THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 50, 27 February 1874, Page 2

THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL.

The London correspondent of the 'Australasian' writes:The full text of the recent Papal Encyclical has beon published. It refers in succession to the action of the Government of Geneva against Mgr. Mermillod, to the ecclesiastical laws in Prussia, and to tbe Old Catholics. The new constitution imposed upon the Catholic Church in Geneva is repudiated in vehement terms. "It is clear," says his Holiness, " that laws of tbis kind are not only null and void by reason of want of power in tho law makers as being laymen and nonCatholics, but also. as regards their provisions tbat they are so contrary to the doctrines of the Catholic faith, and to the ecclesiastical discipline enjoined by Pontifical constitutions and the CEcumenical Council of Trent, that thoy ought to be altogether rejected by us. We, therefore, as required by our offlce, do, by our apostolic authority, solemnly reject and condemn them, declaring the required oath to be unlawful and sacrilegious," The Prussian Government is solemnly arraigned for designing to subvert the ecclesiastical government of tbe Church and the order of hierarchical obedience instituted by the Lord himself. The climax of its enormity is thus set forth: —"Finally that nothing should be wanting to the entire suppression of the Catholic Church, a Royal tribunal for ecclesiastical affairs has been instituted, before which bishops and sacred pastors may be cited, both by private men who are their subjects, and by public magistrates, there to receive judgment as criminals, and to be coerced in the exercise of their spiritual office. Thus-the Holy Church of Christ, to which the necessary and full liberty of religion has been, guaranteed by the solemn nnd reiterated promises of princes, and by public pacts and conventions, is now in mourning in those regions, stripped of its every right, and exposed to hostile powers which threaten it with final destruction ; for this new legislation reaches to the point of rendering the life of the Church impossible. No wonder, therefore, tbat in that Empire the former religious peace should be broken up by laws of this kind and by the other counsels and acts of tbe Prussian government full of hostility to the Church." After a lengthy vindication of the Catholics in Prussia from the accusation of disloyalty, the Pope concludes this section of the Encyclical with a rebuke to tbe publishers of his correspondence with the Emperor of Germany, "We should indeed," he- cays, '« have gladly passed over in this place the letter of the Emperor, if it had not been made public by the official journal in Berlin altogether without our knowledge, and in a manner certainly unusual, together with another letter written by our hand, in which wo appealed for the Catholic Church in Prussia to the justice of the mest serene Emperor." His sternest rebukes are reserved for " the new heretics who call themselves Old Catholicß. "Nor," he says, "is tbis the end of the wrongs which are inflicted upoD the Catholic Church. For to tbis must be also added the patronage which has been openly taken up by the Prussian and the other Governments of tho Germanic Efmpire in behalf of those new heretics who call themselves Old Catholics by the abuse of tbe name, which would be truly ridiculous if it were Dot that so many monstrous errors of that sect against the chief principles of the Catholic faith, so many sacrileges in Divine worship and in tho administration of sacraments, so many gravest scandals, so g^eat a havoc of souls redeemed in the Blood of Christ, did not rather draw abundant tears from our eyes'* The attempts indeed, and the aims of these unhappy sons of perdition appear plainly, both from other writings of theirs, and most of all from that impious and most impudent of documents which has lately been published by him whom they huve set up for themselves as their so-called bishop. . . . These men have chosen and set up for themselves as their pseudo-bishop a certain notorious apostate from the Catholic faith, Joseph Hubert Reinkens; and that nothing might be wanting to their impudence, for his consecration they have had recourse to thos 3 Jansenist3 of Utrecbt whom they themselves, before their falling away from the Church, regarded, with, other Catholics, as heretics and schismatics. Nevertheless, this Joseph Hubert dares to call himself a bishop, and, incredible as it may seem, the Most Serene Emperor of Germany has by public decree named and acknowledged hiro as a Catholic sisbop, aDd .exhibited hira to all his subjects as one who is to be regarded as a lawful bishop, and as such to be obeyed." The condemnation pronounced on these unhappy sons of perdition goes the whole length of anathematising : — " We, therefore, who have been placed, undeserving as we are, in the Supreme See of Peter, for the guardianship of the Catholic faith, and for the maintenance of the unity of the Universal Church, according to the custom and example of our predecessors and their holy decrees, by tbe power given to us from on high, not only declare the election of the said Joseph Hubert Reinkens to be contaary to the holy canons, unlawful, and altogether null and void,, aad denounce nnd condemn his consecration as sacrilegious, but, by the authority of Almighty God, we declare the said Joseph Hubert—together with those who bave taken part

in his election and sacrilegious'consecratioo, and whover adhere to and follow the same, giving aid, favor, or consent — excommunicated, under anathema, separated from the communion of the Church, and to be reckoned among those whose fellowship has been forbidden to the faithful by the Apostle, so that they are not co much as to say to thun God speed you." At the close of the Encylical a customary anathema is hurled at those "sinful associations '.' the Freemasonb' lodges In this denunciation are iucluded not only those of Europe, but of America, aod the world at large.