The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-06 00:00:00

Allocution of the Pope.

ROME, Oct 30.
The following is the text of the allocution upon
Italian affairs, delivered by the Pope at the secret

consistory held yesterday :
" Venerable Brethren,—More than once, in the
fulfilment of our apostolic office, we have lamented,

both in our published letters, and in divers allocu-
tions pronounced in this very noble assembly, the
afflictions long weighing in Italy upon the affairs of
our most holy religion, and the very grave insults
inflicted upon ourselves and the apostolic chair by
the Subalpine Government. You will therefore
understand the sorrow with which we are now over-
come when we see that Government, with daily
increasing passion, incessantly attack the Catholic
Church, her salutarylaws, and all her sacred minis-
ters; when we see, alas ! venerable bishops and men of
the greatest integrity among the clergy, and other
very virtuous Catholic citizens, without any regard
for religion, justice,and humanity, sent into exile by
that Government, or thrown into prison, or con-
demned to reside at a stated place and molested in
the most unworthy manner ; when we see dioceses
deprived of their pastors to the very great prejudice
of souls, virgins consecrated to God carried away
from their convents and reduced to mendicity, the
temples of God violated, diocesan seminaries closed
to the members of the clergy, the instruction of the
Catholic youth taken from Christian discipline and
entrusted to professors of error and iniquity, and the
patrimony of the Church usurped and sold. That
same Government, despising ecclesiastical censure,
and paying no attention whatever to our most just
demands, and those of our venerable brethren, the
bishops of Italy, has sanctioned similar laws en-
tirely contrary to the Catholic Church and to her
doctrine and her rights, reproved by us, and has
not hesitated to promulgate a law touching civil
marriage, as we call it—a law not only quite con-
trary to Catholic doctrine, but also to the welfare of
civil society. Such a law tramples under foot the
dignity and sanctity of marriage, destroys that in-
stitution, and encourages an altogether shameful
concubinage. In fact there can be no marriage
between the faithful without there being at one and
the same time sacrament. Thus, it belongs exclu-
sively to the power of the Church to decree every-
thing which may concern the sacrament of marriage.
" Further, that Government, wounding in a sens-
ible manner the state of public profession of evan-

gelical vows which has had, and always will have,
force in the Church of God, and misconceiving the
_ _

very great benefits of regular orders, which, founded
by holy men and approved by the Holy Apostolieal
Church, have deserved admirably of the civil and
literary Christian world by so many glorious labours
and so many pious and useful works, has not feared
to sanction a law suppressing, through the countries
under its dominion, all religious bodies (corpora-
tions) of both sexes, and has appropriated to itself
all their property, and much other Church property,
and has ordered its partition. Before entering into
possession of the province of Venetia, it has not
hesitated to extend the same laws to that country,
and has ordered, contrary to all law and right, the
entire destruction and annihilation of the convention
entered into by us with our very dear son in Christ
Jesus, Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria.
"In consequence, faithful to the very grave duty
of our apostolic ministry, we raise anew, iu this very
noble meeting, our voice in favour of religion, the
Church, her holy laws, and the rights of authority of
this chair of St. Peter, and with our utmost strength
we deplore and reprove all and every of those things
which have been decreed, done, and attempted by
the Subalpine Government, a d
n by every ether
subordinate authority against the Church, her
laws, and her rights ; and by our apostolic autho-
rity we abrogate and proclaim null and of no
effect and without force or value all the said decrees,
with everything attaching thereunto. We also call
upon their authors, who glory in the name of Chris-
tians, to call to mind and seriously to consider that
they have, unhappily, incurred the spiritual cen-
sures and penalties inflicted by the apostolic consti-
tution, and the decrees of the oecumenical councils
upon whomsoever attacks the rights of the State..
" You know, venerable brethren, that certain
astute men fight against us, and interpret in their
sense the benediction we gave to Italy when, as-
suredly without any personal merit, but thanks to
the impenetrable judgment of God, we spontaneously
pronounced words of pardon and peace out of affec-
tion for the populations of the Pontifical State. In
truth, filled with the solicitude for the happiness
and the fidelity of the entire flock, imploring in our
prayer to God the welfare of Italy, we prayed with
fervour and humility that he would deliver her from
the evils by which she was tried, that the most pre-
cious gift of Catholic faith might be all powerful in
Italy, and that sobriety of morals, justice, charity,
and all the Christian virtues might flourish in her
more than ever. Even now we do not cease to offer
up to God the most fervent prayers that He will
deign in His benevolence, to deliver the Catholic
population of Italy from the many and great cala-
mities of every sort by which they are oppressed
and assailed through the fault of the governors of
the country, and from multiform persecution. But,
above all things, we supplicate the Lord of all mercy
to strengthen and fortify the peoples of Italy by his
celestial aid, in order that they may remain stedfast
and immovable in the divine faith and iu their re-
ligion, and that they may endure and support so
much adversity, so many evils, with Christian

strength.
" Insensate, however, who deduce from this, and
d
do not cease to ask that we,• who, already
despoile
by the most manifest injustice of several provinces
of our Pontifical domain, should furth
our civil sovereignty, and that of
the apostolic
chair. Every one must assuredly see how unjust
and prejudicial to the Church is such a demand.
By the special will of Divine Providence, as we
have said upon another occasion, it happened that
when the Roman empire had fallen, and was divided
into several kingdoms and divers States, the Roman
Pontiff, among so great a variety of kingdoms and
in the then existing state of human society, was in-
vested with his civil sovereignty, by means of which,
never subjected to any laical power, he exercises in