The Clifton clarion., 1885-02-11
The Pienary Council.

New York Herald states that the official records of the proceedings of the Baltimore Ecclesiastical Council have arrived at Rome and are the subject of very eieat inter est and discussion at the Vatican. A special commission has been appointed to make thorough ex- animation of the conclusions of the Council and make final re- port of the Pope. Your cores pondent is in a position to state that the question of mixed mar riages has been the subject of the most serious debate in the Coun- cil, which has now reported in ia vor of the adoption of one fixed rule by which all such marriages shall be regulated, thus doing away with the difficulties and com plications of the system actually prevailing, where each Bishop regulates such matters in his own diocese according to his pleasure.
 The American bishops have also decided to establish independent parochial schools in each parish throughout the United States. This measure is regarded at the Vatican as one of the very great est importance, as the most effec- tual means of removing children in many Irish parishes from the dangerous influences of purely lay education.
 Another important resolution adopted by the Council is the establishment in the United States of great Catholic univer- sity of an exclusively ecclesiastical character. It will possess five fac ulties and will consist of four col leges. A technical academy will alsob connected with the univer- sity. Manager Spalding will prob ably be intrusted with the direc ton of hautes etudes. An eml- nent Catholic has already given one and half millio.. francs to ward a fund for the university, and numerous other Catholics in Europe as well as in America, are ready to subscribe large sums for the same object. The University of Louvain, in Belgium, will serve as the model for the new American University.
 Besides these important seholas tic reforms, the Council has also decided upon not less important dogmatical reforms. A national catechism has been drawn up which shall become obligatory upon all American Catholics, what ever may have been their origin or their previous nationality.
 The matter of ecclesiastical dis cipline has also received the special attention of the Council, which has adopted on. this point all the conclusions of the famous Conpcil of Trent. Every Ameri- can Bishop shall preside over an ecclesiastical tribunal constituted and regulated by civil and canoni- cal law. This court is to have jur isdiction in all cases of crimes and misdemeanors committed by priests of the diocese.
 The nomination and removal of curates have also been regulated by the Council. Hereafter no American curate can be removed from office by the caprice of his Bishop, or by any of his superiors. No curate can be removed except by means of a formal canonical process in one Of the new ecclesi astical courts to be established in each diocese.
 The dicislons of the Baltimore Council are most warmly approved at the Vatican, and, 1t is believed, will receive the full and hearty ap- .proval of the Holy Father as the means of preserving the Catholic Church in America from all the perils that menace it and as assur ing future most glorious for the church and gratifying for the Holy See.