The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-08-02
seeding Star and Catholic Messenger.
Record Of tho German Persecution.
CONFERENCE AT FULDA.

The reports OF the lIloeTal press respect
ing the pretended proposals of peace said
to have been made to the Government by
the Prussian Bishops assembled at Fulda,
have found an echo in the English journals.
1t would be we'll to give brief account OF
the true state OF the case. The Vicar
General Hohne, Administrator of the
Diocese of ,Fulda, resolved on the 9th of
June, Feast of the Holy Martyr st. Boni
face, the Apostle of Germany, whose
remains are preserved in Fulda, to address
a special request to the Emperor, begging
that the Imprisoned Bishops and priests
might be set free. 1t was purely personal
step of the Administrator, with which the
other Bishops had nothing to do. All
doubtless shared in the wish, but the step
itself, however bold and. courageous it
might be, could not be expected to lead to
any result. However we'll disposed the
Emperor might be, nothing ccnid be done
without the participation Of the Parlia-
ment, and the majority of Parliament in the
present state of the contest would impose
on the Catholics such conditions of peace IA
it would be absolutely impossible to accept.
1t ia a pure invention that the Bishops had
any plan of treating with the Government.
The proceedings ut Fulda were kept strictly
secret; but at the close OF the Conference
the telegraph addressed the following false
hood to the world: " Proposals of concil-
iation have been sent to Berlin. 1t will
depend upon the answer whether or no q
Pastoral will be issued. Upon this false
report the Germdnid was authorized by the
Conference of Fulda to announce positively
that there had been no question of proposals
of peace !; that the Bishops had not moved
one hairs breadth from their repeatedly
expressed ecclesiastical principles and
that II had been Determined that at this
time no Pastoral would be issued by the
assembled Bishops.
LOYALTY OF THE CLERGY.
In the Rhine provinces there are now
many priests to whom certain places of
residence are forbidden many parishes
are consequently deprived of their pastors,
and persecution presses more and more
heavily on the Catholics. For every
spectacle; the new laws have existed for
more than year hundreds of priests are
already suffering from their heavy pressure,
but not one of them has declared that he
will assist in carrying them ont. The
State promises to all who will follow it a
brilliant position in life,-aud of money it
has plenty to offer-but the priests choose
imprisonment and banishment, rather than
separate themselves from their divinely
appointed Bishops. This naturally irri-
tates the party hostile to the Church. On
that account it dares in its Journals, as it
cannot deny the fact, to attribute the
whole action of the priesthood to coercion
from tne bishops. "A very limited nnuer-
standing is needed on the part of their
readers, otherwise it could not come into
their heads to call, for instance, the num-
berless addresses which the Polish priest
hood have 80 unanimously sent to the
Chapter, " The addresses ordered by Count
Ledochowski." How is it possible that the
, Archbishop, Count Ledochowski, could
raise from his prison an cutlery among the
priests of his diocese, where he is go closely
guarded that he cannot write q syllable or
say word to anyone, without prison su-
pervision
The Suffragan Bishop of Posen has been
deprived since the at of July of the income
which the Government is bound to allow
him. When the Archiepiscopal Consistory
was sequestrated, the two spiritual consis-
torial officials present were required by
Government to declare if they were ready
to exercise their office under Government.
This question was, of course, answered by
negative, and by solemn declaration
that they could only recognize the Arch
bishop as their superior, and could swear
loyalty to him alone. The Government
official acknowledged the honorableness of
Of their behavior, but declared that he had
higher instructions, and must, therefore,
pronounce them deposed from their offices ;
and the question of maintenance would
probably be settled in accordance with this
decision. In this way many ecclesastics
may be dcposed, and deprived of all means
of subsistence.
The Bishop of Paderborn too is the
object of unceasing attacks and sentences
and they are still finding out places where
the Pastoral of March the l4th was read
in order to proceed as we'll against the
Bishop, as against the priests who read il
out.
ALSACE. =
In the newly annexed States persecution
and oppression are doing all they car,
against the Catholic Church and it's institu
tions. A correspondent of the Germanic
writes: Catholic Alsace will soon be only
great ruin. Everyt thing belonging to The
Catholic Church will be pulled down, shat
tered, and totally destroyed. Nothing
that our fathers and forefathers-nothinS
that we ourselves have sought to preserve
with childlike love and devotion meets
with any mercy. The blow of destruction
brushes all. Soon we shall not have one
single Catholic school for our children
although they are nine to one in number. y
The girls school at Kientzheim wa:
Suppressed last year. The Catholic Gym.
nasium at Colmar has disappeared. The
little Seminary of Finstingen was closed by
the police. At the girls school at Lutter-