EXCOMMUNICATION.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 300, 4 September 1860, Page 2

EXCOMMUNICATION.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir—ln your extract from the ' Paris correspondent of a London paper,' in your last issue, I read the following statement concerning the effect which Pio Nono expected to produce from his bull of excommunication—' Unaccepted and unpublished, the bull remains in Piedmont and in France; not a priest heeds it.' I beg to observe that the author of this extract in these few words explains to us the principles of our lovers of freedom and liberty ; they,offer liberty to Italy, they want to deliver her from her state of servitude, yet refuse her ruler the right of publishing spiritual decrees which affect only the souls of his subjects. 'Under this new system of liberty those who are at the head of public institutions or of religious bodies are not allowed to cany out the rules upon which ! their institutions are established. What then is that liberty which is offered to Italy if one of her principal subjects, the Pope (as spiritual head of a religious body) be denied the very right which constitute the essence of true freedom, viz., the free exercise for a people of their own religion. The King of Sardinia tells the world that the bull of excommunication has had no effect, that the clergy have rallied to his side, have blessed him, have cast themselves under his feet; but the result shows that only one bishop was found so weakhearted as to succumb to him, and he has amply repented and made amends. On the three days' Festival of'the' Statute the Archbishop of Florence forbade his clergy to attend their churches Every bishop in Tuscany refused to celebrate an anniversary disgraced by rapine, by fraud, and by lying. The Archbishop of Pisa warned the prefect not to toll the bells in honor of the Royal thief; and when the sleek official, despising the Archbishop's authority, ordered them to be tolled. Cardinal Corsi fulminated the canonical censure against him, and suspended a dimnis those feeble priests who were weak enough to officiate. Therefore has Cardinal Corsi been sent to Turin under military guard to answer for the crime of rebellion. Therefore has the Bishop of Parma been fain, it is said, to resign his diocese. And therefore have the Bishops of Faefiza, of Imola, and Forli, as well as the Vicar of Bologna, subjected themselves to proceedings whicfrare to be taken' against them. And therefore too has the episcopal seminary of Piacenza been suppressed,' because the Piedmontese Government cannot coerce Christian bishops, priests, professors, and laymen, to call plunder, hypocrisy, and lying by any but their right names. , .-,..- ( ~ , Such are some of the effects from the bull of excommunication. But at the same time we have a right to ask where are the'happy effects bf that liberty which was promisi dto every Italian ? In the very dominions of the champion pf liberty ■ subjects are punished because they obey the rules of their institutions; and because they act consistently with what they profess to believe, they are treated as rebels. And by whom ? By a king who professes himself to belong to the same religion and adhere to the same instil utiorisand creed. '\ In your extract an inoffensive sovereign as the Pope held out to public hatred, his dutiful subjects are called fanatics and mercenaries, whilst pirates and freebooters as Garibaldi and company obtain the approval and sympathy of Government; in fact, what business has that stranger in Sicily? He is not redressing grievances felt by himself, for he is not a subject of the King. He is simply a pirate or marauder, making war upon his own J account; he is not in the command of regular j troops ; neither is he a sovereign power, so as to enable, him according to the law of nations, to carry on a legitimate war. • He has not the excuse of the Sepoy a, or of the insurgents of the lonian Islands; he is riot in the position, of Mr. Smith -O"Brien',- or of the chartist Frost in Monmouthshire. ■ But why is he so much praised,'so effectively en-, couraged and assisted ? It-is because hjs. war is a war against Christianity. The Revolution which, he- carries on subverts thrones, deposes sovereigns, exterminates religious order.*, banishes priests, abolishes bishops, closes churches, and imprisons Popes. The revolutionary creed is known, it has been proclaimed over the whole earth. Its disciples are, known, and-their deeds have been for sixty years the study, and the wonder of the world. Such-is the meaning of the extract of the " Paris Correspondent of a London paper." "The Bull of Excommunication remains unaccepted and unpublished." I am, &c, AN OBSERVER. Nelson, September Ist, 1860.