THE ŒCUMENICAL COUNCIL.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 68, 28 March 1870, Page 3

THE ŒCUMENICAL COUNCIL.

The Pope has abated no jot of bis resolve to bave bis personal infallibility proclaimed, and be is not daunted by tbe failure of his second plan, which has been as unlucky as bis first, which was to assume that the dogmas would be accepted, and to get it agreed to 03 a matter of course. His next idea was tbat one of the Fathers should suddenly be seized with aninspira: ion, should in a fervour of piety proclaim that the Council ought at once to vote the dogma, and carry it with a ru&h of excite ment, and by acclamation. But it was discovered that the electrical agency was as likely to fail as not, and it was also learned that if this coup were attempted, Dupenloup and his following would march out of the sacred hall" So a third course is no™ 1 being adopted, the yery prosaic and non-supernatural one of a sort of requisition. The Fathers are being canvased to si^n a request to the'

Pope that the dogmas be affirmed. In one : sensey tins may be the most prudent and practical of moves, for so many direct influences can be used to get a man to pnt his name to a paper, and it is often Very hard to refuse. Nevertheless, a large number have stood out, some calculations giving as many as 300, while others are as low as ISO ; but tho minority comprises the most intellectual of the prelates, and its resistance does away with the grand religious effect sought to be produced. An assembly of holy and venerable men, inflamed with simultaneous zeal, and casting itself at the feet of the Pope, praying him to assume a divine character, Would have been an ecclesiastical victory ; but a mere Parlia mentary division is a very tame way ofworking a miracle, to say nothing of the machinery being borrowed from the secular chambers, against whose carnal proceedings it is one of the chief duties of the (Ecumenical Council to fulminate its anathemas. The greatest anger is manifested in Borne and here at the publication in our papers of details of what takes place day by day, and the somewhat inconsistent allegations are made that some of the Fathers violate their vows of secrecy, and that the English Press is totally misinformed. It is not unlikely that the opposition prelates are free in discontent utterance; but if there could be a secret where 800 men are concerned, the miracle would be a greater one than that which his Holiness desires to. effect. There is no doubt that a counter petition, or rather protest, against the infallibility dogma has been largely signed, and therefore the (Ecumenical character of the proceedings is done away for ever, if there be any meaning iv words.