The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-02-01
Record of the German Persecution,
PERSECUTION OF GERMAN BISHOPS.


PERSECUTION OF GERMAN BISHOPS.
Every day there are new sentences, and
new measures against Bishops and their
ecclesiastical seminaries. The Bishop of
Munster has been lately sentenced to fine
OF 200 thalers, or forty days imprisonment.
In all these cases the work of the tribunals
is made easy, for n =, Bishop appears at the
bar, and they all allow themselves to be
sentenced, in contumaciam." The Bishop
OF Paderborn will act in this manner to-
ward the Imperial tribunal, to which he
has been summoned by refractory priest
of his diocese, whom he has suspended on
account of scandalous disobedience. The
Bishop will not appear either in person or
through lawyer; partly because the es-
tablishment of the tribunal is looked upon
by the German EpiscoPate as unlawful,
and partly because the suspension in ques-
ton dates from the year 1870, long before
this new tangled tribunal was thought of.
BIsHorRIc OF TREvEs.
From the provinces of Nassau and Nun
ster we hear that henceforward the semi
naries of the dioceses of Limburg and
Munster are to be deprived of the yearly
Government grants. The contribution for
the diocese of Limburg consisted, indeed,
only of eighty Ave pounds. The Bishop
OF Ireves has been more severely visited
in this respect. He received, through
the ru-.incial Government, an order from
Falck. the Ainieter of Public Worship,
that the Seminary was to be closed until
the Bishop and the rector of the Seminary
" should unreservedly submit to the May
Laws, and the regulations introduced by
these laws" For some time past the Bishop
of Treves and his diocese seem to have
been selected for the especial exercise of
lawful or rather unlawful violence. In
many places they had already expelled
frOr hair ohuka viz h. -;,I
appointed by the Bishop because they had
been appointed in violation of the law.
But this is no longer sufficient. At Kreuz-
mach, on the Rhine, the cure had been for
long time vacant. Even according to the
new law, the Bishop had time to appoint
were resolved to make themselves safe be-
fore that time. Instead of sequestrating
the dwelling after the expulsion of the
unlawful" priest, they have already put
official seals on the empty presbytery q
new attack on the private rights of the Ca
tholic community.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST oRGANIsTs AND sA-
CHRISTIANS.
In order to display greater energy in the
prohibition of ecclesiastical functions (say-
ing Mass, dispensing the Sacramento, etc. }
to priests officially interdicted, the Gov
ernment officials in Posen have thought fit
to proceed penaly, not against priests only
but also against organists and sacristans.
These have been forbidden to render any
assistance in the Church functions of the
above mentioned priests, under pain of dis
missal. The Offices of organist and school
master are frequently held by the same
individual. In the Rhine district the peo-
pie appear to trouble themselves very little
about such assistance in "unlawful" Masses,
etc. We receive accounts from thence of
amusing scenes. 1t happened in one place
That at the moment when the priest was
preparing to say Mass, the policeman came
into the sacristy, to hand in from the mayor
the prohibition to say Mass: The parish
priest answered quietly: 81 will make
note of it," The policeman had then full
filled his Office. The priest then prepared
to go to the altar, beginning with the &C
customed words: "Adjutorium nostrum
in nomine Domini." The policeman answer
ed devoutly' "Qui fecit coslum ct terram,"
and, walking before the priest with the
missal, he began to serve Mass.
THE OLD CATHOLICS.
There is fall in the thermometer of de-
votion and piety amongst the " Old Catho-
lics," 80 petted by Prussia. On the morn
ing of Christmas Day Mass was appointed
to be said in the " Old Catholic " bishopric
of Bonn. Accordingly Professor Reusch
celebrated the sacrilegious rite at half past
seven o'clock, a time which according to
German customs was very convenient 1; bat
the assembled congregation amounted to
seven persons! This is very sorry proof
of the deep and sincere piety, of which
helnkens asserted in his wretehed answer
to the Encyclical of Plus TX, that it had
now disappeared from the Papal Church,
and had taken shelter among the small flock
of his faithful. The Prussian Liberal pa
pers made great noise at first, and ex-
pressed themselves in terms of unmeasured
applause regarding the sympathy meeting
which Lord Rassell thinks of calling to
gether here in England during the course
OF this month. But gradually the liberal
journals, among them the Kolnishe Zeitung
and the Norddeutsche AHgemeine Zeitung,
are beginning to express themselves much
more cOolly on the subject. From the tone
of the English papers, they can plainly see
that here in England there is but little
CHANGE of awakening any enthusiasm for
principles and measures such as are now
put in practice by Prince Bismarck, and
which really are a mockery of all the first
notions of an honestly conceived freedom.
The Catholic journal Gcrmania was, there.
fore, perfectly right in the following arti-
Gle: The English have no desire to
98Crl0C0 the victory aaonrad hu Law