Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-11
A Remarkable Letter from Father Esya-
cinthe.
Prom the Independent.

Christmas, 1870.
When war broke out, like that thunderbolt
which burst over the Vatican at the promulga-
ton of the impious dogma, FASTENED to write
a brief protest. This duty fulfilled, ] kept ST.
lence. waited to see the sweeping off, as of
the chaf which the wind driveth away of those
two absolutisms which, sometimes in mutual
league, sometimes in hostility, had so grievous-
ly oppressed both the church and the world
the empire of the Napolcons and the temporal
power Of the popes. The abettors of the infalli-
bility movement have not understood this re-
ligious silence to which so many souls have re-
strained themselves, and which they above all
| others ought to have maintained; pursuing that
audacious policy which with one stroke has
| accomplished both their triumph and their
| ruin, they busy themselves with noisy calcula-
| tions upon the more or less prudent reserve Of
| some, the more or less constrained adherence of
| others. Such misunderstanding cannot longer
| be kept up; it would NC wrong not to oppose
| what would otherwise result in establishing
| falsehood by prescriptve right.
The political catastrophe, which, especially
| for Frenchmen, seemed at first reason for ST
| lence, becomes, If truly apprehended, an urgent
motive for speaking and acting ! do not hesi'
| tate TO say II, the question which at this very
| moment takes precedence of all Others in France
| Is the religious question. France cannot do
without Christianity; and yet she cannot ACCEPT
| Christianity under the forms of oppression and
corruption with which 1t has been dis -uised.
| Therefore II Is that she, even more than the
Lltin races in general, has been forced to live
| without religion, and consequently without
| moral pow,r, between ultramOntanism and in
fidelity, two foes OF which she has taken but too
sill ght account, and against whom she had need
| to fight not less certainly, than against those
who have invaded nothing but her soil.
Suffer me, then, in the presence of the woes Of
my country and the woes of the church. TO adj
dress The Catholic bishops of the whole world,
and especially those Of them who look upon
the situation as / do myself, and who, TO my
own knowledge, arc not few Who am that
should speak to them so boldly2 But the Illus
trious GerSon has not hesitated to declare that
in times of crisis the humblest woman has the
right to convoke the ecumenical council and
save the church universal l assume this right;
l perform this duty; | coniure the bishops to
put an end to that latent schism which is sepa-
rating us by chasms the depth of which is the
more fearful as it is more unperceived.
Above ALL we need to be told by them whether
the DEGREES of the late council are to command
our faith or no. In assembly, the primary con-
ditions of which are absolute liberty of discus
sion and moral unanimity of Suffrage, bishops,
respectable by reason OF their number, and by
their eminence in learning and in character,
openly and repeatedly complained of all man
ner of restrictions put upon their liberty, and
finally refused to take part in the vote. Is 1t
possible that, returning TO their dioreses, and
waking as itwerc from long dream, they have
acquired the retrospective certainty of having
really enjoyed, while at Rome, that moral indie
pendence of which they were not conscious at
the time? The suppositon is an insult. We are
not dealing here with one of those mysteries
that are above mans reason; but simply with
fact of consciousness. To change ones mind
in a matter OF this sort would not be to submit
ones reason to authority; it would be to sacr1-
ficce ones conscience.
Now if this be so, we are still free, after, as
before the council, TO reject the infalibility of
the pope, as doctrine unknown to ecclesiastical
antiquity, and having its foundations only IN
apocryphal documents, upon which criticism
has pronounced beyond all appeal.
We arc still free to say, openly, Loyalty, that
we do not accept the late encyccals and the
syllabus, which their most intelligent defenders
are constrained to interpret in opposition to their
natural meaning, and to the known intent of
their author, and the result of which, if they
were to be taken in earnest, would be to produce
settled radical incompatabiitv, between the
duties of faithful Catholic and those of an i'm
partial scholar and a free citizen.
Such ave the most salient points at which the |
schism has been effected. 1t is the right of every
Catholic who cares for the integrity and the dig
nifty of his faith, of every priest who has at |
heart the loyalty of his ministry, TO interrogate
the bishops on these points; and it is their duty
to answer without reservation and without arti- |
fec. Reservation and artifce-these have been |
our ruin. 1t is high time to restore in our
church the ancient sincerity in our religion |
which has so decayed among us.
But, mark it well, the facts and doctrines |
which have pointed out are connected with
great system, and 10 reach the details, the REM |
edy must penetrate the whole. The question |
is aggravated by the very excuses of the ultra
montanes, and from this time forth the issue is |
to be this: Whether or not tie nineteenth cens
fury is to have its Catholic reformation, as the
sixteenth had its Protestant reformation.
Look, o bishops upon tue bride of Jesus
Christ, whom YOU also have espoused, the holy |
church, pierced, like him, with five woundsl
in II rhf haV fI1o
hand which holds the light, is the hiding of the
Word of God. That sacred volume, opened over
the world to enlighten and fructiy, why has it |
been shut up again in the darkness of dead |
languages, and under the seal Of the severest
prohi6ltionsP The bread of instruction and life |
which God had prepared as well for the poor as
for the wise and learned, why has it been taken |
from them2 1t is vain to allege, for a pretext, |
the abuses of heresy and unbelief. Put the BIZ |
Die nis true relation with science, by an intclli
gent exegess, and they will have nothing to fear
from each other Put it in its true relation with
the people, by religious education worthy of |
itself and them, and the Bible will become the |
safest guide of the peoples life, the healthiest
inspiration of their worship.
The wound in the other hand is the oppression
of intellect and conscience by the abuse of hier.
archical power. Of a truth, Jesus Christ said to
his apostles; GO, teach all uations;' bat he |
said also to them: "1he princes of the nations
exercise dominion over them, but IL shall not be |
haste 10 unbipd from our shoulders that bur.
den which neither VIC nor our fathers have been
able to bear, and restore that light and easy yoke
to which we are invited by the love of the Re-
deemerl
And what shall l say of the spear-wouud in
the heart? l must call it by its name for they
who must suffer from it are those who most
shrink from speaking of tit is the celibacy of
the priests, | speak not of the voluntary cell |
oacy, the more pleasing to God, as it is free and
joyous, like the love that inspires 1.-THE portion
OF few souls, called to 1t and sustained in it by
an exceptional grace But when it is extended |
unfortunately over natures the most unlike |
and the most unfit, when it is imposed as an ir- |
reVoeabe oath upon their ineXperience and en-
thusiasm celibacy becomes an institution with |
out mercy and too often without mlrality. The |
nations who look upon it as the exclusive ideal
OF perfection throw contempt on the sanctity of
welded life, and, debasng the family in com
parlSon with the clOisIer, they reduce it to a |
mere refuge for vulgar or, at best, for earthly |
souls. The domestic hearth becomes no longer
an altar!
But the last wounds of the church, that Grip
pie her feet when she would rest upon earth are |
these: Worldly policy and superstitious piety.
policy the church must have, for il stands in |
necessary relations with the powers of this
world; bit that policy is most completely ex-
pressed in the words of the master:-"I, If | be |
lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto
me-" Is this that policy CT temporal power and
thS oSNuApl al WHICH, ludhCS lil6 pO5stSSlOu OF
some provinces in Italy and some privileges in
Europe the essential condition of the empire of
souls, the pivot ofthe whole spiritual structure?
policy as fatal to the church and the world as
the revolution which it subserves even while it
is contesting it. policy the impotent, blind
persstently in which it is now desired to
exalt to the dignity of dogma
On the other hand, there is no lack
OF spiritual force in modern Catholicism. 1t
counts its deyout souls by myriads; it secs
the noblest works and virtues iourshing within
its pale. Why is this piety, so touching and so
genuine, too often handed over TO the seductlons
of mysticism without depth, and an asceti-
cism without austerity-so different from those
that shed grandeur on the early Christian GEN.
turtles? External practices material practices,
had almost said-are multiplied without limit;
the alteration Of the saints especially of the holy
virgin are developed in proportions and under
character which are alien to genuine Catholic
feeling; and that worship of the Father in
spirit and in truth, which Jesus made the soul
OF his religion, is sensibly diminishing amongst
us.
Such is the body of Christ, in the state to
which our sins have brought it on the earth