The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-12-03
UNDER ITALIAN RULINGS
Reasons Preventing New Methods
in the Catholic Hierarchy.
The Church sasd to He Practically
Governed by Cardinals Residing in
Rome Who Are Generally Opposed
TO a Foreign PoutIn-Hoyv Pope
From Another Country Might Act.


Spanish Cardinal Wives Tuto as his sue
cessor has caused much speculation as to
the effect on the Church Of he election
of a non-Italian Pope. The official Vat
lean handbook to the ecclesiastical HER
archy supplies material for much inter-
esting study on the subject First Of all,
the question arises whether the election
OF non-Italian Pope would be possible
even If he were to be designated BY the
preceding PontIh. The Italian Cardinals
now number thirty, the foreign Cardinals
number twenty-five, and several Of them
could certainly not arrive in Rome il time
to take part in the conclave. The Italian
majority would, therefore, be greater than
the figures make 1t appear Very few Of
the Italian Cardinals possess any patriot
ism in the political sense Of the word,
but all of them would certainly vote to-
gether in obstructiEg the eIeetios OF a
foreign Pontif. A Pope has to re =Ieeted
by a two-thiTds majority, and thcUgn the
ltailanS are not strong enough 10 elect
their own Pope outright. they sEe strong
enough TO prevent foreign Cardinals from
eiectlng foreigner. The foreign CaFdi-
nails, however, are always anxious to ex-
ercise their influence IN a concIave be-
cause it is the only opportunity they ever
have of influencing the government Of the
Church The Church is practically gov
erned by the Cardinals who reside in
Rome and By the ecclesiastical bu-
Teaucracy. These Cardinals are twenty
three in number, but only four are for
eigners- Only two of the four foreigners,
CARDINALS IedochoTsIi and SteinhHber
preside over important congregations,
Cardinal LedOchowski being Project of
Propa Uganda Eide and Cardinal Steinhuber
President of the Congregation Of the In
dex- All the other important Offices are
in the hands OF the nineteen Italian Car
dinals resident in Curia-
In the lower ranks OF the Catholic
hierarchy and IL the bureaucracy the pre-
ponderance Of Italians is still greater.
All, with very rare exceptions, are tai
ians. This moHopolization Of the admin
istration OF the Church in Italian hands is
one OF the greatest obstacles to an under
standing between the Vatican and the
Italian Government The reform of the
Catholic organization in Italy would be
one of the principal points of any such
understanding, and it would very greatly
conduce to the proper training OF the
clergy and to the proper religious teach
ing OF the masses But 1t would destroy
or at least diminish the enormous num-
Der OF Italian bishoprics, and would tend
to reduce the number of Italian pTslates
to a proportion in keeping with the pro-
portion existing in other Catholic coun-
tries.
In the whole Catholic world there are
9l2 archiepiscopal and episcopal sees, Of
which 5SS are situated IN Europe. Italy
alone possesses 275 Of these 5SS sees,
while the whole of Europe, including Aus
tria, Hungary, Belgium, France Germany,
England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Por-
tugaI, Russia, Poland, Spain, and SWftzer-
land-countries having a total Catholic
population OF about one hundred and
twenty-five millions-possess only 313
sees Thus Italy, with less than thirty
million Catholics, has nearly many
sees as the rest OF Europe taken together.
This enormous preponderaHce is in Itself
an obstacle to reform within the Church,
since the Italian bishops and archb. shops
living within easy reach of Rome, can
outnumber the bishops OF any ether coun-
try or probable coalition Of countries
which might desire TO effect. any reform
in al Ecumenical Council. The Vatican,
with its army Of Italian prelates, pos
sesses a strong nucleus for making a
packed majority on any question it may
wish TO force through a council The
history Of the debates, or rather OF the
voting On the dogma OF PapaI iGfallibility
shows that all the resistance OF the more
enlightened northern Bishops was useless
against the compact body of ignorant
Italian preIates who were joined by the
Spaniards N adopting everything the
Vatican desired. Spain has afJy-four
sees. These added to the 2I5 l. Iian sees,
constitute majority numerous enough to
defeat the rest OF Europe which, without
SPAIN can muster only 259.
Besides these bishops and arehbishops
who actually reside in their sees, there
are the titular bishops and aTcbbishOps,
who are said TO be bishops in partibus.
OF these there are 359; 10t are Italians,
and q OF the IO1 reside in Italy Seven
teen of the others are employed as mis-
sionaries and Z are Papal nunCiCs. The
total number OF Catholic bishops and
archbishops in the world is 1913, Of
whom $40. or nearly one-third. are tai
ians The Italian Government has often
turned its attention % the position Of
the Italian bishops. It desires reduc-
ton in their number and a prOpOTtionate
division of their revenues Some italian
sees are not much larger than a good
sized parish The See OF GailipoH, for
instance, has only three parishes and
Is geo inhabitants: CasteIlaneta has FIVE
parishes and q 000 inhabitants. The two
sees of GTaYina and Montepeicso count
together nine parishes and p, 30 inhsb-
itants Each OF these little secs has its
cathedral, with its chapter at canons-
The Chapter OF MontepeIosS for in
stance, numbers tweRty-eight Canons and
chaplains Every diocese has its semi
nary, with chairs for every subject, from
Latin TO theology. Most Of these chairs
are occupied by one or two professors,
because It would be impossible 10 have
fifteen or sixteen professors for twenty
Or thirty Summaries. Naturally, the
priests thus trained leave the seminary
ignorant and narrow minded, knowing
little more Of the world than what goes
on under the shadow of the local cathe-
dTal. One bishop from the south Of italy
stated not long ago that he produced very
coed priests in his seminary at ] cost of
less than 81 q month head. They were
young peasants who had been accustomed
20 live on polenta and onions at home.
and he fed them inexpensiyeiy on the
same diet in the seminary. Naturally
many of these sees possess revenues so
small that they are unable to do more
than keep body and soul together
Each see has kept the revenue which it
received before Italy was united; thirty
seven bishops have e120 year, seventy
six have less than $500 year, foTty-one
have between 900 and eT0g a year,
twenty-one between $500 and 81. 600. sew
en- between e1.200 and 21 400, four be-
tween $1,000 and e2.4e6; others receive
as much as e3,950, 1880 and es.S0s
year. The bishop Of Catsnia, whose do
cese- comprises twenty-five parishes, with
1e0, geo inha bitants, has a revenue of 25,-
400 a year. The same disproportion ex-
lists in the income Of the parish priests.
The Italian Government is unable to rem
edy this state Of things, and the Curia,
anxious to maintain the numerical supe-