THE POPE'S NEW ENCYCLICAL.
The Examiner, of San Francisco, publishes an abstract of the pope's latest encyclical on the reunion of the Christian church. This abstract comes from Cardinal Gibbons, to whom has been sent advanced sheets. We publish striking extracts from this abstract, with the observation, which will be patent to the reader, that Rome consistently holds that reunion is possible only in the Roman Catholic fold. Further comment is reserved till later:— “The Holy Father, intent upon the work of bringing all to the one fold of Christ, considers that it would conduce to that end were he to set before the peoples of the Christian world the ideal and exemplar of the church as divinely constituted, to which church all are bound by God's command to belong.” “In Scripture the church is called the body of Christ. It is visible as being a living and organized society, and is animated by the invisible vital principle of supernatural life. Those, therefore, who either deny that Christ's church is a visible body, or refuse to allow that it has ‘the perennial communication of the gifts of divine grace,’ are equally ‘in a grievous and pernicious error.’” “Christ endowed his apostles with authority like his own, and promised that the spirit of truth should direct them and remain with them forever, and because of this commission, it is no more allowable to repudiate one iota of the apostles' teaching than to reject any point of the doctrine of Christ himself. This apostolic mission was intended for the salvation of the whole race, and consequently must last to the end of time.” “The magisterium instituted by Christ in his church was by God's will perpetuated in the successors appointed by the apostles, and in like manner the duty of accepting and professing all that is taught is also perpetual. There is nothing which the church, founded on these principles, has been more careful to guard than the integrity of the faith. The fathers of the church are unanimous in considering as outside the Catholic communion any one who in the least degree deviates from one point of the doctrine proposed by the authoritative magisterium of the church.” “The church is man's guide to whatever pertains to heaven. This is the office appointed to it by God, that it may watch over and may order all that concerns religion, and may, without hindrance, exercise according to its judgment its charge over Christianity. Wherefore, they who pretend that the church has any wish to interfere in civil matters or to infringe upon the rights of the state, either know it is not, or wickedly calumniate it.” “As no true and perfect human society is conceived which is not governed by some supreme authority, so Christ of necessity gave to his church a supreme authority to which all Christians may be obedient. For the preservation of unity there must be unity of government jure divino, and men may be placed outside the one fold by schism as well as heresy.” “The nature of this supreme authority can be ascertained from the positive evidence of the will of Christ in the matter. As he willed that his kingdom should be visible, Christ was obliged to designate a vice-regent on earth in the person of St. Peter. He also determined that the authority given to him for the salvation of mankind in perpetuity should be inherited by St. Peter's successor.” “It can not be doubted from the words in the Holy Writ that the church, by the will of God, rests on St. Peter as a building upon its foundation. St. Peter could not fulfil this duty without the power of commanding, forbidding, and judging, which is proper to be called jurisdiction. It is by the power of jurisdiction that nations and commonwealths are held to be greater—a primacy of honor and the shadowy right of giving advice and admonition, which is called direction, could not give unity or strength to any society of men.” “Metaphorical expressions of the ‘keys’ and of ‘binding and loosening’ indicate ‘the power of making laws, of judging and of punishing—a power which our Lord declares to be of such amplitude and force that God would ratify whatever is decreed by it.’ Thus the power of St. Peter is supreme and absolutely independent, and as such having no other power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole church and all things committed to the church.”