The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 12, 1865.

Archbishop Manning's Pastoral.

The following is a copy of the newly-consecrated
Archbishop's Pastoral read at all the Catholic cha-
pels yesterday :
Henry Edward, by the Grace of God and the favour of the
Apostolic See, Archbishop Elect of Westminster, to the
Clergy, Secular and Regular, and the Faithful of the
said Diocese,
HEALTH AND BENEDICTION IN TEE LORD.

The Sovereign Will which by the assistance of the Spirit
of God, rules over the Church on earth, has seen fit, in
spite of our manifold infirmities, to lay on us the burden
of giving account, at the last day, of this great Flock.
When first these tidings reached us, all other thoughts
vanished before the consciousness of our great unworthi-
ness to be set as a Pastor over you. It is from you,
and from your examples of fidelity and zeal, of your
fearless inflexibility and childlike docility in the faith,
that we have been learning for these many years
past. We have- looked to you, reverend and beloved
brethren in Jesus Christ, as Counsellors, Guides, and
Fathers. And now, for our humiliation—we trust
not for your confusion,—the Divine Will of Him who calls
the " things that are not" as if they were, has placed us to
be to you, so far as He helps us, that which you have so
charitably been to us. Two things alone, under God, have
given to usany adequate consolation in this time of anxiety
and fear : the one, that what has fallen upon us comes from
the hand of the Vicar of the Divine Master; the other, that
in this manifestation of His will you have lost sight of our
unworthiness, and have come around us with such an ex-
pression of your fraternal charity and filial acceptance of
the choice of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to leave nothing
we could desire. To our Venerable Chapter of the Metro-
politan Church of Westminster, to the Reverend the Secu-
lar Clergy of the Diocese, and to the Religious Orders, and
we must not fail to add, to the faithful of every condition,
from the highest to the poorest, who have been forward in
their filial and loving sympathy, we desire now to offer our
heartfelt thanks, and to implore for them the abundant
graces of our Heavenly Father. If anything were needed
to demonstrate the unity of the true and living Church, and
to dissipate In confusion the dreams—perhaps the wishes—
of those who watch us, it would be the manly Christian C-
atholic loyalty, docility, and obedience as of soldiers to their
Chief with which you all, Reverend and dear brethren, as
one body, and you, dear children in the grace of Jesus Christ,
whether born of our noble and invincible stock of
Confessors and Martyrs, or called at the eleventh hour by
the loving kindness of our Redeemer, have all alike ranked
yourselves in one array to support us, who before God can
have no claim upon your love or your allegiance, save that
the Vicar of Jesus Christ has invested us with the mission
and office of the Apostles. And here we would affection-
ately and gratefully ask you to bear with us, and not to
harbour for a moment the thought that we have been in-
sensible to the expressions of kindness and confidence
which have reached us in these last days, by word and by
letter. They have so far exceeded in number both our
time and power to onswer them in writing, that we can
only ask you to wait until, either by letter or in person, we
can hereafter express to your our gratitude.
Thus much we have felt bound in conscience before God
to say in rendering you our thanks. It would be a cheap
and trivial thing to use professions of devotedness to you
in return. We have no more ardent desire that to die in
the midst of the flock, pastors, and sheep together, like the
great Pastor and Father of this Diocese who is now resting
in the midst of us. A few short years—and short they
must be—spent like the many years of his great Pontificate,
under the splendour of his memory, and in the path which
he has traced for us,—this is the most fervent prayer we
make to the tender love of our Divine Master.

Having already had twice, in the most public manner tlaa
happiness of expressing the love and veneration we bear to
our late illustrious Pastor and Father, we have purposely
refrained from doing so again at this time. Nevertheless,
we cannot forbear in this place to say with what joy we
made it our public act to promote the building of the
Cathedral which your gratitude and love has resolved to
erecr to his memory. All that we can do to forward this
work of your filial piety shall be done with our whole
heart.

Bear with us for speaking thus far of ourselves. It has
been forced upon us by our first entrance among you, and
by your charity. I may say " Vos me coegistis." If fault
there be, it is your kindness which has caused it. And as
it is the first time, so we hope it may be the last. It would
be a fault to say less, or more. We will now turn to other
thoughts, which from henceforth will be our our daily
work.

therefore,.committed the care of the flock not to His angels,
who excel in strength, but to us who must first be washed
in His most precious Blood ; that so, we may have com-
passion upon those who sin and are out of the way.
In such a land as this, reverend and dear brethren, we
have especial need to bear in mind this provision of Hi
mercy. It is not enough for us to wield in our hands the
perfect truth ; we must also bear in our hearts the more
perfect charity. " More truth, more charity" is an axiom
of the science of Jesus. Truth without charity wounds,
inflames, and repels. Truth spoken in charity illuminates
heals, and subdues. Truth is keen and severe in itself,
and wce to us if we poison its edge by human passion or
controversial bitterness. In such a land as this, and in the
midst of such spiritual confusions, the mere enun-
ciation of the one holy Faith, out of which
is no salvation, is sharp and wounding to the
susceptibilities and prejudices of men. But in this
we have no choice. " A necessity lieth upon me, for
woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel." They will
impute to you the sharpness which belongs to your
message. Speak as you will, with tha gentleness
of S. Francis of Sales, or the sweetness of S. Philip Neri,
they will arraign you of bitterness. Only let us, then, give
no occasion by personal heat, or biting words, or asperity
of tone. Charity and patience, with an inflexible witness
to the presence and voice of a Divine Teacher, Who calls
on all men to submit as disciples to His guidance, will at
last win souls on whom all the gifts and cultivation of the
natural order fall powerless. We have this en-
ceuragement. The work of God in England can-
not be stayed. " Verbum Dei non est alliga-
tum." " The Word of God is not bound." No
chains can bind it, no human will arrest its expansion.
The perfect revelation of the Day of Pentecost, with its
proper motives of credibility, has once more fairly entered
into the intelligence of the English people. • It is possess-
ing itself gradually and irristibly of a large sphere in pub-
lic opinion. It manifests itself not only to those who, day
by day, submit to it in faith, but even to those who hesi-
tate, gainsay, resist, and reject it. A generation ago, who
ever heard of the Catholic doctrine but a few retired men
among their books, or here and there some simple
person converted as by a special providence of God ?
Not so now. The work of the faith in Englafid
is not the work of individuals upon individuals, but
of the Church upon the intelligence of English-
men. Multitudes who aro separated from the Catholic
Church, and actively opposed to it, are dail becoming con-
scious of its presence, of its voice calling them to faith, of
its doctrines, above all of its unity in the midst of their di-
visions, and of its expansion in the midst of the advancing
dissolution of all other religious systems. It is surely-by
a disposition of the Divine Head of the. Church, that in the
heart of the nineteenth century, when both the intellects
and the wills of men have reached an excess of unbelief and
of licence in matters of revelation, of morals, and of poli-
tics, that the Vicar of our Lord, the Teacher of all Chris-
tians,—as the Council of Florences entitles him—should
twice in these last years, have spoken with the voice
infallible Truth; thereby testifying not only to
the singular prerogative which, as the first fruits of grace
was bestowed upon the Immaculate Mother of God, and to
the great constructive principles of morality and jurispru-
dence on which the Christian world is founded, but also to
the perpetual assistance of the Spirit of God, by whose
light the Church and its Pontiffs, in all ages, now as in
the beginning, discern and declare the limits of falsehood
and of truth. The Dogmatic Bull of the Immaculate Con-
ception, and the Encyclical of last year, will, we believe,
mark an epoch in the reconstitution of the Christian order
of the world. The wise and learned may deride us. We
can well afford to wait till the derision of the nineteenth
century is buried with the heresies of the last eighteen.