The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-07-02
ANENT CHRISTIAN UNITY.
AN ENCYCLICAL FROM THE RO-
MAN PONTIFF BEARING
THEREON.
NECESSITY OF A SOVEREIGN HEAD.
Holy Writ Quoted to Show That the
Sovereign Head of the Church
Must Rest in the Successor of
St. Peter.

Mr.. Gladstone's recent letter which has
attracted SO much attention.
The pope says:
The holy father. intent upon the work
of bringing all to the one fold of Christ,
considers that it would conduce to that
end were he to set before the people of
the Christian world the ideal and eXem-
plar of the church as dvinely const-
tuted, to which church all are bound by
Gods command to belong.
In Scriptures the church is called
body and the body of Christ. 1t is visible
as being Il living and organized society
and is animated by the invisible and vital
principles of supernatural life. Those,
therefore, who either deny that Christ's
church is a visible body or refuse to al
low that it has ''the perennial commu-
nication of the gifts of divine grace" are
equally Sin grievous and perncious
error
A church which should embrace all
men everywhere and at all times was
clearly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah
and was prophesied as our Lords mys-
teal body, a body united to himself as
head. a mystical body, the members of
which, if separated one from the other
''can not be united with one and the same
head" And so another head like to
Christ-that is, another Christ must he
invented. if. besides the one church,
which is His body. men wish to set up
another.
AS a necessary consequence sin his
Il trtn tyln lnf, Ia
unity of faith-a virtue which is the first
of those bonds which unite man to God
and when we receive the name of the
faithful"
Christ endowed his apostles with au-
thority like unto His own and promised
that the spirit of truth should direct
| them and remain with them forever, and
because of this commission it is no more
allowable to repudiate one iota of the
| apostles teaching than to reject any
point of the doctrine of Christ himself
This apostolic mission was intended for
the salvation of the whole human race
and subsequently must last to the end
of time.
The magisterium instituted by Christ
in His church was by Gods will perpet-
uated in the successors appointed by the
| apostles, and what is thus taught is per-
which the church. founded upon these
, principles, has been more careful to
guard than the integrity of the faith.
| The fathers of the church are unanimous
| i'll considering as outside the Catholic
communion any one who in the least de-
| gree deviates from even one point of the
doctrine proposed by the authoritative
magesterium. The church is
mans guide to whatever pertains to
heaven. This is the Office appointed to
| it by God that it may watch over and
may order all that concerns religion and
may. without lot or hindrance. exercise,
according to it Judgment. its charge over
| Christianity. Wherefore they who pre-
| tend that the church has any wish to in
! terfere in civil matters or to infringe
upon the rights of the state either know
| it has not or wickedly calumniate it
" AS no true and perfect society
can be perceived which is not governed
| by some supreme authority, $50 Christ
of necessity gave to His church SUI
preme authority to which all Christians
must be obedient. There must be unity
of government, jure tlivno, and men may
be placed outside the one fold by schism
as well as by heresy. The nature of this
supreme authority can be ascertained
| from the positive and evident will of
| Christ in the matter. AS He willed His
Kingdom should he visible, Christ was
obliged to designate vicegerent on earth
in the presOn of st. Peter. He also de-
termined that the authority given to him
for the salvation of mankind in perpetu-
| ity should be inherited by St. Peters
successors.
1t can not be doubted from the words
of holy writ that the church, by the will of
| God, rests on st. Peter as a building upon
its foundation. St. Peter could not fulfill
this duty without the power of command
ing, forbidding and judging, which is
properly called jurisdiction, that nations
primary of honor; and the shadOwy right
of giving advice and admontion, which is
called direction, could not give unity of
society of men.
| Metaphorical expression of the "keys"
and of binding and losing Indicate ''the
power of making laws, of Judging and of
punishing-a power which our Lord de-
clares to be of such amplitude and force
| that God would ratify whatever is de-
creed by it," Thus the power of st.
| Peter is supreme and absolutely indie
pendent, so that having no other power
upon earth as its superior it embraces the
whole church and all things committed to
| the church."
| As this governing authority belongs to
| the institution of the church as the princi-
pie of unity and stability, it was clearly
intended to pass to st. Peters successors
from one to another Consequently the
pontiffs who succeed him in the church
I receive the supreme power in the church;
| and this is declared fully by great coun-
ellis and is acknowledged by the consent
of antiquity. For the pre-
servation of unity in the Christian church
it is above all things necessary that there
should be union among the Roman pontiff,
| the one successor of st. Peter, and the
bishops, the many successors of the apos-
tolic college. 1T is necessary to bear in
mind that no prerogative was conferred
on the apostles in which ST. Peter did
not participate, but that many were be-
slowed on st. Peter apart from the apos'
ties"
He alone was designated by Christ as
the foundation of the church To him
He gave the power of forgving and re-
tanning, and to him alone was given the
authority TO feed.
AS the Divine founder of the church
decreed that His church should be one in
faith. in government and communion, sc
he chose st. Peter and his successor as the
principal, and, as it were, the center OF
this unity.
The Episcopate order is rightly judged
to be in communion with St Peter, as