Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-07-06

his folly and temerity in bitter anguish
and disappointment. ,a- f.fa... bsog J.
~ Tho Gathering I'm Rome. - 81
On the, '29th 'tilt.. there was to come to-
gether in the great Church Of st. Peter,
at Rome one of the most magnificent &C.
clesiastical' assemblages that has ever
been Witnessed since. the council. of Trent.
Many thousand priests and four hundred
Bishops collected together in the Papal
capital from all quarters of the Christian
world. Never before probably have the
ministers of the Catholic Church congre-
gated around the throne of the Pontiff
in such imposing numbers, and never be-
fore have representatives from such wide
ly distant congregations of the faithful
met together in the religious metropolis.
At the last great general council of the
Roman Catholic Church, that of Trent,
there were only about 25O members pres.
eat, and many of the Countries whose
Bishops are now in Italy had not then
been heard Of
The alacrity with which the dignita-
ries of the church all over the globe have
responded to the Pope's invitation to Wis
it Rome on this occasion i S an evidence
of the universal sympathy between the
head Of the Roman hierarchy and the
higher orders of his clergy. TheFurpose
of the visit of the Bishops is ostensibly
two-fold: to witness the canonization of
seven new saints, and to celebrate the
18th centenary of the naryrao m of the
Apostles Peter and Paul. On the sth of
December last a circular letter was sent
from the Holy See to all the Bishops of
the world, inviting them, according to
ancient custom, to attend the solemnities
held in honor of these two events, and
to offer up their; prayers in concert at the
tomb of the Apostles for the welfare of
the church in the straits in which she is
now placed. There is a hidden signifc-
ance in the assembling of so many pre-
lates. 1t is more than probable that they
desire to testify in person their devotion
to the Papacy; and many of them carry
large snms of money, contributed by the
people of their dioceses, to relieve the
embarrassment of the Pontifcal excheG-
uer 1t is possible that their advice viii
| be asked about the best road out of the
PapaI perplexities, the course to be fol
lowed when Rome shall go the way Of
all the other Ecclesiastical States, aud
those feeble hands loose their grasp of the
temporal scepter which external help has
SO long enabled them to retain. There
can hardly be regular council, but
there may be informal meetings in which
these serious questions will be submitted
to the Judgment ofthe; whole Catholic
world, and a sensible, liberal, enlightened
policy, divorcing religion from secular
complication, and enabling the Church
once more to win the affections of the
!
Italian people, maybe the result of the
deliberation. Italian cardinals and mon
signorri, with their ipTeterate habit Of
looking backward, cannot see that such
la policy is not onlysw but inevitable BE
but in the multitude of men trem treer
countries who will SIT beneath the 1doint
of St. Peters, the Pope may find more So 81
llutarry. and fearless advisers. ~" z,''
From the United 81 States are ifsdf noticed 2t cd
Archbishops Spalding of Baltimore, 4 en-
rick of St Louis, ,0din of New Orleans
Purcell Of Cincinnati, and Bishop Wood
Of Cincinnati, with twenty two bishops
from other american dioceses in the Brit
ish territory and the Union. Vixen the
4 Pope received the American prefates and
clergy at the audiSnee, they presented
him with 5000, 600 in gold cQin, alsq 1