Year: 1870

The Pope on the Position of the
Church,


Correspondence of the London Times
The home of sickness of the Amer


lean Bishops excites as much alarm


on the one side as the other. 1t


won't do, however, for the New


World to leave the Old in the lurch /;


and there are quite as many on this
side of the Atlantic who are resign


cd to vote as they are bid, but who


are only waiting for Providence to


relieve them from voting at all. At


the opening of the Council England


was reckoning up rather proudly the


proportion of the Fathers speaking


her tongue or understanding it,


and looking forward to the days


when a Council, to be really ecumen-


ical, would be prevailingly Anglo


Saxon. The poor lady has been


counting her chickens, not exactly


before they are hatched, but certain


ly before they clucked, and never


was there so silent and sluggish a


brood. All the italian papers, what


ever their politics or faith, are enjoy


ing the sig ght of a whole race-and


that one which thinks not meanly of


itself, and is apt to look down on


Enthusiastically dumbtounded. On


matters of faith-that is, on the ques-


tions really moving the souls of men
one English Bishop has opened his


mouth, one Irishman, one American,
and there ends this ridiculous exhibit


ton of our national superiority.


j Meanwhile the Pope is not silent,


nor does he deliver his opinions with
in closed doors; that was never his


way. He is making speeches, long
or short, few or many, every day, and
they are always apropos to the Coun-
Gil. On Friday he distributed to a
large body of missionary bishops and
priests quantity of sacred vestments
sent here by Belgian society, and
made an address, which has been de-
scribed as an epitime of the whole
Council question. 1t reads thus


cit is a great consolation to me to
find myself in the midst of you, SO as
to fulfill the desires of these pious la
dies of Belgium, who animated by a
lively desire to be able to say, Domino
diLeri decore1n domus t,lce, have prepar-
ed and sent to Rome, in boxes adapt
ed to them, a certain quantity of sa-
cred ornaments of various rites to be.
among the bishops of the |
poor missions. T must praise the zeal |
Of those pious ladies, aud in giving
you their presents 1 need not recon-
mend them to your prayers, for am |
certain that both for them and their |
you viii implore the blessing
of God, and endeavor to satisfy their
desires. Within the cases you will
find the special prayers they ask
am sure you will not forget them. I
I rejoice beyond measure that these
ladies haye interested themselves
about the ornaments for the Oriental
rites. do not know how they have
succeeded as regards the pattern and
the cut; each one of you will try, to
adapt them. to himself. But I re-
ioice at this thought, for love the
Oriental rites, and desire that they
shall be preserved intact. The varie-
ty Of the rites is one of the great or
moments and glories of the Catholic
Church. I love all my children,
without distinction of nation, of
or rite; and I ardently desire
that this love be responded to, and
that it may yimake still closer the un-
ion between the head and the members.
My words are directed especially to
you Orientals, with whom I know
that efforts have been made , recently
to detach YOU from this Holy, Sea-
Instead of this you are more closely
united to me- and do not suffer your