The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-08-31


mute chords of my heart, and made me long
to be mid that happy group; but alas in tear
full silence, left the scene, but to como again
self by being an OBSERVER.
The Persecution in Prussia.
DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF APP
PEAL.
Some time ago a Catholic journal of Rhe :.
nish Prussia, on the occasion of O so-called
Old Catholic" celebration of the Holy Sa-
crifice of the Mass, criticized with proper
committed. The local supporters of the
Dollingerist separatists responded, accord
ing to the fashion of their sect, by invok-
ing the aid of the legal authorities against
this journal on the ground of the 166th Ar
ticle of the Penal Code, which imposes
penalties for " outrages committed against
Christian church recognized by the State
and religious societies enjoying corporate
rights" The Dollingerists claimed that,
as being still members of the Catholic
Church recognized by the State, and con-
sequently in full possession of the rights
of Catholic Christians, it was not permissi-
BILE to stigmatize them as heretics or dissi-
dents from the Catholic Communion. In
other words, the question of the legal po-
sition of Catholic who had incurred ex
communication for rejection of an article
of Faith, was raised in the most clear and
open manner, and upon the reply of the le
gal tribunals depended the treatment o.
Catholics and Dollingerists by the law of
tue State. Would the State acknowledge
that the Dollingerists had as distinctly
ceased to belong to the Catholic Church after
the Council of the Vatican, as the Lutherans
and Calvinists after the Council of Trent
Or would the State resolve to confuse the
| tab
of the anti Catholic attitude of the heretics,
declare its intention of supporting their
pretensions to an undiminished share in the
property, privileges, and authority of the
Catholic church, The issue could not be
more grave, while, at the same time, the
answer could not be more self-evident, if
the Courts were to decide according to the
concurrent weight of testimony and law,
The Dollingerists are as utterly cut off
from the Catholic Church as Angllcans or
Presby terians. There was simply not
room for the shadow of doubt so long as
the commonest dictates of truth, the most
express provisions of thestatute law, were
observed by the Prussau tribunals.
To the honor of the Rbenish Court
which was first seized, as the lawyers say,
of the hearing of the case, the decision OF
the Judge was emphatic and uncompromis-
ing as to the baselessness of the pretenslon
of the Dollingerists to be considered as Ca
which the discounted sectaries next
brought their plea, only confirmed the ind
ing of the lower tribunal. lnasmuch as the
decision places on record the law as we'll as
the facts, we quote it in full, as rendered
by the Rhenish Court of Appeal, from the
Pro0in-ial Correspondents. Among the
Christian Churches recognized by the State
which the law has in view," SO runs the
decree of the Rhemish Court, " there is,
besides the Evangelical Church, none but
the Catholic Roman Church; and this
Church recognizes as its spiritual chlef the
Pope of Rome, and is represented in Prus-
STA by the national Bishops whom the State
has recognized as such. The said Church
exists still with it's complete organization
in the bosom of the State, and the ao.calied
Old Catholics refusing to admit the reso-
lutions of the Council of the Vatican, have
constituted themselves in parishes without
the cencourse of the spiritual authority to
whose jurisdiction they had hitherto been
subject they exercise worship apart,
distinguished from the Catholic Roman
Church under the head of Doctrine as we'll
longer represent this Church. On the con-
trary, in the sense of the patent of 1847,
thew have formed new religious Society,
which only ought to obtain the protection
of the l66th article of the Penal Code after
the State shall have recognized this Society
by granting to it corporate rights" Every
statement of this decree lie simply undenia
BILE and irrefragable. 1t has, nevertheless,
been denied and broken SO far as it is in
the power of the Supreme Court of Appeal
to declare white to be black and MONDAY to
be midnight.
Rejected by the Primary Court, repudi-
ated over again by the Provincial Appeal
Court, the Doliingerists brought their com
plant before the Supreme Court at Berlin,
and here at length they found tribunal of
so called justice in worthy harmony with
their pretensions. In effect, the judges OF
Catholic Church is not necessarily under
the Jurisdiction of the Pope, that it is not
represented by its con instituted authorities,
that rejection of its doctrines and discipline