Letters From Rome on the Council

Preface. Views of the Council. (Allgemeine Zeitung, May 20, 1869.) The Future Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 11, 1869.) Prince Hohenlohe and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 20 and...

The ultramontane press in Germany, which is itself beginning to find the decisions sketched out by the _Civiltà_ intolerable, now adopts the tactics of denying the official char...

The Pastoral which the Bishops assembled at Fulda ordered to be read in all the Churches under their jurisdiction is an important document. It reflects the excited and abnormal...

In the article we have cited, the _Civiltà_ affirmed anew, on the authority of the Minorite, Bonaventure of S. Bernardino (_Trattato della Chiesa_), that the Pope can dispose of...

We may readily conceive the excitement in the Jesuit camp. After the patient, indefatigable toil of years of seed-time, the harvest-time seems to them to be come at last. Up to...

A singular incident not long since created some sensation and amusement in English circles. The English Bishops, like their Archbishop, Manning, are declared Infallibilists—a te...

In a combined meeting of German and Hungarian Bishops, it was resolved, on Haynald’s motion, to request of the Pope a better representation, and one more accordant with the dign...

Some ten of the leading Bishops of different nations have formed themselves into an International Committee, so as not, for the future, to ask concessions of the Pope in the nam...

On Friday, January 14, the debate on the _Schema_ opened. This is occupied with the duties of Bishops—their residence, visitation of their dioceses, and obligation of frequently...

The Court of Rome and the Bishops are at present studying in a school of mutual instruction. The _Curia_ studies the Bishops individually, especially the more prominent among th...

In this second _Schema_, compiled by Jacobini, the second Secretary of the Council, the gross ignorance of the author is glaringly exposed. With the usual self-sufficiency of Ro...

Cardinal Rauscher has written, or got written, a treatise on the Infallibility question in German, which is now being translated into Latin, and which does not merely oppose the...

_Rome, Feb. 8, 1870._—It is a most exciting drama that is being exhibited here, and notwithstanding much that is both little and painful in its details, one of great and moving...

_Rome, Feb. 11, 1870._—When once literature began to be brought to bear actively on the proceedings of the Council, the crisis could not long be delayed, for science, which has...

It seemed to me important to ascertain more precisely the attitude of the Dominicans—who are still a powerful corporation, through their possessing such influential offices as t...

There are three powers who wish to gain by the Council, and who decide on its proceedings and destiny—the Pope, the Jesuits, and the _Curia_. Among the members of the _Curia_ th...

In this state of things the eyes of all men are turned on the Bishops united, or rather not united but only assembled, in Council. The great majority are much in the disposition...

Among the Opposition Bishops many are still in good spirits and full of confidence. “We are too many, and we represent too considerable portions of the Christian world, for our...

I can give you the precise facts of the affair about Montalembert’s Requiem from the most authentic sources, and it is worth while to do so, for it speaks volumes on the present...

_Rome, March 28, 1870._—The Bishops who have attacked the new order of business, because it brought into view the possibility of a dogmatic definition being carried without the...

The change of sovereigns will, in another point of view, be a very critical transition for the system dominant here. There is no point the non-Italian Episcopate with the foreig...

You know already that the Roman Jesuits have declared it, in the last number of the _Civiltà_, to be a wicked error to require moral unanimity of the Council for a dogmatic decr...

But on the following day, April 9, a notice was communicated that, as the closing paragraph of the _Schema_—beginning with the words “Itaque supremi pastoralis,” etc.(79)—had no...

Bishop Hefele’s work is worthy of the man who is beyond question the most profound historical scholar among the members of the Council. One can only regret that a writer so pre-...

“Nous voulons seulement élever aussi notre voix pour dégager notre responsabilité et signaler les conséquences presqu’inévitables d’actes qui devraient être regardés comme une a...

The Bavarian ambassador has presented the note of his Government, which appeals emphatically to the attitude of the German Bishops who represent in the Council sound principles...

They cannot take much by this move. The arguments against inverting the purely arbitrary order of business, previously introduced, are weak in comparison with the objections to...

All German Catholics count here for half Protestants. A German must here give special evidence of his orthodoxy, I do not say before he is trusted, but before he is reckoned a C...

When Cullen replied to the Archbishop of St. Louis, “non est verum,” the aged prelate requested leave of the Legates to defend himself briefly. It was refused. Hefele was as lit...

_Rome, June 2, 1870._—The debate drags on its weary length without any turning. Of real discussion there is none, for very few of the prelates can speak in Latin without prepara...

The most important speech in this sitting, and one of the most remarkable theologically since the opening of the Council, was that of Conolly, Archbishop of Halifax. Formerly an...

_Rome, June 6, 1870._—There have been indications for some time past that the _dénouement_ was likely to be precipitated. The Pope himself declared that it was impossible to kee...

1. According to the teaching of the Church, the validity of the sacraments, and especially of ordination, depends on the use of the right form and matter. The whole Church for a...

In convents and girls’ schools the new article of faith is already strong enough to work miracles. The _Univers_ relates “a miraculous cure wrought through an act of faith in th...

(1.) “Si quis dixerit decreta seu constitutiones a Petri successore editas, continentes quandam fidei vel morum veritatem Ecclesiæ universæ ab ipso pro supremâ suâ et apostolicâ...

The two great events of modern history, the Reformation and the Revolution, have made the Papacy what it is,—the Reformation by forcibly driving the Catholic half of Christendom...

The minority perceive, on a calmer consideration, that the two canons proposed by Guidi would not provide sufficient security for the episcopate taking part in the teaching offi...

“Etenim, B. Pater, cum centum et viginti episcopi nomen suum dederint, ut in tanti momenti quæstione audiantur, evidens est, discussionem non posse intra paucos dies præcipitari...

At the sitting of July 2 the affair was to have been brought to a settlement. The minority had sketched out a notice in the Council Hall, stating that all speakers on their side...

The echo of the Vatican, Veuillot’s _Univers_, has just been accusing the Bishops of the minority of ruining the papal treasury by prolonging the debates on infallibility throug...

“Ab eo inde tempore nihil prorsus evenit quod sententiam nostram mutaret, quin imo multa eaque gravissima acciderunt, quæ nos in proposito nostro confirmaverunt. Atque ideo nost...

It is certain that the first stirring of this question came from without, from religious and secular journalists, and that too in an impertinent manner, against all ecclesiastic...

Je n’ai point parle une seule fois, je ne parlerai pas davantage dans la suite. Je n’aime ni les gens qui posent, ni les choses complétement inutiles. _J’agis_ depuis quatre moi...

Cette discussion immédiate de l’Infaillibilité Pontificale, avant toutes les autres questions qui la doivent nécessairement précéder, ce renversement de l’ordre et de la marche...

41 [Some idea of it may be formed from the answer made some months ago by a distinguished English Prelate at Rome to an Anglican friend, who had quoted the words of one of the O...