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Meps. plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand comer, left to right and top to bottom, as many framee as required. The following diegrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre fiimte d dee taux de rMuction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de heut en baa. en prenant le nombre d'images nteessaire. Lss diagrammes suivants iilustrent la m^thode. irrata to pelure, n d n 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 m ' ^3 / fkm^^kh ^iTTift f OB m |r«Ualta .f * s«.rA ««ii rf n, t„u,mm Jt.ta rf tart.. CHARLES rSANCOIS BAILLABGEOIT, 9to, SiriiwHtatK «f tt; riijtm ' '! W Act Apost SO-28. (9) a Joba, 81-17. (») B. Lukf, the whole Province, and besought her with fervour, that she would, under her powerful protection, shield themselves and the faithful committed to their charge, Ihey even then experienced the anxious desire of manifesting to you the result of their labours, for the sanctification of your souls. But a pious duty claimed their first care and attention. Though the Bishops are shepherds with respect to the peopile,lh*y are still the sheep of the flock with respect to Peter. " If they have been established bishops to rule the Church of God,"i they are also the dutiful and respectful children of the August Head of the Universal Church, whom Jesus-Christ has constituted his vicar on earth, and to whom he said in the person of Peter : «' Feed my Sheep."2 The filial submis- eion, the respectful obedience they owe to this supreme Head, to whom the Son of God said : " Confirm thy brethren,''3 imposed on ihem the duty of laying at his feet and submitting to his judgment, the decrees of their Council, This obligation they hastened to fulfill, and they have awaited the confirmatory answer in a religious silence. At length the answer has come to hand from Rome j these decrees are now clothed with the high sanction of the Head of the Church ; approved and con- firmed by the supreme authority, they are become so many holy regulations which we are bound to receive will', respectful submission ; so many salutary laws, which now only require publicity, and which wo are bound to promulgate without loss of time. We therefore publish them to day, and while presenting them to you and entrusting them to your study and meditation, we confidently hope that by you fhcy will be received with the feelings of dutiful children, who are apprised of the wishes and intentions of a beloved parent. In our heart, therefore, we cherish the fond hope that the Bishops of this Pro. vince shall not have, in your behalf, laboured in vain in their holy assembly ; and that you will faithfully observe all whatsoever they have been inspired by God to teach you, and to order you to perform, in those decrees, so as to promote the glory of His name, the sanctification of your souls and your happiness in time and eter- nity. ii < ;l : Ye8, D. B B., as it always and invariably is the case, your personal inlcrestt .a tl^e second Prov.ncml Council. For ,hey arc not Bishops for ihei, own sail but ior the sake of the people entrusted to their soUicitud. ' If pr JLLTe utea sence of t e Sovere.gn Pastor of Souls, it is in your behalf and for the Ll vation of »edita7 ' ' '1 '"^'^ '''"''''''' " ^"-- '«»--> amidst thelL CO o »e tat,on and study, it is for the salvation of their people ; if foilowinTre ex ample of the good Shepherd, they travel through town ani country, h\ a t^ nterests of the sanotifica.ion of t.eir people, it is to bring bac. to th d « ^ ' t sheep of .he house of Wi,"t and toconfirm by tl^ gift of the Holy Ghos <" «■ ^^ hs^ who a. yet weak in the Faith ; if they impose hands L the young Levi e '"" in /he Holy Ministry, it is for the salvation of their peoDle Thu, .h for themselves, but for their people ; they belong t' o ^ ml^ves b„t ioT people ; their w,.,e life is spent in the service fnd conslTd J 'he^r^^^ of the. people ,t is therefore under the influence of the holy thought of Z htr h !. ' "r"^' ^''^"''^' •" ^*^""-' ■' -^" 'he fnspirafon of th^s These decrees have reference to Faith, to the Sacraments, to the life atnl oo.gu.ions of the clergy, and to the holiness of the judicial oaf... pleas cL'-Vr'''" ".?'''"'""• "^'''°"' ^'^'^'^^^ ^-"P-^l^'e to twit . .^ '"'""''' '° •'"'' ^" ^^""'' ""'^ '^J^ ''^^ -'«"« can it be *• ^-g t ; and, ne vcrtheloss, the world seems to be possessed by a spirit of pride and jolt against the divine authority of the Church, the world is distLtcd ^ a ^pj ' ocr,or.ndmsa.ie infatuation, whichh„rriesitforwa«l,towardsthegloomyr!Xr her d, vine teaching, and seeking for truth outside of her pale, pretend to find it if ^ depths of thei, ignorance and of their pride. The LmI full of a^oglnT presumptuous spirits, whopufl^^upwith the haughtyscieoceofafalsephZTh"^ 11 r ifi*.' :i h' ) 1 1 'I 1 ''■ i . Ur-M. W S. Luke, 18-8. assume the position of masters of the world, which they pretend to enlighten, and boldly expound the dreamy speculations of their insane reason and the impieliesof their vain theories, as so many truths calcnlatcd to regenerate human nature. And the spirit of darkness has hurled forth on the world legions of heretics, im- postors, false doctors and seducers, who wage a cruel war against the Church of God ; who never weary nor rest, in their violent efforts to weaken, to corrupt and to extinguish faith in the hearts of her children, to seduce souls and draw them down with themselves into the gulf of perdition. And hell has spewed forth on earth, through their impious mouths, an awful deluge of errors, impieties and bias- n> B. Matth., phemics, which " might seduce tho elect themselves if it were possible ;"l these multiplied efforts of hell and of its agents, these accumulated iniquities and means of seduction have caused the charity of many to wax cold, and have weakened failh throughout the world, and even now we seem to be drawing nigh to those days of woe and dissolution, foretold by the Saviour of the world, in these words: •' When the son of man cometh, shall he find, think you, failh on earth."2 This is tho great scandal of our age, these are the innumerable dangers which threaten your faith ; and you dwell in :ho midst of these scandals, in the midst of men without faith, unbelievers, impostors, blasphemers, heretics, seducers, enemies of your faith and of your religion : you are surrounded by them, they penetrate thi intrude into the bosom of your families, and force their presence into the midst of your society. Could the Fathers of the second Provincial Council have remained silent at, or unmoved by the spectacle of the trying ordeal to which your failh is exposed ? After they had bewailed and deplored the evil, were they not bound, in duty, to raise their voice to denounce it, and warn you against the danger of seduc- tion ? This duty they also performed by their first decree, with the full authority with which they are invested, as Bishops established by God, sentries on the vanguard of the armies of the Church to watch over the precious deposit of Faith. After having themselves, with their tongues and hearts, solemnly confessed the divine failh, they propose it to your belief, in the same terms in which it was defined by the General Councils, in which it is preserved in the Catholic Creed, and in which you should hold and believe it in order to be saved : afterwards, I to forewarn you aga.nst the danger of VM,i„g «.dDo.d by the enemie, of troth, they condemn tlieir impious theories, and with all the fervenoy of their »al oen. sure and stigmatize the principal errors which are oanent in onr times. 0, dearly beloved Brethren, we beseech you by the love ych ,s for you, as it was for them, the grounds of your hope, which' alone can guide yon, a. It guided them, to happiness in the p«»sen, a. well aa in he future I.fe. P«,8erve it a. (he most precious of treasures, a. your very «,ul, at the peril ofyour fortunes, nay at the peril ollife itself: adhe.^ firmly to thepUIar of truth," i the Catholic Church, it. depository and infallible guardian : ,„ ^^ V^y L ''''""'' °' '*°'' "^"' "''^'" ^-"'' "- P™™^-^ toVemain to the end of the world ; hearken also and obey, with religious fidelity, the pastor* whom God has appointed over you, to te«.h you and to lead you in the ways of salvation ; and fly from the presence of the\treacherOH. men. who teach a doc- rme different from that of the Chu^h, as if the,« could be any other Gospel than the one Jesus-Christ gave to his Church, with the positive command to teaeh it to eveiy creature, until the consummation of the world; shun them, as heretics as corrupter, of the faith, as impious seducers, as the sworn enemies of your soulsJbanish from yourhouses all thoirbooks, asbeing infected with the deadly poi- sonof thel^rrors, which they offer you with the sole intention of corrupting yVar faith, of seducing you and of securing your perdition. Yes ! D. B. B, we repeat it If you prize your own salvation and that ofyour families ; if you loveyour salva* tion and that of your children ; detest those heretical books, as well as those which an infidel and irreligious press belches forth, with a hell-bom ener^r throughout the whole world: shun them, reject them, cast them away far fro^ yourselves and from your families ; give them no admission Ifito your homes. In the order of the matters treated by the Council, as in the order of salva- tion, the sacraments follow Faith. Faith disposes the soul to its union with God, and it is by the means of the sacrament, that this holy union is perfected and consuUted. Faith is the prid^ ciple, the foundation and toot of justification, "jand it is by the aacraments that aU Pint Tl» ■> / 1 it, I* i' m ft mm 'i jA 'I ID Oone-Trm. *'™* J"«' thed to bis Church, as so many fountains of grace and life, for the salvation of mankind. What subject could more worthily engage the attention of God's PontiiTa intrusted with the honor of his Worship and the inlercsis of ))ia glory ,wbm ho has established pastors in his Church, to keep watch and ward over the salvation Ajbbk U-\1 of the faithful, " as being to render an account of their souls !"3 The profanation of the sacraments is an insult directed against God himself: it is a sacrilege. The sources of life and grace are perverted into sources of malediction and death, with respect to those who desecrate them. Hence, the Fathers of the Council, glowing with an ardent zeal for the honour of God and the salvation of your souls, deemed it a duty incumbent on them, to remind the priests, established to be " the ministers of Jesus-Christ and W\. Oorinth ^jje dispensers of the mysteries of God,"8 with what deep feelings of religion and piety, and with what angelic purity, they should administer the sacraments ; with what zeal they shouid labour, to dispose the faithful for their worthy reception; with what saintly ardour they should devote themselves to administer them, for the salvation of souls; with what careful precision uiid religious atteniion; in fine, they should observe the holy rubrics, prescribed by the Church fur their ad> niiiiisitralion, in order to discharge, in a manner worthy of God, the duties of their sublime and awful ministry. But while addressing these serious admonitions to the ministers of the sacra* ments, you, D. B. B., were present to the thoughts of the Bishops: for it is in your behalf that they are charged to administer them. With the charity thej entertain for you, could they forget to offer you also some instructions on so im- portant a subject? Could they feel themselves dispensed from reminding you of the holiness of the Sacraments ; with what care you ought to prepare for their re- ception; what dispositions should accompany so holy an action, what dread yoa «-l f/n anctifying every soul uinmated, norc holy, as bcquea* alvation of 's PontifTs ,>Mom he 9 salvation trofanation sacrilege. and death, !al for the umbent on Christ and iligionand ents; with reception; r Ihetn, for en i ion; in ^r their ad> ics of their f the sacra* for it is in larity they t on so im- iing you of or their re- : dread yoo •fiould have of profanation, with what ardour in fine you should pant for thee •ourcesof life; what happiness is enjoyed in their frequent and worthy rccep- ion ; what woeful misery is entailed, by receiving them unworthily, or wilfully forsaking and withdrawing from ihom. Give ear, D. B. B., to 4he charitable admonitions of your pastors : hearken to their paternal exhortations : listen to their wails and lamentations over the cri- niinal .ndifforence of so many impenitent Christians, who neglect the reception of .00 sacraments. Oh ! you also, have pity on your souls ! O children of Israel why will you obstinately persist in perishing, while salvation is at hand • Why would youdie, while the sources of eternal salvation are nigh? Frequently then approach to the sacraments, come then frequently and confidently, to wash, to purify, to heal yourselves in the saving waters of penance. Come often and al- ways with ardour, with delight, and nourish your souls with the bread of life. n. the heavenly banquet of the Holy Eucharist, which the love of the Son of God has prepared for you, to which he welcomes and invites you with so much charity In the decree treating of the life and duties of priests, the Fathers of the Council expose their respective duties towards God, towards themselves and towards those whose salvation is entrusted to them ; the virtu., and good works they should practice ; the examples they should give, and lastly, all the rulesV discipline liic-y siiould obseirvc, to attain ti.e Jegi-ee of 8«i,cHi^ lu which Ihev are called. The Priests should be holy, becaasc they arc ronsrcrated to God ; ^on,.,.e God, whose ministers and representatives they are, is holy ; because the sacrifice they offer to ttwio, is holy ; because the things of which they are the dispensers, are holy. "^ ' " For, D. B. B., all things are yours » » in the Church of God, and ^ there for -, «,, ^ your sake; the Bishops are yours and are established for your sake- the sacraments are for your benefit; the Priests are also for your advantage. It .. in your behalf that they are Priests, that they are separated from other men and appointed in the thing, that appertain to God :" » in your behalf they offer .acrifices,and are ministers of Jesus-Christ ; it is for your sake that iie has con- ***°***»-*- ferred on them bis extraordinary powers, that jHc has confided to them the dis- ir '1^,'U^ ii 'f s' r 1 . ^ I liiiti i' :■ penaetion of hit n..'tteri«8 : and for your take and on your aooount they must b« holy. Undoubtedly nlio their virtual and their sanctity conttituto your happiness. When God wishes to shew mercy to his people and to save them, He sends them Holy Priests; and when He withes todisnlsiy his wmth and to destroy them, Hc fends them bad and unworthy PriestSt You will understand, D. B. U., that the Mai of the Bishops, with respect to the sanctity of the Clergy, has your happiness for ils object ; yon will acknow« ledge that yon cannot be indifferent, with regoid to the paternal instructions they hero address to the Priests, since you are to participate in the precious fruits re- suiting therefrom ; and you will join with us in praying the Father of Mercies, that He may send you Holy Priests, filled with grace and knowledge, duly qu»* lified to edify you by the sanctity of their life and the eflicaoy of their exhortationa. The Church, being a visible Society, certainly enjoys the right of possession and does actually hold temporal propflrty. She possesses her temples, her mic nistcrs, her worship, and needs pecuniary ressouroes to maintain them. Property, and all other funds whatsoever, consecrated to this end, appertain to God and es- sentially constitute the domain of religion. The Church, being sovereign and independent of any and every power on earth, with regard to all that relates to religion, must of necessity enjoy the free administration of her temporal properly. To pretend that the administration of Church-properly should be subject to the civil authority and belong to the laity, would be to assert an erroneus doctrine, . contrary to the liberty of the Church and destructive of her imprescriptible rights; as if the Church, in the things of God, should be the slave of the temporal power, and the handmaid of those whom she calls her children and who acknowledge her for their mother. In our time, however, this serious error does not fail to meet with defenders, even amongst Catholics; and it is a fact which a woeful experience has more than once demonstrated, that the minds of our people have been deeply and insidiously imbued with this error, under the guide of certain ideas of independence and democracy, which it is t)ittempted to instil and extend into the domain and piO' vince of religion. It) A I. was Important to check the progre,, of this dat.geroui error, and thi, th# b..hop, intended to do, by their solemn declaration, in conformity with the con- •titufon. of the Sovereign rontifTand the decision, of council,, that Church-prc perty, bang of the order of thing, consecrated to the worship of 0,h1, belong. ,o God, and ., thereby under the power and jurisdiction of the Church. Ilen^ i, C^Z '"V';.'f """'-'»" ^' Church-property are merely the steward, of the ar her H " T ." ""*' '°" ""'' ''''' °' "^---'-tion, and that they are therefore bound to administer her property in accordance with the reguiationi and mtenuons of the Church. Nor can they ever divert them to any other object without the permission of the Bishop, who represents her in his Diocesy Such are the momentous decisions, issued forth by the decree relating to ecclesiastical property ; these decisions should serve you for a rule and a law to direct you in regard to the administration and destination of Church-propeHy Irom which you cannot deviate under pain of disobedience to the Church " The name of God is holy and terrible;"! it should never be pronounced l) P. ,w, without the highest reverence : to take it in vain is a crime, and woe to the man who profanes it. Nevertheless, unworthy Christians are daily to be m.t with hoi unmindful of the fear of God. for the sake of a vile interest, dare to profane hi. adorable name by rash, unjust, or false oaths; even lately, some incited by theirprido and ambition, amidst the fury of the elections, have given vent to their impie it i^ ollowing word,ofblasphemy:«F.arnottoresort.ofalsehoodand Aju^" mind not the priests who forbid you: God does not see you, nor does fe e. you; during clection-time you are free and independant of all control on the part of God or men ; yon may do what you please, God will no. call you to ac count, nor will he punish you r Finally, during these day, of riotingand exces many have been seen, who, being seduced by such infenlal advice or blinded S heir passions, formed for themselves a false conscience, and belieing their con vie' ions persuaded themselves that they could swear against truth, to assert their ril ' o vote ; and t ose men were not afraid to make use of the adorable name of gS " .0 confirm a falsehood, and have committed this horrible crime wihou. remor,r; While the echoes of these blasphemies and perjuries were .till resoITng \ ry m 10 in their ears, while the scenes of loandal were yet present to their view, could CL / -he Bishops, your Pastors, who are to give an account for your souls, could they ^1 ' remain silent? WWere ihey not obliged to raise their f oice in the name of Religion, to remind you nf the sanctity of an attestation under oath, to declare to you solemnly, as they did in their decree, that, under all circumstances and pretences whatso- ever, an appeal to the holy name of God, for the purpose of making rash, unjust, or false oaths, is an enormous insult offered up to the divine majesty and a de- testable c'ime. Let you, D. B. B., deeply imprint in your hearts the solemn admonitions addresseJ to you by Ihe Fathers of the Second Council. Fear God, rwspect his holy name ; tremble at the thoughts of profaning it by perjury, and thereby drawing down on you the chastisement of his wrath. Such is the fluth and substance of the decrees of the Second Council, which, / for your edificatio.. and instruction, we deemed ourselves obliged to make knov.'n to you ; such is ihe result of the labours of the bishops of this Province, which they began under the influence of the Holy Ghost, which they prosecuted under the invocation of Mary, in their holy sessions, and which they crowned by an ardent prayer to the Queen of Angei j, imploring her to extend her powerful pro- tection over their O'vn persons and their dioceses, over their own souls and yours; invoking her, even then, as the Patroness of this metropolis and of the Province, under the beautiful title of Virgin conceived without sin ; title so cherished in your hearts, under which you to-day invoke !ier with delight, love and confidence ; glorious title which heaven has lately revealed to earth and under which we, wiih the whole Church of God, will henceforth invoke her, repeating incessantly wi'.h renewed love and fervor : Regina sine lobe concepta, ora pro nobis, Queen con- ceived without sin, pray for us. Amen. This our pastoral Letter shall be read and proclaimed at the prone of all churches, parochial chapel:*, or other places of public worship, as also in chaptet in all religious houses, on the first Sunday after its reception. €r and the Mary, d «odfifij n and fr^ *! "^ A'chbi.hop', Palace, under our haad. the «al of the dioce«» and the s.gnata«, of our Sec«.ary, on the f.a.t of the Immaeulate ConcepUrrf 1;: t 0. p. BisBor o» ThOA, Adminisirator. By His Lordship's eommand, E»Mo»j) Lahgbvin, Pot., Secretary, r Si I ¥'13 r I