THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

Southland Times, Issue 1182, 15 December 1869, Page 2

THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

(From the Melbourne AHer aid A) Will the (Ecumenical Council consolidate or disrupt the Papacy? At present appearances are against consolidation. Some of the European Catholic powers decline to send representatives to the Council, and they refuse to be bound by any decision the Council may determine. Many Catholic ecclesiastics are hostile to tbe purposes of the contemplated gathering, arid the hostility is just in proportion Yto7 tha liberalism held. Most striking of all opposition, however, to the Council is that of the eloquent Carmelite Fere Hyacinthe. For years past Notre Dame has been the scene of the most brilliant triumphs oi the Pere's

impassioned oratory. The Catholics of France have been proud of him au tho exponent of a Catholicism that is in accord with the thinking of the present day. Pere Hyacinthe, in the most pronounced manner, has stated his 'opinion on the design of the Council. He has Snveighed against it as an attempt,, to divfu-cs .he. Church Irom ; sdiriißt^' and distinguishes' the movement as Roman, and not Christian. Ultramontanism is '^troffg'utt'T'rance';' whether it Ts strong enough to resist the 'opposition now excited against it remains to be seen. Under circumstances more favorable than those of Per© Hyacinthe, three, noble men once sought in the same place tho same ends. Lacord*ire, Lammenais, and Montalembert, once took the same ground, and used. nearly, the same mode of expression that Hyacinthe is now using. They failed, however, in attaiuing their object. • Montalembert submitted unreservedly, to Papal authority. Lacordaire bowed also under the yoke. His religious feelings prompted submission; his intellect revolted at it. His life was desolated. 'Lammenais was the most. resolute. From a papier jn the AFortnightty Review, by Mr Dowden, his Struggle with! the TPapacy. can be seen ending with a complete revolt against its claim, . "VVill the scene be again repeated in Pere Hyacinthe's case; wjth the like result, or has the hour and the man now arrived for, as it is called, a second Reformation ? For au aaa wer we must wait until the Council has met, and its results been seen.