THE PORTUGUESE SEPARATION DECREE

New Zealand Tablet, 3 August 1911, Page 1479

THE PORTUGUESE SEPARATION DECREE

A JOINT PROTEST BY THE BISHOPS (Concluded from last week.) And what does the State give in return for all these riches (the still valuable remnants of a past wealth in which the many thousands of the needy had their share) ? What does it give to the clergy? What does it give to parochial clergy, who were only very lately deprived of a considerable part of their income by the enforcement of the Civil Registration Law? What does it give? Nothing ! It promises, or rather allows, to a few of the ministers of religion certain Jifepensions still to be defined, without a fixed minimum and at the good pleasure of certain Committees, on which, as a great concession, one ecclesiastic may be elected or appointed. These Committees have to take into consideration many various conditions, amidst which even the private and personal means of the priest are to be reckoned, as well as the rental value of the dwellings, the grant of which is otherwise declared to be a free gift. Pensions which, subject to many charges v and on pretext of being an experiment available for only one year, are no better than a few begged crumbs! And those very crumbs can be withdrawn on the slightest and almost unavoidable infractions of the enactments contained in this or any other future decree. . . Thus the menacing sword remains always suspended over the head of the priest! For our own part we here now declare most deliberately that we renounce such pensions, which mere decorum forbids us to accept. In any case those pensions do not pass to the successors of the present ministry of the Church. Yet real property of the Church remains; it docs not end, and its income ceases not. Once more we ask by. what right does the State take to itself all this property, mostly due to the generous piety of the faithful, to the legacies and donations of private individuals? Such is not the procedure of other Republics. In America examples are not wanting of definite protection to the Catholic Church and sometimes even of an exclusive protection ! Hie Central Government of the United States of North America does not indeed subsidise any religion, but it respects all legacies made in favor of the Catholic Communion. The members of the Catholic clergy are by reason of their ministry exempted from military service. The bishop’s juridical position is acknowledged, and the judicial and coercive power of the Church in spiritual matters is protected by the Courts of Law. The strict observance of the Sunday s rest is well known. In each year one day is set aside for the whole nation officially to render thanks to God for all blessings received. Mockery.’ Derogatory to the clergy is every Law that humbles and discredits it, as this Decree aims at doing, by lowering the priest to the condition of a. paid cleric at the order of the Cultural Associations; by altogether setting aside the ecclesiastical hierarchy; and by forcng P on the prelates the necessity of a Placet, which is in all cases in juridical, but quite absurd and absolutely unwarranted under a regime of pretended Separation and liberty of worship. Derogatory to the clergy surely is a law that not only aims at corrupting the priest with uncertain pensions, offered on the most dishonoring conditions, but also flings in . his face the supreme insult of inviting him to disobedience and immorality by assuring the payment of those pensions to suspended priests, and providing that maintenance (a unique instance !) shall be transmissible to the widows and to the sons , legitimate. , or illegitimate, of those priests who may wish to avail selves of the permission to marry granted by the Civil Law. . The Portuguese clergy must have fallen low indeed in the appreciation of the legislator, who dared to draft this !

This Article 150 sufficiently shows what this law is, and reveals its purpose. There may, unfortunately, exist weaknesses, and even miseries ! There may be priests who, by using their ministry, not as a priesthood, but as a paying profession, may repeat the words ‘ Quid vultis mi hi dare ’ ! There may be the degenerate, and the deserter! But the national clergy in its vast majority will repel this affront, for it fully understands the high motives both moral and social of the ecclesiastical law of conscience. It well knows that celibacy is, if not the chief,' one of the principal factors in the superiority of the Catholic clergy, compared with the ministers of other persuasions or so-called Christian sects. -

A profound thinker of our days has very well said * L’anatheme est inevitable. Tout pretre marie tomb era ton jours audessous de son caracere. La, Superiority incontestable du Clerge Catholique tient d la lot du celihat ’ (J. de Maistre). More, very much more, could still be said of the unjust, oppressive, predatory, and insulting provisions in this Decree of the 20th of April. Enough, however, has been briefly pointed out. that not only we prelates and the clergy and sincere Catholics who are faithful to their Creed, but that all men of a right mind and dispassionate judgment, and every soul capable of knowing the significance and of appreciating the value of the words liberty, coherence, justice , resvect for other 'people’s rights and social interest properly so-called, may acknowledge with us, that it is only our conscience, our divine mission, and sense of our office, impels us to raise this solemn protest against this Decree ! With the Holy See now lies the final and definite pronouncement. But it is not possible even for a moment, or as a mere hypothesis, to suppose that procement can be any other than the Apostolic Non jiossumus.

Though the Church does not, and cannot, approve in theory or in principle of the doctrine which regards Separation as a better regime and more in accordance with progress, it may, for all that, under special circumstances, hypothetically accept Separation as tolerable and as a lesser evil. But for this it is essential that it shall leave the Church freedom to exercise her sacred mission and the possession and ownership of her own property. If the formula ‘ a free Church in a free State ’ docs not represent the ideal, it may be tolerable, and is at least always preferable to the other, ‘ a SlaveChurch under a tyrant-State ’: but it is exactly this last formula that is embodied in the recent document of the provisions of which we have just given a - brief summary. There can be no doubt that the so-called Separation effected by this Decree is set forth in such legislative terms that all illusion is rendered impossible. It is downright hostility ;it is imminent persecution. At any rate, no one can deny this document, which is already a matter of history, the merit of outspokenness. Its express purpose is to give the coup de grace to Catholicism in Portugal. If the Church built on the immovable rock has received the promise of indefectibility in the world, such is not the case in respect to nations. Some there have been which have abandoned or lost the true and pure faith, and so have lost themselves. ‘What has become,’ asks Fenelon, ‘of those famous Churches of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, under which innumerable others existed? What remains on the shores of Africa, where the assemblies of bishops were as numerously attended as General Councils, and where the aid of God awaited its commentaries from the lips of Augustine? There I see no more than the smoke, telling witness of the fire from heaven which consumed the land ’ (Sermon pour L’Epiphanie). v

Is the same to happen in Portugal ? Will the Portuguese people abandon their glorious past and turn their backs on the Church, in whose maternal bosom this admirable nation grew and spread and became so prosperous and noble ? Will they drive God out from their conscience and from their homes, as He has already been driven from their law-courts and schools Will they live without God in days of happiness and even in

hours of misfortune? Are they willing to abandon God in life and in death ? Ah! it is after death that, whether they will or not, they cannot free themselves from Him. Then will come the hour of God. Let us hope and trust that such misfortune shall not fall upon our beloved country. There will be many sons who, as heedless prodigals, may leave their father’s house; but in spite of all storms and tribulations, the immense majority of this people, purified in the crucible of persecution, will remain attached to the Cross, faithful to Jesus Christ, and obedient to the Holy See. The Catholic religion has ceased to be the religion of the State; but it shall not cease to be the religion of the Portuguese people. The people of this country cannot separate themselves from the centre of Catholic unity, nor will they sunder themselves from him who is on earth the Vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, the Head, from whom flows, and without whom would become impossible, the life of this social organism that is called the Church of God. ‘ Übi Petrus, ibi ecclesia.’ The Portuguese people will hearken to and respect the voice of the Holy See, which, we say again, cannot falter, conscious though it is of the magnitude of the issue. In these days of utilitarianism once again it will give the world the most noble example of the sacrifice of all temporal advantages to the sanctity of its principles. When Rome has spoken then the Catholic clergy of our country will know which road to follow; * Obedience or apostasy.’ We are at a time of the greatest crisis in the life of Catholicism in Portugal. Satan’s sieve is going to work. Will there be cockle Possibly so, for it is a condition of humanity, and history bears witness of it. Let us only hope that the tares may not be thick , upon the land. The facts already known encourage us to trust that Portuguese priests will remain by the side of their prelates, and that prelates and priests, as well as the faithful, all intimately , united by the bonds of coordination and communion of faith and sentiments of hearts and wills, will give eloquent witness of their perfect subordination and unswerving fidelity to the voice of the Supreme Pontiff who represents the Son of God on earth. And to the Son of God each one will say with equal earnestness but with greater firmness than St. Peter Domine, tecum paratus sum , et in carcerem et in mortem ire. Antonio, Patriarch of Lisbon; Manuel, Archbishop of Braga, Primate; Augusto, Archbishop of Eyora; Manuel, Archbishop Bishop of Guarda; Jose, Bishop of Vizeu; Manuel, Bishop and Count; Jose, Bishop of Branganja; Francisco Jose, . Bishop of Lamengo; Antonio, Bishop of Portalegre; Antonio, Bishop of Algarve; Antonio, Bishop of Martyropolis. LETTER OF THE JESUIT PROVINCIAL. In connection with the above the following letter from the Provincial of the Portuguese Jesuits which has appeared in the Le Patriate, Le V ingtieme Si eel e, and the Bien Public, will-be read with interest: Sir,On arriving at Brussels in company with-one of my young scholastics who is ill, in order to consult a specialist, one of my friends informed me of the shameless falsehoods which the Republican press of Portugal has caused to be spread in my regard. I need not defend my reputation nor that of my religious brethren from the senseless accusations published daily under the inspiration of our persecutors. Europe and America have long since passed judgment upon the moral value of the men who at present rule over the destinies of our dear and unfortunate country. Were it not a motive for sadness for the Portuguese to hear everywhere of the discredit falling upon their country, they might find amusement in the melodramatic tone in which the Mundo and other newspapers of the same class accuse poor religious who have been robbed and expelled of the most incredible crimes. In a recent article the Mundo, besides applying to me choice epithets such as f bandit,’ ‘ traitor,’ and ‘ assassin,’ solemnly declares that the penalty of death could not suffice to punish my crimes. Now what are in truth the titles which justify my being attacked in such ferocious terms ? Since the cruelties and ignominies

to which the Society of Jesus fell a victim last October in the name of liberty (!), God knows the difficulties and moral tortures to which I have been subjected in order to procure a shelter for my 350 religious, besides occupying their zeal and satisfying their love of labor. It is only, thanks to the generous charity of our benefactors, that I have obtained the necessary alms for the voyage which a persecuting Government has forced us to undertake. Yet, nevertheless, the scribes of this same Government continue to propagate the ridiculous fable of my riches, with the assurance that if a counterrevolution should perchance be attempted, it would only be realised by means of the money I would furnish to the conspirators. But one thing more I must add. I have at the present moment my dear Fathers ana Brothers dispersed in Brazil, the United States, Canada, India, Africa, Holland, England, . etc., and therefore hardly any time at all to answer the letters I am receiving from everywhere; but, nevertheless, in spite of all this, I am to have forced upon me a notoriety which cannot possibly be mine, namely, that of a formidable conspirator. But one circumstance will of itself suffice to show with what shamelessness the enemies of the Society of Jesus in Portugal fabricate all sorts of calumnies and also the shameful frivolity of which the Provincial Government furnishes a proof even in its diplomatic negotiations. The newspapers of Spain and Portugal have lately published that the Charge d’Affaires of the Republic, begged of M. Canalejas to have me withdrawn from the Portuguese frontier further into the interior of Spain. Several newspapers indeed have affirmed that I was to be found sometimes at Pontevedra and at other times at Virgo. The fact is I have never been one single moment of my life either at Virgo or at Pontevedra. As to Spain I departed thence on the 16th of January on my way to Holland, and since then I have not even once left Holland or Belgium except on one or two occasions when I spent a few hours in Germany. You can therefore judge for yourself, my dear Sir, how well informed these people are even with regard to affairs they do not hesitate to treat diplomatically and in what way they proceed in order to satisfy their hatred and prejudice, perhaps likewise in order to seek a retrospective justification for the revolting acts of tyranny they have practised against us. Luiz Conzaga Cabral. Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Portugal. Brussels, May 26, 1911.