The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-11-23
Tho Prussian Prosecutors Of Germany.

Tho Prussian Prosecutors Of Germany.
from the London Tablet, Nov.
The persecution in Germany continues at
an accelerated rate its course of unblushing
perfidy and brutal violence. In the west
the Archbishop of Cologne, Monsignor
Melchers, has been sentenced to the alter
native of the payment Of fines amounting
to twelve hundred thalers or Imprisonment
cradle Primate of Poland, Monsignor
Ledochowski, Archbishop of Posen. has
had his carriage and horses seized and sold,
nor would he himself have escaped the in
dignity of incarceration if the certificate of
the physicians attesting the impossibility
of moving him-he is only just recovering
from an attack of typhus-had not excited
the apprehension that their victim would
be unable to survive the intended outrage.
1t is evident that the Government are re-
solved, if they have the power, totally to
destroy the organization and prevent the
practice of the Catholic religion. No
funds can sustain the conflict with the
fines eeaselessly accumulating. To take
the case of Monsignor Melchers, for in
stance, although he has already suffered
six condemnations in the sum of two hun
dred thalers each, this is but the COM
meucement of what is in store for him.
Nine similar condemnations are at the
present moment impending over him, and
Government are in each case absolutely
identical, it is perfectly certain that the
Government Criminal Courts will repeat
their past decisions. And why has the
Archbishop of Cologne been condemned as
o criminali Why has the Archbishop OF
Posen been condemned Simply and
purely, according to the testimony of the
Prosecutors themselves, because they hold
as they must hold, that it belongs to the
episcopal authority, and not the civil
magistrate, to appoint the ministers OF the
altar. Mgr. Melchers has ignored every
claim on the part of the Ober-President OF
Cologne to authorize the appointment OF
Catholic parish priests and cnrates pro
cisely as the Archbishop Of Westminster
ignores and nobody dreams of asserting
any claim on the part of the Lord Lieu
tenants of Middlesex, Essex, and Hartford
shire, to authorize the appointments OF Ca
tholic parish priests and curates within the
Diocese of Westminster. The Englisn
journalists who denounce the criminalty OF
the Prussian Episcopate may console
themselves with the additional reflection
that not only in times past prosecuting
laws made precisely similar criminals OF
the English Episcopate, but that 1t would,
so to speak, be the simplest thing in the
world to make the present Catnolic
Hierarchy in England quite az " crlml'
nal z" as our illustrious brethren In Ger
than to introduce copies of the Falck laws
into the British Parliament, to pass them
by overwhelming Whalieyite msJorities
and to obtain the Royal Sanction for them
Not q single Catholic Bishop in England
could obey such laws, and not singie
Bishop in Germany can obey them. IL
always only needful to declare right 70 U
| In
" criminals"
The Prussian correspondent of tn
Times repeats this week the familiar cRlu
mnv that the Catholic clergy Of German,
received orders from Rome TO preac
against German unity, and that tbs wa
the cause of the action OF the FrusslaI
Government. The Prussian correspondent
of the Times must be at once tne most ctg
dulous and the most iDeorr1glble OF Tall
bearers, for he has repeated this story, i
spite of multiplied refutations, on at leat
hundred occasions, and on every occa
eiou he ought to have known that ne we
retailing what was not true. !he 1Ime
often exhibits even to Catholics ootn IAii
ness and courtesy, but the EMISSIONS OF II
Prussian correspondent on every queetio
connected with the Catholic Church al
invariably colored by pRrtizaushtp, and
. writer who habitualIy allows himself to b
betrayed into repeating such statements
| the one referred to is only separated almo
bv imperceptible distinctions from the o.
> tHorship of the disreputable inventions
, circulates. The Catholic clergy Of German
l never received orders from Rome to Preae
E against Germany unity, and if they ha
, received such orders they would not hay
obeyed them. Tho German States &c
. peoples are the judges Of the civil eonSt
Q tntion recommended by an eniightene
1 patriotism, and the Catholic Church. in II
Supreme Head and in its humbleSe men
hers. no more concerns itself with Germa
= unity as such thaa with Scandinavian M
ty or Chinese unity, or the Act OF Coni q
uoTe Rnla movement in Ireland or q
powers Of the Governor General Of lndi