The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-09-11

civil governments can take umbrage at the
solemn declaration Of what has always been
on In the Church, without any detriment to
their real interests.
No intention whatsoever is entertained, or
even so much as thought of, to interfere with
existing civil governments. On the contrary,
tho Church and the Popes will always incul-
cate on her children, as in times past, the sa
cred duty of obedience to the existing powers,
whether monarchical, liberal or republican, in
All things connected with the well-beipg of So
ciety, aud the legitimate objects Of civil gov
eminent; and the Church and the Popes,
heretofore, will always continue to protest, in
tho name of God and Of the right, against all
encroachments of the civil power on the spir-
honored rights of the Church. In all this, no
change whatever need be apprehended; and
III attempts to get up undue excitement as to
Papecy acainst the rights or stability of exist
ing civil governments, should be discarded at
once, a. not only mischievous but purely ma
This has been recently settled, in solemn
and official manner, by the letter of Cardinal
Antonelh, Secretary of State to His Holiness,
written March 18th, 1870, in the name of the
Pontif, to the Nuncio in Paris, in answer to a
well-known despatch of NJ. Daru, the then Sc
cretary Of state of the French Government.
The time has long passed--for three centuries
when PontifEs, acting in accordance with
the generally received and clearly established
jurisprudence of the ages of faith hurled the
fhunderbolts of accommodation, with an
nexed sentence of deposition, at the heads of
tyrannical sovereigns who crushed their peo-
pie, and sacrilegiously invaded the rights of
the Church. We have changed all that, and
We have discovered an easier, though perhaps
not safer or wiser way, for getting rid of ty-
rants and even of good though popular sover-
signs ~ .,. -.
good of mankind, or for the true and sound
progress of humanity, We leave to others to
pronounce. Several learned Protestant writ
ars of this century, especially in Germany,
have defended the act of Pope St. Gregory
VII. in communicating and deposing the
German Emperor Henry Iv.-the first Pontiff
that of other Pontiffs. They have shown, by
m array of facts which can scarcely be resist
ed, that these measures of severity were blows
the Church, aud for the benefit Of down
frodden- people.
Governments, like garments, must fit or suit
tho people for whom they are formed. Some
may need g monarchy; some may prefer q re-
public. The Church leaves all this to regulate
Itself, according to the choice of the people, or
tho circumstances OF LIN tine and place contning
pies their respective duties, as laid down by
tho law of Christ. She teaches boldly and
Eearlessly, though she may sometimes be able
only to cry out In the wilderness to those who
will not heed her voice.
Il is we'll known that the great reigning
PontiF, irst of all sovereigns in modern times,
inauguraged system Of free government,
evon to the extent of establishing o delibera-
tive assembly, in which the delegates of the
sentiments on matters which concerned their
civil well-being. 1t is also, alas but too well
known, how the enlightened benevolence of
our great and good Pins TX: was thwarted by
treachery by those very men whom he had
amnestied and loaded with favors! His prime
minister basely assassinated at midday, on the
very steps of the chambers; his private Sc
cretary, the lamented Palma, shot down at his
aide by cowardly assassin himself impris-
nsd in his palace hy furious and blood
capital, and become an exile and q wanderer
ON the earth!
Such was the return which those upon whom
he had showered nothing but blessings made
him for all his kindness, urged on as they were
and maddened by few bold, bad men. Even
now, after the storm has passed, and the skies
have cleared, the Papal government is proba-
bly, the one of all others, at least in Europe,
in which the burdens laid on the people are
ightest; where the rights of all citizens are
most respected; where the administration is
the mildest and most paternal, and where the
masses of the people are the most contented
and happy.
definition! Beloved brethren, there is liberty
and liberty; there is perhaps likewise liberal
ism and liberalism: There is the true, and
there is the counterfeit coin. There are three
kinds of liberty.
I. There is the highest grade of liberty es
tabllshed by Christ himself, "the liberty o.
the glory of the children of God" This is the
liberty which Christ promised the result OF
divine truth, "apd you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free;" and again
"if therefore the Son shall make you Free you
shall be free indeed" 1t is the blessed stats
to which only Christianity can bring US in
which, ceasing to be the slaves of sin, we
breathe the free and pure air of Gods children
and our hearts swell with the feeling of exuI
fation at having our bonds broken, the snares
of the devil destroyed and ourselves free with
the freedom with which God has freed us fol
where the spirit of God is, there is liberty
and "whosoever committeth sin is the servant
~ of Sin )" nor can such u slave chant the peans
of victory, without at the same time shaking
his heavy chains.
This is the liberty which the Catholic
Church has always inculcated, and it is this
teaching precisely which has rendered posi-
ble any other kind of liberty. We thus owe
all modern civil liberty to the humanizing in.
Muenca in the christian masses of this precious
heaven of Gospel liberty diffused among them
by the Popes and the Church Without this
true, real, solid civil liberty were an utter inn
possibility.
2. The second kind of liberty, and the high
est possible type of it in civil governments, is
that in which, whatever be the form of gov
eminent, the rights of all citizens are respect
public, the majority rules while respecting the
rights of the minority; in which the taxes are
equitably levied upon all citizens in proportion
to their means; above all, in which the just
rights and laws of the Church are respected,
and left inviolate, and in which all citizens,
ecclesiastics included, are equally protected
by the law in which, in O word, without dis
crimination, especially between the rich
and the poor, all are equally protected. This
theory of liberty was, in substance, laid down
by the Catholic schoolmen of the middle ages,