Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-09-26
The Conference or German Catho-
th.a lie Prelates at FuIda.

From the New York Freeman's Journal.l
We have been mystified for two days
On Saturday morning last, venerated
priest asked us: Have you seen the
special telegraphic dispatch to the Her
aid, from Prussia, about a meeting Of
German Bishops at Fulda?' We an
swered, Yes" Question: :" Is there
any truth in it. Answer: From
latest journals from the Continent OF
Europe it is what we expected" Our
interlocutor was surprised. He said it
was not possible that Catholic prelates
proposed to join in a schism with the
Holy See, in Germany. We fully agreed
| with him, and assured him that the
meeting of prelates at Fulda was a noble
example of the apostolic spirit, that told
the iron-handed despotis of Prussia
that, though it had crushed sun
dry arrays of armed men, it could
not crush the Catholic Church, but
| if it attempted this, it would be
ground to powder. Three times, on
Saturday and Sunday, after this talk, the
same difficulty about the special Herald
dispatch was put to us, by friends. AT
length we understood it. 1t was stated,
in the Herald special dispatches, that
this meeting Of Catholic Prelates was
not opened by the ordinary solemn mass.
OF course notl This was not "Coun-
ell" canonically assembled, either as
National, or as what, in the United
States, has been held as a "Plenary."
For Councils of Prelates, in the normal
order, there is solemn mass prescribed
for their opening. But the meeting at
Fulda was conference, not q council
convened according to the usual canons.
Therefore it came that it was not
opened by the mass prescribed for the
opening of canonical Council How
droll that this should, by misinterpreta-
ton, have been set forth as a purpose to
have a remodehng Of the church ser
vice! " .t--.,
But there is another source of mistake
equally curious. The Prussian tele-
graphic correspondent of the Herald
says that the Prelates met at Fulda are
determined to follow the new depart
urel " That correspondent wrote from
the point of view of the squalid little at |
tempt at Sect, in Germany, that calls |
itself Old Catholics, and calls those
who continue to follow the Vicar of
Christ as they have always done, inno
vators." This dispatch, sent out of the
fogs of German nomenclature, and ar
rived at the practical workshop of the
New York Herald Office, was interpreted
after its natural, not its Dollingsrian,
The "Eew departure
was naturallysupposed to mean the aeo-
Protesfdntism OF handful of conceited
and halfeducated school teachers, in
those beer-gardens known as German
Uniyersities--to which boys, after having
been well drilled in less pFetentious
schools, are sent to drink, and carouse,
and play the puppy, to the great detri-
nent of their bodily health, Of their in
.ellects, and of their immortal souls.
IL would be a good joke, were it not
hat it has grieved so many pious souls.
/, Let us say, then, that there is not one
Catholic Bishop in all North Germany
hat is recalcitrant to the decisions of the
irand Council OF the Vatican. All are
lnited in sustaining the Catholic defini-
ions Of that Council, both as to faith,
md as TO the ecclesiastical infallibility I
# the Pope. There is not even one
,ainsayer. III
There is, really, so little intsrest taken
y Catholics, in the United States, in the !
'uny wrigglings Of some men of en- l
eebled faith, IN parts of Germany that
/ would be an abuse of our columns {
or US TO elaborate the proofspf how little '
hey amount to. OHRe igHofum pro c
lagnlfco is true satire--the English J
{ which is, that the three tailors of q
'ooley street" for those that know B
hem not mayc to some effect,
epresezt We the people of the !
noient city of LondonHh So, if the So s
allied Baron de Camin, or Cannon, h
,dith German, and one OF tvo o.waifs, n
nch as apostate priests, we're TO call q
leeting az Cooper Institute-and get it v
ell inculcated on the public mind that II
blow was about TO be struck at a
,omanism, we doubt not that long
rray Of eminent citizens" with much a
igotry and beggarly brains; much mo- II
ey and miserable morals; out Of In
inctive hatred to the truth, would lend
leir names, and their presence, to the p
movement" And it would cost not te
isohh 10 have it sent, all over Europe, NJ
lat "a great reform is inaugurated m
nong American Catholics, who have
SOLVED to repudiate the doctrines and
scipline Of Rome" CO
What has transpired, and is transpir- te
g, in Germany, under the name Of 81
Old Catholics, is as transparent a e.