tho spolier into honesty. Memmilite thohearis of ait Catholim go out ali ine more lovi ly to Us their persecuted Chios Pastor; and Dom their moridly means, M th abundant or se ty, they gladiy supply him With the means necessa sor car ing on the administration of his high ossico. Sueli has Monyοὐ liberality in the past, beloved brethren, stat me hardly need exhori you to generosib in the collection sor the Holy Father, whichmili continuo to be mado annualty throughout ali the diocosos of thomunt . Let your devesed affection be Ahom by yοur deeiis, and the persistency of injustice be more than malched by the constanc of your salthsul and generous loVe. Whilo endi ing mitti the heroisi os a martyr tho trials Whichiasot him, and trusissilly awatting the Almighty's duy of deliverance, the enerin and wisdom of Loo XIII. are soli to the eiads of the earth. Ηe is car ing on With the govemmenis of Europe the negotiations Whicli promise soon to bring mam to the Church. In the risi ho is preparing the Way sor the retum to Catholic unity of the millions whom tho Oroeli schism has so long deprived of communion withthe Seo of Ρetor, and he is follo ing the progress of exploration in
80쪽
lxxvi ii CONCILIUM PLENARIUM BALTIMORENSE III.
so gradual yet so rapid has been fas ely guidod in the linos of Catholicand Apostolio tradition, by the combinod offoris and wisdom os our
locat Hierarchy and of the successore os St. Peter. It was in orderio take cou et With the representatives of the American Hierarchyconcerning the important intermis os religion in this munt , stat the
Ηοly Father, last year, invited the Archbishops of the Vestod Statesto Romo. And tho object of the present Councit is to put intopractical Ahape the means os religious improvement ilien resoluta
ons os our fidit cares has been to provido for the more persectoducation os aspirantes to the holy pri thood. It has alWays beontho Churctgs ondeavor that her cloiny Ahould be eminent in karning. For Ahe has always considered that nothing loes than this is requirod