The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-12-28
ENCYCLICAL LETTER
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE Plus TX.
Plus PIP. TX.

OF HIS HOLINESS POPE Plus TX.
Plus PIP. TX.
Brethren Health and Apostolic Benediction
Although many grievous and bitter suffer
ings, from the beg inning of Our long Pontifi
causes which we have unfoIded in On
| Encyclical letters from time to time, vet il
| these last years the number of Our sorrow
| has 80 increased that we should be almos
| overwhelmed by them, were We not upheld by
| the mercy of God.
Of late, indeed, matters have reached such q
pass, that death itself seems better than life
amid such storms, and with eyes lifted up tc
Heaven we are fain to cry, :" 1t is better 70,
| us to die than to see the evils of the Saints y
(MaGab. iii. So Ever since our city of Rome,
force of arms, and has passed under the sway
of men who despise law, who are enemies of
religion, who confound all things, both human
and divine, hardly day has passed without
lnhictlng some new wound on Our heart
already suffering from repeated injuries and
wrongs. There ring still in Our ears the cries
Of religious men and women, who have been
tered hither by hostile hands, as is done where
revolution triumphs: just as, according to
!AattIhaanasius, the great Antony used to say,
" The devil hates all Christians, but he cannot
Christ"
We have now seen what We thought could
never come to Pass-viz. the suppression and
abolition of the Roman University, which had
been established (according to the words of an
ancient author writing on the Anglo-Saxon
school In Rome), that Young Cburch-students
from distant parts might be educated in Cath.
olic faith and doctrine, lest in their own lands
they should be wrongly taught, or in o way
contrary to Catholic unity, and that they
faith. Thus, while by foul me ms we are by
degrees deprived of all ways of ruling and gov
erning the Universal Church, it is clearly mani
fest how very far from the truth is that which
hot f1o1 Il oEk !,
Roman Pontif in the exercise of his spiritual
ministry, and in his relations with the Catho-
lie world, has been no wise diminished by the
loss OF Our city nay, it becomes clearer every
day, how truly We have SO often insisted, that
the sacrilisious usurpation of Our territory
has had for its especial object the subversion
self. s''' ~
1t is not, however, the object of Our letter to |
write to you on the woes of our city and of the
whole OF Italy. We would rather pass in |
silence over our own SORROWS, if by the mercy
Of God We could assuage the bitter griefs
" which so many of Our Venerable Brethren
their clergy and people, are undergoing in
other lands.
You are well aware, Venerable Brethren,
that certain of the Canton of the Swiss
some of W hom have condemned tho
act, but at the bidding of those busy secta-
'ians who have now every where possessed
ii ,m6elves OF power-have overturned the
Church OF Christ, contrary to every rule of
ustice and in spite of their publicly pledged
word for according to solemn covenants
passed by the laws and authority of the Fede-
alton the religious liberty of the Catholics
ought to be maintained intiolate.
In Onr Allocution of the 23rd of December
igion by the Governments Of those Cantons,
both in making DEGREES concerning the doc.
rines of the Catholic Faith, in sho owing favor
o apostates, and in forbdding the exercise of
of nj ait.ta IaI {
y Our Envoy before the Federal Council were {
ltogether overlooked, nor was greater regard {
hown TO the repeated circumstances of the
Bishops of Switzerland, and of the Catholics I
f every class, and fresh wrongs put the last {
troke to the injuries already inflicted l
After the forciblc Punishment of onr Venera- I
'icar Apostolic of Geneva, SO glorious for the i
uferer and SO disgraceful to those who put d
into execution, the Government of Geneva, {
n the 23rd of March and the 9th of August of q
bis year, enacted two laws of the same tenor
8 the decree of October, 1872, which was d
by Us in the Allocution before e
That Government has claimed C
he right of reforming the constitution of the #
atbolic Church in the Canton according to n
le democratic pattern, and of subjecting the t
ishop to the Civil Power in the exercise of il
is proper Jurisdiction and the administration 81
nd delegation of his authority to others; for 81
dding him to dwell in the Canton, limiting fl
10 number and boundaries OF the parishes, o
ying down the form and conditions of the il
eciion of parish priests and their assistants a
id the manner of their resignation sus- a
sDsion; assigning TO lsymeu the right of n
omin ation and the temporal administration e
I'd inspection of ecclesiastical :.fiaITs gener- Il
~. Moreover, parish prieste AID their assis- o
nts, without pcrmissi0u-N ithdTawn Mt p
easure-of the Government were forbidden il
exercise their functions, 70 accept Any dig c,
ties higher than that "ufcrred upon them s,
: the election of the people, ard were also 81
rced 10 take an oath in terms nvolvi actual 81
,ostacy. 1t is clear that la VS. of this Kind are Il
1t only null and void by reason of want Of e!
'wer in the law makers as being laymen and 81
'n-Catholics, but also as regards their pro- Il