The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-01-06

which stretched before the College in
the future which gloWed rosy for Erin.
AD L|M|NA VISITS
Why Bishops Must Make These jour-
neys to Rome.
According to the Consistorial De
cree of December 81, 1909, the obli-
cation of making the lad Iimina" visit
falls during the year 1912 for the
Bishops of England, Scotland, ireland
and the adjacent islands, as well as
for those of Spain, Portugal, France,
Belgium and Holland, says Rome"
The obligation is of very long
standing; in one form or another it
existed from the most ancient times.
st. Gregory VII. in the vi. Council
of Rome held in 1915 bound the
Bishops of the Roman province to
make the visit every year. Clement
VIII: by the Bull of February 10, 1896,
made definite legislation on the sub
ject for the rest of the Catholic world;
every three years the visit is to be made
| by the Bishops of Italy, of the islands
and provinces adjacent to Italy, of
Dalmatia and of Greece; every four
years by the Bishops of Germany,
France. Spain, Belgium, Bohemia, Hun
gary, Poland, England, Scotland, Ire
land, and the islands of the Mediter-
ranean; every five years by the
Bishops in the most distant parts of
Europe and those of the northern coast
of Africa; every ten years by those of
other parts of the world.
| The limina Apostolorum, the thres-
holds of the Apostles, signify the
Church itself. The door is the princi-
pal part of the edifice, and the ancient
Romans as well as the Jews were
wont to adorn the doors of their
houses with laurel branches on festive
occasions. The Christians continued
this custom and the symbolism they
| introduced into it found expression in
the rich architectural ornamentation
of the church doors which formed the
principal feature of the facade. st.
Paulinus of Nola describes Tin natah
tertio sti. Felicis) how on feast days
the doors of the churches used to be
richly draped and brilliantly illumi-
mated at night. The word linen, linn
ina, in the course of time became syn
onymous with the Church itself.
The ad limina visit, therefore, clear
ly means the visit to the BasiIica of
st. Peter ON the Vatican and of that
of st. Paul on the Ostian Way.
| In the time of st. Leo I. (460) the
obligation of the ad limina visit was
already an old one, for that Pontiff,
writing to the Bishops of Sicily, de-
clares that it was wisely provided by
the Holy Fathers that there should
be every year two gatherings of
Bishops, and that every three years
they should come to Rome to meet in
a fraternal council on September 20.
A century later st. Gregory the Great
reduced the obligation for the Sicilian
Bishops to visit every five years.
We find evidence of the existence of
the obligation for Bishops in more
distant lands in Gregory Wis 18th
Letter, in which he severely rebukes
Guillaume de Bonne-Ame, Archbishop
Of Rouen, because both he and his
suiragans had failed to make the pre-.
scribed visit ad limina.
Laxity in the observance of the law
/ grew in the course of centuries, until
the great reforming Pope Sixtus ",
in his Bull "Romanus Pontifex" of De.
cember 20, 1885, insisted upon its OBJ.
servance and inflicted severe penal
ties, including suspension from the
spiritual, and even temporal, admin.
istration of their dioceses of Bishops
who refused to obey. By the Bull
"Postuuam" of December 8, 1886, for.
eign Cardinals were bound to observe
the same rule and to come under pain
of being deprived of the cardinalate
Sixtus VS. laws were made to be exc
cuted, and two Cardinals, Dracowicz
and Mendoza, were soon made to feel
this by the vigorous Pontiff. The
legislation on the subject was codified
later by Benedict XIV. in his Bull
"Quod sancta Sardicensis" of Novem
Der %, 1740.
According to ecclesiastical usage
the first duty appertaining to the ad
limina visit is that-of visiting the
sovereign Pontiff and paying him the
homage and obedience due from ali
Catholic Bishops. Hence, If the Pope
happened to be residing elsewhere
than in Rome, the Bishops would be
obliged to follow him thither. During
the Avignon period the Prelates were
Obliged to visit him there and the
visit to the Basilicas of the Apostoles
were probably paid instead to the Ca
thedral of Notre Dame des Dons, but
even then the records show that the
French Bishops also paid the tradi
tional visit.to Rome.
On reaching Rome on his ad linn