The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-09-12
pontiacal Brief to the Biahop Of Orleans.

The Holy Father has addressed to Mon
seigneur Dupanlo0p, Bishop of Orleans, a
Pontifcal Brief, in which welimerited
encomium is passed upon the efforts of the
eloquent French Prelate in the late cue
ceSsful Parliamentary struggle on behalf
of freedom of education. The Brief lays
down principles of great importance to
Catholics elsewhere who may be engaged in
similar struggles. The following is q
translation:
"Venerable Brother, Health aud Apos,
tOlic BenedictiOn, Though it IL repugnant
to the eternal laws Of Justice and right
reason to place truth and falsehood on the
same level with each other, and TO attrib-
nte to both equal rights, nevertheless the
iniQuity of the times has conferred on error
those rights which belong TO truth alone,
80 that to error has been granted that hon
Durable faculty to which, although wrongly,
the name of liberty has been given lib
erty TO irsinuate and disseminate at its
own caprice and pleasure, by means Of
education, its own false theories. On your
part, venerable Brother, we recognise q
line conduct both wise aud opportune in
antidOte from the poison itself which civil
soeisty has taken, and which it carries in
its bosom. II, in fact, the laws permit the
first conner 20 put forward the reveries Of
his diseased mind, to proponnd and defend
them as scientific doRmas, there exists as
ought not 10 be granted to the truth and
there is nobody so friendly to falsehOod and
so hostile to truth, unless utterly lost to
all common sense, as not to recognize q
right SO clearly evident.
"The irresistible force of this argument
10 still further strengthened by your OBJ
sefvatiOns on the disability under which
many men of snperiOr attainmeDta lie, to
the great injury of true science, in having
no facilities for enunciating and explaining
their ideas also by what you have re-
marked ss to the two-f fold fact which ex
paIience has demonstrated, namely, that
the level Of letters and Of the higher studies
isiOwered by the impedimeuts conGrived
to oppose the teaching of the truth, while
At the same time the imprudent assumptions
Of those who propagate from their prOfes
si0nal chairs principles subveCsive not
only Of religion, but even ofhuman aociety,
have been encouraged and fostered. And
If the license of false doctrine, by means
Of which the popular mind becomes satur.
ated with error, be o mischief, never
enough to be deplOred, it may truly be
sAid that the mischief becomes absolutely
fatal when it reaches to the education Of
boyhOod aud of youth, for then it is the
very root of society which is poisoned, and
henceforward can bear none but poisonous
fruits: so that the unhappy community, al
ready morally sick and sore afflicted,
now finds itself driven onwards to newt
"We congratulate you on having pre-
sented these considerations with great so-
lidity of reasoning and eloquence and the
uprightness and flrmness with which you
have enforced them have been such that
neither the ironical attacks nor the inter
ruptians, more numerous than courteous, of
yonr opponents were able to deprive your
speeches of logical order and force. The
warm and loudly expressed concurrence of
all the wisest men, and the most eminent
personages with which your speeches were
received and h0nored, were at once q just
homage rendered to truth and justice and
10 yourself; they will, We trust, also form a
powerful aid, and will assist you 20 gain .
6nal and complete victory for the great
cameo Of which you are the able champion.
"In the meanwhile, receive, Venerable
Brother, ss o pledge Of the Divine favour
and Of oGr special benevolence towards
you, the Apostolic BenedictiOn, which we
send you, with the warmest affection for
yourself and for your diocese.
"Given &C Rome at Saint PeteT's, this
10Th day Of July, aARo 1875, In the 30th Of
oals ROnti1oatea -Ez n .PEVsPP' TX
g.,-