Temporal Power of the Pope.
The following is a translation of the Papal allocution delivered in the secret consistory, held on June 22, last. It remains to be seen whether the Austrian government will submit to have her laws revoked by the Pope. Some of these expressions of Pius IX against schools, free religion, and civil marriage, sound very much like sarcasm to us in this country; and it is the best evidence of the benighted state of at least a part of Europe, that such expressions are soberly proclaimed and received as both reasonable and right. It shows also that the spirit of the Papacy has not changed, and warns us of what we may expect in America if the plans of certain religionists and politicians prosper: VENERABLE BRETHREN: We should never have imagined that after the convention agreed to nearly thirteen years ago between us and the Emperor and Apostolic King of Austria, to the great joy of all well-minded men, we should be obliged to lament upon the miseries and serious misfortunes which, by the machinations of evil-disposed men, now afflict and annoy in a deplorable manner the Catholic church in the empire of Austria. In fact, the enemies of our divine religion have been unceasing in their efforts to destroy the said convention, and to do the greatest harm to the church, to us, and to this Apostolic See. On the 21st of December last, the Austrian Government passed an odious law to be carried out and strictly observed in every district of the empire, even in those districts where the Catholic religion exclusively prevails. That law establishes free liberty for all opinions, liberty of the press, of all faiths, and no matter what confession or doctrine; it grants to the members of every confession the right of establishing public schools and colleges, and members of every confession are allowed to be admitted on the same footing with the sanction of the State. Although we felt great grief on being informed of the fact, and wished to raise our voice against it, we, nevertheless, gave proof of forbearance, and we deemed it advisable then to keep silent, chiefly supported by the hope that the Austrian government, lending a docile ear to the just complaints of our venerable brethren (the holy prelates of Austria), would return to more wholesome ideas, and adopt a sounder determination. But our hopes have been frustrated. In fact, the same government on the 25th of May of this present year, issued another law which compels all the subjects, even the Catholic ones of the empire, deciding that sons born of a mixed marriage must follow the religion of the father, and the daughters that of the mother; and that under seven years of age they must follow in the stray path of their parents from the true faith. Moreover, the same law suppresses entirely the validity of the promises which the Catholic church, with reason and with the greatest justice, exacts and prescribes absolutely before the celebration of mixed marriages. It makes apostasy itself a civil law, both as regards the Catholic religion and the Christian religion generally; it suppresses all authority of the church over cemeteries, and Catholics are bound to allow the bodies of heretics to be buried in their churchyard, if they have not any of their own. Moreover, the same government on the 25th day of May, of the present year, did not hesitate to promulgate a law on marriage which entirely cancels all the enactments agreed to in the covenant already alluded to; this law restores the former Austrian laws, which are contrary to the laws of the church; it admits, and even confirms, that form of marriage absolutely condemnable, called civil marriage, when the authority of any confession whatever refuses the celebration of the marriage on the grounds which are not admitted as valid, as legal by the civil authorities. By this law this same government has suppressed all the authority and jurisdiction of the church on matters relative to marriage, as also all competent ecclesiastical tribunals on the subject. It has also promulgated a law on education, decreeing that the whole superior supervision of education, literature, and science, as also the inspection of schools, appertains to the State, which finally decrees that religious teachings in the public schools must be placed in the hands of members of each separate confession; that any religious society may open private or special schools for the youth of its faith; that those schools shall also be subject to the supreme inspection of the State, and that the school books shall be submitted to the approval of the civil authorities; with the exception, however, of such books as are meant for religious instruction, books which must be submitted to the approval of competent authorities of each confession. You see, consequently, venerable brethren, how necessary it is strongly to reprove and condemn those abominable laws sanctioned by the Austrian government—laws which are in flagrant contradiction with the doctrines of the Catholic religion; with its venerable rights, its authority, and its divine institution; with our power and that of the Apostolic See, as also with our concordat already quoted, and with natural right itself. In virtue then of the care of all churches entrusted to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, we raise our voice in your most illustrious assembly; we reprove and we condemn by our Apostolic authority the laws which we have enumerated, and everything, general or special, in those same laws or in matters which refer to ecclesiastical right which has been decreed or attempted unjustly, in any manner whatsoever, by the Austrian government or its subordinates, whomsoever they may be. In virtue of this same authority which appertains to us, we declare those decrees null and powerless themselves, and in their effect both as regards the present and the future. As regards the authors of those laws, especially those who congratulate themselves on being Catholics, and have not feared to propose, establish, approve, and carry out the above laws and acts, we conjure and entreat them not to forget the censures and spiritual punishments which the ecclesiastical institutions and the decrees of the ecumenical councils inflict, as having been deserved ipso facto by the violators of the rights of the church. Meantime we rejoice greatly in the Lord, and we give our well-deserved praise to our venerable brothers the Archbishops and Bishops of the Austrian Empire, who, with truly episcopal energy, have not ceased to warn their flocks of their duties boldly to defend and protect, by speech as well as writing, the cause of the church and the said concordat concluded with us. We also desire from our hearts that our venerable brothers the Archbishops and Bishops of Hungary, following the sample of their colleagues, will show themselves disposed to display the same zeal and the same ardor to protect the rights of the church and defend the concordat against the attacks which are directed against it. Nevertheless, under these calamities which in these times afflict the church everywhere, we do not cease, venerable brothers, with the deepest fervor and humility of heart, to pray to God that he may upset all the criminal designs of his enemies and those of His Holy Church, suppress their impious efforts, and in his mercy lead them back into paths of justness and salvation.