Morning journal and courier., 1882-04-04
Tuesday Morning, April f. 1882.
A PASTORAL LETTER

A remarkable pastoral letter has been put
 forth by the Provincial Council of Cincinnati.
 The letter is signed by nine bishops and ad-
 dressed to the clergy and laity of five States.
 It speaks with no uncertain tone concerning
 the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church
 towards some of the momentous questions of | the time. The New York Sun publishes the
 full text of this letter, which is long one. We avail ourselves of the Sums careful sum-
 mary of it's more notable features.
 It asserts that power comes primarily from
 God and only mediately from the people. By
 the choice of people it's rulers may be desig-
 mated, but the rights and powers of govern
 ment possessed by rulers thus selected pro-
 ceed from God, not man. The words of Leo
 XIII. are quoted ''They who are to be set
 over the republic may be chosen by the will
 and decision of the people, without any op- position er repugnance to Catholic dogma. !"
 Concerning the equality of men the pasto- ral says that all men should be equal before the law and in respect of political rights. But it is pointed out that among the phenomena of human life none is so pal pablo as the inequality of human capacity and performance The bishops therefore stigmatize as essentially false and fraudulent the principle that any men, whether capital ists or laborers, shall reap where they have not sown-that those who have less physical and mental force and equipment, and who turn these powers to less fruitful account, shall receive as large reward as those who render more useful services. Men should be paid say the bishops, according to the labor and skill which they are able and willing to furnish; indolence and incapacity are not to be equally compensated with industry and talent
 All secret societies and movements which aim to substitute the principle of communal ownership for that of individual property, or which in any way asseil the civil or private rights of persons vehemently denounced. All such associations are forbidden to Catho- lies, be their names what they may. On the other hand, the bishops do not discounte- nance but expressly sanction, the right of labor to protect itself by organization, and by those forms of concerted action known as strikes, by which it's claims are pressed on the attention of capital. They are careful to discriminate, however, between the right to refrain from work and the attempt to pre- vent another man from working One man, declares the pastoral, has precisely the same right to sell labor at given price, or to refuse to pay more for it, as another man or body of men has to pronounce the price too low. Catholics, in short, are prohibited from being 'spartners in any effort to coerce others against their just rights, or, by overt or secret acts of violence, to do injury to another's person or property. What one man claims for himself he must concede to another"
 The clergy of the province are recom- mended to urge every family in their congre- gations to subscribe for and read a good Catholic newspaper. They are specially warned, however, against a section of the press "whose editors, while pretending to be Catholic, advocate the worst forms of revo1u- tion and communism" After denouncing one of these newspapers by name, the bishops declare that in so doing they must not be un- derstood as ssn any sense sympathizing with England in her oppression of Ireland, or in any way favoring continuance of the pres ent unjust system of landIordism in Ireland" Let the cause of Ireland be pressed, say the | bishops, but let the means used to that end | bs legitimate. Conspiracy, confscation, as and dynamite are not approved of | by this pastoral.
 These are the chief points of the document, which is written with great force and ability. | It contains great deal which is not especial | ly popular just now, even among those who | call themselves good Catholics