Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-05-30
IHFALLIBlLITY OF THE POPE.
Or. Butler On the Great Roman Catholic
Church.

Rev. Dr. Clement y. Butler writes
to the New York Observer:
"There is Mt this time a great deal
Of suppressed excitement and anxiety
at Rome in reference to the General
Council, ideutO e cOHU0cdtO' by the
Pope. The attitude of the great pow
ers is one of scarcely suppressed Oppo-
sitiOn to its assembling. Napoleon
III. fRfns the Pope that nothing must
be done which will embarrass his re-
lations to the clergy, or interfere with
his imperial prerogative. Austria
cannot regard with satisfaction q re-
neWal Of the high Papal claims which
it has recently resisted, and which,
imposed anew by Rome upon the
priesthood under such impressive cir
cumstances and sanctions as to ava
ken its enthusiasm and fanaticism,
may seriously shake that ill-compacted
empire. Still less will Spain be
pleased to have her recent revolution
stigmatized by a General Council as a
rebellion against God. The kingdom
of Italy viii be still more agitated and
infamed, if such a Council should ele-
vate-as it is the evident purpose of
Plus that it shall temporal power
of the Pope into q divine prerogatiYe,
which it is impiety to question or re-
sist.
"There are, indeed, many indica-
tions that the Jesuits, who have coun-
seled this great movement, are excit-
ing stormy opposition to it in some
quarters and a grave misgiving in
many more. Their organ, the CiUitta
C1tt0lic1, indeed affirms in late num-
Der that the Council is now the DOM
inant thought of Christendom.' But
there are many even of the ultramon-
tame journals, which usually chime in
with the Ctrittd, which have eX-
pressed serious doubts as to the posi-
bility of gathering the bishops in
Rome in the present attitude and tenn
per of the great powers of Europe.
One very significant fact is noticed by
them as evidence that the congrega-
tions to which was committed the
care of preparing programme, are
by no means fully agreed upon the
points which shall be presented. The
German journals have announced the
unexpected return to Monaco of the
Abbot of st. Bonifacius, Superior of
the Benedictines of Bavaria. He was
one of the members of the congrega-
tions charged with the duty of pre-
pairing propositions to be submitted to
the appreciation of the fathers. But
rebelling against the arrogance and
dictation of the Jesuits, and indignant
at the treatment which he consequent
ly received, he has suddenly returned
to Germany, where his unexpected
arrival has produced the liveliest emo
tiOns. 80
"The commission to whom the
subject of ecclesiastical law is assigned,
includes a majority of Jesuits. The
discussions in it are reported as very
violent. The portion of the commits
sion devoted to the company have
already agreed upon the three follow
ing propositions: 81 5f
.f ri. The Roman pontiff is infallible.
"2. The temporal government of
the Pope is a fixed fact to be approved
and confirmed by the entire Church
throughout the world. nl
"3. Modern liberalism in thought
and in government is to be condemned
as ruinous, revolutionary, scandalous
and impious. .H ID
'.These propositions-and nothing
less than these, in connection with
and as the complement of his late high
Hildebrandian5 syllabus, will satisfy
the Pope-have excited no little mis-
giving on the part of the minority of