Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-08-17
PAPAL ALLOCUTION.
Delivered by the Pope TO the College Of
Cardinals in the Hall Of the Yati-
can on July 25th, 1873.
Major Accommodation Against the
Legislature and King Of italy.


The New York Freemd5l's Journal of
this week publishes the following i'm
portant document from the Vatican:
| VENERABLE BRETHREN-What we
foretold when we addressed you at the
close of the past yesr-tO-wit, that We
might have TO speak again of YexatiODs
Of the church daily increasing; the work
of iniquity, then proposed, having now
! been cOnsummated, our Office calls US to
/ declare, in whose ears seems to sound
that voice of one saying:-Cry!
| So soon as we learned that an enact
ment was to be proposed to that legisla-
! tive assembly, which, in this propitiOus
city as well as in the rest Of Italy, was
to suppress religious houses and to put
up ecclesiastical property to be sold; de-
nouncing the impious crime, we pro-
scribed any and every project of an
enactment of such kind. We declared
null every acquisition Of property thus
robbed, and we repeated the censures
that were incurred, ipso fdctO, by the
authors and by the promoters of enact
ments, of such sort. Not only by the
church has this enactment been branded
as antagonistic to divine and ecclesiasti-
cal law; but by the Lights of public legal
science, as subVersive of all natural and
human justice, and so, of its own ma
| ture, void and null. But we see it
accepted to-day by the votes of the leg
| islative assembly and of the senate;
and, finally, sanctioned by royal au
| thority.
We judge it best, venerable brethren,
| to refrain from repeating all that we
have so often largely set forth, hoping
| to deter these wicked rulers from their
attempt in regard to the sacrilege, the
malice, the end and the most grave in
| juries of this enactment. But we are
forced by the duty of vindicating the
rights Of the church, by the solicitude
Of warning the careless, and by very
charity for the guilty, to raise our voice
and to declare to all those who have not
hesitated to propose, or to approve, or to
sanction this aforesaid most iniquitOus
enactment; and to all mmissioneTs,
promoters, cOunselors, adherents, ex-
ecutors or purchasers of ecclesiastical
property, that whatever they have
done, or may do, IS to no valuable ac-
count, but void aud null. And not only
so, but they are, in the act of any par
ticipatiOn Whatever, each and all of
them, stricken with the major eXcom-
munication, and with yet other eccles-
iastical pains and penalties, according
to the sacred canons, apostolical consti-
tutions and DEGREES inyicted by general
councils, and especially by the council Of
Trent, and that they have fallen into the
most terrible vengeance of God and
are. walking in plain peril of eternal
damnation.
Meanwhile, venerable brethren, while
necessary aids to our sovereign minis
try are withdrawn more and more,
while wrongs are heaped on wrongs to-
ward persons and things sacred, while
here and abroad the prosecutors of the
church seem to be concerting their plots
and joining their forces for the utter
smOthering of the exercise of ecelesias-
tical Jurisdiction; and, to give special
instance, perhaps to interfere with the
| free election of HIM who is to sit as the
vicar of Christ in this chair of Peter,
what is left to us except that we should,
with all earnestness, take refuge in him
who is rich in mercy, and deserts never
his servants in the time of their troubles?
And, verify, the power of Divine Provi-
dence is shown clearly in the perfect
union of all the bishops with the holy
see, in their noble steadfastneSs against
of sacred rights, in the unbounded de-
votion of the whole Catholic household
| to this center of unity, in that life-giving
| spirit with which faith and charity are
bursting forth everywhere in works
of the best days of the church.
! Let US, then, strive to make ready the
desired season of mercy, Let US alto
gether, throughout the world; try to do
piOus violence to our God. Let all
parish priests stir up the people of their
several hocks. Let US, all and together,
PROSTATE and bowed down before our
affairs, cry out: "Come, 0 Lord, come!
Delay not! Spare thy people, loosen
| the burdens of thy flock! Behold our
desolation! 1t is not pleading iustifica-
ticns for ourselves that we pour out our
prayers before thy face, hut for the null
| titude of thy tender mercies! STR up
| thy power, and come; show thy face
and we shall be savedw And, although
we may be conscious of our unworthi-
ness, let US not fear to draw nigh conf
IDENTIFY to the throne of grace. Let US
seek that throne by the intercessiOn of
| all who now surround it. Especially let
us seek it through the holy apostles; let
us seek it through the most chaste
spouse of the mother of God (St. Jo-
seph); let US seek it, above all, through
the virgin Immaculate, whose interces-
sions with her son have the relation, in
a certain way, of commands.
But, as preparation, for this, let US
strive earnestly to cleanse our conscience
from dead works. For it is 'on those
that are just the Lord sets his eyes; and
it is to their prayers that his ears are
OPEN"
That this may be accomplished more
certainly, and more fully, we grant, by
our apostolic authority, to all the faith
| full who will have duly confessed and
communed, and viii have prayed for the
necessities of the church in these mat
tiers, plenary indulgence, to be once
gained, on whatever day the ordinary
/ in each diocese shall have appointed; !;
which Indulgence may be applied for
the souls of the faithful departed.
Therefore, venerable brethren, though
countless and very heavy storms of per
secutions and troubles rage, let us not
lose courage on that account. For we
are trusting to him who never suffers
those that hope in him to be cOnfound-
ed. For it is the promise of God, which
cannot be forgotten-'I will deliver
him, because he has hoped in me-"
| urss..