Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 10 June 1915, Page 34

Notes

To Help the Poles : What the Pope Says In forwarding his donation the other day to the Polish Relief Fund which we have inaugurated, Rev. Father Cahill, of Kaponga, wrote: ' Your appeal on behalf of the unfortunate Poles is deserving of a hearty response from the readers of the Tablet. The cause of millions of starving people who have lost all they had is one that should appeal strongly to all who can give a helping hand. I enclose you a pound for the relief of the Polish victims of this terrible "war; and trust that your effort on Behalf of the Poles will be very

successful.' Other correspondents have expressed similar sentiments. One Tablet reader, who has sent a substantial contribution, writes: 'lf every one in the Dominion would deny themselves one day's pleasure for the great need, it would make a presentable and worthy offering to the poor persecuted Poles, and surely no one would refuse or miss that.' * It may interest our readers to know that the movement for Polish relief has the warm sympathy, hearty approval, and practical endorsement of the Holy Father. Recently the famous writer, Henryk Sienkiewicz, as President of the General Relief Committee of Poland, «ent a telegram to his Holiness asking his blessing on the Committee's, work. The Holy Father sent the following reply through his Cardinal Secretary oF State V 'The august Pontiff, instead of sending the usual telegraphic reply, has charged' me to let you know of the feelings of gratitude and fatherly affection produced in him by the reading of the telegram, so full of devotion, of the General Relief Committee for the victims of the war in Poland. You know how deep the Holy Father's grief is at the terrifying spectacle of the awful slaughters and ruins which are the consequence of the present war. As Vicar of that merciful God Who has infinitely loved all men and given for all the price of His Blood, he suffers from the pains of all the combatants and is in mourning for all the families. His affection goes out to all his children without distinction and, as he said at the last Consistory, his heart is especially touched at the thought of the pain of all those sons of his who are most grievously tried by this horrible catastrophe. I can assure you truly that your Committee by relieving the victims of the war in Poland and thus carrying on a work eminently charitable and pitiful, has profoundly moved the fatherly heart of the august Pontiff. In his beloved sons of Poland he sees not only a people plunged in terror and desolation, but he recognises and loves in them children, especially affectionate and generous, who are devoted to the Holy See to the point of sacrifice. Hence, as his Holiness has already given a proof of his interest in Catholic Belgium by sending it a letter of encouragement with his personal offering and that of the Sacred College, so now he is especially glad to be able to confer the same privileges on his well-beloved people of Poland, by sending a similar offering in his own august name and in that of his College, together with an autograph letter to relieve their distress and comfort them in their anguish. And now his Holiness congratulates your Relief Committee on the truly charitable work which is relieving the miseries of his most beloved children of Catholic Poland, and in token of his fatherly affection he bestows with all his heart the apostolic blessing on all the Polish nation, on all who assist it, and especially on you and on the members of the Committee. —P. Card. Gasparri.' Germany in Belgium The Press Bureau of the Belgian Government has supplied to foreign journals a letter of Cardinal Mercier against an ordinance of the German Governor of Belgium which decreed the payment of ecclesiastical stipends on condition that the beneficiaries should sign a declaration of submission to the German Government. The patriot-Cardinal was promptly to the fore to checkmate this somewhat obvious bribe, and despatched the following letter to the German Governor: ' Mr. Governor General, —A communication of your civil Administration informs us that the German Government offers to give effect —in the occupied portion of the country- —to the payment of the emoluments of the clergy, beginning with" the Ist September or the Ist October, 1914, on condition that the members of the clergy sign a declaration binding themselves to undertake nothing and to combat everything which can be prejudicial to the German administration. * ' Some considerations, which have perhaps escaped your civil Administration, will throw light on the juridical and legal position-of the Belgian clergy, and

will, I am sure, claim the attention of your Excellency. the State. ' 2. Their emoluments are paid by way of indemnity, as compensation for confiscated ecclesiastical property. Consequently the members of the clergy take no oath, nor do they assume any pledge towards the Belgian Government, out are simply subject, like all other citizens, to the genera? laws of the country. ' I have stated, your Excellency, that ministers of religion, in Belgium, are not public functionaries. ' Our Court of Cassation expressly recognised this in a judgment of the 4 March, 1847, which affirmed that it cannot be ignored that ministers of religion are neither depositaries nor agents of the civil authority only those, says the judgment, can, in fact, be considered as such who by indirect or immediate delegation of the law or of the Government in some way exercise public power, and to this ministers of religion are extraneous. ' I shall add that tin; emoluments are paid to the clergy by way of indemnity. In the terms of Art. 17 of the Belgian Constitution "the emoluments and . . .... ■ pensions of ministers of religion are a charge upon the State; the sums necessary to meet them are annually included in the Budget of the State." 'The preparatory negotiations of this Article prove that the great majority of the Congress, from which emanated the constitutional pact of Belgian independence, considered the emoluments and pensions of the clergy as compensation, in the form of an indemnity, for the ancient privileges of which the Catholic Church had been deprived at the time when ecclesiastical property was confiscated. ' At the outset of our national independence. Mons. Prince de Mean, Archbishop of Malines, anxious to "guarantee to the Catholic religion that full and entire liberty which alone can ensure its peace and prosperity,'' wrote to the national Congress as follows: "The State did nut take possession of the property of the clergy except with the obligation of providing becomingly for the expenses of worship and for the maintenance of its ministers: Article 1 of the French law of the 2 November, 1789 attests this." ' The Holy See, Tor the sake of peace, ratified the alienation thereof soielv on the express condition that the Government should remain obliged to treat the ministers of religion in a becoming manner, as Articles 13 and 14 of the Concordat of 1801, and also the Bulls thereto relating, afford proof. With a view to prevent unjust preferences and to prevent, by means of such action especially, any agent whatsoever from impeding the free exercise of worship by exercising an illegal influence upon the opinions and action of ecclesiastics to prevent this, I say, the constituted Government has never required from the clergy the signing of any declaration in connection with the payment of their emoluments. If the Government now existing exact it, it will force the clergy into a position inferior to that guaranteed them by the Belgian Constitution. ' I entertain an assured confidence that the Governor General will examine equitably the preceding considerations and recognise their legality. ' Signed: D. Card. Mercier, ' Archbishop of Malines.' * The letter, with the standing and influence of Cardinal Mercier behind it, produced its intended effect; and the Governor General has abandoned his proposal. The War and the Sacraments The present war, carried out on such a colossal scale and involving the risk of sudden death to immense masses of men, has given rise to some new problems in regard to the administration of the Sacraments to soldiers; and Rome has been prompt to give authoritative decision in respect to the difficulties that have emerged. One of the most important of the recent declarations relates to the giving of absolution to soldiers

summoned to battle. A question was submitted to the Sacred Penitentiary in the following form: ' Whether it | is lawful, by a.general formula or common absolution, without preceding confession, to absolve, before admitting them to Holy Communion, soldiers summoned to battle, when their number is so great that their confessions cannot be heard severally, after they have duly made an act of contrition?' The Sacred Penitentiary, having maturely considered what has been explained, graciously decided, our Most Holy Father Benedict XV. assenting, that the answer should be given: 'ln the affirmative. And there is nothing to prevent those thus absolved in' the aforesaid circumstances from being admitted to receive" the Holy Eucharist. But let the military chaplains not omit, when opportunity is afforded, to instruct them that absolution so given will avail nothing unless they are duly disposed ; and that, if they escape danger, there remains for them entire the obligation of going to confession in due course. All things whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. ' Given at Rome in the S. Penitentiary, 6 February, .1915. —Carolus Perosi, S.P., Regens., Josephus Balica, S.P., Secretarius.' * A second important declaration, issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, relates to administration of Holy Communion and to the celebration of Mass in camps. It is in the following terms: ' The Sacred Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments, desirous of consulting for the welfare of souls, in view of the extraordinary circumstance of the present war, and whilst they continue, by special authority of our Most Holy Lord Pope Benedict XV., declares and enacts the following: (1) That soldiers called to battle (soldiers at the front) can be admitted, servatis servandis, to the Eucharistic Table by way of Viaticum. (2) That priests attached to the army who are intended to carry and care for the wounded and those who are ill (vernacularly litterbearers and infirmarians), if they cannot say Mass in churches, can celebrate Mass, all danger of irreverence being removed, in any fitting and safe place whatsoever, even in the open air; and that those who bear arms can - celebrate Mass in the same way, and under the same conditions, but on Sundays only and on feasts of precept, provided all the aforesaid priests are hindered by no other canonical impediment. All things whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. ' Given at Rome from the Secretariate of the Sacred Congregation, 11 February, 1915. ' Philippus Card Giustini, ' Praefectus. ' Alousius Capotosti, Ep. Therm. ' Secretarius.'