The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1878-02-23

and took possession of Pesaro, Fame,
Urbina, Perugia and Spoleto. On rae
2Sth of the month named. Ancoha
surrendered which left of the States
Of the Church only Rome, Ciylta
yerchia and some districts occupied
by the French army. The troubles
thus begun continued with various
notifications until 1870, when they
eliminated in the withdrawal of the
French troops from the pontihcai
doninions, which prepared the way
for the Immediate occupation OF
Rome by the Sandman army under
Gen. Cadona, which event occurred
on the Goth of September. Tins
crowning act of the Justification OF
Italy extiuguished the temporal pow
er of the Papacy, and left Plus IL
only sovereign in spiritual sense.
AS he could not abandon his preroga-
tives, or compromise what he be-
lieved to be the iualIenable rights of
his high Office, he has never recog-
nized the present Italian Govern
ment, and has remained u self-con-
fined prisoner in the Vatican recelv-
ing there, as compensation for ms
affections. the united and enthusiast
tic homage of the whole Catholic
world.
The most interes ting ecclesiastical
acts of the deceased Pope were the
division of England into Catholic dio-
ceses, in 1850; the formal definition
of the doctrine of the immaculate
conception of the Virgin Mary, De-
cember 8, 1854 the publication of the
famous Eucyclical and Syllabus, De-
cember 8, 1864 the canonization of
the Japanese martyrs; and last, and
| most important of all, the convoking
of the Gcumenical Council of the
Vatican by Papal bull, dated Decem-
Der 8, 1867 which body held its first
session in st. Peters December 8,
| 1869. This council-which suspended
its meetings on the 18th July, 1870,
| in consequence of the invasion of
Rome by the forces of Victor
Emanuel-put forth the following
definition of the dogma of the infal-
libility of the head of the Catholic
Church:
We teach and define that it is dogma
diyinely revealed that the Roman Pontiff,
when he speaks &c cathedrd-that is, when
in discharge of the office of Pastor and teach
er of all Christians by virtue of his supreme
apostolic authority, he defines Il doctrine re-
carding faith or morals to be held by the
Universal Chureh-is, by the divine assis-
| tance promised to him in tho Blessed Peter,
possessed of that infalibilIty with which the
Divine Redeemer willed that His Church
should be endowed in defining doctrine re-
garding faith of morals and that therefore
such definitions of the Roman Pontitf are OF
themselves, and not from consent of the
church, irrefragablc.
Plus TX has not only secured place
in history by his occupancy of the Pa
pal throne for nearly u third of cen
fury and by his intimate connection
with some of the greatest events OF
modern times, but he has stamped the
church with the indelible impress of
his genius. The rapid strides that
church is making throughout Christen-
dom are due pastly, perhaps, to other
things; but mainly, as we believe, to
the intlexible will and the wonderful
sagacity of its late high Priest. He
was n man who would have been great
in any age; but he was peculiarly fit
ted to exhibit greatness as the SUI
preme ruler of an organization which,
look at it as we may, has not now,
and never had, ali equal on earth.