The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-07-25

II does not appear that the Ecumenical
Council of which we have been hearing so
much for the last eighteen months is not to
he held, as rumor had it two weeks ago.
Preparations in Rome and especially in ST..
Peters church go on apace, and Interest in
| the Council becomes at once more general
and more intense as the day Of meeting draws
| near. Seats have been prepared for
eight hundred and fifty bishops and some
seventy cardinals; and while the Protestant
| world looks on the whole affair with some
| Indifference and with certain amount Of con-
| tempt, the Catholic world Is split into two
hostile divisions, the one of which contem-
plates the approaching Council with pride,
the other with fear, wrath and something like
| despair.
When the purpose Of the Holy Father to
convene an Ecumenical Council was first made
public it fred the feelings and commanded the
appreciation Of the entire Catholic Church. If
the Greek Church felt indignant, the Protest
ant Churches, who knew they had nothing to
lose and probably much to win, welcomed the
idea as giving promise of new and substan-
tial sensation. The Protestant section of Chris
tendon has remained In sentiment what it was
when the idea was first mooted. The Greek
Church has, If possible, become more indig-
nant at the pretensions OF Rome. The
Churches Of the Protestant West and the
Churches Of the orthodox East have both
agreed in this, that If the Ecumencal Council
could do no harm to them 1t could do but
little good to the Church In whose name
and for whose behoof it is to be
convened AS both of those sections of
Christendom have positively refused to take
any part in the proceedings of the Council or
in any way to recognize its authority, it now
becomes more necessity to look at it in its
relations to the Catholic Church ITSELF We
| now know that nothing will be done by any
| section Of the Catholic Church to prevent the
assembling Of the Council. We now know
| with some degree Of deiniteness what is the
object of the Council We now know what
section of the Catholic Church Is most likely
to have its interests advanced by the proceed
ings and decisions of the Council. And we
write with full knowledge of the facts when
we state that tue hopeful feelings with which
the idea was at first received no longer exist
that the Catholic Church is no longer unit
in this matter.
1t is now no longer doubtful that the party
by whom and in whose interest the affair has
been got up is that which is notoriously
opposed to everything which is identified with
modern progress. The Council, If any value
is TO be attached to reports we'll authenticated
and received at headquarters, is to be con-
troIled by Rome reactionary. not by Rome pro-
gressive. The programme, 50 far as we know
| it, reveals the spirit of the middle ages. It
has no sympathy With the freedom of thought,
the dash and the daring which characterize the
present times. It bears upon Its face the
assumption Of an authority which the present
age will not tolerate. II Is not, therefore, to
be wondered at, that even Catholic rulers Of
| Catholic countries look forward to
the Council with fear and indignation.
Prince Hohenlohe the Prime Minister Of
| Bavaria, who has called upon the Catholic
Powers to band themselves together for mu-
tual protection, has probably in his circular
| exaggerated the power, but be cannot be said
to have misrepresented the designs of the
| Council. It is said that Italy and Prussia
have agreed to go in with Count Hohenlohe's
plan, and it is expected by some that France
may take the same course. Austria, we know
has refused TO take any such action, Won
Beust very sensibly saying that 1t will be time
enough to rebel when the decisions of the
Council are known. 1t is pity that the
Catholic Church, which really has done 20
much for the world, and which has before it
even now so splendid career of usefulness,
should be injured, as 1t is certain to be, in the
house of its friends. The idea of proclaiming
in this late age Of the world such dogmas as
the infallibiiity Of the Pope, the immacu-
late conception and the bodily assumption
Of the Virgin is 80 extraordinary that it can
only be explained on the principle that super
stition kills itself. 1t seems that there is
nothing too absurd for the leaders of the
Catholic Church to believe and inculcate.
This approaching Council promises to be so
absurd that we can only think of it as the
dying effort of dying cause. The thousand
years, which seems to be the period within
which superstition must live and die, are
drawing TO close; and the power which
began in the days of Charlemagne and which
reached Its height in the time of Hildebrand,
when an emperor, 'barefooted and fasting
during three days and three nights Of grim
winter, waited for leave to throw himself at
the feet of the Vicar of Christ" is becoming
more name than reality. The Catholic
Church will survive and tho Bishop of Rome
may sjl continue TO DO looked 10