The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-01-03
The EcnMcnical Council-Hxow. the
bishops Look-Some speeuIations


ane Ecnnacnfcal Coux,ciI-Eow' the
bishops Look-Some speeuIations
ON Reaul:s.
| Rome tDcccmber loth) Correspondence OF tho New
York World.
All the most intelligent Catholics whom |
know here seem to agree with Cardinal An.
tonelli in regrcttirg that the Council should
ever have been held; and most of them
pretty plainly express hope that the new
dogma Of the Papal infallibility at least
may be smothered in committee, as I yes.
terday wrote you that it was likely to be.
The Papal allocution, of which I send yotl
n copy (it will not be published here, mark
you, until Saturday, has the same vague
| and almost irritating character Of mystic
ehscurity which marks most of the spirit
ua, o!tcrances of the Holy Father. As
read II is1d myself wondering how in the
world the Pope contriyed to take such an
interest in it himself as he assuredly mani.
tested in delivering II.
The great majority Of the prelates here
| assembled, OF course IRE enchanted with the
| address, and there is'good reason to beliye,
think, that they are perfectly ready to
| support any pretehsions whatever which
the Holy Father may insist upon putting
forward; so that, if the perilous procla.
nation of articles utterly inconsistent
| with the maintenance of friendly rela.
tions between the Church and the secular
power in various European States is avoided
it will be through the skill of few strang-
| ers rather than through the enlightenment
or liberality of the predominant number OF
| the hierarchy. Sooth to say, the Church Of
late years seems to have been carefully
wedding out of her spiritual peerage oil men
of conspicuous and dangerous ability.
Nothing was more noteworthy in the Gu
gust assembly on which I yesterday gazed
than the general mediocrity of the faces
and heads of the episcopacy. With the ex
ception of Dupanloup, whose keen, aggres-
sive eyes and the sensitive lines about
| whose mouth mark him out sharply from
his fellows, and of Antonelli, whose head
would command attention, if not exactly
admiration, in any assembly in the world
the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops,
are as quiet and Notwithstanding set
Of personages as an average intelligent
jury" in London or New York. And yet
they embrace pretty nearly the whole body
of the directing clergy of the most power
full Christian Church in the world. I was
not less struck. by the general absence in
the faces-and, for the matter of that Fin
the conversations which could not help
overhearing among them-of anything ap-
preaching to earnestness or exaltation in
respect to the grand occasion which has
called them together.
They went ont, after the conclusion of the
services, chatting and discussing matters
and things in general as composedly and
after as commonplace fashion as their
reverend brethren Of the divers Protestant
denominations among us on emerging from
IN average May anniversary meeting in
New York or Boston. Yet how literally
tremendous is the difference between the
assumed Importance of this council of the
Inhabited world and IN average May ami
yersary meeting in New York or Boston :.
AS to the outlines of the great parties in the
episcopacy here assembled, it begins to be
generally understood that the American !,
English, Italian, and Hungarian preIees,
are practically unit in supporting the ex-
tremest propositions of the Syllabus and the
dogma of the Papal infallibility. With
them will act in body such of the Orien-
| tai prelateS us are present here. But the
number of these is comparatively small,
and, small as it is, it represents a still
smaller real constituency i'll the Orienta!
| churches.
| Of the ten Jacobite bishops, including
| The Patriarch at Diarbckir, not one is here
Not one of the HISTORIAN bishops is here
nor one Of the Armenians. The Coptit
Patriarch OF Alexandria, and the recently
e1nanciputei Patriarch of the Bulgarians
replied to the Papal invitation almost a.
CURLY and as coldly as the Greek Patriarch
of Constantinople, of whose extremely ant
| deliberately frigid treatment Of the Papa
envoy I some time ago sent you an account
The most important of the Oriental bishop!
| now here is Monsignor Valerga, the Latir
| Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose constituency
in the Holy Land falls short Of the NUM-
beers of all average parish in New York
II is not wholly consolation for. this
abstinence of the Greek and Eastern Chris
tians that Geneva, the Rome Of Calvin
| should be represented here by bishop
| and London, the Rome of Wyclife, by al
archbishop. The Gallican prelates are di'
yded on questions of most moment before
| tile Council, the strongest of them follow
ing Moneeigneur Dupanloup in his opposi
ton to the dogma Of infallibility, and thu
German bishops are in the same case.