The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-04-26
ENCYCLICAL
OUR
MOST HOLY FATHER, POPE Plus TX,
THE
CARDINALS. ARCHBIsHoPs AND BISHOPS OF
THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE.
E NcYcLIcAL
OF OUR
TO THE


toiio Benediction. s'- Ap'''
Scarcely had We, in Our letter of the
twenty fourth of November in last year,
announced to the Catholic world the griev-
GUS persecution which had been commenc-
ed against the Church in Prussia aud in
Switzerland, when fresh trouble was pre-
pared for Us by the news of other wrongs
threatening the Church, which like her
Divine Spouse, may every day breathe
forth that complaint eye have added
yet more to the pain of my wounds" And
these wrongs trouble Us all the more, in
asmuch as they are inflicted by the Gov
eminent of the Austrian nation, which,
during the great epochs of Christian states,
commended valorously for the Catholic faith
in the closest alliance with this Holy See.
1t is true that, few years since, there
were issued in that monarchy DEGREES in
contradiction with the most sacred rights
of the Church, and with treaties solemnly
concluded, DEGREES which We, in confcrmi
ty with Our duty, had to condemn and
declare to be null and void, as We did in
Our Allocution of June %, 1868, addressed
to Our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals
of the Holy Roman Church. But to- day
there are presented for the appreciation of
the Reichsrath new laws tending openly to
bring the Catholic Church into most per-
nicious slavery to the arbitrary will of the
secular power, contrary to the Divine or
dinance of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the Creator and Redeemer of the
human race assuredly founded His Church
as visible kingdom on earth, and He not
only endowed it with the supernatural gift
of holy doctrine, and with q priesthood for
the Divine Service and the sanctification
of souls by the Sacrifice and the Sacra-
ments-but He also gave to it a proper and
plenary power, to legislate, to judge, and
to exercise a salutary constraint in all
things which stand in relation to the real
aim and end of the kingdom of God upon
earth.
Now, forasmuch as this supernatural
power of Ecclesiastical Government, being
based on the ordinance of Jesus Christ, is
equally distinct from, and Independent of,
the secular dominion, the kingdom of God
on earth is the kingdom of a perfect socie-
ty, self regulating, and self governing, &C
cording to its own laws and it's own juris-
prudence, by its own rulers, who watch
to render all account of souls not to the
secular sovereign but to the Prince Of
Pastors, Jesus Christ He instituted the
pastors and teachers, and they, in their
spiritual charge, are not subject to any
secular authority. Therefore the sacred
fore it is the laity's duty according to the
precept of the Apostle, to obey them and
to be subject to them and therefore the
Catholic people have the sacred right not
to be impeded by the civil Government in
the exercise of that their divinely ordered
and sacred duty of obeying the Church's
doctrine, discipline aud laws.
Dear Sons and Venerable Brothers, you
recognize with Us that the text Of the laws
now under consideration in the Reicbsrath
of Austria involves and exhibits a grave
violation of that Divine Constitution of
the Church, aud an intolerable subversion
of the rights of the Apostolic See, of the
holy canons, and of ali Catholic people.
In fact, by virtue of these laws, the
Church of Christ, in almost all her relations
with, and acts in reference to, the faithful,
is judged and considered as in complete
and subsection to the su-
perior authority of the secular power, and
this is openly stated, and, so to speak, as
serted as principle in the preamble in
which the object ard intention of the new
laws is set forth 1t is also expressly de
clared that the secular Government, in
virtue of its unlimited power, possesses the
right of making laws as we'll upon ecclesl-
astical as upon secular questions, and OF
and ruling over the Church as
over all the mere human societies that ex
list within the Empire.
Accordingly the secular Government ar
rogates to itself the right of judging and
teaching above the constitution and rights
of the Catholic Church and above her high
superior direction, an it exercises the same
partly by different ecclesiastical persons.
From thence it follows that the will and
power of the civil Government take the
place of the religious authority established
by Divine ordinance for the direction of
the Church and the edifcation of the Body
of Christ. Against such usurpation of the
sanctuary the great st. Ambrose has well
said "They tell us that Caesar can do
all things, and that everything appertains
to him. But go not so far as to imagine
that thou possessest Imperial rights over
that which is consecrated to God. Exalt
not thyself, but submit thyself to God it
is written That which is Gods belongeth
unto God, and that which is Casar's to
Caesar. To the Emperor belong the palaces,
to the priest the churches"
Moreover, as to the new laws and the
preamble of grounds fer their enactment,
they are in truth of the same nature and
the same character as the Prussian laws,
and they are pregnant with the same evils
to the Church Catholic in the Austrian EN-
pire, although at first sight they Nmay ap
pear moderate as compared withthe Pms
sian laws.
We do not mean to examine each article
of ithaca 1aus in detail but we can by no