The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-06-03
COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY
FATHER.
To the Clergy and the Laity of the
Diocese of st. Paul:

diocese OF 81. Paul:
Beloved Brethren:
The annual collection for the benefit
of the Holy Father will be taken up in
the churches of the Diocese of St. Paul
on Pentecost Sunday, June 4th.
In a letter recently addressed to the
Hierarchy of the United States, the
Apostolic Delegate writes:
THE disadvantageous circumstances
under which the Holy See is laboring
at present in regard to material re-
sources is we'll known to you. 1 have
no doubt that if the Catholics of Am
erica, who yield to none in the whole
world in loyalty and attachment to
the Holy Father, properly understood
the present financial condition of the
Holy See, they would certainly be
more liberal in their contributions.
This hope is founded on the fact that
in those Dioceses where the Bishops
and Priests have taken particular in
terest in enlightening their people on
the subject, the contributions have
been more liberal than in others.
Moreover, to instruct the people prop
erly on this pi0us work of Peters
Pence has become at the present time
a necessity. The daily increasing
needs of the vast administration of
the Church, the immense demands of
the Holy See which for the past, in a
great measure, were met by the lib
eral contributions of Catholic coun-
tries of Europe, and which are now
greatly reduced, for reasons we'll
known to you, are facts that should
be made clear to the mind of our peo-
pie, lest, preoccupied as they are With
the needs of the Church in their own
country, they may be led to consider
the Peters Pence collection as a
matter of secondary Importance"
1t we'll may be questioned whether
heretofore Catholics in America have
+ had adequate consciousness of the in
terests they should take in the well
fare of the Universal Church-espe-
cially in the Sovereign Pontificate,
which in itself so vitality sums up the
being and action of the whole Or
ganism, without which the several
parts, severed one from the other and
deprived of coordination and direc-
ton; soon should weaken and die.
We are, it might seem, too much
absorbed in the parish, or in the Dio-
cese, as if the parish or the Diocese
were the whole Church. as if either
could exist of flourish of its own
vigor and initiative. 1t is as il in so
cial and civil matters We never looked
beyond the village, or the city, and
cared little for the nation of which
the village and the city are the mere
local manifestations, without which
the village and the city retain neither
authority nor life. The life of any
of the whole organism. The glory OF
any part of the Church is born of the
glory of the whole organism, OF it's
wondrous universally over space and
time, of it's oneness in faith and gov
ernment Notwithstanding this univer
salty Every Diocese, every parish
every member of the Diocese or of :
parish, is entitled to say-the whole
Catholic Church is mine, the Catholic
Church of all ages and of all peoples
the Catholic Church whose fount o1
life is in the heart of the Incarnate
God, whose record during nineteer
centuries is the record of the reigr
of Christ, whose deeds for truth ano
Justice have been ever so radiant OF
splendor that nought else is required
to testify to the stream of divine pow
OH
human framework.
AS the head of the Church, it's prime
mover after Christ, it's leader and its
guide, the Sovereign Pontif comes
close to every Catholic: of every one
he is the chieftain and spiritual father
No one worthy of the name of Cath
olic can be dissociated from his in
terests and activities. Whatever th<
Sovereign Pontiff does, as the rulel
of the Church, he does it for ever!
Catholic: in whatever he does he
should have the sympathy and co
operation of the whole family OF tn
faithful. The Holy See lives ant
works for the benefit of the Whol'
body of the Church; the means neces
sary that it care for the interests en-
trusted to it should come from tn
whole body-from every Diocese, eN
ery parish, every Catholic. The gen
eral government of the civil state re
ceiyes financial tribute from the who'll
citizenship of the land; SO it shoul
be for the general government of tn
Church.
The expenses of the Holy See, a
each one may easily imagine, ar
enormous. Tax is laid upon it, NO
only in the maintenance of its immt
diate work in the guidance of tn
Church, but, also, in the support it
expected to give to religion and cha
ity in the more distressed parts {
it's spiritual realm. To these ends tn
Holy See relies exclusively on th
generosity of its faithful subjects j