Jesuits Readmitted to Germany
The Jesuits are to be readmitted into Germany. This is the news brought by recent press dispatches from Berlin, and it means an important victory for the papacy in that country. Regarding the means by which this triumph of papal diplomacy was won, we note the following statements in the Catholic Mirror, the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons:— The German government has decided to advocate the readmission of the Jesuits, who, since July, 1872, have been excluded from Germany. Chancellor von Buelow, in the Reichstag, February 3, said he would use his influence to instruct the Prussian members of the Bundesrath to support the repeal of the anti-Jesuit law so far as to permit individual German and foreign Jesuits to reside in the country, but not to allow the founding of Jesuit chapters, which, the chancellor believed, the confederated governments would not accept. The chancellor's announcement caused a sensation among the members, though it was not unexpected, in view of the cabinet's negotiations with the majority parties over the passage of the tariff bill. It was reported early in December last that the government had promised the leaders of the Center party that it would no longer oppose the readmission of the Jesuits, provided that party supported the government's tariff bill. Herr Spahn, one of the Center party leaders, after the chancellor had made the statement, thanked him in behalf of the party. Herr von Vollmar, a socialist, said the socialists believed the anti-Jesuit law should be entirely repealed. The majority of the Reichstag undoubtedly will support the readmission of the Jesuits when the Bundesrath submits the necessary bill. A Catholic party in Congress corresponding to the Center party in the German Reichstag, may well be a project included in papal plans for supremacy in this country. The “Catholic federation,” about which we have heard of late, will no doubt be used to bring political pressure to bear upon the government, and the advantages gained will be followed up until political parties will defer to the papacy here as they do in the Old World governments.