BRIEF OF HIS HOLINESS TO THE CONGRESS AT VENICE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 75, 3 October 1874, Page 14

BRIEF OF HIS HOLINESS TO THE CONGRESS AT VENICE.

To Our Well-Beloved Sons, the President and Members of the Catholic Italian Congress, at Venice. Pius IX., Popk.

DtrsiNQ- the month of February last, We addressed a letter to theCentriil Council of the Catholio Italian Union in order to advise and warmly recommend it to establish a very close bond of union between all the Catholic Societies of Italy. Although each of them was makin* the most praiseworthy efforts to render aid in some special manner to the necessities of the Church, We are desirous that they should brin» into united action all their resources, both material and intellectual, t> subserve the same end j aud we have seen with great joy that you have faithfully carried Our advice into practical operation, as is proved by the Congress which you are preparing to assemble at Venice. In effect, whilst Our most holy religion is being assailed and harassed on all sides, and encompassed by all kinds of insidiousattacks, the various Societies have united to counteract those attacks j some to provide for the celebration of Divine worship ; some to obtain for the people the blessings of a Christian education ; some to succoar this Holy See in its poverty ; some to take care of the sick, or foreigners, or of persons in danger, or to protect public morals or remedy public evils ; others to provide good books as an antidote toperverted and impious doctrines ; others to defend the Church, by legal means, from the attacks of laws that are hostile, unjust, and iniquitous; others to draw out of the mire and restore to their pristinenobility of aim the fine arts when given over to the lowest degradation of licentiousness ; others, lastly, to obviate other evils whiclfit would be too long to enumerate. There was reason to anticipate with certainty that all men would have at heart the duty of meeting ancl t taking counsel together, and that all would feel gratified to make known to each other the situation and the wants of their respective countries, to examine the difficulties most generally felt, to discuss the means most advisable to be employed, and to unite forces possessed in common ; so that the action of all, however rarious the objects to which it was applied, might be strictly one action. Thus might such' action take in hand and follow up ti.e pxtirpation. of orror, the'refortnation of vice, the restoration of good u-orals, the defence of religion, the augmentation of piety, and the relief of suffering. Therefore do We rejoice to bohold you mooting in Congress for tbeglory of God, to the end that you may labor in so neoessary a work ; and the more difficult your undertakings may appear to us, the more earnestly do We implore that heavenly light and succour from on hMi ma/ be vouchsafed to your Congress, so that you may rightly know" both what work 7011 have to do, and that with effectual perseverance you may accomplish thosejthings which you shall have resolved in Oure .Lord and uuder the guidance of ecclesiastical authority to do. Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, the 28th. day of May, 1874, in th. twentj-eghth year of our Pontificate. Pius IX., Pope.