The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-07-12
morning Star and Catholic Messenger.
INTERESTING FOREIGN NEWS.
LETTERS FROM BERLIN AND VIENNA.
Protest from the Bishop Of Para, Brazil.
GFrom the London Tablet ]

tFrom the LONDON Tablet
BERLIN, June, 13, 1874.
Any one who considers the origin Of the con
flict forced on the Church by the Prussiol
Government, any one who has observed tb
progress of that conflict, and the means uset
to carry it on and who jadgss Of present fact
Of the folly of which Prussia has been guilty
in waging war on the power which is not O.
this world, when she ought rather to have ex
with that power. It may be, indeed. that Prus
sian traditions of statecraft may not allow OF
any such compromise, and there may have been
that kingdom was originally founded were to
have free play. Itmay be-. as the late Csrdin al
Wiseman once remarked, that :" the decisive
battle of German Catholicism had to be fou pht
on the soil of the Marks"
Flushed with the successes of 1866 and 1870.
~, Prussian Statesmen naturally imagined
that the same brute force that had been avail
able against Austria and France would be
equally victorious over Rene. Prussia seems
to have believed that the only powers remain
ing for her to vsnquish were such as she has
moral powers. Therefore she rushed blindjy
into the conflict without considering what its
results must be on two important classes Of
moro than any other the stability of the State
depends-I mean the official class and the
military class. With regard to the 6rst, poll
ticai good sense ought to have recognized the
in executing Government orders against priests
and bishops, be acting in violation of his con-
science, Doing this for pay. he must become
the State, his master. He is under obligations
that are in contradiction to each otber-his
duty to his Church and his dnty to his King.
Finding it impossible to be true to both at
once, he will, most likely, prove in the end
loyal to neither.
With the army the case is even stronger
The army consists of two sorts of men work
ingmen from the country and artisans out of
the great Cities The rural element is, for the
most part, Christian and law aw-abiding-Catho-
lies loving their Church and loyal subjects to
the King and Constitution. Their feelings az
Catholics are now, deeply hurt, and their sense
of right and justice wounded to the quick, to
see their pastor, to whom they are at all times
ready to reveal the inmost secret of their souls
who celebrates the holiest rite of their religion
who blesses their marriages, and dispenses al
the other Sacraments of their Church-to see
their priest treated as malefactor and that
simply because he has not obtained the permit
of some Prot estant or it may he Free e-thinking
police official to exercise the duties of his
sacred calling. Beholding such things, he
comes naturally to the conclusion that neither |
the States laws are just, nor the State itself |
worthy of his allegiance or respect. As q SOL |
dier will be be 30 ready to face death in de- |
fence of Government which wounds him in |
his most cherished convictions, and sets at |
naught all the objects of his most sacred rev |
erences Will Catholic soldiers fight heartily |
ants and jews above the Pope the Bisbops and
the Church 1t is not in the nature of things
to be expected.
Then as to the artisans from the cities who
are serving in the ranks of the German armies,
oven less is expected of them. They are most.
y Socialists. and in one part of their errors at
least, namely, in their animosity against the
Church, they now find the State on their side.
But then they are equally, rooted in the doc
trine lnstilled into them by such men as La
sale, Bebel and Hasselmann, who are the ac-
cepted teachers of the working -class in the
German cities-that property is robbery
and that the wrongs of the " proletariat" are
to be righted by, street lighting, and that the
ions by which tyrants reign. With these {
7iews they behold the Catholic clergy, who I
aught obedience to the laws and loyalty to l
imprisoned and exiled. What are the uabe. {
ieving town-operatives to think nowf On | {
he one hand they reject the Church, on
he other they hate the State, the Govern l
aent, and the possessors of property. Can
he State ever repose confidence in the LOYALTY q
f these menf Assuredly not; it has cast {
way from it the one agency by which they :
ould be reclaimed to better ideas. Left t
o themselves and to their favorte teachers, Y
hey will only hate the Government more and t
lore, and use every means within their reach =
Such are the results of Prussian policy. 1t A
nothing new. In the last century the Church C
@ as assailed by statesmen and philosophers,
ut wherever their ideas prevailed, loyalty 4
hd subordination have disappeared. Great
nd mighty States have sunk into impotence.
nd have been engulfed in the quicksauds of
SeS Gno ueaOIy venom OF Atheism had
aawed their vitals. For the fatal infatuation
nations, "delirium mundi," there is no
medy save one-the Catholic Church Prus- tt
above all needs this saving cure for she is ~
Ok at heart with godlessness, and neither l"
smarck's politics nor all the systems of Ger "
an philosophy can do aught to avert her C,
Herr RaAsl, the Government Commissioner. "
'po!nted to administer the Diocese eff Posen aG
stated to have "foupdn in the palaoe Of gu
Count Ledochowski property and ~
oney to the value of $4,000 thslers. No 81
oof seems to have been asked or taken as to be
1ether this property was privats or Church in
operty; but it was in true Prussian fashion hr
once sequestrated" +" by the administrator. ~
doubt the whole amount belongs to the We
nTch DO doubt, too, il win be IS administer of
. on the same principles Of Prussisn honesty .a
was few years Sinoe the property of his
Jesty, King George v. of Hanover. about so
Iich all We know is that 10 went to avyel the of
ferS OF the mushroom kingdom. WIS
LETTER FROM VIENNA. -.
there is lull in politics for the nraaan. i@t
disconceFted Liberal party, Meonr,hiIa tre
ancial matters have taken q turn. which 70 "a,
islng great uneaAiness, nay, alarm I onobt " i
eed, to mention that as the Provincial DIats Th
Austrian nrNiN