The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-10-24
worssae Quar- ana Garholle Messenger.
BNW oRxHAMn, SUNDAY. oCroBKR -. ISIS.
Pastoral Address Of ths Arehbish0ps ana Bishops
Of ireland Assembled in National Synod &C
MayE0oth 70 t1eir TloekS


Maysooth 70 tieir Tloeks.
ILondOn Tablsti
AS We promised last week, We now pub
lish the most important paseAges of this
weichty documeat. We should have much
wished to print the Address in full, but the
space at Onradisposai 10 unfortunately in
Sufficient for that purpose. After referring
to tho last National synod THAT of Thurles,
which was held twenty five years ago, the
Bisbops proceed as follows:
The history of the Catholic Church in Ire
land during the last twenty-five years 10 .
history of graces, manifold and surpass;ng rich,
oufpoured on her by God, like precious oint-
ment on the head, running down to the skirts
Of her garment. as the dews of Hermon, which
descended on Mount Zion (Psalm cxxxii, 2, 81.
marked that farming point in her fortunes, of
old beheld in vision by our apostle st. Patrick,
when he saw the mystic lights of her holy
places that had been reduced TO q faint Rlimmer
lash forth, At given time, far and wide, in
all the beauty of their pristine brillianey.
Those years have brought TO Catholic Ireland
what the Prophet designates the revenge of re-
compense (Isaias XIV. 1, y. This divine
Sorm of revenge 10 the answer which Provi-
dence ever gives to the cries and tears OF those
who meekly suffer persecution for justice sake
In il Code mercy repairs the wreck made by
mans cruelty, and gives back to the victims of
Injustice in greater fitness than before, the
blessiDgs Of which they had been despoiled
Ibid) The land that was deaolate and impas-
sable shall flourish like the lily it shall bud
forth and be glad, and the wilderness shall
joice and shall blossom, and shall rejoice with
70 it; the beauty Of Carmel and Saron, they
shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty
of our God. And most fttingly has this dis
pensation Of mercy been linked, in the case of
ireland to the Synod of Thurles, which, among
the other synods registered in our history, holds
aplace Of influence peculiarly its own. In il,
for the first time, the Irish Church, at the Issue
Of her three centuries of martyrdom, was
enabled calmly to survey her own condition,
20 mark the wounds OF which in the heat of
the struggle she had hardly been conscious,
and TO replsce in fair order, according to
the Sacred CanoDs, the scattered stones of
her sanctnaries. 1t was one of the first
fruits of the blood of countless Irish martyrs
who had sown in tears that we might reap in
Joy. 1t was held amid the prayers of an en-
tire nation, chastened by heroic endurance of
recent suffering. It's voice was the unanimous
speaking with authority inherited, through
long lines of venerable predecessors, from the
sacred founders of the ancient Episcopal Sees
of the land. IL was convoked in face of great
danger threatening the faith of the country
and in obedience TO q special mandate from
the Apostolic See, in whose loving guidance
all afflicted churches are sure TO find defence
and security, haven where no waves swell,
and treasure of blessings innumerable (St.
John Chrysost. Ep. ad. Innocent d." The
work OF such Synod was not meant in the de-
signs of God to be transient, nor was its inilu
ence to perish as soon as it's immediate objects
were attained; but, rather, its spirit was long
TO survive, to be to the Irish Church an abiding
source Of vitality and strength in which, from
time to time, her youth may be rene we'd as of
an eagle.
Would cha. this victory of our Faith were
made complete by the return to Catholic unity
of SO many of our Protestant fellow-country-
men whom we now daily behold wandering as
sheep without shepherd. The disestablish-
Sne great obstacle that hindered their ap-
proach to the one fold and it is our earnest
desire that now, at length united with us, they
wonld follow the one Bishop and Pastor of our
souls. We would address them with the same
affection and in the same language as st. An.
gustine lSt. Aug, Psal. contra partem Donati.
Coll 81 addressed the Donatists Of his day
Como, brothers! come, that You may be en-
grated on The true vine. You yourselves can
not but perceive what the Catholic Church is,
and what it is to be cut off from the STEM
See how beautiful onr Catholic unity in doc.
srine, by which the Faith is preached, without
Ahaaow of change, and with authority, in each
cathedral aaa church; it's creeds reverenced
by the faithful; its teachings set high in our
academies above the assaults of iufidelity and
tho contradictory wrauglings of so-callcd
scientific theories. See how striking our
Catholic unity in government, by which spiri-
tual Jalisd c;.or, issuing from Christ, flows in
lair snbordaAtiOn through Bishop aud priest,
50 that each pastor knows his own flock, while
his lock knows him and hears his voice. What
contrast between this blessed vision of peace
within the Church aud the scene of disorder
and tumult that Cypress you outside! There
each pul pit 10 the center of q different teach
ing, which delivered without authority is
heard without submission; there tho deepest
foundations of Christianity are uptorn, to be
defaced or shaped anew, according to the cap
Ticious vote of an excited assembly, whose only
claim to obedience is its own hostility to au-
thority there, the flock strays at will from
the shepherd TO follow after strange masters
whOseown the sheep are not. IF then" con-
Times the Holy Doctor, 'ifthere be among you
any who have care of themselves, let them
arise, and come aud draw vigor from the Root
Let them come before it be too late; before
they lose the little Catholic sap that yet re-
mains to them, and become dry wood fit only
for the fire. Come then, brothers, and be en-
Z grated on the vine. 1t grieves Us to see you
lying witheTed as you are, Topped from off the
tree of life. Reckon one by one the Pontiffs
who have sat in the chair of Peter. See how,
IN due, unbroken order, these Fathers of the
Catholic Church have followed one after an
other; and there, not elsewhere, shall you find
the rock which the proud gates of hell over
como not"
EDUCATION.
To supply the youth of the country with a
sound and-comprehensive system of higher
education, based on religion, denied them in