born, to find the attachment of the Irish people to the Pope and to the faith of their fathers more intense if possible, more active and conspicuous, than at any past period of her history. Yet, for these great and truly exceptional favours which you have received from on High; for Ireland's unalterable attachment to the faith; for her unbroken Hierarchy, happily crowned in our days by an Irish Cardinal, whose fame for wisdom and sanctity is over all the Churches; for her unpurchasable priesthood, and the unswerving fidelity of her noble-hearted people, humanly speaking, you could have had no grounds to hope. Ours, you know, was not amongst the Churches that were most favoured in their origin. There were Churches founded by the Apostles themselves, protected by the Emperors of Christian Rome, and presided over for a long series of years by the most pious and enlightened pastors. The Church of Ephesus, founded by St. John, has long since fallen to decay. The Church of Alexandria exists no longer, though St. Mark laboured much to give it strength and stability; and even the Church of Jerusalem itself, governed, as it had been, for a number of years by St. James the Apostle, formed no exception to the decline of other Apostolic Churches. What has become of the illustrious Churches of Asia and Northern Africa, of the Churches in which Chrysostom preached, for which Cyprian suffered, and Augustine wrote? Weeds are now growing over the ruins of Carthage; and in the capital of the Eastern Empire, built as it was by the first Christian Emperor, and adorned by the piety or patriotism of his successors for above a thousand years, the Crescent has long since displaced the Cross, and the fanatical followers of the Arab Prophet prefer Mahomet to Christ—the licentious teaching of the one to the sublime morality of the other. But here-here in this remote island, now so undistinguished, but once the fairest in the sea, the lamp of Faith once lighted has never yet suffered even the dimness of an hour. Like the sacred fire guarded by the Vestals of another age and clime, we have preserved our faith pure, and in all things unchanged, during the long, long period of fourteen hundred years. True, indeed, that in some respects our Church's first glory has gone down ; that the saint and the scholar journeying from afar have long since ceased to seek shelter on our once hospitable shore; true, that our religious houses of European fame, the abodes of piety, of peace, and learning, and which formed the chief glory and greatness of this ancient island, teach now no lesson except by their ruins; true, that our sceptre is broken and our name is without honour in the councils of the great, still may we boast with pride and truth that we have preserved our faith untarnished, undiminished, unalloyed, 'midst the revolution of empires, and the utter ruin of seemingly more favoured churches. Furthermore, brethren, look around you everywhere on the scattered children of your creed and race, and what do you behold? Abroad you see our Irish missionaries labouring for God's Church in every land that the sun shines upon, and carrying the glad tidings of redemption to the people of every clime and colour. At home you see the sublime spectacle of a poor and but recently emancipated people building up and beautifying the fallen temples of the Most High, supporting the ministers of their Church in more than ordinary comfort and respectability, erecting colleges, schools, hospitals, houses of refuge, and without Government aid or countenance from the great, walking, I may say, in the van of Christian civilization, and sustaining the great cause of Christian progress and enlightenment in this island. And, oh! brethren, is it not sweet, is it not passing sweet, to see the homes of our forefathers thus built up, their memories vindicated, and the faith for which they fought and bled rising from off the ground on which it was trodden down-ay, and rising with renewed vigour and endowed with marvellous fecundity. Catholicity, you see, cannot die. The long list of saints who professed and practised it; the million martyrs who died in its defence; the host of scholars who sprang up under its auspices and did battle in its cause; the virtue that it fosters, as well as the civilization that it has scattered, even to the ends of the earth, attest beyond dispute the divinity of its origin. Error, brethren, is not lasting-fiction fades away, even art's most glorious monuments must perish, but truth is not subject to diminution or decay, and what is built on it is enduring as the heavens. Cleave closely, then, brethren, to this fine old faith of yours. Be proud of it; profess it fearlessly; practise it; live in it; and as the last and most precious remnant of your mutilated inheritance, forfeit it not even in death. It is no new-fangled faith framed or fabricated but a while ago. It is the faith which Christ taught upon earth and wherewith he enriched His Church. It is the faith of the Apostles and of the elect even from the beginning. It is the faith for which the martyrs suffered, and the just were persecuted in every age. It is a faith which the proud philosophy of Rome vainly sought to overthrow-a faith, therefore, at once pure, consoling, and apostolical; a faith unaltered by time, untainted by error, indestructible by sword, VOL. X. 34 or sage, or sophist; a faith, in short, which as it preceded, so shall it survive, every modern innovation, and yet resume that empire over the world which truth has never forfeited but for a while. Such, brethren, is the faith of our fathers, the faith of which His Holiness the Pope is the fearless and infallible expounder. May it be to you an active faith, as it will be a lasting and cherished one, influencing your thoughts, and deeds, and words, and giving value to them all. And, as you do now praise, and bless, and pray for those who in bright days built up, and in evil days defended, the time-honoured edifice of your native Church, so may generations yet to come praise you and bless you, telling to their children, and to the children of them again, that you of the present age were well worthy of the saints that preceded you, that you "were zealous for the law, and prepared to give your lives for the covenants of your fathers; that you called to remembrance the works of your fathers which they had done in their generations, and that you deserved great glory and an everlasting name."-1 Mac. c. ii. 50, 51. DOCUMENTS. I. LETTER OF THE POPE TO THE RUTHENIAN BISHOPS. Venerabilibus Fratribus Iosepho Sembratowicz Archiepiscopo Leopolien. Halicien. et Camenecien. Ruthenorum aliisque Episcopis eiusdem ritus gratiam et Communionem cum Apostolica sede Habentibus. PIUS PAPA IX. VENERABILIBUS FRATRIBUS SALUTEM ET APOSTOLICAM BENEDICTIONEM. OMNEM sollicitudinem vel a primis diuturni Pontificatus Nostri annis adhibuimus atque operam dedimus ad spirituale Orientalium Ecclesiarum bonum procurandum et fovendum, solemniter, inter cetera, declarantes sartas ac tectas religiose servandas et custodiendas peculiares catholicas Liturgias,' 1 Litterae Apostolicae ad Orientales quarum initium In suprema diei 6 Ianuar. 1848. quas pariter Praedecessores Nostri maximo in pretio semper habuerunt. Qua porro in re luculentissima sunt quae Clemens VIII. tradidit in sua Constitutione Magnus Dominus an. 1595, Paulus V. in suo Brevi diei 10 Decembris 1615, ac potissimum, reliquis omissis, Benedictus XIV. in suis encyclicis Litteris Demandatum an. 1743, et Allatae sunt an. 1755. Cum autem arctissimus existat nexus quo cum dogmaticis doctrinis disciplina praesertim liturgica coniungitur et consociatur, hinc Apostolica Sedes, infallibilis Fidei Magistra ac sapientissima Veritatis Custos, vix ac deprehendit "periculosum et indecorum aliquem ritum in Orientalem Ecclesiam irrepsisse, illum damnavit, improbavit eiusque usum ipsi prohibuit." "1 Rursus memorata cura illibatas servandi veteres Liturgias impedimento non fuit quominus inter orientales ritus adsciscerentur etiam nonnulli ex aliis Ecclesiis accepti, quos, uti ad catholicos Armenos Gregorius XVI. fel. record. scribebat; "Maiores vestri aut, quia rectiores visi fuerant, adamarunt, aut tamquam notam ab haereticis schismaticisque eos discernentem aliquo abhinc tempore assumpserunt."? Quapropter, ceu tradit idem Summus Pontifex, ea regula omnino servanda est qua statuitur, inconsulta Sede Apostolica, in sacrae Liturgiae ritibus nihil esse innovandum etiam nomine instaurandi caerimonias, quae Liturgiis ab eadem Sede probatis magis conformes esse videantur, nisi ex gravissimis causis et accedente Sedis Apostolicae auctoritate."3 Hisce porro iuris principiis, quae pro universis orientalis ritus Ecclesiis sapienti consilio fuerunt sancita, regitur quoque, uti pluries data occasione declaratum est praesertim in superius memorata Brevi Pauli V., liturgica disciplina Ruthenorum, quos non destiterunt Romani Pontifices singulari benevolentiae affectu ac peculiaribus favoribus prosequi; et vix ac aliquod periculum imminere et eorum fidem in discrimen adduci perspectum est, Apostolica Sedes ad tantum malum. avertendum vocem suam absque ulla mora attollere non praetermisit. Solemnia adhuc sunt verba quibus usus est Decessor Noster Gregorius XVI. fel. me. cum scilicet Ruthenorum natio, ut cuique exploratum est, in asperrima versaretur rerum conditione qua ipsos ad usque tricies centena millia ex Catholicae Ecclesiae gremio miserrime avulsos et hodie lamenta mur. 1 Benedictus XIV. in suis Litteris Allatae sunt § 27 diei 26 Iulii 1735. Gregorius XVI. in suis Litteris Studium paternae benevolentiae diei 2 Maii 1836. Gregorius XVI. in suis Litteris Inter gravissimas diei 3 Februarii 1832. Nec pariter Ruthenorum nationi defuit ejusdem Apostolicae Sedis auxilium, cum graves et diuturnae controversiae in ecclesiastica Provincia Leopoliensi ob disciplinae et ritus varietatem, atque ob mutuas relationes, quae inter ecclesiasticos viros latini et graeci ritus ibi intercedebant, non absque christianae charitatis detrimento agitabantur, quae per conventionem seu concordiam ab Episcopis utriusque ritus propositam, et die 6 Octobris 1863 sancitam decreto S Congregationis de Propaganda Fide pro negotiis orientalis ritus, feliciter fuerunt compositae ac diremptae. Verum miserrima rerum adiuncta in quibus eadem ecclesiastica Provincia, et potissimum finitima Chelmensis Dioecesis in praesentiarum versantur, omnem Nostram vigilantiam et sollicitudinem iure ac merito rursus expostulant. Nuperrime siquidem ad Nos relatum est inter istos Catholicos GraecoRutheni ritus vel acrem controversiam de re liturgica temerario ausu excitatam esse, ac quosdam existere, licet in clericali ordine constitutos, qui rebus novis studentes sacras caerimonias alias immemorabili usu laudabiliter receptas, alias quoque Zamoscenae Synodi, quam Apostoloica Sedes probavit,1 sanctione solemniter confirmatas, proprio lubitu immutare ac reformare pertentant. Sed quod magis Nos angit, et intima aegritudine Cor Nostrum afficit est quod recenter accepimus de miserrimo rerum statu quo affligitur Chelmensis Dioecesis. Siquidem, recedente eiusdem Episcopo paucis abhinc annis per Nos Ipsos instituto, et spirituali vinculo cum eadem Dioecesi adhuc illigato, quidam pseudo-administrator, quem Nos episcopali munere indignum iam pridem iudicavimus, minime dubitavit ecclesiasticam iurisdictionem usurpare, cuncta in memorata Ecclesia pessumdare, ac potissimum rem liturgicam canonice sancitam proprio marte confundere ac perturbare. Moerentes adhuc prae oculis habemus circulares litteras die 20 Octobris anni 1873 editas, quibus infelix ille pseudoadministrator divini cultus exercitium sacramque liturgiam innovare audet, ea piane mente ut in catholica Chelmensi Dioecesi Schismaticorum liturgia inducatur; et ad rudes ac simplices decipiendos, eosque facilius ad schisma impellendos ipse non erubescit in medium proferre nonnullas Apostolicae Sedis Constitutiones, earumque sanctionibus in suum sensum detortis fraudulenter abuti. Porro quae in praecitatis litteris de re liturgica disponuntur nulla prorsus ac irrita existere nemo est qui non videat, 1 Benedictus XIII. in suo Brevi Apostolatus Officium diei 19 Julii 1724 |