The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-07-30
Civil Usurpations Of tho Roman Catholic Church in
the United States, upon Religious pretenss. -


III had combined with others to subject u:
to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution,
and unacknOWLedged by our la,os, giving his as.
sent to these acts of pretended Legislation"
If such encroachment upon the principles
of civil liberty, by lawful sovereign, was a
Just cause for denunciation and resistance then,
surely we should now look with the utmost
jealousy upon any similar encroachment, how
ever covert and insiduous, by any for
eiqn prince or his agents in our midst. The
second declaration of Independence, the
American platform, made similar annuncia-
ton and complaint of interference by q. foreign
monarch, Pope Plus TX, with the legal rights
of the people Of this country. One of these
acts of interference is an ordinance adopted
in 1s49 by the seventh Provincial Council of
Roman Catholic Bishops, which was intended
to divest the people of all control over church
property or grave yards or any other church
temporarily, and centralize the whole power
in the hands of the Diocesan Bishops.
On this subject we quote as follows from
the Louisville Journal of the 25th inst:
Many years ago it was discovered by the Roman
Catholic clergy that the system, peculiar to Amer.
can Institutions Of giving the several congrega-
tons the control of all church property, tended
produce an independence on the part of the laty
of the church altogether inconsistent with the ab
solute power sought to be exercised by the Catholic
hierarchy over the adherenis to that church. To
remedy this and to place the priesthood in abso-
lutte control of the church property, the following
ordinance was passed by the Episcopal Council
held at Baltimore in 500, which was approved by
then reigning Pope OF Rome in the following year :
Whereas, lay trustees have frequently abused
the right granted them by civil authority, 10 the
great detrment Of religion and scandal of the faith
full most earnestly desire that in future no church
be erected or consecraied unless it be assigned by
a written instrument to the Bishop in whose do
cese it is to be erected for the divine worship and
use of the faithful, whenever this can be done.
Approved by Gregory XVI, Oct l6, 1880"
This, it will be seen, was only request on the
part of the Pope and his bishops that wherever
good Catholics desired a church to be erected
they should eonveyuthe property to the bishops
so that if the congregation should at any time
become refractory and disobedent to his COM
mand, he could close the doors upon them and
take the church away from them. The laws OF the
cOutry, however, gave TO congregations the right
to own their church property through the medium
Of trustees for their use. The Catholic laity do not
seem TO have complied universally or very readily
with this request Of their Pope and bishops that
they should diyest themselves Of their rights of
property SO as TO give to their clergy more ALSO
lutte control over them. Consequently il became
necessary for the Roman Hierarchy 10 act more
boldly aud decisvely in the matter and in the Pro-
yincial Council held at Baltimore in lS49, the
following more stringent and exactng ordinance
was adopted:
The Fathers ordain that all churches and all
other ecclesiastical property, which have been ac-
qured by donations the offerings of the faithful
for religious or charitable use, belong TO the bish
OPS Of the diocese; unless il shall be made TO ap.
pear, and be confirmed by writings, that IL was
granted TO some religious order Of monks or to some
congregation of priests for their use.
This was an open notification Of the laws OF the
country. At one swoop it confScdted, By order
Of the Pope aud Bishops all the churches and other
ecclesiastical property in the country, which was
LEGALLY vested IN Law trustees for the and ben
eft Of the congregations, and gave il 20 the Bishop
of the diocese as his own individual private prop
erty This ordinance was carried into effect not
by means Of application 10 courts and judges and
sherfs and legal process; but where congregations
and their trustees were refractory, far more sum.
mary, and perhaps much more terrible means of
compulsion we're employed. The most severe pen.
alties Of the Catholic church were visited upon the
heads Of the refractory laity. They su iected
TO the pains OF accommodation. Their names
were held up TO iniamy and reproach among good
Christians The holy Tit = OF baptism and burial
the sacrament Of marriage, and the holy cOnsola-
tions OF religion in the hour Of death, were denied
10 them. The priests were forbidden 20 minister
at the affairs and deprvations OF every character,
most terrible TO Catholic churchmen, made
use of 10 compel the offenders to make a transfer
OF their rights OF property to their bishops. Many
instances Of the exercise of the ierrors OF the
church 10 enforce obedience In this respect, have
occurred In different parts Of the country. The
German Catholic Graveyard case in Louisville, a
Few years ago, is one case in point Tho case OF
die ST. Louis Cathedral Ia tie city Of Buffalo, is
another. In the latter case, q son OF the granior
Of the land upon which the church was erected,
also Que Of the congregation, made visit 10 the
Pope himself at Rome, TO procure some equitable
adjustment of the controversy between the Bishop
and the congregation who had been placed under
ban. The Pope sent his nuncio, Archbishop Bediui,
TO settle the difficulty. Bedini however, took sides
with Bishop Hughes, the Bishop Of the diocese,
aud refused 10 relieve the people from their suher-
ings unless they would give up 20 the Bishop their
rights 70 the church lands
BY this arbitrary aud tyrannieal process millions
Of property has been taken from the people OF this
country without la~ and against Law, and vested in
the Bishops Of the Roman Catholic church. IL will
thus be seen, that, IN spite Of republican Insd
tdions, the Pope Of Rome actually can ard does
exercise temporal pO~e IN this country.
We cal upon every freeman, every true lover Of
his coanlry 20 aid in resistAaoe TO this foreign
aggression. The Catholics themselves should be
deeply Interested IN the success Of the American
party, as a means Of emancipaiing them from {
temporal thraldom 70 which no freeman shoald be
subjected.
Nrw Posr OFTlcK- "A new POST 0mee-CSsats
Lias. bv nanle-has been established 10 Lineols
county. a few miles above Lynch6urg-h' W. =