The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-05-10
THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL IN AUSTRIA.
MAG N1F1cENr DEMONSTRATION IN VIENNA.
MOBILES and People Resolved to Stand by the
Church

Just as 10 the German provinces, which
are the theatre of Prussian persecution, the
menaces and outrages of the enemies OF
the Church have only had the effect OF
purifying and intensifying the Catholic
feeling of the faithful populations, 80 in
Austria the introduction of Falck system
of prosecuting laws is rapidly awakening
anew the dormant energies of the Austrian
Catholics. AS the Vienna Taterland justly
observes: Three recent events have
given a striking testimony to the fact that
in the ancient monarchy of Austria, as
elsewhere, Catholicism is extending and
rising in proportion as the attacks upon the
Church increase in violence" These
three events are-the Encyclical of our
Holy Father the Pope in condemnation OF
the Austrian Ecclesiastical Bills, the great
Catholic meeting at Vienna, and the states
man-like and reso}ute protest of the
Austrian episcopate against the Bills. The
tendency of recent politics in Austria has
been so predominantly in favor of the
tyrannical and heather view of the rela-
tions of the State and the Church, that it is,
perhaps, matter for some surprise that the
anti Church were not introduced
much earlier. When. however, it is re-
membered that, down to a recent period,
the "Liberal " managers Of the Empire
were still EN- barrassed in their desi gus by
an Imperial Parliament and Constitution in
some sort of harmony with the historical
traditions of the Austrian States and peo-
pies, it can be understood that, after all,
their delay in opening regular hostilities
against the Catholic religion has not been
great. The remodelled and Liberalized''
Rechrath has only been few months in
being, and already it is considering plans
for the expulsion of the Jesuits, for the
secularization of ecclesiastical property,
for debating the conditions of appointments
to and suspension from ecclesiastical
offices, for controlling and moulding the
education of the clergy, for restraining or
prohibiting the foundation or maintenance
of religious communities, for abolishing
the Sacramental character of marriage; in
q word for paganizing the State and per-
scouting the Church on the most approved
methods.
1t is true that, as the protest of the
Austrian Hierarchy points out, certain
superficial appearance of moderation has
been observed by the astute trainers of the
Austrian Bills, which was perhaps too
much for the skill, or more probably for
the temper, of the Prussian politicians.
Not the less do the Austrian Bills icon
tain," to use the language of studied calm
adopted in the episcopal protest, numer-
GUS dispositions that only seem logical
from the point of view of the supremacy
of the State even in the domain of the
Church. Partly by p"stponing details to
a future date, partly by n calculated and
cynical vagueness in the wording OF the
Bills, an cndeavor he'd been made to throw
the Catholic public off it's guard. The at
tempt, however, has failed in the most
conspicuous manner. Every Catholic in
Austria now understands the covert as
sumption which is contained in the pre-
tension to deal with the education of the
clergy ".in subsequent law" OF course,
to admit such an assumption on the part of
Stntn no fn al
the subsequent law. Similarly there has
been no mistake in the mock moderation
and Intentional ambiguity of provisions
like the clause which declares that " the
Government permission can be withdrawn
from clustered associations when the cir
cumstauces are such that the foundation of
such associations cannot be permitted !" or
that other clause which declares that "the
Government permission is to be refused to
religious societies when their object is
contrary to public order, good morals, or
considerations of national policy" 1t is
by indefinite phrases such as these that the
Auersperg Ministry had hoped to entangle
the Catholic public. On the contrary.
however, the pitiful fraud has resulted
already in an access of indignant enthu>i-
asm on the part of the Austrian Catholics,
which promises that the present triumph
by it's final discontinue and overthrow.
- AS was to be expected, the voice Of Peter
was the first to expose in fitting terms to
the faithful of Austria and of the Universal
Church the nature of the dishonest and
despotic legislation which was being pre-
pared against the Catholic religion by the
crafty adopts of Continental Freemasonry
and the plant tools of infidelity. The En-
cyclcal Letter of Pope Plus TX. on the
subject of the proposed Austrian Church
Laws fell like a bombshell into the startled
camp of Austrian liberalism, and imme-
dately the loud and angry complaints and
denunciations of a whole tribe of Jew and
infidel journalists in the PresSe, Neue Freie
Presse, and similar prints, made known the
confusion and evaporation which the ut
terances of the Supreme Pontif had pre-
duced. For a few days the " Liberals
endeavored to snatch comfort from the
hope that the lay Catholics of the Empire,
and especially of Vienna, might allow the
occasion to pass without demonstration,
and 80 give an opportunity to unscrupu-
lous penmen for the favorite assertion that
there was division of sentiment between
the "Curia " and the lay Catholic world.
ha tha oln Of