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THE

Future (Ecumenical Council.

BISHOP OF ORLEANS

CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE.

BALTIMORE:

KELLY, PIET & COMPANY.

St. Louis: JAMES HART & CO., -

115 SOUTH FIFTH STREET.

1 8 69 .



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gjiiithorecd SCtiansIation, irath |ajjal Irief.

THE

Future (Ecumenical Council.

^ LEITTEI?/

BY THE

BISHOP OF ORLEANS

TO THE

CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE.

BALTIMOEE:

KELLY, PIET & COMPANY.

1 869 .



I^j-Jmprimatur:

MARTINUS JOANNES,

Arch. BcHt^.



IsTOTIOE.

We republish the eloquent and exhaustive Letter of the Bishop of
Orleans, Monsignor Bupanloup, on the future General Council, with

the full approbation of the Most Key. Archbishop of Baltimore,

feeling convinced that many will be anxious to peruse so interesting

and so timely a document. We prefix to it an authentic translation
of the Brief of the Holy Father to the distinguished author.

‘•'PIUS P.P. IX.

“ Venerable Brother, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

‘Ht is with very great pleasure, Venerable Brother, that We have seen
you avail yourself of the opportunity offered by the Apostolic Letters ad-

dressed by Us to the Bishops of the Eastern rite not in communion with Us,
as well as to the other non-Catholic Christians, to give a new and more ex-

tended edition of your Letter on the future (Ecumenical Council, on that

which is to be its character and cause its utility. And We congratulate
you on having stated with as much clearness as eloquence the sound doc-
trine on the rights and prerogatives of the Holy See, and on its supreme

authority in these kinds of assemblies. You have also explained in a very

pertinent and luminous manner what is Our solicitude for the salvation of

those who are in error, and triumphantly demonstrated that the exhorta-
tions which have emanated from Us are inspired only by the spirit of
charity, and have but one end—the glory of God, the progress of the
Church, and the true interests of those to whom We address Ourselves. We
have therefore received with gratitude your work, which We foresee and
hope will cause the darkness, which ignorance and malignity have spread

in minds, to disappear, and incline all hearts to desire the very efficacious

remedy of the Council. This remedy has in past centuries dissipated

errors and restored peace to troubled Christian society : in the same man-
ner, by making the causes of actual evils disappear, it will be able to avert

the formidable calamities which threaten our times. Meanwhile, as a token

of divine blessings and of Our very particular favor, receive the Apostolic

Benediction, which from the depths of Our heart We bestow upon you and
your Diocese.

“ Given at Eome, from Saint Peter’s, this 25th of .November, in the year

1868, and the 23d of Our Pontificate.

PIUS IX. P.P.’



4

This work, then, has won a costly prize—the approval and beni-
son of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and the addition of a word here

were obviously needless.

But we cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure we have ex-

perienced, within the last few days, in learning from the illustrious

Bishop himself, that not only has the original Letter already had an

enormous circulation in France and elsewhere, but that translations

have been very widely diffused throughout Italy, Spain and Ger-

many.

Assuredly this tends to evince the interest that the Holy Father’s

act has awakened, and to prove that, amid the discordant cries and

malicious comments of his foes—always uneasy in their ‘ ‘ house built
upon the sands”—multitudes are anxious to lend an ear to kindly
words of explanation.

We trust, therefore, that in countries where the English language

is spoken, the Bishop’s work, which we have essayed to clothe to

the best advantage in English garb, may meet with an equally favor-

able reception
;
and we pray that, by its means. Unity—ever hand

in hand with her twin-sister^ Peace—may proceed more prosperously
on her way, “to the praise and glory of God’s Holy Name, and to

the benefit of all His Holy Church.”

H. S. B.

January, 1869.



CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Introduction 3

I.—The Council 8
II.—The Programme of the Council ... 16
III.—The Causes of the Council 19

IV.—Eetrospect of the Past 25
V.—The Help Offered by the Council . . 28

VI.—Ill-founded Fears on the subject of the
Council 32

VII.—The Council and the separated Churches 38

VIII.—The Catholic Church 47





letter on the Future ttcumenical Council.

!*-

T
he Clmrch and the world, my Brethren, had already been wait-

ing for a year in anxious expectation. Before the Catholic

Bishops assembled at Home for the Eighteenth Centenary of the

Martyrdom of St. Peter and the solemn canonization of Saints, the

Sovereign Pontiff had all at once proclaimed the necessity for an

GEcumenical Council, and declared his resolution shortly to con-

voke it.

The Bull of Convocation has just appeared. On the 29th of

June last, the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the Holy

Father, by letters addressed to all the Bishops of the Christian

world, has fixed the date of the Future Council, and summoned to

Borne the Episcopate of the whole earth.

Since that period, by two truly paternal Letters, the Holy Father

has successively invited the non-united Creek Bishops and our sepa-

rated brethren of all the Protestant Communions to take advantage

of the future Council, in order to resume the work of unity, several

times already attempted by the Church, but interrupted by the mis-

fortunes of the times.

So, it is no longer only a hope. The first act necessary for the

holding of the Council, its canonical convocation, is accomplished

;

and the Apostolic Letters, already known to the whole world, and

everywhere received with joy in the midst of the pre-occupations

and gloominess of the present times, have made hearts thrill : looks

are directed anew towards Borne : the indifferent, enemies them-

selves, attentive and astonished, feel that something grand is pre-

paring.

And in fact, my Brethren, what is being prepared at Borne and

in the Church is a rare and solemn fact, whose sovereign importance

none can disown, and which will be, perhaps, the greatest event of

the century.

Be not astonished at this language. I know that events of im-

mense magnitude have marked the outset of the 19th century, and



8

its stormy course
;
that great revolutions have passed over it, andi

that only yesterday we saw one of the oldest thrones of Europe

overthrown
;
that conflagrations and wars have agitated nations

that formidable problems are set at the present time in the new and

the old world. Yet, there is even in this century something supe-

rior to earthly ambition and the eager interests of political passions

:

it is the spiritual interests of nations, and those supreme questions

whose solution is of consequence to the peace of souls and the eter-

nal destiny of mankind.

It is on this account, my Brethren, that the Church—which ap-
pears so small an affair to certain men, and seems to them to occupy

so little a place in our modern society, that we to-day hear politi-

cians seriously advising one to take no further account of her—that
the Church is and remains the noblest power in the world, because

she is the spiritual Power, and Rome, the centre of that power,.

Rome, who soon will see within her walls those great assizes of

Catholicity, will always be, in the words of her poet, the most beau-

tiful and the most holy of things under the sun : Rerum pulcherrima

Roma.

What is then, my Brethren, this Catholic Church, and what is

this Council which in a few months is about to present so grand a

spectacle to the world ?

Following the example of many of my venerated colleagues, who-

have already in France and in different parts of Christendom pub-

lished pastoral instructions on the subject, I come in my turn to

discourse with you thereof. I will remind you what are (Ecumeni-

cal Councils, to which we are long unaccustomed
;
I will tell you

what motives, inspired from on high, have caused the Holy Father

to decide upon this Act, the most extraordinary and important of

the Pontifical Grovernment
;
then we shall see if there be any foun-

dation for the alarm which the announcement of such an act has

given birth to in some malevolent or ill-informed minds ; lastly, I

will tell you what we Bishops, Priests and Faithful, have a right to

hope.

I.

The Council.

“God,” says Bossuet, “has performed in our midst a work which,

unconnected with every other cause, and depending from Him alone,

fills up all times and all places, and bears all over the earth, witk



9

the impression of His hand, the character of His authority. That

work is Jesus Christ and His Church.”

There exists, then, in this world, above human things, yet inti-

mately mixed up with them, a spiritual society, an empire of souls.

This empire, of a peculiar and divine order, more of heaven than of

earth, is nevertheless a true empire here below,—a complete society,,
having, like every other, its organization, laws, action and life

;
a

society founded not by the hand of man, but by God Himself
;
re-

quiring no human authority for its existence, for it has a mission as

well as a sacred origin, and from them it derives all its essential

rights : a traveler upon earth and a divine stranger, as Bossuet

says again, nevertheless a sovereign, a sovereign, of souls, over

which it has inviolable jurisdiction ! not encroaching upon human

powers, but not abdicating its divine rights
;
happy to meet with

their co-operation, and never rejecting their alliance, but knowing,

if necessary, how to dispense with them
;
not disturbing their ter-

restrial mission, but unable to consent to her own being disturbed by

them : a universal society which knows neither limits in time, nor

boundaries in space; the depository of celestial goods, and charged

to communicate to men till the end of time the truths of the Gospel,

and by this mission, as by this origin and this expansion, holding in

the world, civilized by it, a place that no other power can ever fill.

Yes, there is this marvel upon the earth : in the midst of all

governments, human, temporal, limited, changeable, there is this

spiritual Society, this government of souls, spread everywhere, im-

mutable, boundless—the Church.
If we look more closely at her constitution—and we must cast at

least a rapid glance at it, in order to understand well the most solemn

of her acts, the (Ecumenical Council—we shall see with what divine
art Jesus Christ has proportioned the means to the end. The Son

God, it is our belief, has given to men, not for a time, but for the

whole duration of time, omnibus diehus, usque ad consummationem

sceculi, an entirety of truths precepts and sacred institutions. Of

these divine revelations the Christian Society, which our Lord called

His Church, Ecclesiam meam, has the trust : a visible society, since

religion should not be a hidden thing
;
perpetually visible, perpe-

tuity having been promised to it
;

lastly, a universal society, since

all men, without exception, are called and admitted to it.

But the trust of the divine revelations could not be transmitted

through all ages without alteration, had it been abandoned to the



10

variable and fanciful interpretations of private judgment. It was

then indispensable that a doctrinal and sovereign, i. e. infallible,

authority should be instituted
;

for an authority cannot be sovereign

in matters of faith, and obtain interior assent, without being infalli-

ble. And this is what the Founder of Christianity has willed and

done, when giving the apostles their mission He pronounced these

words, the last which were uttered by his lips : “As my Father has

sent me, so also I send you. Groing, therefore, teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of

the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I

have commanded you
;
and behold, I am with you all days, even to

the consummation of the world.”

Such then, is the essential character of the Church : she is a doc-

trinal authority, by the divine assistance providentially infallible in

the things revealed of God.

Of infallibility, we know, is born unity
,
not a unity of accident

and of fact simply, but a necessary and permanent unity, since the

principle of unity is permanent in the Church. The principle, and

moreover the centre of unity were in the nature of things, in the

indispensable conditions of a Church thus founded. In fact, for this

teaching Church, spread over the universe, a centre, a head, a chief

was necessary to form her in one and the same body. In this

necessity Jesus Christ did not fail, and He chose amongst His

npostles one whom He invested with special privileges, and to

whom He confided, according to His divine expression, the keys

of the Icingdom of Heaven, whom He established as the basis, the

foundation-stone of the edifice, whom He charged to confirm his

brethren in the faith, whom He named the pastor of the sheep as

well as of the lambs, that is to say. Pastor and Chief of the whole

fold.

This is the Hierarchy of the Church. In order to be a perpetual

contradiction to time which destroys everything, and to render the

assistance necessary to the human mind which is incessantly chang-

ing, a religious society thus constituted was required. But a divine

hand also was required to establish thus a society composed of men

;

and this great character of authority and unity, in perpetuity and

universality, is stamped upon the Church as the glorious impression

of the powerful hand that founded her. Thus she dwells amongst

men constant amidst universal inconstancy. In vain will the natural

restlessness of the human mind run foul of all her dogmas, and



11

heresies succeed heresies :* that inevitable commotion will be unable

to do aught against her firm constitution, and she will remain, as

the apostle says, the pillar and ground of the Truth : Columna et

Jirmamentum Veritatis
. f

Such is the Catholic Church.

Well, my Brethren, an (Ecumenical Council is this Catholic

Church assembled to do more effectively the work, which, dispersed

over the world, she does every day, namely, the transmission to

men, and the authentic interpretation, of the dogmatic and moral

truths contained in authentic revelation.

And this, my Brethren, is what I now wish well to explain and

make clear to our contemporaries, too unaccustomed to these things.

My design is not, however, you understand, to treat fully of

Councils; volumes could be' and have been written on this subject.

But there are at least some necessary ideas about them, which it is

essential should be stated with accuracy, since these matters are at

this time little known, and, besides, in everything simple and funda-

mental ideas^are the most useful.

A Council, then, is an assembly of Bishops met to treat of faith,
morals and discipline.

A Council is particular or general
;
particular, if it represent

only a part of the Church
;
general or oecumenical, if it represent

the Church universal. A general Council, by reason of its repre-
senting the whole Church, has the privilege of doctrinal infallibility

and supreme authority, given by Jesus Christ to the Church herself,

to the body of pastors united to their Head : a particular Council

has it not.

The supreme Head of the Church, the Pope, alone has the right

to convoke general Councils.

For the same reason it is also to the Pope alone to whom belongs

the right of presiding over them. In fact (Ecumenical Councils

have always been presided over by the Popes themselves or their

Legates. Thus at Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, as

well as at the Council of Trent, the Popes presided by their Legates.

At the Councils of Lateran, Lyons, Vienna, Florence and Vienna,

they presided in person.

“ Most Holy Father,” wrote the Fathers of the Council of Chal-

‘^For there must he also heresies (I Cor. xi. 19). “Terrible must!" says

Bossuet somewhere.

fl Tim. iii. 15.



12

cedon to St. Leo, “ in the midst of the Bishops, judges in matters of

faith, you were presiding, as the Head over the members, in the

person of those who represented you.*

In the same manner as it is the duty of the Sovereign Pontiff to

convoke and preside over the G-eneral Council, is it for him to close,

to dissolve, if necessary, and to confirm the same. Agreement of

the Bishops with the Pope is manifestly necessary for the oecumenical

issue of a Council.* /

Gathered jn Council from all parts of the world, with the Pope at

their head, either in person or by his Legates, the Bishops decide

questions, as witnesses of the faith of their Churches, as judges of

the divine law. Episcopis judicibus, said the Fathers of Chalcedon

immediately. Dejiniens suhscripsi
; suhscripsi pronuntians cum

sanctd synodo, is how the Bishops signed at Chalcedon and Ephesus,

and also at Trent.

Law has regulated the exterior forms of these assemblies. There

are solemn sessions in which decrees are promulgated, and congrega-

tions in which they are elaborated—with what care, scruples, and
inquiries the history of the Council of Trent attests, and of which

the next Council of Rome will be a proof no less glorious.

The Pope, in fact, as soon as he had taken the great resolution of

summoning a Council, has applied himself to it with an activity pro-

portioned to the importance of the future assembly, and as becomes

the part of the Head of the Church in an (Ecumenical Council.

Several commissions or congregations, composed of learned Cardinals

and theologians chosen in every country, have been immediately

appointed by him, and are busily engaged in preparing the matters

which will be treated of in the Council. There is a special Congre-

gation for Dogma
;
one for Canon Law

;
one for all that concerns

the religious orders
;
one for the relations between Church and State

;

one for the Churches of the East.

It is the custom in the Church, when the Pope wishes to summon

an (Ecumenical Council, to inform beforehand with all solemnity the

Bishops, who should bring to it, with the authority which from their

character they enjoy, the counsel of their experience, and the light

and special competency to understand the times and the wants of

nations, which their dispersion throughout all the countries of the

world gives them.

Therefore, since last year, Pius IX., in two allocutions addressed

^Episcopis judicihus, sicut memhris caput, proceras in his qui tuum ienebant

locum (Epist. ad Leon. Cone. coll. R. t. ix., p. 204.)



13

to the Bishops assembled in Rome, has announced to them the future

Council
;
and by his last Bull he has just called them all to it_, and

fixed the precise date, in order that the Prelates, informed and sum-

moned beforehand, should have time to study at leisure the questions,

and arrive perfectly prepared for the time indicated by the Sovereign

Pontiff.

I need not add that, if the Pope and Bishops assembled can carry

out disciplinary laws and modify more or less in the Canon Law what

is not by its nature immutable, the mission of Councils, in matters

of faith, is not to make dogmas : dogmas are not made in Councils,

but they are declared. What belongs to them and what they have

always done, is to examine scripture and tradition, even as the

authorized interpreters of scripture and tradition
;
and it is with the

aid of all these assembled lights, after most searching debates, and

after the assistance of the Holy Ghost has been long invoked, that

the Council pronounces and defines, according to the necessities of

the times and the wants of souls, what has been and what is the be-

lief of the Church.

History counts to the present time eighteen (Ecumenical Councils,*

but it would be difl&cult to fix upon the infinite number of particular

Councils. Nothing places in the light more than these concilatory

assemblies the powerful vitality of the Church and the strength

which she carries within her to defend herself, either against the

errors to which the human mind ceases not to give birth, or

* The following is a list of these eighteen CEcumenical Councils: 1. iVtcc, in

325, against Arius, who denied the divinity of the Word ; 2. Constantinople^ in

381, against Macedonius, who attacked the divinity of the Holy Ghost ; 3. Ephe-

sus
^
in 431, against Nestorius, who erred concerning the Incarnation, and

refused to give the Blessed Virgin the title of Mother of God ; 4. Chalcedony in

451, against Eutyches, who had flung himself into an error contrary to that of

Nestorius
;

5. Constantinople

^

in 553, against the three famous Chapters which

prolonged the error of Nestorius upon the Incarnation
;

6. Constantinople

^

in

680, against the Monothelites, who prolonged the error of Eutyches by denying

that Jesus Christ had a human will; Y. Nice, in Y8Y, against the Iconoclasts, or
breakers of images; 8. Constantinople, in 869, against Pholius, the author of

the Greek schism
;

9. Lateran, in 1123, for the promulgation of peace between

the Priesthood and the Empire, after the long quarrels about Investitures, and

for the Crusades
;
10. Lateran, in 1139, for the re-union of the Greeks, and

against the errors of the Albigenses
;

11. Lateran, in 11Y9, for the different

questions of discipline, and against the heresies of the time, the Vaudois, &c.
;

12. Lateran, in 1215, still against the same heretics ; 13. Lyons, in 1245, for

the Crusade and the strife with the Emperor Frederick
;

14. Lyons, in 12Y4, for

the Crusade and the re-union of the Greeks
;

15. Vienna, in 1311, for the Cru-

sade and divers questions of discipline, and for the affairs of the Knights Tem-

plars
; 16. Florence, in 1439, for the re-union of the Greeks; lY. Lateran, in

1511, against the council of Pisa; 18. Trent, in 1545, against Protestantism.

Many sessions of the Council of Constance are also regarded as oecumenical.



14

against the corruptions and abuses inevitable to the infirmities of

human nature. It is the sole society upon earth in which

revolutions are not necessary, and in which reforms are always

possible. There is not one of those thousand Councils, in fact,

that has not decreed upon discipline at the same time as upon

faith
;
and the great Council of Trent itself, without fearing that

word'“ Keform,” which had inflamed Europe, re-took it, because it

belonged to it, and accompanied all its definitions of the faith with

decrees upon reformation : De reformatione. Assembled in (Ecu-

menical Council, the Pope and the Bishops examine with a steady

gaze the whole situation of alFairs in the Christian republic, and

courageously bring a remedy for its wounds and sufferings. By it

the immortal youth of the Church is renewed
;
a stronger and more

vigorous breath is infused into that vast body, and society itself feel

its blessed influence.

It is then, my Brethren, one of these oecumenical assemblies that

the Pope has just convoked. After having deeply meditated upon

the wants of the times, and long prayed to Grod, the Head of the

Catholic Church has spoken one word
;
made one solemn sign, and

it is enough : from East and West, North and South, from all points

of the inhabited world, of every tribe, every language, every nation,

the heads of that great spiritual society, all the dispersed members

of that government of souls, who take their names from the first

towns of the universe in which they are seated,—the Bishops are
about to set out, and assemble in the place marked out by the Sov-

ereign Pontiff, to treat, not as in human. congresses, of peace and

war, of conquests and frontiers, but of 'souls and their sacred inter-

ests, of things spiritual and eternal
;
to obey that divine saying which

has founded the Church : Eitntes ergo, Docete omnes Gentes;
“

Gfoing,.

teach all nations to accomplish the most august duty of their sov-

ereign mission
;
to proclaim in a general assembly of the Church, in

face of human errors, the truths, the sacred trust of which has been

confided to them by Him who is Truth itself. Such is the work of

an (Ecumenical Council; is "there on earth a greater work ?

It is three hundred years since the world has seen these assem-

blies, and even at the commencement of this century, people believed

them impossible. “In modern times,” wrote J. de Maistre, not

fifty years ago, “since the civilized universe has been, so to say,

minced by so many sovereignties, and immensely enlarged by our

hardy navigators, an (Ecumenical Council has become a chimera.”



16

People remembered the political difficulties which so sadly fettered

the Council of Trent, and the present times appeared still more

unfavorable
;
they thought modern powers more defiant and hostile,

and the liberty of the Church more shackled, her action more than

ever lessened. But they did wrong to calumniate our times; and in

lieu of defying Providence, we shall do better to admire His power-

ful hand, which, as the ancient proverb said^ Writes straight upon

crooked lines, and forces events to give way, in spite of man, to His

eternal designs. As a missionary and traveler, the Church wants to

see roads shortened. As a preacher and deliverer, she profits and

rejoices at the falling away of all obstructions. Now our age has

accomplished these two works, the doing away of distances, the

lowering of barriers—I mean distances and barriers in the political
and social sense, as well as in a material point of view. People

have thought to serve their interests thereby
;
they have served faith :

and all that stir which seemed to be made in a sense opposed to the

Church’s, and against Her, turns to her profit. The spirit of modern

times obliges governments, whether they will or not, to be mere

equitable towards the Church, and causes the old prejudices, which

but lately still impeded her action, to disappear
;
and behold^ the

holding of an (Ecumenical Council is, politically, easier to-day than

it would have been in the times of Philip II., Louis XIV., or

Joseph II.

“ Only to convoke mil the Bishops,” said Be Maistre again, “ and

to establish legally this eonvocation, five or six years would not

suffice.” And to-day it suffices Pius IX. to cause his Bull to be

affixed to the walls of the Lateran ! Modern publicity, in spite

even of contrary wills, carries it to the extremities of the world

;

soon, thanks to the marvellous progress of science and industry,

upon the wings that steam lends our vessels, and upon the chariots

of fire which consum|e space, from continents, in direction the most

contrary, from islands the most distant, the Bishops will come at the

appeal of the Pontiff. They will come from free countries, and, we

hope, from countries which are not; and thus, I love to repeat it,

that double current of the ideas and the industry of our time is about

to be of use, not only to material life, but to the government of souls,

to the highest manifestations of the spiritual life in mankind, to the

greatest work of the Spirit of Hod upon earth.

How just it is, since Providence has so willed, that, by this secret

harmony hidden in the depths of things and in the unity of the



IP)

divine work, matter will have been placed once more at the service

of spirit
;

the thoughts of men at the disposition of the counsels of

God!

Three times already, my Brethren, as you know, some years

since, the Catholic Bishops have been enabled to assemble round the

Vicar of Jesus Christ
;
but none of these three great meetings had

the character of a Council. The glory of renewing the ancient tra-

ditions of the Church, so long interrupted, by the holding of a veri-

table oecumjenical assembly, was reserved for this magnanimous

Pontiff, so strong in his gentleness, so perfectly cheerful in his trials,

and so confident in God who sustains him, and who has manifestly

inspired him for the work of the Council.

II.

The Programme of the Council.

And why, with what thoughts, does the Head of the Church sum-

mon to these assizes of Catholicity those whom he calls ‘ ‘ his vener-

able Brethren, all the Bishops of the Catholic world, whom their

sacred character calls to share his solicitude ? ” Omnes venerabiles

fratres totius CatJiolici orbis sacrorum antistites, qui in soUicitudinis

nostrce partem vocati sunt.

The Apostolical letter tells us clearly
;
we must read it, and judge

the Church fairly, on her own words, and not on rancorous or fruit-

less comments. This is how the Holy Father traces out in his Bull

the programme of the future Council :—“ This (Ecumenical Council,
then,” says the Pope, “ will have to examine with the greatest care,

and to determine what it is best to do, in these times, so difficult and

so hard, for the greater glory of God, for the integrity of the Faith,

for the beauty of Divine worship, for the eternal salvation of men,

for the discipline of the clergy, regular and secular, for their salu-

tary and solid instruction, for the observance of the ecclesiastical

laws, for the reformation of morals, for the Christian education of

youth, for general peace and universal concord,

“ It will also be necessary to work with all our might, God aiding

us, to remove every evil from the Church and from Society, to lead

back into the right path of truth, justice and salvation, those unhappy

ones who have wandered; to repress vice, and to repulse error, in

order that our august religion and its salutary doctrines may acquire

new vigor throughout the whole world
;
that it may be propagated

daily more and more
;
that it may recover its empire, and that thus



11

piety, honesty, justice, charity and all the Christian virtues may

thrive and flourish for the greater welfare of human society,”*

The whole programme, the whole work of the future Council are

in these words. There will then he two great objects in it, the good

of the Church and the welfare of human Society. There will be

that, and that only.

Before all, the Church assembles to re-animate her interior life,

and as the Apostle says, to stir up the grace of God which is in us.

It is the Church, my Brethren, who has this admirable privilege

that I speak of : she is the only body which is endowed with this

power of a perpetual growing-young-again in the midst of a perpet-

ual existence. In virtue of her divine constitution, nothing changes

in the truths which she guards, nothing is created, nothing lost, not

a syllable, not an iota! Iota unum, aut unus apex non praeterhit

says Jesus Christ. But, as a living institution, composed of men,

borrowing her chiefs and her members from all nations, all ranks,

always open to all who wish to come to her, and unceasingly being

increased by new races^—as a river which receives rivulets into its
midst reflects the objects on its banks, and adapts its course to cli-

mates, places and declivities—the Church has the gift of accommo-
dating herself to the times, the institutions and wants of the genera-

tions which she traverses, and to the centuries which she civilizes.

Further, she is here below perpetually laboring to make herself

more worthy to speak to men of Grod, and her manner of doing so

heard and understood. She examines without ceasing, with respect,

but with sovereign authority, her disciplinary books, her laws, her

institutions, her works, and especially her members distributed in

the different degrees of the hierarchy.

Certainly we do not believe ourselves faultless or stainless. ‘ ‘ What,

are we astonished,” said Fenelon formerly, “to And in man the re-

* “In (EcumeBico enim hoc Concilio ea omnia accuratissimo examine sunt

perpendendaj ac statuenda, quae hisce prsesertim asperimis temporibus majorem

Dei gloriam, et fidei integritatem, divinique cultus decorem, sempiternamque

hominum salutem, et utriusque Oleri disciplinam, ejusque salutarem, solidamqne

culturam, atqua ecclesiasticarum legum observantiam, morumque emendationem,

et christianam juventutis institutionem, et communem omnium pacem et con-

cordiam in primis rescipiunt. Atque etiam intentissimo studio curandum est,

ut Deo bene juvante, omnia ab Ecclesia, et civili societate amoveantur mala, ut

miseri errantes ad rectum veritatis, justitiae, salutisque tramitem reducantur, ut

vitiis, erroribusque eliminitatis, augusta nostra religio ejusque salutifera doctrina

ubique terrarum reviviscat, et quotidie magis propagetur, et dominetur, atque

ita pietatas, honestas, probitas, justitia, caritas omnesque christianae virtutes cum

maxima humanae societatis utilitate vigeant et efflorescant.”

fSt. Matth. V. 18,

2



18

mains of humanity!” But, eternal thanks to God! we possess in

the imperishable treasure of truth and the divine laws, whose de-

positaries we are, the means of ever acknowledging our faults and

reforming ourselves.

It is then against us, or rather, it is for us above all that the

Council meets. There will not be a single one amongst us, who,

coming to take his seat in that august Assembly, will not that morn-

ing have genuflected upon the last step of the altar, bowed his head,

beaten his breast and said to himself : “If God be not better known,

better served around me, if truth suffer violence, if the poor be not

assisted, if justice be in danger, 0 God, it is through my fault,

through my fault, through my most grievous fault ! ” Kings of the

earth, who dispose, sometimes with such dreadful freedom, of the

fate of nations, ah! how good for you also would such an examen

be, if you could endure it! 0 human assemblies^ parliaments, tri-

bunals;, popular conventions, do you think that that strict survey of

oneself, those avowals, those scruples and those courageous habits of

discipline and reform, will be useless to appease blind agitations and

arrogant passions, or to shake off sleepy routine ?

Everyone of us, then, having examined, interrogated and accused

himself severely, will ask himself what are to-day the obstacles ta

the propagation of the Faith amongst nations who have not received

it, to its re-establishment amongst those who have lost it ? We shall

revise regulations; we shall reform abuses; we shall re-establish

forgotten laws
;
we shall modify that which requires it. Under the

supreme authority of our common Father, the Bishop of bishops, the

experience of the old men, the ardor of the younger, the inspiration of

the holiest, the wisdom of the wisest—all will concur to this gener-
ous and sincere verification of our proper state, our mission on earth

and our duty
;
and this examen will be made in the freest and most

brotherly discussion, and be ere long followed by sound resolutions,

which will henceforth and forever .become the rule of our life.

Such, then, will be the first object of the assembly of the Bishops;

a sublime and humble object, which the children of the Church re-

spectfully admire, and which strikes her enemies themselves with a

wonder that they in vain seek to disguise. Aye, our ministry is so

beautiful, our assemblies are so elevated above others, that the lan-

guage of men contains the involuntary avowal of that superiority.

For when they wish to define a noble function, a superior mission, a

role apart, they call it, often indeed with exaggeration, a Priesthood

;



19

and if they wish to speak of a solemn and imposing meeting, which

will leave a mark in history, they say, “it is a Council of kings or

of legislators.” Without having to puff ourselves up. Priests or

Bishops, human language has no words more exalted
;

for our hands

have not done these things; they come from God, and the haughti-

ness of the words which expresses them, recalls to our humility,

with the majesty of our vocation, the formidable extent of our duties.

But, finally, why, in our days, at this present time, this retreat

of the whole Catholic episcopate to the privacy of a new ‘ ‘ upper

chamber ? ” Why, if I may venture so to speak, this holy watching
of arms? Why these preparations, all this machinery and work of
a great Council? Why, by the inspiration and under the eye of
God, has the Sovereign Pontiff judged it expedient to meet at this

moment, in this second half of the nineteenth century ?

It is said of our Master, the Divine Saviour of the world : Vul-

neratus est propter iniquitates nostras. Now it is for men’s iniquities,
and for ours, that we are about to impose upon ourselves so many
labors. The more difficult the times, the more it behooves us to be
pure in the presence of more formidable trials, armed for sharper
struggles, and wise on the eve of hotter discussions. And if men
ask us why we are about to strive thus to augment light and charity
in our midst, we would answer that, without forgetting ourselves
and our wants, we do it on their account also, contemplating their
state, their aspirations and their sufferings, and in the desire to do
them more good.

III.

The Causes of the Council.

What is then to-day the condition of the souls, and the state of the
nations spread over the face of the earth ? Who is not pre-occupied
therewith ?

The Pope, casting a glance upon the world, and lending from
afar an ear to the commotions of contemporary society, has been un-

able not to see, as all do (he says), the great crisis, or, as the Bull

expresses it, the tempest which at this time agitates the Church and

Society ; Jam vero omnibus compertum exploratumque est qua Jior-
ribili tempestate nunc jactetur Ecclesia, et quibus quantisque mails

ipsa affl,igatur Societas. What is, my Brethren, this crisis in the
Church and the world ?

If you embrace in your view the sequel of history, and that vast



20

ocean of ages upon which we are borne for an instant^ and then

swallowed up in our turn, you will answer at once : It is certain that

this crisis is but an incident of the perpetual crisis, a scene of the

uninterrupted drama, which composes the destiny of humankind.

Inexperienced passengers always believe that they have em-

barked in foul weather, and imagine that the sea has rocks and

waves only for them. But old sailors well know that the tide is ever

uncertain, and that the tempest of the day which is breaking has

been preceded by other tempests.

And if we are just as well as attentive, we shall acknowledge

moreover that this crisis of the present time does not occur by

chance, and escapes no more than others the direction of God. I

would even say, in considering the deep designs of Providence, that

this crisis is not without grandeur, and that it has its beauty^ its

laws and its end, as the phenomena of nature in appearance most

confused and disorderly. Through the struggles and obstacles un-

ceasingly renewed, the Church, who knows whither she goes, and

men, often unknown to them, pursue the ideal of the Gospel
;
and

the Church, whose mission it is to elevate the soul thereto, laments

here below because this ideal is never sufficiently realized for the

happiness and glory of mankind. ISTo doubt we must acknowledge

the efforts of labor, intelligence and courage which men now display

;

there have accumulated for some centuries treasures of science, riches

and power, and there has arisen in the two worlds a surprising crop

of men of talent, artists and orators, scholars and military men, ad-

ministrators and literati, whose names and whose labors will be sa-

luted by posterity with legitimate gratitude. But all that suffices

not for mankind
;
and having been just towards the good, let us be

just towards the evil
;

let us look our century itself in the face, and,

with the august and veracious Pius IX. , let us agree that human

society is at this moment deeply troubled.

Do not think, my Brethren, that I mean to speak here of the

troubles of politics and war.

I know that Europe has more than once resounded, in these last

years, with the din of battle, and that at this hour a secret disquiet

still agitates the mind
;
nations are arming and preparing themselves,

one would say, for gigantic shocks. Is it of these powerful political

interests—these questions of nationalities, of equilibrium and of fron-
tiers—that the Pontiff wishes to speak ? No doubt the Church is
not indifferent to peace or war amongst nations, and indeed her

I



21

prayers ascend daily to heaven for concord amongst princes and

Christian nations. But in truth, I think I have said so already, it

is not to settle such questions that she gathers her Council; the

pacific assembly convoked to Rome will meditate neither revolutions

nor conquests, neither leagues of nations or sovereigns, nor the rais-

ing or overthrow of dynasties. Whilst all Europe, and, if we cast a

look further, whilst the New World, like the Old, are trembling at

the sound of war or revolutions, there, at Rome, in that august

centre, in that reserved place, gathered near the Successor of Peter

round the chair of truth, the pastors of the people, their feet upon

the earth and the immovable rock, but their eyes towards heaven,

will occupy themselves with souls, with the wants of souls, with the

eternal salvation of souls, in a word, with the superior and permanent

interests of mankind. #

And surely they will do well
;

for, (who can hide it ?) are not

souls in danger, and is not the faith of nations menaced ?

What new heresy, then, has sprung up? you will say to me.

What new heresy, my Brethren ? From the bosom of the Church,

none
;
never has the clergy been more united in the faith, from one

end of the world to the other. Outside the Church, on the contrary,

not only are the same attacks, a hundred times repulsed, a hundred

times renewed, reproduced under new forms and in fresh wrath

against all points of the Christian doctrine, more than this
;
but with

an impiety which surpasses that of the eighteenth century, natural

truths themselves—those primordial truths upon which everything
here below rests—are denied and audaciously discussed. Science
also has its heresies

;
there is a schism amongst philosophers

;
and

reason submits in her turn to the assaults which appeared reserved

for the Faith. Strange ! It is the Faith which keeps to-day the

the treasures of reason, and serves it for a rampart. It is you, to-*

day, 0 scholars, 0 thinkers, it is you who want us ! You accuse us

every day of having neither science nor intelligence, but you, my

poor brothers, so learned, so intelligent, have not nearly known how

to keep a single durable truth ! And you who wished to reform the

Church, 0 Protestants, you it is, to-day, who have need of reform,

and who feel how the benefit of authority is wanting in you.

See, in fact the state of intellect. Whither go, from all parts,

the separated philosophies ? For three centuries, in that Germany,

which to-day is so severely knocked about and shaken, violent spirits

have sprung up, who, rejecting the bridle of faith, and giving them-



22

selves up to all the temerities of thought, have exhibited to the aston-

ished world all the audacities, and at the same time all the weak-

nesses of reason, ere long followed, as ever, by audacities and weak-

nesses of conduct. From these prodigious efforts of mind and erudi-

tion, what has emanated ? The resurrection of all the ancient

errors, pantheism, atheism, scepticism, and even in religion, the

most contradictory caprices of an exegesis by which all Christianity

would perish : this is where have ended, under our eyes, eighteen

centuries after Jesus Christ, the greatest intellectual labors perhaps

of which the world has been witness.

And to-day, amongst us, what do you see? A breach made in
religious convictions, the dissolution of all faith, even philosophical,

the overthrow of all rational truth, and the invasion of a pretended

science infatuated with itself, which disowns reason and wishes, by

the name of materialism and atheism, to snatch from men faith in an

immortal soul and belief in Grod. By means of the press—^journals,
pamphlets, novels—most fatal doctrines concerning Grod, the soul,
morals, the future life, the family and society, are zealously spread

abroad. Many of our contemporaries either sink in these errors or

float, without compass and without guide, at the mercy of all the

winds of doubt : on all sides men’s minds are wrapt in the darkness

of a tempest which penetrates to the very depths of the popular

masses.*

* When, two years ago, I published “Atheisme et le Peril Social,’' and more

recently “Alarmes de 1’ Episcopal,” writings in which I denounced the efforts of

atheism and contemparary impiety, some persons appeared to doubt, in spite of

the positive proofs accumulated by me, that the evil had made so much progress,

and also that impious doctrines could have social consequences so disastrous.

Now, since then, the progress of irreligion has been so rapid, that to-day the

evil bursts forth on all sides.

There have been held this year, in Europe, three principal international con-

gresses of workmen, at Brussels, Nuremberg and Genes. What have we heard
in these congresses? Cries of impiety and social war. War to God ! War to
governments ! War to capital!
The “International Association of Workmen,” gathered together in congress

at Brussels, a congress formed by delegates of the workmen’s associations which

cover Europe, said in its Report

:

“ To-day man has at length been enabled to recognize his true and only en-

emy
;
in politics, this enemy is called the law, symbolized by the Monarch

;
in

morals, God, symbolized by the Priests and the Popes
;
in political economy,

the INEQUALITY OF CONDITIONS, symbolized by Money.” (Quoted by the Univers

of the 3d October, 1868.)

But what it is well to know is, that this International Association of Work-

men, born only four years ago, has already branches all over Europe, and even

in America. I read, in fact, in the speech of the President (sitting of the 6th

September)

:

“In America the workmen have organized and affiliated themselves

They count upon soon taking possession of the legislative power, which belongs

actually to the citizens.



23

At the same time, great misunderstandings have arisen on all

^questions which concern the Church, and, hy consequence, war is

eagerly waged against her. When there hurst forth in France the

Bevolution which is making the circuit of Europe and of the world,

dhe Church, attached to the old political order hy ties made hy time,

was carried with it into the tempest, and people knew not how to

distinguish in the struggle made against her, what held to a state of

things legitimate, without being necessary, and what constituted the

essential principles and immutable spirit of Christianity. Hatred,

blind and implacable, has amongst certain men survived ; forgetting

eighteen centuries of benefits, they have continued an ungrateful

war
;
and as the tide of revolution in its course rolls up pell-mell

truths and errors, virtues and crimes, benefits and disasters, the

Church, who never covenants with error and evil, persists in point-

ing out to the men of the period the delusion of deceptive words,

-and the dangers of false doctrines. Let us say all; because they

are obstinate in charging the Church with thoughts and pretensions

“ In England the fall of classes is equally commenced, and is pursued with

success.

“In Germany and Switzerland the Association equally makes progress. One

hundred and twenty workmen’s associations are at this moment assembled at

Nuremberg.
“ The ideas of the association also make way in Italy.”

We have just seen what these ideas were
;
the same President, in the same

sitting, thus exposed them :

“The paid workman is as unhappy as was once the negro of America. ....
Still more unhappy.

“ There is inevitably war between workman and master.

“The workman should to-day become his own master.”
And the President thus concludes his speech :— “ In our former congresses we

have discussed our theories; to-day we must act.”

And the one hundred and twenty workmen’s societies assembled at Nuremberg
have, to be sure, expressed their adhesion to the Congress of Brussels.

And, perfectly skilled in the means, the workmen of the Congress of Genes

have resolved to found schools for the instruction of the people, hut schools without

religion, according to the method of the educational leagues which are so actively

being organized in France at the present time, and which people, who do not

see at all, pretend are inoffensive.

When I quoted that frightful explosion of materialism and atheism which
took place two years ago at the congress of students at Liege, and those cries of

impiety and savage barbarity

—

“War to God! Down with the privileges of citizens! Down with capi-
talists !

“ Revolution is the triumph of man over God 1 . . . .
“ The vault of heaven must be smashed like a ceiling of paper ! . . . .

“If property makes an obstacle to revolution, it is necessary, by the people’s

decrees, to annihilate property 1 . . . .
“ If a hundred thousand heads make an obstacle, they must fall! We have

love only for collective humanity ! ”

When I quoted those words and many others, the most respectable of the im-
,pious journals have thought to answer by saying to us : “ They were children ?

”



24

which are not hers, an impious or misled press blasphemes against

the Church, and seeks to excite nations against her
;
and in make-

believe, writless congresses, in the writings of journalists who

inspire them, amidst the cries of social warfare, we hear blas-

phemies, at once stupid and sanguinary, against the Church
;

and

we even see carried to the bosom of our legislative assemblies this

causeless antagonism, in the name of which men are demanding a

violent separation of the Church and society.

And lately^ when the voice of the Sovereign Pontiff raised itself

to point out the overflowing of the impious or immoral theories

which inundate us, still what clamorous, what unmerited accusations

resounded from all sides ! Without understanding his language,

they calumniated him
;
and we saw with grief politicians, under the

effect of precipitate emotion, and without asking or waiting for

necessary explanations, hasten also to proclaim an antagonism which,

thank Grod, does not exist.

Well, are they children, those 2,000 individuals here, and those 3,000 there,

who are gathering together at this moment in Paris ? For there one cannot pro-

nounce the name even of God^ or that of Jesus Christ, nor mention the Chris-

tianfaith, without provoking the most violent storms
;
so much so, that at one

of these meetings, an orator having forgotten himself so far as to say, God

forhid! the expression excited such clamor that the speaker was obliged to leave

the platform; and in another meeting, another having simply said, Dating

from . . . Jesus Christ, also descended from the platform amidst a tumult, and

at the effect of menacing cries.

But I have not heard say that they made descend from the platform him who

said lately, “ Frugality is one of the forms of assassination.”

There is nothing, even to charity, whieh has not been there scorned and ban-

ished. The President, having proposed a collection for the victims of the hor-

rible accident at Metz—the powder explosion—the assembly refused, because it
would have been from charity; and charity, cried out an orator, is a Catholic

and not a democratic essence.

If things go on some time in this way, the world, one can predict without being

a prophet, will see catastrophes such as it has never seen.

I said one day, in a work, that some doctrines would lead us to barbarism.

I have been reproached for this word. Well, barbarism ; they do not defend

themselves from it any longer
;
they make a show of it. I received, this morn-

ing even, the prospectus of anew “Atheistic [maUrialiste) and Literary’^
journal, which is going to appear at Paris precisely under that liame, LE

BARBARE (“The Barbarian”), and declares itself founded for the triumph of
atheism. That prospectus professes that Robespierre was but behind-hand and

reactionary, and that the Revolution has only come to its apogee with the athe-

ism of the commune of Paris, with the acts of accusation {reguisitoires) of Chau-

mette, with the witty andprofoundjournal of Hebert.*

Now, I ask, is it a dream about atheism and the social danger? Was I wrong
in seeing in those young atheists the Heberts and Chaumettes of the future ^

* I would remind the English reader that it was Chaumette who, in conjunc-

tion with Hebert, originated the Feasts of Reason during the French Revolution.

It would be impossible to conceive greater monsters. It was they who contrived

the infamous accusation brought against Marie Antoinette on her trial. Chau-

mette proposed a moving: guillotine to shed blood with profusion—in fact, every
description of cruelty it is possible to imagine. Both perished miserably by the

guillotine, blaspheming to the end.—H. S. B.



25

These hostilities against the Church, by alienating from her the

nations’ which are seduced, render still more formidable the danger

in which contemporary errors entangle us
;
for the doctrines are not

inoffensive, and it is a law of history, confirmed by constant expe-

rience, that M. de Bonald promulgated when he wrote these strong

words :
‘

‘ There are always great disorders where there are great

errors, and great errors where there are great disorders.” These are

the ideas which give birth to facts
;

it is from on high that storms

come.

And I ask men of integrity this : You have wished to found the

government of nations and the conduct of life upon reason alone.

For three-quarters of a century we have had experience of this..

Where is it ? Are morals better ? Is authority firm ? Is liberty

founded ? Has war disappeared ? And misery ? And ignorance ?

And these questions, which reason puts with a rare fertility of in-

vention, but which she does not solve, these questions which touch

upon the organization even of society, labor, wages, workmen, where

are they ? I exaggerate nothing in affirming that since reason pre-

tends to reign alone, she reigns, as the evening star, over shades

which she cannot conquer^ and the earth has become, even in the.

most civilized society, an abode of disquiet, uneasiness, division,

and dread. The nineteenth century is about to end agitated, weary,

sterile, unmistakably diseased. Very bold must he be who would

dare affirm that it will end in glory and not in abysses.

lY.

Ketrospect of the Past.

Nevertheless, I beseech my friends and brethren in the Faith to

exaggerate nothing. It is allowable to be sad, in the face of the

present hour, I repeat; and I should esteem a heart rather heedless

that would not so feel. The men of my age, sons of the nineteenth

century, have had beautiful dreams; we had nourished generous

hopes; we are about to die, and to die deceived. But what! Is

our short life all history ? We did not live in the sixteenth century,
we shall not live in the twentieth

;
but the Church was living yester-

day, and she will live to-morrow. If I had to say, what I hope, all

my prophecies would not be lugubrious, and if I question it upon its

recollection, the present time would gain by being compared with

the past. In fact, let us again turn our looks towards the times

that are no more : shall we see many centuries that had not their



26

miseries and their perils ? Ah ! before the discouragements of cer-

tain Catholics, I call to mind that saying of one of the Books of

Wisdom : Ne dicas : Quid putas causae est quod priora tempora

meliora fuere quam nunc sunt ? Stidta est enim liujuscemodi inter-

rogatio

;

Say not : what thinkest thou is the cause that former

times were better than they are now ? for this manner of question is

foolish.”*

T was re-reading recently the Bulls of Convocation of the ancient

•Councils of the Middle Ages : the lamentations of the Popes at the

misfortunes of their epoch surpass the most dreadful that could be

made heard at the present time. And not to go back beyond the

Council of Trent, let the Church tell us of those times, for she was

of them. What did she see then?

A century similar enough to our own, by the taste for letters and

the revival of art
;
similar also by the bad use of its gifts. The six-

teenth century was peopling America, lately discovered
;
was there

giving itself up to monstrous excesses of avarice and cruelty, and

introducing the disgrace of slavery. It was receiving treasures

from it, and turning them to the corruption of morals. If we look

at thrones and into the bosom of nation, and even as far as the

Church herself, the spectacle is yet very sad. That century has seen

Henry VIII., Elizabeth, Christiern II., Yvan the Terrible, the

Medicis, Charles IX. and Henry III. That century has seen the

sack of Home and the siege of Paris. That century has seen the

pretended Beformation rend the Church, unsettle Europe, cut in

twain Christendom. When one reads the lives of the great and holy

personages of that time, such as Horn Barthelemi des Martyrs, Saint

Charles Borromeo or St. Francis de Sales, what revelations of the

evils in the Church and in society ! I have recalled the Bulls of

the Popes of the Middle Ages : read but those of the Pontiffs who

convoked the Council of Trent, and you will see if Adrian VI., Paul

III.
,
Pius IV.

,
did not utter cries respecting the perils of the Christian

republic more alarming than those of Pius IX. Relaxations, dis-

orders, scandals; a clergy ill-formed, religious orders debased; and

then princes divided, nations trodden upon, war every day, in all

countries. And to speak only of the Council, assembled in conjec-

tures so sad, it was necessary to gather it in a little town hidden

amongst the mountains of Tyrol, to await for six years the pleasure

Ecclesiastes vii. 11.



27

of princes, to suspend it, to resume it, and to submit to incessant

and unjust contests.

But, vain obstacles ! the power of the Church triumphed over all

;

and after the Council, suddenly, what a spectacle ! What great men

and what great works issued precisely from that Council, and from

the regenerating breath it had caused to pass over Christian Society !

St. Charles Borromeo, St. Philip Neri, St. Peter of Alcantara, St.

Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis of Sales, St. Jane of

Chantal, St. Vincent of Paul, St. Francis Borgia and St. Francis

Begis, inheritors of the spirit of St. Ignatius, and St. Francis Xavier
;

then, in train of the canonized Saints, the apostolic men who regene-

rated the people. Blessed Pierre Fourrier, Cardinal de Berulle, M.

Olier, M. Eudes, M. Bourdoise, Abbe de Kance and so many others
;

then those multiplied congregations, those fruitful institutions which

cause the clerical and religious life to re-blossom, and encourage

everywhere study, regularity, charity; all that regenerating move-

ment, in fact, for which the Church has labored
;
then Bossuet,

Fenelon, and the majestic unity of the 17th century. And in spite

of all the abysses that this immortal mother of men has had to leap,

the Church has now temples at Jerusalem, liberty at Pekin and Con-

stantinople, the episcopal hierarchy in England and the Low Countries,

Councils at Baltimore, Missionaries in Africa, in Oceanica and Japan

;

she rejoices from the bottom of her heart to behold in all places, spite

of all that religion has yet to long for, and all that she deplores, laws

more equitable, armies less oppressive, the weak better protected, the

poor better assisted, slaves set free. When she looks in the face the

pretended reform which started up full of audacity, supported upon

the politics of the 16th century, the Church to-day sees it doctrinally

decaying, having traveled over its cycle and exhausted its arms. On

the contrary, the Catholic Church, whose abuses, say they, could no

longer be supported, presents herself with a Pope whose eminent

virtues force respect
;
with Bishops more numerous and zealous, with

priests, pious, united, devoted; with Orders learned and virtuous,

re-tempered in persecution and poverty. And when this Church

wishes to assemble a Council, it is to Borne herself that she sum-

mons it, with the help of an immense publicity, safe roads, rapid

conveyances, and facilities of all kinds, which she owes to the spirit,

the equity and the resources of the present time.

People know well enough that I am not one of those who shut

their eyes and are silent respecting the evils of our epoch and the



28

perils of souls. But neither do I wish to respond ungratefully to

Grod’s favors, and not to see the strength which He always procures

His Church, and the facilities for good which He gives in the worst

times. One must not forget, besides, that it is the duty of men in

all times to struggle, and that each century has its task and its trouble.

I pity, I execrate not the present time
;

I do not bereave nations of

all hope, neither do I launch anathemas at princes: they are not all-

powerful, and they should consider themselves surrounded with many

difficulties. I pray, then, for them, as the Church does
;
and as well

as my feeble voice can, I warn them
;
and of all, princes and peoples,

I ask loyal and sincere co-operation in the great work of the Church,

which is the sanctification and civilization of the world.

What ought especially to be to us, men of the present time, a sub-

ject to lament bitterly, are these three evils which to-day are at their

worst; the ruin of faith, precipitated by the impious direction of

scientific and philosophical studies
;
the dissoluteness of morals, accele-

rated by the thousand novel means of a corrupting propagandism ;

and, lastly, the unjust misunderstandings which the enemies of reli-

gion are pleased to perpetuate between the Church and modern

nations. These are the three maladies to heal, if Grod please.

There are certain persons in whose eyes these three plagues are

but the partial results of what is for them, in the present as in the

past, the greatest of all plagues, revolution. I like not that vague

ill-defined word, which starts up and grows larger at will, as a spec-

tre
;
but what is very true is, that the evils of which I speak main-

tain in the bosom of society a division of mind, a contempt of Grod

and of all authority, a pride and a hatred which threaten that society

with a continual return to revolutions.

V.

The Help Offered by the Council.

This is then why, my Brethren, the Church, who is the friend of

souls, and who was never indifferent to the evils of society, has been

troubled. No doubt, the Church and society are distinct; but as

they move side by side in this world, and enclose in their bosom the

same men, they are necessarily jointly responsible in their perils and

in their sorrows. And the Church wishes to meet together because

she feels she can do much towards healing their common evils.

Here, however, let us still beware of exaggerating or of extenu-



29

ating truth. Does it depend upon the Church to destroy all human

evils ? No. But in that great labor, in that severe struggle be-

tween good and evil, she has her part, an immense part, and she is

about to perform it. Man is free, and does good freely
;
but he is

assisted by divine grace, which aids without injuring his liberty

;

for^ as the great Pope St. Celestine said : Auxilio Dei liherum arhi-

trium non aufertur sed liheratur. Depository of celestial goods, the

the Church is man’s divine assistant, and lends him, even in the

temporal order, supernatural assistance. And if to-day the Church

assembles and recollects herself, it is once more the better to accom-

plish her task, and to work more efficaciously and powerfully for the

welfare of mankind.

“ Who can doubt,” cries out the Holy Father, “that the doc-

trine of the Catholic Church possesses the virtue not only of being

able to serve the eternal salvation of souls, but also the temporal

welfare of nations, their true prosperity, order and tranquility?

Nemo enim inficiari unquam poterit CathoUcce Ecclesice ejusque doc-

trincB vim non solum oeternam hominum salutem spectare, verum

etiam prodesse temporali populorum hono, eorumque veroe prosperi-

tati, ordini ac tranquillitati
”

And who could call in question this social and civilizing power of

the Church ? ‘ ‘ Religion ! religion cried out lately an eminent

statesman,’ * it is the life of mankind, in all places, in all times,

save in certain days of terrible crises and disgraceful decadency.

Beligion to restrain or to satisfy human ambition; religion to sus-

tain or to appease us in all our griefs, those of our condition or those

of our soul! Let not policy, even the strongest, the most just, flat-

ter itself that it can accomplish such a work without religion. The

more lively and extensive the social movement, the less will policy

suffice to direct shaken humanity. A power higher than earthly

powers is necessary, perspectives longer than those of life are needed

—God and eternity are necessary.”
The Holy Father also, after having recalled the beneficent influ-

ence of religion in the temporal order, proclaims anew the harmony,

so often affirmed by him, between faith and reason, and the mutual

help which, in the views of Providence, they are called upon to lend

one to the other. “In the same manner,” says he, “ as the Church

sustains society, does divine truth sustain human science
;

she

strengthens the ground under its steps, and by preventing it from

*M. Guizot. I



30

wandering, she favors its progress
;
Et humanarum qiLoque scien-

tiarum progressui ac soliditati”

Hearken well to those words, ye who vainly attempt to set up

science in antagonism to the faith ! The Head of the Church fears

not science
;
he loves it, he extols it, and he calls to mind that

Christian truths serve its progress and its solidity. The most illus-

trious scholars that have appeared on earth, Leibnitz, Newton,

Kepler, Copernic, Pascal, Descartes, near whom our scholars, if

their pride be not too blind, should feel very small, thought as he.

It is, adds the Pope, what the history of all times demonstrates

with unexceptionable evidence.: Veluti sacrce ac profanm Tiistorioe

annales splendidissimis factis dare aperteque ostendunt. And this

is the meaning of the well-known saying of Bacon : ‘‘‘A little

knowledge takes us from religion : much knowledge brings us back

to it,” Science, in fact, carried to the height of excellence, em-

braces the whole of the truths, and discovers the entire order of

them.

The presumptuous ignorance or blind passions of our epoch may

forget it
;
but the greatest minds have always acknowledged this

agreement between faith and science, this harmony between Church

and society, and rejected that antagonism of recent date and con-

trary to the testimony of history and the interests of truth.

But, let us not here, my Brethren, leave room for attacks by

equivocal expressions. What does the Church do to transform so-

ciety ? History responds, and prejudice alone can imagine phan-

toms of encroachments on the legitimate liberty of the human mind.

The Council of Borne will be the nineteenth G-eneral Council, and

the forty or fifty nations which will be represented there, have all

been converted in the same manner
;
that is to say, brought from

barbarism to civilization by the authority of the Word, by the virtue

of the Sacraments, by the instruction of Pastors, by the examples of

the Saints. Such are the ways Grod and the action of the Church,

sometimes seconded, more often combated, by human powers.

Instructress of souls, the Church makes use of the method of all

good education, authority, and patience. Whilst one doubts, she

affirms; one denies, she insists; one obscures, she enlightens; one

divides, she unites
;
she repeats over and over again the same les-

sons, and what lessons ! The true nature of Hod, the true nature of

man, liberty and moral responsibility, the immortality of the soul,

the sacred rule of marriage, the law of justice, the law of charity,



31

the inviolability of rights and property, the duty of labor, the need

of peace. This, always, everywhere, to all; to kings and shep-

herds, to the Greeks and to the Romans, to England and to France,

to Europe and to Australia, under Charlemagne or before Wash-

ington.

The continuance of these affirmations, I venture to say, causes

order in society and in minds as certainly as the rising of the same

sun causes the order of the seasons and the prosperity of husbandry.

0 philosophers who disdain the Church, be frank ; without her what

would have become of the notion of the living God among nations ?

O Protestants, 0 Greeks, acknowledge that without the Church you

would have seen the image of Jesus Christ effaced before your eyes !

O moralists and politicians, ’ without her, what would you have done

with the family and the sanctity of marriage ?

Well! what the Church of Jesus Christ has done, she is going to

do again
;
what she has said, she is about to affirm anew

;
she will

continue her life, her way, her work, in the same spirit of wisdom

and charity
;
she will continue to infuse into human reason the great

truths of which she is the guardian, and it is thus, alone thus, nota-

bly thus, that she acts upon society.

The religion of nations, it has been said, is all their morality.

Now morality being the true source of good policy and good laws,

all progress of a people consists in infusing more and more into pri-

vate and public life the primordial principles of justice. Every

nation then that shall advance in the Christian sense, will advance

to progress, and every century which would fain solve against the

Gospel the questions which distract mankind, will take a wrong

direction, and go to destruction. Here again interrogate the past,

and it will answer you. Who has expelled from the world pagan

corruption, who has civilized savages by converting them? See

the East when Christianity was flourishing there, and see it under

the domination of Islam ! The influence of Christianity upon civili-

zation is as glaring a fact as the sun. But the principles of the

Gospel are far from having bestowed all they possess, and even time

will never exhaust them, because they are of infinite profundity.

Thus, although centuries have drawn from the Christian principle

of charity, equality and fraternity of men, consequences which have

changed the old world, all the social applications of this beautiful

doctrine are far from being exhausted
;
and I consider it is even the

proper mission of modern nations, to cause this fecund principle to



32

penetrate more and more into laws and morals, and to draw from it

political, economical, and social consequences, which will he the

glory of this century, if it depart not from Christian paths. But it

is the mission of the Church and her Councils to maintain the princi-

ples of the Grospel free from all interpretations which falsify them.

Therefore', every great manifestation of evangelical truth, every ex-

planation of obscurities and mistakes, every good understanding

between nations and Christianity, is a work of progress at once social

and religious—and this is precisely the work of the Council. This
is why the Church is about to make this great effort, and display, as

the Holy Father says, all her strength ut omnes nostres magis ma-

gisque exaremus vires; this is why the Catholic Bishops will come

from all parts of the world to consult with their head : Sua nobiscum

communicare et conferre consilia.

Vainly do you say in your unjust and ignorant prejudices, that

the Church is old and that the times are new. The laws of the

world are old also, and all the new inventions, of which you are

justly proud, exist and succeed only by the application of those

laws.

Ah
!

you do not know of what elements, at once pliant and resist-

ing, her Divine Founder has formed the Church, and what an or-

ganization_, at once stable and progressive. He has given her. Such

are the profoundness and fecundity of her dogmas, such also is the

expansive character of her constitution, that she can live under all

political regimes, and will never be surpassed by any progress of the

human society. Without altering anything in her symbol, she

draws from her treasure, as our Lord says, from age to age, and ac-

cording to the wants of the times, old and new things, de thesauro

suo jprofert nova et vetera

:

and you will always find her ready to adapt

herself to all great social transformations, and to follow mankind in

all the phases of his existence. The Gospel is the light of the

world, and always will be
;
and this is why, rest assured, the next

Council will be a sunrise and not a sunset.

VI.

Ill-founded feaks on the subject of the Council.

What do you fear, then, timid Catholics or suspicious politicians ?

Ah ! let mankind rather rejoice at the magnanimous resolution of

Pius IX.; for it should b© for them who believe, as for them who



33

have the happiness of believing, a solemn hope. If you have the

faith, you are well aware that the Spirit of Grod presides at such

assemblies. Doubtless there will be men there, and" possibly weak-

nesses in consequence. But there will also be there holy devotion,

great virtues, exalted intelligence, pure and courageous zeal for the

glory of Grod and the welfare of souls, an admirable spirit of charity,

and, above all, a superior and divine power, and Grod, there as

always, will accomplish His work.

“ Grod,” says Fenelon, “ watches so that the Bishops may always

assemble freely when necessary, that they may be sufiGiciently in-

formed and attentive, and that no corrupt motive may ever influence

against the Truth those who are its depositories. In the course of

an examination there may be irregular proceedings. But God knows

how to draw from them what pleases Him : He carries them to His

own ends, and the conclusion infallibly comes to the precise point

He has fixed.”*

Had one even the misfortune of not being Christian, and of not

recognizing in the Church the voice of God, in a human point of

view simply, what can be more deserving of sympathy and respect

than this grand attempt of the Catholic Church to labor, in that

which concerns her, for th^ enlightenment and peace of the world ?

And what more august and venerable than the assembly of those

seven or eight hundred Bishops come from Europe, Asia, Africa, the

two Americas and the distant isles of Oceanica, by their age, know-

ledge and virtues, the most authorized representatives of all the

countries they inhabit, of all the men of the universe with whom

they are in contact every day? a true Senate of Mankind. This is

seen nowhere, but it will be seen at Home. And, unless the senses

be confused by most unjust prejudices^ what cabals, what exaggera-

tions, what fits of obstinacy are to be feared from a meeting of old

men come from all parts of the globe, almost all unknown to each

other, without other antecedent bond than community of faith and

virtue ? Where will you find upon earth a higher expression, a

higher guarantee of wisdom, even a wisdom such as men understand ?

I have heard say that modern times, through too much experience
^

tired of placing confidence in one man, have faith in assemblies.

What assembly could present such a union of intelligence, of inde-

pendence, such diversity in unity ?

* 2 Instruction pastorale cur le Cas de Conscience, ch. II., art, 3 ; 2 Mar.

1Y05.

3



34

What are these Bishops ? Bead their mottoes

:

In the name of the Lord !—I bring peace !—I wish for Light !

—

I diffuse Charity !—I shrink not from Toil !—I serve God !—

/

know only Christ !—All to all !— Triumphing over evil by good !

—

Peace in Charity ! etc.

As to them, they have lost their former names; they sign by the

name of a saint and the name of a town. Their own name is buried,

as that of the architect, in the first stone of the Temple. There is^

Babylon and Jerusalem. There is New YoriJ and Westminster.

There is Ephesus and Antioch. There is Carthage and Sidon,

Munich and Dublin. There is Paris and Pekin. There is Yienna

and Lima. There is Toledo and Malines, Cologne and Mayence.

And they are called, also, Peter, Paul, John, Francis, Vincent,

Augustine, Dominic
;
by the name of the great men who have

founded or enlightened nations by announcing to them the Gospel.

They do not bear only names past and present, but moreover the

names of the future. This one is at the Bed Biver, the other at

Dahomey
;
that one is at Oregon_, the other at Natal, at Victoria, at

Saigon. We, whom they call men of the past, labor for the future.

We labor for lands to-day without towns, and for peoples yet without

names. We go further than science, beyond commerce
;
where we

are alone, in advance of you. When we do not out-strip your trav-

elers, we tread in their footsteps. And why ? To make Christians
;

that is to say men,—nations. Of what, then, have you fear ? In
what can a Council give umbrage to you who entitle yourselves,

with so lofty a confidence, men of progress, heralds of the future ?

Would it be nationalities, countries, which would find themselves

disturbed by the Council ? How could nationalities be menaced or

betrayed by men who represent all the known nationalities of the

globe, who invoke them and who live by them for their own account,

and for the defence of their own faith ? Will the Bishops of Poland

come to an understanding with the Bishops of Ireland for the ruin of

nationalities and the oppression of countries? But is there one

French Bishop, one English Bishop, a Bishop of whatever nation it

may be, who yields to no matter whom in patriotism, who is not

proud at being as good a Frenchman, as good an Englishman, as

good a citizen as any one ?

Have liberties more disquiets to conceive ? What can they dread

from men, who from the Catacombs to the massacre of the Carmelites

have established Christianity only at the sacrifice of their lives, and



35

have only seen their blood flow when people were slaughtering lib-

erty at the same time as the Church ? Is it the Bishops of America

who will unite with the Bishops of Belgium, Holland, and Switzer-

land in a plot against liberties ? Will the Bishops of the East come

to an understanding with the Bishops of France, and so many other

European Bishops, to sing the benefits of despotism?

No, no; there is no truth in all these fears, and they wouldbe

but empty phantoms to be despised, were there not at the bottom of

all this the crafty work of a hatred which here foresees good, and

wishes at any price to hinder it. What will the Council do ? I am

not going to say : Grod alone knows at the hour in which I speak.

But I can say that it is only a Council, because eighteen centuries

of Christianity and civilization know and attest it. A Council is

the moral power par excellence ,—it is the noblest alliance of author-
ity and liberty that the human mind could conceive, and I dare even

affirm that it would never have conceived it all alone.

I have not to trace here the limits of liberty or power : neither

have I to characterize at this moment schism or heresy, English or

German Protestantism, nor the false orthodoxy of Bussia
;
I will

here say but a single word, which I shall enlarge upon by-and-by

;

it is that if the Churches can again become sisters, and if men will

again become brothers, they will never be able to do it more surely,

more grandly, more tenderly, than in a Council, under the auspices

and in the bosom of the Church, who is the true mother.

Is it the different currents of opinion, that you think to perceive

in the Church, which disturb you ? I should have some right in

this case to wonder at your solicitude
;
but I wish to accept it as sin-

cere, and I reply to you: How little you know the Church ! Her

enemies every day represent our faith as a crushing yoke, which

keeps us immovable, and hinders us from thinking. And when they

see us thinking freely, they wonder. But this is in the very conditions

of the life of the Church, for the grandest development of ideas

always takes place in her bosom. It is true we have an immutable

symbol, and we are not like philosophers all abroad, who do but

search and recommence their researches without end, who always

put off everything in question, who travel and never arrive. There

are for us points gained, defined, upon which we no more dispute.

And thus the Church has unshaken foundations, and is not an edifice

in the air. And yet in the Catholic Church liberty also has its

place. Our anchors are powerful and our perspectives without



36

limit, for, beyond points defined, space is still immense. Even in

dogma, tbe Christian mind has a magnificent work to accomplish,

and one which will continue without ceasing, because, as I was say-

ing just now, our dogmas have a depth infinite as Grod himself, and

Christian reason will always be able to draw them up from it with-

out ever exhausting them.

Be not astonished, then, to see Catholics thinking freely outside

defined points, and upon those complex and difficult questions, which

the vague language of the disputants of the day does but obscure.

The spirit of Christianity has been long defined by St. Augustine in

these memorable words : In necessariis unitas, in dvhiis libertas, in

omnibus caritas. The course of ages has changed nothing thereof.

Besides, I was saying just now and I recall it, the Council, precisely

because it is (Ecumenical, ^. e., composed of all the Churches of the

earth, of Bishops living under all political constitutions, under all

social regimes, excludes necessarily the predominance of a school, of

a narrow and national spirit, and local prejudices. It is the great

Catholic spirit, you may be sure, and not such or such particular

ideas, which will inspire the decisions
;
and, whatever may be the

special opinions of such or such a fraction, of such and such a school,

the Council will cause true light and unity. Liberty will remain

entire as regards points remaining outside the definitions. But

these definitions will be the rule for all Catholics, and they should

not disquiet any one beforehand. Once more, they menace nothing

that can, with good reason, be dear to you, men of this time, noth-

ing but error and injustice, which are your enemies as well as ours.

And if you would know the true thought of that magnanimous Pon-

tiff, the object of so many odious and ungrateful calumnies, and of

the Bishops, his sons and brothers
;

if you would imagine the spirit

of the future Council, it is entirely in those beautiful words addressed

by Pius IX. scarcely a year ago, to Catholic journalists, and in-

scribed by them, as a sacred device, upon their banner : “ It is for

Christian charity alone to clear the way, by getting rid of obstacles,

to that liberty, that fraternity and" that progress, of which souls are

so ardently enamored TJnius est caritatis iter sternere ad liberfatem

illam et fraternitatem et progressum, quorum desiderio tarn acriter

incendentur animi.

I cannot then too often repeat, and you cannot yourselves, my

Brethren, repeat too often around you, that great is the error of

those who denounce the future Council as a menace, as a work of



37

war. We live in a time in which we are condemned to hear every-
thing. But we should not let everything he believed. When

already a year ago the Pope made koown to the Bishops assembled

at Borne his resolution to convoke an (Ecumenical Council, what did

the Bishops of the entire world see in that Council ? A great work
of illumination and pacification

:
grande opus Uluminationis et paciji-

cdtionis

;

these are the very terms of their Address. The Bull

holds exactly the same language. In the (Ecumenical Council what

does the Pope ask his Brethren the Bishops, to examine, to inquire

into with all possible care, and to decide with him ? That which

relates before all to the common peace and universal concord : Ea

omnia qum communem omnium pacem et concordiam in primis respi-

ciunt.

This is the truth.

And when I re-read the Bull all through, in each page, in each

line, what do I see ? The expression of a solicitude, very worthy

of the Father of souls, for civil Society no less than for the Church;

he never separates them
;
he takes care to declare that their evils

and their perils are common : In sanctissimcB nostrce religionis civil-

isque societatis calamitatibus

;

and that the same tempest beats one

and the other with the same billows, qua tempestate nunc jactetur

Ecclesia, et quihus quantisque malis civilis ipsa affligatur societas

;

that at the present hour, and in this time which has been called

transitional, both religion and society are passing through a formida-

ble crisis, non solum sanctissima nostra religio, verum etiam Tiumana

societas miserum in modum perterhatur ac vexatur

;

that there are

men to-day who would destroy the Church, if they could, and over-

throw society itself even to its foundations, ipsam Ecclesiam, si

fieri unquam posset, et civilem societatem funditus evertere connitun-

tur. And it is to bring succor to one and the other, to conjure the

perils which threaten then all at once, that the Holy Father has con-

ceived the design of a Council
;
and the aim assigned by him to the

Bishops, is precisely to sound this critical situation, and to bring the

remedy to this double plague; “It is necessary,” says he, “that

our Venerable Brethren, who feel and deplore as we the critical sit-

uation of the Church and of Society, una nobiscum tristissimam rei

turn sacroe turn puhlicoe conditionem maxime dolentes, apply them-

selves with Us with all their power to avert, by God’s aid, from the

Church and society, the evils which trouble them, intentissimo stu-

dio curandum est ut, Deo bene juvante, omnia ab Ecclesia et civili

societate amoveantur malaI



38

It is said that the Pope wishes to break with modern Society, to

condemn, to proscribe it, to cast profound trouble on it
;
but never

have the evils with which you suffer, Christian nations, more pain-

fully moved the Head of the Church
;
never has he expressed him-

self in accents of more heartfelt sympathy for your perils and your

griefs. And,—all the world has remarked it,—despoiled of three-
quarters of his little State, reduced to Rome and the surrounding

territory, placed between the perils of yesterday and those of to-

morrow, suspended over abysses, the Pope does not appear pre-occu-

pied therewith; it is not his threatened throne that he seeks to

defend; not a phrase, not a word upon that great interest: no, in

the Bull of Convocation, the temporal Prince forgets himself and is

silent : the Pontiff alone has spoken to the world.

YII.

The Council and the Separated Churches.

We have not said all. One can conceive yet other hopes of the

future Council. One loves to foresee in it other grand results. The

letters of the Holy Father to the Eastern Bishops non-united, and

to our separated Protestant brethren allow us to do so.

At two fatal epochs in the history of the world, two great divis-

ions^ my Brethren, have been made in that empire of souls, which

is the Church
;
twice the seamless robe of Christ has been rent by

schism and by heresy. These were the two misfortunes of mankind^

and two of the real causes which have retarded the progress of the

world.

Who knows not that if the old Greek Empire, if the East had not

so sadly broken off with the West, it would never have been the

'prey of Islamism, which has so much debased it, and which yet to

this day keeps it under its yoke
;
that it would not have gained over

to the schism another vast empire, in whose bosom seventy millions

of souls are groaning all at once under religious and political des-

potism ?

And who can say what the Christian peoples of Europe would be

to-day without Lutheranism, Calvinism, and so many other divisions,

and how much these unfortunate separations have caused Christianity

to lose of vital power for maintaining in the light of the Gospel so

many souls, which incredulity has since led away from it ? Who

can say especially how the diffusion of the Gospel in infidel countries

has been fettered by them ?



39

Lamentable fact ! There are still at this very hour millions of

men upon whom the light of the Grospel has not dawned, and who

ure dwelling plunged in the darkness of infidelity. See those poor

pagans upon the shores of their distant isles ! They vaguely expect

£L Saviour
;
they extend their arms towards the true Grod

;
they ap-

peal by the voice of their miseries and sufferings for light, truth and

salvation. And it is eighteen centuries since Jesus Christ came to

bring all this good to the world, and said to His Apostles these

grand words : Preach the Gospel to every creature ! Well ! there

were the Apostles of Jesus Christ, the disciples, the emulators of

that Peter and that Paul who landed one day on the shores of Italy,

who preached to our fathers the same Gospel, and died together for

the same faith !

But, poor Indians, poor Japanese, after the apostles of the Catholic

Church, sent by the successor of him to whom Jesus Christ said

:

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,”

other missionaries land who come to oppose them ! Who sends

them ? Jesus Christ ? What ! Is Christ divided, as St. Paul asked

with grief of the separatists of the first centuries ? Divisus est

Christus? Is not this, I ask you, 0 separated brethren, a frightful

misfortune for those poor infidels ? And is it not enough to cause

every Christian heart to shed tears ?

And would not union, if it were possible (and why should it not

be, inasmuch as it is our Lord’s will), now especially that all ways

are open, and distances have vanished, be a happy and a great step

towards that evangelization of every creature, the mission for which

our Lord, on quitting this earth, confided to His Apostles and their

successors.

Yes, every soul, in which lives the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ought,

as a martyr of the heart at sight of separations, to try and feel con-

strained to utter towards heaven the prayer of the Saviour, and the

cry for unity : “ That they may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me,

and I in Thee.” Now, see the grand anticipation which rules the

Head of the Catholic Church, when, forgetting his own perils, and

moved by this solicitude for all the churches, which weighs upon

him, sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum, he convokes the CEcumenical

Council. He turns to the East and West, and addresses to all the

separated communions a word of peace, a generous call to unity;

whatever may be the reception given to his words, who would not

perceive in this supreme effort for the union of all Christians a



40

thought from heaven, inspired hy Him who willed that His Church

should he one, and who said, as the Holy Father has been pleased

to call to mind, “ By this shall all men know that you are my dis-

ciples.”

Will our Brethren of the East and West respond to this thought,

to this wish?

The East! What, not to he moved before that cradle of the

ancient faith, from whence light has come to us ! I have seen the

Catholic Bishops of the East thrill at the announcement of the future

Council, and fondly hope for their churches a revival of new life

and fruitful activity.

But would the disunited Eastern Churches refuse to hear those

“words of peace and charity” that the Holy Father has just ad-

dressed to them ‘ ‘ with all the effusion of his heart ? ”* Why should

they be deaf to this appeal ? For what antiquated or chimerical fears ?

Who has not noticed, and who has not been deeply touched by

the delicacy, and the accent of particular tenderness with which the

Holy Father speaks to our Oriental brethren, who, in the midst of

that Mahometan Asia, “acknowledge and adore Jesus Christ, as

we
;
and who, redeemed by His most precious blood, have been ad-

mitted by holy baptism to His Church ! ” What regard for those

ancient Churches, to-day so unfortunately separated from unity, but

who, formerly, “shed such lustre by their sanctity and heavenly

doctrine, and yielded abundant fruit for the glory of God and the

salvation of souls.”f

And at the same time what gentleness, what forgetfulnesss of all

his irritating griefs ! The Holy Father speaks but of charity and

peace; he asks only one thing, which is, that “ the ancient laws of

love being renewed, and the peace of our fathers, that salutary and

heavenly gift from Christ, disappeared for a time, being solidly re-

established, the serene light of a desired union may shine before the

eyes of all after the clouds of a long mourning, and the sombre and

gloomy obscurity of long disagreements.” f

Why should not this desire for union and peace, so deep in the

heart not only of the Holy Father, but also, let not our Oriental

brethren doubt, in the hearts of all the Bishops and all the Chris-

* Apostolical Letter of His Holiness Pius IX. to all the Bishops of the churches

of the Oriental rite, who are not in communion with the Holy Apostolic See,

dated 8 Sept., 1868.

t Ibidem.



41

tians of the West, be the hearts’ desire of them also, and of whom-

soever bears the name of Christian upon the earth ? My God ! is

there, then, good in this rending of Christ’s robe? And what, I

ask them, do the Churches of the ancient East gain in light and in

charity by not communicating with those of the whole universe ?

Who hinders them? Are we, then, still in the times of the' meta-

physical subtleties and cavils of the ^cis-Einpire ?

I was speaking just now of infidel nations: perhaps our brethren,

the Oriental Bishops, will permit me to remind them here of what

is at this moment the state of the entire world, and the situation of

the Church of Jesus Christ over the whole world. If at all times

•the Church had to struggle, is she not at this moment more than

ever combated and harassed? Does not the spirit, unfortunately

impious, pf revolution rise up against her from all sides? And you.

Oriental Churches, united or not, have you not also your perils?

Is not your spiritual liberty being made prey of unceasingly ? Is

not with you Christianity surrounded by eager enemies, on the

right, on the left, on all sides ? And does not even the wind of im-

piety, which agitates Europe, now that distances no longer exist,

blow also to Asia, and are those believing races of the ancient East

itself, under the repeated efforts of an irreligious press, quite sure of

never being hit ?

In a position so serious, and which has happened everywhere to

the Church of Jesus Christ by reason of the misfortunes of the

times, is it not all Christians’ first want to put an end to discords

which are enfeebling, and to seek in reconciliation and peace unity,

which is strength? What Bishop, what true Christian, meditating

before God upon these things, would say : No, division is good

unity would be a misfortune ! Who does not perceive on the con-

trary that union, that the return to unity^ is a certain benefit for

souls, the manifest will of God, and that it would be the salvation

of your Churches? What? There are personal considerations,

certain human motives, superior to these great interests and great

duties? Did your fathers, those illustrious doctors, the Athana-

siuses, the Gregorys Nazianzen, the Basils, the Cyrils, the Chry-

sostoms, make any difi&culty in bending their glorious heads before

him whom they call ‘ ‘ the fim and solid rock upon which the Saviour

has built His Church?”*. If they were living to-day, would they

not christianly and nobly tread under foot an independence which

* Ibidem. The words of St. Gregory Nazianzen, quoted by the Holy Father.



42

is not according to Christ, together with all the suggestions of

blinded pride ? If past centuries have committed a fault, must it

be eternal ?

But does not time, if you hearken to its lessons, 0 Eastern

brethren, convey to you here serious instruction? Cannot you, who

are surrounded by despotism on the one hand, and Islamism on the

other, cafenot you feel in fact the perils of isolation and the fatal

consequences of the rupture ?

God preserve me from any word which might be ever so little

painful to you, coming as I do at this moment with all the charity of

Jesus Christ

!

But, whether I think of those unhappy populations, whose souls

and whose land have become sterile under the yoke of the religion of

Mahomet
;
or whether I cast a look towards those Russian popula-

tions so religious and steady in their morals, and who dwell in the

faith of Jesus Christ in spite of the abasement of their churches, and

notwithstanding the supremacy of a Czar, whose pretended ortho-

doxy does not inspire even a little justice and pity for Poland, I feel

my heart deeply moved, and I pray for so many peoples worthy of

such profound interest, such great compassion.

0 separated brethren of the East, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians,

Chaldeans, Bulgarians, Russians, Sclavonians, and all you whom I

cannot name, see, the Catholic Church comes to you, and stretches

out to you her arms. 0, our brethren, come !

She wishes to assemble all entire : from all parts of the inhabited

world, from our West, from your East, from the New World also

and from distant Islands, her Bishops wish to hasten, at the voice of

the Supreme Head, to Rome, to the centre of unity. Ah, well, she

wishes not to assemble without you. 0, our brethren, come !

Here is one of those solemn and rare occasions, to meet with the

like of which requires centuries. The Catholic Church offers you

peace: “We pray you with all our strength,” writes the Holy

Father, “We press you to come to this general Synod, as your an-
cestors came to the Council of Lyons and to the Council of Florence, in

order to renew union and peace.”* Would you on your side refuse

to make a single step towards us, and would you thus let slip so

favorable a circumstance ? Who, then, would take upon himself

such a terrible responsibility? 0, our brethren, come !

The heart of the Church of Jesus Christ changes not: but times

Ibidem.



43

have changed, and the causes which made the efforts attempted by

our fathers so sadly fail, thank Grod, no longer exist. 0 all of you,

0 our brethren, come at last

!

For ourselves, we are full of hope, and whatever may be the re-

sistance which the surprise of the first moment perhaps, or antique

prejudices have aroused, all of us appear prepared for many reconcil-

iations. “ Rome,” cried out Bossuet formerly^ “ ceases not to cry to

the most distant peoples, in order to call them to the banquet, where

all are made one
;
and see how at this maternal voice the extremities

of the East are shaken, and how they seem to wish to give birth to a

new Christianity !
”

0 God ! that we could see this spectacle ! What joy for Thy

Church upon earth, in the midst of so many sharp struggles and

bitter griefs ! What joy also for the Church in heaven, and particularly,

0 churches of the East, for your Saints and your Doctors, “when,”

as the Holy Father says, “ above in heaven they shall see union re-

established with the Apostolic See, the centre of Catholic truth and

unity
;

that union which, during their life here below, they labored

to revive, to propagate by all their studies and indefatigable toil, by

doctrine and by example, inflamed as they were by that charity, infused

into their hearts by the Holy Spirit, for Him who willed that the

mark of his disciples should be unity, and who addressed this prayer

to His Father : ‘ That they may be one^ as we also are one !
’ ”*

Oh, mark well the language of the Church, the true Church of

Jesus Christ, which alone amongst all Christian societies, utters a

maternal cry, and demands all her children, because she is the true

Mother

!

And this is also why the Sovereign Pontiff, after having turned

towards the separated East, turns about towards the other Christian

communions non-Catholic, and addresses to all our brethren of Pro-

testantism the same pressing appeal.

Protestantism! “Ah!” cried out again Bossuet in his ardent

love, in his passionate longing for unity, “ Our bowels are moved at

that name, and the Church, ever a mother, at this remembrance

cannot help renewing her lamentations and her desires.”

These are the lamentations and desires that the Holy Father has

caused to be heard anew, in that apostolic letter, addressed some

^Ibidem. Unity will eternally be the character of the true Church. All

questions on the Church will ever be reduced principally to this question :
‘

‘ Where

is unity



44

days after the Brief for the Oriental Bishops
‘

‘ to all Protestants and

other non-Catholics,” and in which, after having deplored the mis-

fortunes of division, and pointed out the great benefits of that unity

willed by our Saviour, he exhorts, he supplicates all Christians sepa-

rated from him to return to the fold of Jesus Christ. ‘ ‘ In all our

prayers and supplications,” he continues, we never cease day and

night humbly to ask for them, of the Eternal Pastor of Souls, heav-

enly light and abundance of grace, and we await with open arms the:

return of our erring children.”*

This is what the Holy Father says, and with him the whole

Church. Ah, well! shall we hope, and shall we pray always in

vain, and will then the work of return be as difficult as many think ?

Prejudice, I know, is still strong
;

and the difficulty which in

noble England encounters the work of tardy justice, which has just

been commenced, is one among many other proofs of this
;
but it is.

precisely the Council which here can still clear up misunderstand-

ings, and by appeasing the heart prepare the return of the mind.

And to him who might be tempted to accuse me of delusion, I

would reply, that amongst those of our separated brethren whom the

sad course of rationalism does not affect, the number of souls who

deplore the rupture of unity becomes greater every day. I call

England, I call America to witness this : I would answer that, more

than once, I myself have received painful confidences, and heard

suffering hearts call with deep lamentations, as we, for the day when

shall be accomplished that saying of the Master : Unum Ovile et

imus Pastor. Is it, then, said that that day will never arrive?

Are separations necessary ? and why should we not be destined to

see the times foreseen and greeted by Bossuet ?

Here, no doubt, the dogmatical difficulties are serious
;

but they

would disappear if one removes that which to me is the most serious

of all, viz : the denial of all doctrinal authority in the Church, the

absolute liberty of conscience which confounds itself, whether one

will or not, with the. principle even of rationalism. Hence, in

effect, Protestantism bears in its heart the original vice of a radical

inconsistency, which the most enlightened and firm minds amongst

our separated brethren are deploring; and therefore our hope is at

least for numerous individual conversions, and, perhaps, may God so

will I for greater reconciliations.

This capital point settled—and its settlement is easy to simple

Apostolic Letter of the 13th Sept., 1868.



45

good sense and courageous good faith—all the rest vanishes. Kea-
son says with evidence that Jesus Christ could have not wished to

constitute His Church without this essential principle of stability and

unity, under pain of founding a Christianity incapable of enduring

and being perpetuated like Himself—a religion given up as a prey
to all the mobilities of individual interpretations. This is evident of

itself, independent of any text.

But there are texts which, for right minds, and without great dis-

putes, equally gain over everything. I will recall but three of

them : the first is : Tu es Petrus, Thou art Peter—the primacy of
St. Peter and the Head of the Church

;
the second is : Hoc est cor-

jpus meum, This is my Body—the Eucharist
;
the third is : Ecce

Mater tua, Behold thy Mother—the Blessed Virgin. Have you
been able to efface from the Giospel those three sentences ! Have

you meditated sufficiently upon them, and so many others no less

decisive ?

Prom the Gospel pass to History, and from texts pass to facts.

Do not facts loudly tell you that the living element of complete

Christianity is wanting in you? For, on the one side, you have

had time to know thoroughly the authors of the rupture, and on the

other, you have been able to consider its consequences. For three

centuries you have been in the face of the Gospel
;

for three cen-

turies you have been in the face of History. Now, have not these

three centuries, which have slipped away, brought you new and

serious instruction upon this capital point ? The principle of Pro-

testantism, in developing itself, has borne its fruits, and the foresight

of the Catholic doctors in the old controversies is realized every day

before your eyes. Contemporary Protestantism goes on more and

more dissolving into rationalism
;
many of its ministers, they pro-

claim it themselves, have no longer supernatural faith, and lately a

cry of alarm, proceeding from her bosom, has resounded in our

political assemblies
;
but a cry lost in the air ! Dissolution will

continue, in spite of noble efforts and Christian resistance, to become

ever greater, and to ruin more and more that incomplete Christianity,

in which is wanting the essential power which preserves and defends

authority. To lose Christianity in pure philosophy, is, whether one

will or not, to what modern Protestantism tends. But from the

excess of evil good may proceed; and what more proper to en-

lighten upon the radical vice of the Protestant Churches the souls

.seduced, but honest, who would fain remain Christian, than that



46

spectacle of decomposition, in view of the powerful unity of the

Catholic Church and of the Council, which is about to be the living

manifestation thereof?

There is another hope, less in accord, I am convinced, with human

probabilities, but which my faith in the Divine Mercy does not for-

bid me to conceive
;

it is, that the Jews themselves, the children of

Israel, who mingled with us, live to-day in our social life, will feel

something that will move their hearts, and lead them, docile at last

at the voice of St. Paul, to the bosom of the Church. In the Jews,,

in fact^ so visibly, so long punished, I cannot but recognize my

forefathers in the faith, the children of Moses, the fellow-countrymen

of Joseph and Mary, of Peter and Paul, those of whom the latter

said: “To whom belongeth the adoption as of children, and the

glory and the testament, and the giving of the law, and the service

of God, and the promises : whose are the fathers, and of whom is-

Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed

f for ever.” Quorum adoptio est filiorum, et gloria, et testamentum

et legislatio, et promissa, quorum patres, et ex quibus Christus secun-

dum carnem, qui est super omnia Deus henedictus in soecula,^ I

beseech them then to believe in Him whom they expect
;
I beseech

them to believe in eighteen hundred years of history, for history, as

a flfth Gospel, proves the coming and the Divinity of the Messias..

Do not wonder, my Brethren, if I feel full of compassion for

Protestants, Greeks and Jews, whilst people accuse me of being

hard upon the inventors of modern incredulity. I know how to dis-

tinguish between errors which commence, and errors which flnish,

between the responsible, culpable authors, who disseminate error

knowingly, and the innocent victims, in good faith, who after cen-

turies remain attached thereto. How could I but feel moved to

tears on seeing those populations of my country, those workmen,,

those peasants, so laborious and so worthy of all our sympathies,

those young people in our schools whose ardent spirit sighs for

truth, and who fall, before they are cognizant of it themselves, into

the hands of the masters of error? When, some years ago, the

revival of faith was so sensible, and a decided progress towards good

seemed to have been made, all of a sudden shades gather around,

abysses open, the breath of an impious science and a violent press

becomes stronger, and that beautiful vessel of faith and French

prosperity threatens to sink while leaving the port ! Ah ! I exe-

Romans ix. 4, 5.



47

crate the authors of so cruel a shipwreck, whilst I feel full of pity

for so many sincere souls whom I see among our separated brethren,

born in error, but who caused not its birth ! With what ardor do I

extend towards those captive souls my brotherly arms ! May they

return to the Church
;

for she it is who preserves for them Jesus.

Christ, God of the whole Truth, and invites them to that great ban-

quet of the father of the family, where, as Bossuet so well said,

“All are made one,”

May the next Council, the work of pacification and light, draw to

us at least so many souls who already belong to us by their sincerity,

their virtues, and, I know it of many, by their wishes ! May this

be, at least, my Brethren, the desire of all Catholics ! Yes, let us

open our hearts to all these well-beloved brothers with more effusion,

than ever; let us wish, as the Holy Father desires, that the future

Council may be a powerful and happy effort towards union, and let

us cause to ascend unceasingly towards heaven that prayer of the.

Master : Sint unum, sicut et nos !

VIII.

The Catholic Church.

0 you, to whom the duties of my charge oblige me to address^

myself obstinately, “ in season or out of season,” as St. Paul said,

sometimes with austere words upon the lips, but ever with charity

in the heart, adversaries of my faith, whoever you are, philosophers,

Protestants, indifferent men, and I would that my words could travel

even to you also, poor pagans, lost in the darkness of the supersti-

tions which still cover half the globe! 0 my brothers, would that

I could make you taste, for a single instant, the profound peace that

one experiences in living and dying in the arms of the Holy Catholic

Church! Be my witnesses, you who are my brothers in the Priest-

hood, and you, faithful Christians, of every rank, of every sex, of

every age ! When one feels oneself surrounded by this light

;

assured by these hopes, preceded by those sublime creatures who are

called Saints_, whose glory in Heaven the Church upon earth to-day

salutes, connected with the tradition of all Christian ages by the

successors of the Apostles, and founded, lastly, upon Jesus Christ,

what joy ! what company ! what strength and what repose in the

certainty and the light

!

1 am convinced, and every day brings me the proof, that, hearing;



48

the cries which are raised against us, you would believe that people

detest us. Well, no, the dominant feeling with our enemies is not

always hate. There is another, which they do not avow, but which

is more frequent with them; it is envy. Yes, they envy us some-

times, and the Atheist says secretly to himself, at the moment even

when he insults a Christian : “ How happy he is !”

Do not believe, my Brethren, what you hear said of the Church,

that her august, countenance is for ever disfigured by calumny, and

that men are beginning to see nothing more in her than a mistress

of tyranny and ignorance. Those violent prejudices have assuredly

some force
;

our enemies and our faults are answerable for propa-

gating them. But the Church, in spite of all that, and the (Ecu-

menical Council will soon give a new proof of it to the world, does

not the less remain the Spouse of Christ, without stain and without

blemish, notwithstanding the weakness of her children, and there is

not one of those who attack her that could say, little that he may

have of good faith, what evil the Church has done him ! Popule

mens, quid feci tihi?

What evil ! Inhabitants of town and country, you owe to her the

]purity of your children, the fidelity of your wives, the probity of

your neighbors, the justice of your laws, the festivals in your mo-

notonous lives, a little art in the midst of your little dwellings, and

hope beyond the cemetery and the tomb.

This is the evil she has done you, this enemy of the human race !

And if you can rise above yourself, beyond your interests, beyond

your hamlet, and if your thoughts soar a little higher than'the smoke

which issues from your roofs, what a spectacle is offered to your view

by the Catholic Church, already so great, so good, in the little his-

tory of each one of us
;
greater and more beneficent in the history of

the laborious developments of human society

!

The inseparable companion of man upon earth, she suffers, she

strives with him
;

she has assisted, inspired and guided mankind in

all its most painful and most glorious transformations.

She it is who has caused to issue, even from the nlidst of pagan

corruption, virtues, whose name even the earth knew not, and souls

of such purity, elevation, and nobility that the world yet to-day falls

upon its knees before them !

She it is who has subdued and transformed barbarians, and who_,

during the long and perilous travail of modern society in the Middle

Ages, has courageously combated evil, and presided over all pro-

gress.



49

She it is, ungrateful modern society, who will still aid you to-day,

if you do not break with her, to disengage, in the midst of all those

confused elements which agitate themselves within you, the germs of

life from the principles of death, by maintaining unshaken the truths

which alone can save you.

Ah ! my Brethren, we do not enough know what the Catholic

Church is! We live in the midst of her_, we make a part of her,

and we know her not. We ignore both what she was and what she.

is in the world, the mission that Grod has given her, and the living

power, the divine- privileges deposited in her, in order that she may

be able to accomplish eternally her task upon earth, maintain im-

mutable here below truth and good, light and virtue, and remain

always, as the Apostle says, Ecclesia columna et Jirmamentum

veritatis.

,
Surely I have never heard of reproaching a pillar for being im-

movable : what would become of the edifice if the pillar stirred?

Why then do you reproach the Church for being immovable, and
how is this immobility not salutary to you ? Where would you be

if there were quakings of the truth as there are quakings of the

earth? Whilst you scatter, we unite. Whilst you lose, we keep.

We can say to doctrines: ‘‘We have known at Alexandria or at
Athens, you, your mothers, your daughters and your relations.”

The Church can say to the nations whose ambassadors the Pope

assembles: “ France^ thou has been formed by my Bishops, whose

names thy streets and thy villages bear! England, who has then

made thee, and why hast thou been called the Isle of Saints? Ger-

many, thou hast entered into the civilization of the West by my en-
voy St. Boniface

;
Kussia, where wouldst thou be, without my Cyril

and my Methodius ? Kings, I have known your ancestors. Before
the Hapsbourgs, the Bourbons, the BomanolFs, the Brunswicks, the

Hohenzollerns, the Bonapartes, and the Carignans, I was ancient,

nnd I have seen the Caesars and the Antoninuses die. To-morrow

I shall be still the same.” Without money, without dwelling, with-

out power say you ? “ That may be, and I have a hundred times

experienced these trials, being always ready to address to nations

that little saying of Jesus to Zacheus : ‘ My friend, this day I must
abide in thy house.’ If I quit Rome for a moment, I shall dwell in
London, Paris or New York.” It is only the Church and the sun
who could affirm with certainty that the next day, without fail, we

4



50

shall see them rise
;
and this is what the Church does in daring,

amidst the tumult of the present hour, to announce a Council,

Admirable spectacle, which our century would wish not to admire,

but whose grandeur it is constrained to acknowledge ! Yes, weary

looks rest themselves with irresistible emotion upon that majestic

pillar, alone standing midst the ruins of the past and the actual lev-

elling of all human greatness. Indifferent persons themselves feel

troubled, surprised, attracted at the sight of that Church attesting

by so great an act her immortal power
;
and after having exhausted

all doctrines, more than one is tempted to say to the Supreme Pon-

tiff what Saint Peter, the first Pontiff, said to Jesus: “ Master to

whom should we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life !”

Hear those words of life, ye who doubt, ye who seek, ye who suf-

fer ! Hear them also, ye who triumph, ye who rejoice, ye who op-

press men ! Hear the words that the Catholic Church causes to be

simply repeated, at each rising of the sun, by little children :

Credo, I believe ! I believe in one Cod, the Creator. Behold,

scholars, the answer to your uncertainties.

Credo, I believe ! I believe in a Saviour of the world, who by

His Birth has consecrated purity, by His Precepts confounded

pride, by His Sufferings dishonored injustice, by His Resurrection

proved His Divinity and our Immortality ! I believe in Jesus

Christ ! Behold, poor afflicted people, poor oppressed nations, the

answer to your despairs !

Credo, I believe ! I believe in the Holy Chost, in the Holy

Catholic Church, in the communion of the just, living and dead, in

the remission of sins, in the judgment, and in the happy life of all

those who have fought the good fight. Behold, Protestants or

philosophers, so divided in your affirmations, so limited in your

hopes, the response to your quarrels ! Behold, oppressing poten-

tates, the response to your iniquities ! And behold, also, 0 pitiless

death, the response to thy rigors

!

Loving, hoping, believing! All there; and it is the Church who

alone preserves to men these treasures in the unshaken majesty and

universal truth of that Credo, which the Nineteenth Council, at the

dawn of the twentieth century, is preparing to re-say with the two-

hundred and sixty-second successor of Peter, the fisherman, Jesus

Christ’s first Apostle.

But let us cease to speak, my Brethren, let us cease to dispute,,

cease to fear, and, bending the knee, let us pray.



51

0 God, who knowest the secrets of thy Providence, and the

marvels that the Church can yet show to the world, if the passions

and faults of men thwart them not

!

0 God, if religion and society, supported one upon the other,

would pursue with common consent their beneficent way, what a

great step towards the establishment of Thy kingdom upon earth,

towards the true progress of nations, towards liberty by the truth,

towards the true brotherhood of men, towards the extinction of rev-

olutions and wars, towards the peace of the world

!

Ah ! a new era would commence, and a new and great age appear

in history.

Let us open our hearts to these hopes
;

let us ask of God true

good, and let us only foresee possible evil in order to prevent it.

Let people know, at least, that Catholics are not men of discourage-

ment, nor of sinister predictions, nor of irritating defiance, but men

of charity, of noble hopes, of peaceful efibrts, as at the same time

of generous strife.

Let us invoke SS. Peter and Paul, let us invoke the Blessed Vir-

gin Mary, Mother of Jesus, the glory and heavenly Patroness of

the family of men
;
and, united to the souls of all the Saints, let us

pray to the Adorable Trinity reigning in Heaven

!

Let us pray, in order that the Council may accomplish its work !

that Christian nations may not repulse that supreme efibrt by which

the Church endeavors to succor them ! that light may enter their

minds, and that hearts may be appeased! that misunderstandings

may be cleared up, that prejudices may be removed, that causeless

griefs may disappear, that a new efflorescence of Christianity, and

consequently of civilization, may be caused in the world, and that

the reconciliations so desired and so necessary may be accomplished I

Let us pray that Sovereigns, according to the wish and the formal

demand which the Holy Father addresses to them, abjuring all vain

suspicions may favor, by the liberty of the Bishops, the future As-

sembly of the Church, and permit her to hold her Council in peace.

Let us pray that nations also, comprehending the maternal inten-

tions of the Church, and closing their ears to calumnies, may hear

with confidence and accept with docility the word of the Mother.

Let us pray that her declared adversaries themselves may make a

truce to their suspicions, to their anger, at least until in her Council

and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she has issued decrees

whose wisdom and charity will touch them.



52

Let us pray that so many men of integrity, scholars, politicians,

heads of families, so many men of toil, so many men of good-will,

whom the light of Jesus Christ has not yet illumined, may receive

from it beneficent rays.

Let us pray that the restless desires of so many mothers, sisters,

wives, daughters, who in obscurity maintain purity and sanctity in

the family, often without being able to obtain the faith, may at

length be favorably heard.

Let us pray that at last the East and the West may draw near,

and that our separated brethren, weary of the division which dis-

solves them, may respond to the pressing appeal that Holy Church

has made to them, and come at length to throw themselves into her

arms, open for three centuries.

Let us pray that the Church, in her faithful, in her Ministers, may

each day be more pure, more pious, more learned, more charitable,

in order that our faults, my Brethren, may not be an obstacle to the

Kingdom of Grod, which we are charged to make loved.

Finally, let us pray for the Holy Father. Vouchsafe, 0 God, to

preserve him to Thy Church, and grant that this great Pontilf who

fears not, in spite of the weariness of age, to undertake the laborious

work of a Council, may also see its happy issue. Grant that, after

so many trials, so firmly borne, he may finally rejoice in the triumph

of the Church, before going to receive in heaven the recompense for

his labors and his virtues !

FELIX,

Bishop of Orleans.

Orleans, 1st November, 1868.



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