The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-30
MESSAGE FROM THE POPE
LEO IDDRESSES Il LETTER ON
 UNITY OF CHRISTIAN CHUHCHES.

nc-NIission of Jesus to Save the Whole
 Human Race.
 Baltimore, June 29.-Cardinal Gib- bons gave to the press this evening a summary of Pope Leo's encyclical let ter on the reunion of all the Christian churches. His holiness evidently had in mind the recent letter of Hon. Will liam E. Gladstone, and the encyclical may be considered a reply thereto. The pope's letter will be given publicity throughout Europe and America to- morrow morning, The abstract fol- | lows:
 "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 peoples of the Christian world the ideal and eXamplar of the church as divtnely constituted which church all are bound 1 by Gods command to belong. In commanding the apostles and their successors to the end of time to teach and rule the nations the Son of
 
 i obey their authority. In scripture the church is called body and the body of Christ. It is visible as being a liv- ing and organized society and it is ami mated by the invisible principle of su- pernatural life. Those who, therefore either deny that Christ's church is a visible body or refuse to all that it is the perennial communication of the gifts of the divine grace are equally in a grevious and pernicious error Tt is obviously of the first import ance to determine what Christ wished his church to be and what in fact He made it. According to this criterion it is the unity of the Christian church which must necessarily be considered for it is certain that He who founded it wished it to be one.
 The mission of Christ was to save the whole human race. Hence, as the mission of His church was to hand down through every age the blessing of this salvation, 1t is necessary that that this church should be one in all lands. He who made this one church Willed that the unity amongst his fol- lowers should be so perfect that it might in some measure shadow forth the union between Himself and His fla ther As necessary consequence, in His divine wisdom, He ordained in His church unity of faith. The nature of this unity of faith can be ascertained from the commands and teachings of Christ Himself. It is the duty of all followers of Christ to assent with their entire mind to every point of His doc Urine.
 Besides being the guardian of the faith the church must afford the means of obtaining the salvation purchased by Christ The dispensation of the divine mysteries was not granted by God indiscriminately to all Christians, but to the apostles and their success sors.
 As no true and perfect human so- ciety can be conceived which is not governed by some supreme authority so Christ of necessity gave to his church a supreme authority to which all Chris tians must be obedient, As He willed that His Kingdom should be visible Christ was obliged to designate vice regent on earth in the person of St. Peter He also determined that the authority given to Him for the saliva tion of mankind in perpetuity should be inherited by St Peters successors. It cannot be doubted from the words of holy writ that the'church by the will of God rests on St. Peter as building on it's foundation St. Peter could not fulfill this duty without the power of commanding, forbidding, judging the metaphorical expressions of the keys and of binding and loosing' indicate the power of making laws, of judging and of punishing a power which our Lord declares to be of such amplitude and force that God would ratify what ever is decreed by it
 Thus the power of St. Peter is su- preme and absolutely independent, so that it embraces the whole church and all things committed to the church, The pontiffs who succeeded St. Peter in the Rome episcopate received the supreme power in the church 'jure div ino,' But the authority of St, Peter and his successors is not to be regarded as the only authority. The bishops who are the successors of the apostles inherit their ordinary power. They are consequently not to be regarded as mere vicars of the Roman pontiffs, since they exercise a power which is really their own.
 For the preservation of unity in the Christian church it is above all things necessary that there should be union between the Roman pontiff and the bishops. No prerogative was conferred on the apostles i'll which St. Peter did not participate but many wer bestowed upon St. Peter apart from the apos- ties.
 Bishops are deprived of right and power of ruling if they deliberately so- cede from Peter and his successors. The Episcopal order is rightly judged to be in communion with Peter as Christ commanded, if it is subject to and obeys Peter; otherwise it necessa- rily becomes a IawIess and disorderly crowd It is opposed to the truth and is in evident contradiction with the di- vine constitution of the church to hold that while each bishop is individually bound to obey the authority of the RO- man pontiffs, the bishops, taken colec- lively, are not so bound. Do all the sheep gathered together rule and guide the shepherd? Do the successors of the apostles assembled together con- stitute the foundation on which the successor of St. Peter rests in order to derive therefrom strength and stabiIi- ty? The popes have unquestionablv exercised the office of ratifying or re- I7a If