Letters From Rome on the Council. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
and 16 from Canada. If the Polish and Russian Bishops are allowed to come, they too will swell the majority; and so, it is believed, will the Armenian and Uniate Bishops in Austria, Russia, and Bulgaria, numbering about 40. Of the 65 German and Austrian Bishops scarcely half will side with the Opposition. And so, if matters are to be settled by majorities, the Curia is fully assured of its victory. Cardinal Antonelli counts on from 500 to 600 votes of those actually present.
Under these circumstances the Governments of countries with Catholic populations should be urgently pressed to devote their serious attention to what is already going on in Rome, and not to let themselves be taken by surprise by the decrees of the Council, which, when once promulgated, will place their subjects in a painful dilemma between their duties towards the State and their obedience to the Church; will everywhere create disquiet and conflicts; and must, above all, involve their Bishops in contradictions with the Constitutions they have sworn to observe. In the present difficulties of the general political and social situation in Europe, a conflict in the highest degree fatal might ensue with the Church, whose mission of culture is not yet diminished even for the time, and whose co-operation for its own purposes the State cannot dispense with. In this contest the Church cannot conquer, because the spirit of the age is against her; but the very crash of so mighty an edifice would cover and destroy with its ruins the institutions of the State itself, perplex consciences, and entail universal mischief by for the first time fully confirming the spirit of absolute negation of the ethical and ideal conception of life. The proceedings of Prince Hohenlohe may have sprung from this statesmanlike consideration; they are inspired by a friendly spirit towards the Church herself, and are of a thoroughly loyal character. He wishes the Governments openly to communicate with their Bishops, in order to point out to them the deplorable consequences which must follow from so premeditated and systematic a revolution of the existing relations between Church and State, and also, while there is still time, to take precautions against the event of conciliar decrees encroaching on the political domain. He challenges the learned corporations of the State most directly competent, to give their opinion publicly as to the practical results involved in making the Syllabus and Papal Infallibility into dogmas. This proceeding is far from being premature, for it is the business of a statesman not only to legislate in view of accomplished facts, but to provide for menacing dangers, nor will his conduct be blamed by any true friend of Church and State, whose faculty of judgment is not utterly blinded by hatred. The repressive measures which Governments would be compelled to employ after the promulgation of the contemplated dogmas would not be at all in the interest of the Church. Suppose, for instance, freedom of conscience, already condemned in the Syllabus, were anathematized by the Council, and the doctrine of religious compulsion sanctioned, the Bavarian Bishops who had assented to this decree, or wished to obey it, would have broken their oath to the Constitution, the Constitution which guarantees freedom of conscience would be under the ban of Rome, and the Government would have to answer by publishing the Concordat.
The Council. (Allg. Zeit., Aug. 19, 1869.)
If the present situation in regard to the Council is considered, the triumph of the Jesuit ultramontane party there appears highly probable. The demonstration of the Rhenish Catholics has as yet assumed no larger dimensions, and will evidently gain nothing by the projected Catholic meeting at Düsseldorf; for not only is red-hot ultramontanism a decisive obstacle, but the widely growing and deepening religious indifference hinders men from taking any part in movements based on a spirit of loyalty to the Church. In Rome, accordingly, little notice is taken of the movement, and satisfaction is felt at the prospect of expelling this mischievous liberal element from the Church, because then it is hoped the kernel which remains true may be more boldly dealt with. Our German ultramontane press, which lost no time in making a bitter and contemptuous attack on the address of the Rhenish Catholics, is therein only the exponent of the mind of the Curia. Meanwhile the German Bishops are preparing themselves to commit an act of doctrinal and ecclesiastical suicide, by renouncing for ever their long obscured but not as yet surrendered rank and authority as supreme judges of faith.6 Two of them, Bishops Ketteler of Mayence and Fessler of St. Pölten, have already pronounced in separate works for the infallibility of the Pope.
The diplomatic action of Prince Hohenlohe in regard to the Council has indeed created for the time a sensation, which still continues among the States interested in the matter, and which eventually culminated in the desire to obtain further information about the propositions to be submitted for the acceptance of the assembled Bishops, but even the representative of France has been baffled by the arts of the Curia. When, in June, M. Banneville put the decisive question whether they were not prepared to deny the alarming rumours as to the propositions to be laid before the Council, and to take immediate steps for facilitating the representation of Catholic States in the Council through ambassadors of their own, Antonelli replied that he had no knowledge of what was going on in the Commissions, but as to the second point, the Church in her present changed relations with Catholic States, which sometimes persecute her and sometimes put her on an equality with other religious bodies, could not take the initiative. M. Banneville, who had simply spoken of the presence of an ambassador at the Council, but had said nothing of his rights, stated that this conversation had “profoundly humiliated him.” Thenceforth the Court of Rome was the more confirmed in its resolve to keep out diplomatists from the Council. To an indirect question as to the admission of an ambassador from non-Catholic States, which have a large Catholic population, an instant negative was returned. The quarrel of the Austrian Government with the Bishop of Linz has given a further impulse in the same direction, for then Antonelli began to declare more openly that it was indeed possible, but not likely, that any ambassadors would be admitted, till now at last he makes no secret of its being out of the question for Rome, under existing circumstances, to think of allowing Governments to be represented. It would not be feasible, he opines, to admit France alone, and what other Catholic States are there that have not already disqualified themselves for taking part in the Council? Thus by degrees France too is gently thrust aside with her inquiries and demands, and the only question is whether Napoleon's Government will be content with this. Unless the clerical party in France itself causes the Emperor to assume an attitude of opposition to the Jesuit ultramontane programme of the Council, there is not much to be expected from him, since in view of the internal difficulties his Government at present has to contend with, he is obliged to take that party into account as an important factor in his calculations.
The Jesuits work assiduously in France, as well as Germany, to form a propaganda for the projected dogmas, and to familiarize men's minds with the idea that absolute certainty and inerrancy are only to be found with one man, viz., the Pope. Bouix in Paris, and Christophe at Lyons, have, with the Monde, and Univers, already most urgently inculcated on the Bishops what “good Catholics” expect of them in regard to the acclamation. But, with the exception of the Bishop of Nîmes, none of them have openly adhered to the Jesuit programme of the Council; on the contrary, the attitude of the French episcopate is perhaps at this hour the only black speck on the horizon of the Curia. And in fact with them rests the decision in the present ecclesiastical crisis. To the French episcopate it belongs to show that they still preserve the great traditions of internal freedom in the Church, newly brought to light since the mediæval reforming Councils by French theologians, and thenceforth always conspicuously represented among them, and that they are filled with the spirit of Bossuet, who did not confound loyalty to the Church with blind devotion to unfounded claims of the Pope, but understood it to mean, above all things, loyalty to the ancient spirit and original institution of the Church.
But there are good grounds for hoping that at least a majority of the French Bishops will constitute a free-spoken opposition at the Council; the two French theologians Freppel and Trullet, as well as Cardinal Bonnechose, are said to have exercised a most powerful influence in this direction.7 The latter openly complains that words of moderation are not listened to in Rome, and that, up to this time, giving any definite declarations of a reassuring nature has been avoided. He is understood to have said plainly that the great majority of the French episcopate wished to keep peace with the State, and would lend no hand to the sanctioning of extreme tendencies. It is even rumoured that a collective remonstrance of the French Bishops on the notions prevalent at Rome is already contemplated, but has not yet been
These fears, as is well known, were not realized at Fulda.
The Cardinal's subsequent attitude has not justified this hope. Freppel too, as Bishop-designate of Anjou, has now declared himself for the infallibilists.