The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-16
Powers of the Propaganda.

view York World.
A gentleman now resident in this city who is
on terms of intimate friendship with Cardinal
Smeoni, the project of the Propaganda Fidei,
and who besides being acquainted with Arch.
bishop Corrigan, has had exceptional facilities
Cor mastering the somewhat intricate nature of
She relations existing between the Catholic clergy
IN the United States and supreme ecclesiastical
authorities at the Vatican, was seen yesterday
by World reporter and gave the following in
formation on the subject:
"The most erroneous reports current on
the subject of the Rev. Father McGlynn which
gre due principally 10 the absence of correct in
formation as TO the status of the catholic clergy
IN the United States in connection with the su-
preme ecclesiastical authority at the Vatican in.
Rome. The following points may. therefore, be
found worthy of consideration and tend to prove
that some time will elapse before the reverend
father whose name is just at the present mo-
ment so prominently before the public will be
summoned to the Eternal City. 1t does not APP
pear to be generally known that the United
States still regarded by the Vatican as a
missionary country-in fact as partbus inidell-
um. The Catholic clergy in this country
styled in all official documents missionarii rec
torres and the affairs of the church here are con-
Quoted at Rome through the commission of
cardinals who constitute the Propaganda Fidei.
No parishes have yet been canoni
cally instituted as in Canada and Mexico.
The priests are ordained sub titulo mis-
sionis. They are bound to obedience to
sheir bishop but unfortunately their position is
not sufficiently clearly defined. Until few
gears ago the power of inficting penalties lay
entirely in the hands Of the bishops, who in
some cases, owing to their inadequate knowl-
edge of the intricacies of canon law, rendered
arbitrary decisions which had subsequently, to
be set aside by the Propaganda. The appeals to
Rome on the part OF priests thus disciplined
were terribly frequent, and even lawsuits in the
United States courts frequently resulted. In
order to obviate this, the Propaganda Fidei in
1878 issued to the American clergy it's celebrated
lnstrucsio Quamyis, defining the manner in
which, for the present at least, all disciplinary
causes of the Catholic clergy in the United
States must be settled. According to this docu-
ument, before imposing penalty on any priest
the bishop must have him summoned to appear
uefore committee of investigation The latter
consists OF five priests selected by the bishop
and the synod OF his diocese, and care is taken
TO select those priests who are noted for their
special knowledge of canon law. The most
competent of the five on the subject acts as
hartman. The report of this board of assessors
. requisite before the bishop can suspend
priest from Office or remove him from his pas
Ioral charge
1.-The penalties to which the clergy arc sabiect
are divided into two categories-the pmne vim
.licatven. which includes deposition and degra
cation. and the Pona medicinales Degrade
don is the most 2rleyous punishment which the
church can inf1ict on priest. It is decreed
only for the most atrocious crimes. The Pope
alone has the power to rehabilitate. The pen
atty is impressive in the extreme. One by one
the sacred vestments are stripped from the cul
prits person, and his hands and head are
craped with a steel blade in order to erase as it
we're, the holy oils of conservation
Tine PpuR medicinales are the penalties by
which delinquent contumacious subject may
be brought to OF duty and entails sus
pension OF the right to celebrate mass or to per-
form any ecclesiastical duties for a short or q
longer period OF course, during the period of
suspension the priest draws none of his emol-
uments. This punishment can only be in
ficted by the bishop, with the concurrence of
his board Of assessors. described above.
after an admoniton has been addressed to the
delquent priest, and that the latter has paid no
heed thereto In Italy, where very arbitrary
use of this power of suspension exists and where
these boards of assessors unknown, there
are at the present moment At least 5000 sus-
pended priests who, being without any legalized
means of existence. constitue real danger to
both the government and society at large. The
priest Galeote, who murdered the Bishop OF
Madrid on the steps of his cathedral, on palm
Sunday last belonged to this category of sus-
tended priests II Ehonld be specially noted
Sat according to the canon Law OF tho Roman