The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-05-20

THk M
atauds In its path. He who attacks the rights
| of God will laugh at the puny rights OF man
simply as man-and they VINO nave oo"su ss,
| down before the State god. have torgeo io'
themselves an agent Of seifdestruction.
Happily Catholics have faith in God above
It ali. II this persecution has done no other
good, it has brought out to the eyes OF tne
world, in wondertui psnner; Th 'ps s,ms vesss
ago the CRY was, Infallibility will not DO ac-
cepted. Later on, religious communities Tere
| banished from their homes; and when the lasC
Holy Father, the world cried out, the fapaGy
| Ia dead. When O few disappointed and isith-
| less men showed their heads In Germany, WIN
all the power of the throne at theiE oack; % men
| cried ont, there Is to be o new behisui. whas
| DO they say nowf How stands Rome 10 day
Never more united, though never did the worid
collect its forces with greater fury 10 over
| whelm it!
| Meanwhile the Catholic universe speaks ont,
and from the ends Of the earth comes back tho
| protest, echoed from point to point, sna gamer
irg volume as it goee. We protest as men,
we protest free citizens. we protest as ehfis-
tiabs!o Your unjust laws Eay be carried OFT,
the bishops will 90 to prison, will pay che
fines, become exiles; but they Will continue .
to ordain priests and educate them, In spite OF
Caesar and of bis leaions. The just rights OF
the State, whether monarchy or republic, are
sacred in their eyes, but they live for some
thing more than the State; all the armies in
the world cannot coerce the Tree sooi OF one
man, for they cannot reach it, it is beyond their
province. The real difficulty begins now
CATHOLICS CANNOT YIELD;
sooner or later, the State must.
1t seems as IL the State foresaw this inevit-
able result. for, goaded on either with the mad
ness of desperation, or blinded by the insane
fatuity of approaching doom, we are witnesses
to the tremendous effort now being made by
the Italian government to blot out the church,
by choking the ntterances OF the Pope Snoh
10, in plain language, the object OF the Clerical
Abuses bill at present pending before the Par.
lament of Italy. bitter mockery Is this bill
of Clerical Abnses, thrown up into the face of
that other product of liberalism, the :" Law OF
aHarantees." Toe Holy Father delivers an
Allocution, and the Italian GovernIneut,
through it's minister, keeper of the seals, Issues
n circular, which, to quote from tho recent
letter of Cardinal Simeohi, states: THAT
newspapera pn nblishing this Poutifcal docu-
ment will not bs proceeded against, provided
they do not accompany it by any comments ex
pressing adhesion The fact is that If
another argumeut were still wanting to rhrow
additional light upon the deplorable condition
of things exposed in the Holy Fathers Allocu-
tion, the circular in question furnishes it in
n most striking manner. From the moment, in
effect, that the publication OF the Pontihcai
expression is subject to the good will aud
pleasure of keeper of seals, whoever he
might be. the liberty accorded to this express
sion is only, and can only be illusory.
But there are other points in this circular that
reveal in q still stronger light what the liberty
so generously accorded to the Sovereign Pom
tiff consists in. This liberty consists in this:
on the one hand, the press hostile to the church
is permitted to clamor in every way against
the words of the Holy Father, by making them
the subject of insult and bissphemy, and even
by distortipg their sense whilst, on the other
hand, the honest press Is forbidden TO make
any comment whatever to confirm the truth of
the acts deplored. or which manifest the least
deferenos for the words of the au gust Head of
the church, for his counseis and for his teach
ings. AS to the clergy in particular, the
liberty that is promised to them Is formulated
in new and moro severe menaees: that, if
ministers Of religion, 10 obedience to the voice
of the Supreme Head, preach mis- doctrines.
and urge the people to practice them, they
will tnd themselves under the ban of law
which declares this conduct au intolerable
abuse, punishable by imprisonment aud by the
heaviest tnes."
Catholics have just grounds for feeling them
selves aggrteved, the Catholics of other
countries have none the less reason to complain.
Their respective govern9ents, therefore, have
special interest in seriously examining into
such q state of things, according to the recon
mendatons made on this very su hi jsot by the
Holy Father in his recent Allocution.'
We're any additional proof required of the
| absolute
NECESSITY or THE TEMPORAL POWER
of the Popes, this Clerical Abuses bill would
| be sufficient to convince the greatest skeptic
This temporal power, let it be we'll understood
| is not national sovereignty. 1t is the SOvsr
eighty of the Vicar Of Christ; and the Vica
| of Christ is the Head of the only true religion
which is to be preached, not to one nation, bn
| to all rational creatures scattered thro1ghou
| the whole universe; therefore, such sovsr
| eighty ia exceptional aud can never fall undo
| the civil supremacy of any temporal ruler. l
| is also intern ational, because 1t is the bond O
all nations by the higher life of Faith, Charit.
| aud Unity. For this reason the Head of th
| Church holds an ertrd national pasition, sn
being eStra national, he must be Independent and
therefore, sorereigB. for between independence
and sovereignty no line can be drawn.
On that aooonnt, in his admirable Allc
cuSon of March 12th, she Holy Fathe
urges " upon the rulers of christian nations
moro careful consideration of the serious posi-
tien IL which the Head of the Church
placed" Already French Catholics have take
the lead. A petition was addressed TO Marsha
MacNahon, asking him to employ all the mean
in his power TO have the Independence Of tn
Pope respected. Other nations will follow thi
1 line of conduct no christian government vii
be able oresiSt the appeal. What will be til
| result of the present complications, God oni.
knows, according to the words of Cardina
Manning. who says: "The nations of thi
world have closed round about the Vicar c
|