THE SPOLIATION OF THE PROPAGANDA (continued 2)

And here you will permit me to quote what I wrote on this subject upon another occasion on the Propaganda:—

Over the minutest as well as the gravest concerns of the immense expanse of its jurisdiction, the Propaganda has always watched with a sleepless vigilance. Sustaining, with an instinct and a power that must be surely largely infused by the Holy Ghost, the divine principle of authority, it has never been blind to the slightest manifestation of its abuse. The humblest missionary, the humblest child wronged any where in the vast extent of its care, is certain to receive from its officials a just and a paternal hearing, and, if wronged, is certain of redress. There is not, and there never was on this earth, a tribunal more just, more patient, more kind to all committed to its keeping. Then, too, it watches over the interest of souls with constant assiduity. The most difficult questions are daily submitted to its judgment, and find invariably a solution which cannot be given except where the Vicar of Christ reigns and rules.

VIII. THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE PROPAGANDA.

From all that we have seen of the designs of Atheism on last Monday evening, we cannot be surprised that such an institution as the Propaganda should be one of the principal objects of its hatred. And so it has been ever since Atheism, through the organization of Freemasonary, has had any power to persecute. It was amongst the very first of the institutions of Rome which the French revolutionists attacked in the last century. Napoleon, too, so far as in him lay, destroyed the whole of the work of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide. He took possession of the offices and buildings. He smashed the type formed for spreading the Gospel through the whole earth. He carried off to Paris the rarest and most valuable articles found in the museum and library. He suppressed the famous Urban College with a lie in his mouth, namely, that it was useless; and in his day, children from every nation under the sun were seen in the city of the Popes no longer. He suppressed and plundered the whole circle of great Missionary Colleges, which the zeal of the Popes had founded for the many nations needing light. He did simply what mischief he could do, and when the return of the Pope restored the work of the Sacred Congregation in part, he, on his second coming, showed himself no less an Antichrist against the spread, at least, of the Faith. The students whom the first coming of the French had scattered, returned soon after the restoration of the Pope, and settled at Monte Citorio. But in 1809, Napoleon, having a second time taken Rome, at once suppressed that second College; and to obliterate the memory of the beneficent work of the Sacred Congregation, he destroyed the materials of the very type destined to civilize the barbarous nations of the world by literature as well as by the Gospel.

The tyrant’s fall in 1814, however, not only liberated the aged, suffering Vicar of Christ from the talons of the heartless Freemasons, but also let the work of the Missions of the Catholic Church take their ordinary course under the renewed zeal and care of the Cardinals of the Propaganda. In 1817, the students returned to their old home; and soon after, the various dependent National Missionary Colleges re-opened under the zeal and fatherly care of the Popes. Under the Pontificate of Gregory XVI. the Institution had not only its Colleges, but all its mighty energies at work, as if no revolution had passed over the sacred city. It continued with unabated energy to spread the Gospel as before, and daily to open out new fields of missionary enterprise. But when the Freemasons again got hold of Rome, all who know that the Freemasonry of our day is as malignant as that of the time of Napoleon, knew that the days of the Propaganda, so far as Freemasonry could affect it, were numbered.

To give you an idea of what it now suffers I shall quote from the Tablet the exact state of the case:—

“The landed property of Propaganda, in value about eighteen million lire, has for a long time attracted the attention of the Italian Government. As far back as 1873 a law was passed forbidding land to be held in mortmain; but it was not until Victor Emmanuel was dead that the Giunta Liquidatrice thought of applying it to Propaganda. Early in 1880 the Giunta resolved that the international character of the property of Propaganda should protect it no longer, and accordingly offered the whole of its lands for sale. Legal proceedings were then commenced, and have been carried on with varying success from that time till now. Beaten in the Court of Cassation, the Giunta appealed, with well-founded confidence, to the Supreme Court, and now it is finally decided that the Congregation is for ever incapable of holding real property in Italy. If this were all, it might seem that we had been over hasty in describing as confiscation what in reality is only a forced conversion. But confiscation is the only word which rightly fits the appropriation to itself by the Government of more than half the property to be dealt with. If the lands were merely sold, the gain to the Government would not be apparent, and action would probably never have been taken, though Propaganda might well complain that Italian bonds were poor securities when taken in exchange for Italian farms. But it has been arranged that a tax of no less than thirty per cent. shall be charged upon the whole amount of the property doomed to conversion. Again, there is a transfer duty of four per cent., and six per cent. for land tax, making in all forty per cent. Then, for the benefit of the Government Ecclesiastical Fund—whatever that may be—there is yet another duty, a progressive tax, beginning at fifteen per cent. on 10,000 francs revenue, and going up to forty per cent. on larger sums. The result of this scarcely-disguised spoliation is to strike a blow at the Church, the full force of which can hardly yet be measured.”

The Appunti, already referred to, vainly striving to obtain justice, thus speaks:—

“If the Government, therefore, does not wish to show clearly to all that the pretended guarantees guarantee nothing, as is evident from other sources, it must abstain from limiting in any fashion the free possession of those means which are destined to the exercise of its great office. But whatever its aggressions are, and whatever device it may adopt to oppress the Holy See, it is well it should be known that the Apostolate among the infidels is a natural and a divine right, and, at the same time, a binding duty of the Pontiff, for the exercise of which he needs absolutely to have at hand the pecuniary means free from the supervision of the State.

“The Appunti meet the argument that there is no injury done by the forced conversion, as follows: ‘But it may be urged that the freedom of the ministry entrusted to the Propaganda incurs no loss by the sale of its estate, seeing that it has the free disposal of the amount inscribed in the Gran Libro. Now, let us repeat it again, does not the payment of this income depend entirely on the good will and the solvency of the Italian Government? If it were to fail, many large and necessary missionary establishments would suffer; and, what is more important, the very centre from which emanates the action for diffusing the Gospel throughout the world, would be so weakened as to be unable to supply its most ordinary undertakings.’

“The Appunti then shows what the nature of the extraordinary expenses of the Propaganda are: ‘Besides the ordinary expenses, which are many and very heavy, the Propaganda has continually to come to the aid of the extraordinary needs of the various missions. Taking only, for instance, the decade from 1860 to 1870, a good two millions of capital were consumed in extraordinary grants; and if these had failed, besides other evils, the Constantinople mission would have died out, for whose rescue it was necessary to expend over a million and a half. With these funds were saved large numbers of Christians during the recent famines in China and Tonquin; and recently, after the sale, pendente lite, of Propaganda property by the Royal Commissioners, if extraordinary resources had not been obtained from abroad, no aid could have been given to the missions in Egypt, Central Africa, the Christian communities of India, China, and Oceania, tried by terrible disasters.’”

The above remonstrance would be simply laughed at by the party in power in Italy if it were not supported by force from without. Indeed the only concern the Italian Government showed was lest Catholics outside Italy should insist on their clear rights to the possession of the funds of the Propaganda. The Infidel inner circle, of which I spoke so much to you last Monday evening, have long determined on the destruction of the Propaganda and all its missionary work. Antichrist has no greater enemy. The destruction of the Temporal Power, the disbanding of the religious orders, the whole system of disintegration and persecution to which they determined to subject the Church and the Vicar of Christ, would be useless so long as the Propaganda remained at its work, sustaining and propagating Christianity—and earnest, fervent Christianity, too—in the world.

Next, therefore, to the spoliation of the Holy Father’s temporal dominions and the spoliation and suppression of the Religious Orders, there was nothing the Freemasons in power now in Italy desired more than the suppression of the Propaganda. But the necessity of going somewhat moderately and cautiously to work, in order the more efficaciously to succeed, has forced the Italian Freemasons to proceed with the suppression of the Propaganda in the circuitous, stealthy manner sketched out at the commencement. They have succeeded in causing the Executive of the Sacred Congregation to go to law with them in the Masonic Courts of Italy—“going to law with the devil and the court held in hell.” Somehow, an intermediate sentence was given in favour of the Institution. But how little the Freemasons in power valued this, was manifested by the fact, that before the appeal made by themselves against that sentence was decided, they actually disposed of some of the real property of the Institution. The whole thing appears to me to have been no more than the merest farce. They knew what the final result of the law proceedings would be. All they required was that the Church should acknowledge a local tribunal by contending with them, instead of appealing at once to the world against a flagrant act of injustice attempted against international right. Governments then wishing to shelve a difficulty with the Italian Ministry, could allege that it was an internal Italian question, admitted to be so by the aggrieved parties, who appealed to local tribunals, with which, of course, externs could not interfere.

So at least the question has been dealt with by our own Government; but most unjustly. If the Cardinals of the Propaganda contended for the rights of the Institution before the tribunals of Italy, that contention, no matter how it may have eventuated, could not affect the parties interested in the right. And who are the parties interested in the funds of the Propaganda. Is it the Italian people? Decidedly not. There is not a people in the world who are less interested in the funds and in the work of the Propaganda than the Italian people. In fact, the founders and the endowers of the Propaganda founded and endowed it, on the condition implied by their acts, and expressed by the very terms of the endowment, that their money should be applied for the benefit of those who should not live in Italy. The inheritors of these funds are foreigners to Italy, and amongst these foreigners there are no people more wronged by the action of the de facto Italian Government, than the Catholic subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.

IX. THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CASE.

We shall see this by considering its foundation. Who, then, first founded the Propaganda? The man who gave the ground upon which it stands, and the palace in which its work is carried on, was not an Italian. His money did not come from Italy. He was a Spaniard, and the representative at Rome of the Sovereign of the Netherlands. He formed the foundation of the whole institution, and all subsequent lands and moneys given to it were to carry out his intentions. His money was taken, and his intentions were solemnly guaranteed by the legitimate Sovereign of Rome at the period. They have been respected for two hundred and sixty years. I ask, can it be right now for the Italian Government to take his money, to sell his lands and houses, to put the proceeds of his funds into its own vinculated, uncertain bonds, and in the process steal the half of the proceeds. This seems to me such a gross perversion of international right, that I believe if Spain was not dominated over by the same sect of Freemasons as rule Italy, she would force the Italian Ministry and King Humbert to disgorge the property left by Monsignor John Baptist Vives for the Propagation of the Catholic Faith.

The injustice of the forced sale of the houses, lands, and rents left by a Spaniard for the extension of the Gospel, in trust to Italy, is only equalled by a like act of injustice done in the case of an Irishman, and a Priest of the City of Dublin, Father Michael Doyle, of the Church of SS. Michael and John, Arran Quay. Believing that his poor country would be benefited by having a certain number of its priests trained in the Urban College, he made an agreement with the authorities in Rome to give them a sum of money amounting to no less than £5,000 sterling, for the perpetual education of Irish-born missionary priests for Ireland. This was in the year 1825. His money was taken, and well invested by the Cardinals of the Propaganda; and since, several most useful and distinguished Irish priests have been educated on the proceeds. Here is surely, if ever there was, an international arrangement lawfully and equitably concluded. But what do the Italians do? They take this dead British subject’s money and the increase which belongs to it. They sell out the property bought for it. They put half the proceeds in their pocket, and the rest they leave in “vinculated” Italian bonds, to be disowned whenever the time comes to reduce or do away with income from that source in Italy.

I am certain that Mr. Gladstone, whose just and generous mind recoils from deceit of any kind, especially in purely commercial matters, would never have said that the Propaganda was an internal institution of Italy subject to Italian laws, if he duly considered the nature of these two cases of John Baptist Vives of Spain, and Father Michael Doyle, of Arran Quay, in the good City of Dublin. I believe he has not heard of them, for I remember Mr. Gladstone to have made a remark in reply, I think, to Mr. O’Donnell, that the general Italian character of the Propaganda, as he called it, could not be effected by a charitable “subscription.” Now, surely no man calls an ordinary commercial agreement a “subscription.” Father Doyle goes to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda and makes a bargain with him for the perpetual education of a certain number of his countrymen—by the way he stipulated that some of them should be his relatives,—and the Cardinal Prefect takes his money. The Sovereign of Rome fiats the contract. That honest Sovereign carries it out to the letter. But the Italians come in who are not honest; they steal one-half of Father Doyle’s money; they put the other half in Italian “vinculations.” The result is that Father Doyle’s countrymen and relations cannot be educated. They—British subjects as they are—are simply robbed. And can it be believed by the generation that thinks nothing of many millions for the relief of a British subject in Khartoum, that when our Government is asked to make a gentle remonstrance to the Freemasons who have stolen Father Doyle’s hard earnings it answers:—“We really cannot interfere. The Italians are our very good friends. And as to the money of Father Doyle, why that was only a ‘subscription!’”

The case of Father Doyle is far from being the only case. To my knowledge, another ecclesiastic, now living, gave £1,000 for the education of a student in the Urban College. He meant most assuredly that his money should be spent for the one purpose he intended. When it comes out that £450 of his thousand has gone into the pocket of King Humbert and Co., and that £550 has been “vinculated” prior to being swallowed in the same way, will his Government in England turn round and tell him, “Oh, you only gave a subscription!” If Mr. Gladstone put his fortune into United States Bonds for the benefit of his family, and that the Government of the United States put half that fortune in its pocket and the rest into “vinculated” bonds of the same value as the vinculated Church bonds of Italy, how would our admirable Premier be pleased if told that his contract was only a “subscription?” It is exactly such “subscriptions” that the Freemasons of Italy have stolen by manipulating the moneys of British subjects. Is England afraid or powerless to demand redress? If so, Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis indeed!

And then, not only such money as that of Vives and Father Doyle, but all the money the Propaganda ever got was given for the benefit of countries which were outside Italy. The magnificent gifts of Cardinal Barberini, whose revenues, by the way, came from Church sources outside, as well as inside of Italy, were given for the benefit of the Eastern nations, whose various rites I have already referred to. Have these poor people not a right to the benefit of his legacy now, as well as at any past period? Does their weakness make the right anything the less? Twenty-three priests are educated for them at the present moment. When the estates which does this blessed work are sold for a song by Italian Freemasons to other Italian Freemasons—Freemasons alone are likely to buy them—and when half the proceeds are pocketted by the men in power, and the other half goes into “vinculated” Italian bonds, how will it fare with the poor Churches of the Orientals, dependent for educated Priests upon the grand charity of the Propaganda? Surely the ruthless horde of barbarians who have laid violent hands upon the States of the Church must be devoid of all shame, of all honour, of all manhood, when they descend to such mean sacrilege. I think a man would prefer, if he were a man, to command a troop of banditti than a Ministry and a Parliament capable of staining themselves with such mean, such cowardly, such heartless theft.

Now, if Melchites and Circassians, Copts and Maronites, are thus pillaged by the spoliation of the Propaganda, so to a far larger extent are the subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria. And how? The funds of the Propaganda were given principally for the benefit of her Catholic subjects in Ireland, in Great Britain, in Canada, in Australia, in the vast extent of India, in the West Indian Islands, in the Army, in the Navy, in the great military stations, and wherever, in fact, she has subjects.

In all this vast expanse of territory, the government and care of the Catholic Church is carried on by the Propaganda. Not only are many of the clergy educated for these countries in its Urban and other subservient Colleges, but the whole education of the Clergy is looked after, the Bishops and Archbishops are selected, the Dioceses are regulated, Orphanages, Convents, Hospitals, Schools, and Institutions of beneficence are created and superintended by it. The whole work of the Catholic Church, in one word, is done through its instrumentality alone, in all the dominions of Her Britannic Majesty.

Now, if the existing funds of this institution are taken, the Catholic subjects of Her Majesty must supply others, and the action of the Italian Government in taking these funds, consequently, puts a heavy burden on the subjects of Her Majesty, which they ought not to be asked to bear, in order simply to put money into the Italian Treasury.

They ought not be asked to bear such a burden, because they have a strict right in justice to the funds of the Propaganda, which, even when they were not given by British subjects or by other than Italian subjects or Princes, were always absolutely given for the intention that the Propaganda may be able to do the work, of which the administration of the Catholic Church in the dominions of Her Majesty forms an integral portion.

It is evident, then, that no matter who gave the funds of the Propaganda, they were given lawfully and justly and according to the existing laws of Italy at the period, for our benefit. We received that benefit uninterruptedly for over two hundred years, and it is monstrous that we should be now deprived of a long existing, acknowledged right, by the violation of a clear international obligation on the part of the Italian Government.

Now to show that what I here state is perfectly just, a striking exemplification was given by one matter connected intimately with the spoliation I speak of. After the final sentence was pronounced by an Italian Masonic Court, the Italian Government proceeded, as a first step, to sell a College dependent upon the Propaganda. It happened, however, that this College did not belong to Copts or Maronites who had no Government to assert their rights, or to Catholic subjects of Her Majesty who might be told about “subscriptions.” It belonged to a people who, when abroad, know that they have a country ready to defend them against whoever may choose to rob them, insult them, or injure them. This College was possessed by the Catholics of a country called the United States of America—a country which happens to be pretty well known to the Italian Government. It is a Republic, supposed to be very Protestant, for it sends missionaries, largely supplied with Bibles and coppers for the “conversion” of poor people in the slums of some large towns in Italy. The Italian Masonic Government, who laugh at the anti-Catholic fanaticism of the English and American nations, thought, therefore, that it could deal with the Catholic subjects of the United States just as it might with the Catholic subjects of England. It considered that the bigotry of the zealous Methodism of New York and Massachusetts would be only too glad to hear that the resources of “Babylon” were being swallowed up by the Freemasons of Italy. Accordingly the walls of Rome were plastered with large placards announcing the sale of the North American College. Now, if the Italians had ever a right to sell any property belonging to the Propaganda, it was this College. It was a free gift on the part of Pius IX., for which no consideration whatever had been asked from the American Catholic people or Bishops. It was given only a few years previously, and had been before a Convent for religious. Moreover, the Pope never gave the fee-simple of the premises to the American Catholics. That remained vested absolutely in the Propaganda. The house was therefore as much the property of the Sacred Congregation as that which it received by legal transfer from Monsignor John Baptist Vives. In attempting its sale, the Italian Government thought rightly that no more favourable point could be seized upon by which to manifest their “right to do wrong” to the property of the Propaganda. The Catholics of America had given “no consideration.” There was no deed of transfer to them. That had been asked and refused by the Pope. The buildings were only a few years previously the property of the Papal Government, which the Freemasons supplanted. It was a test case, indeed. Let us see how it ended?

The moment the Cardinal Archbishop of New York heard that the College of his Catholic fellow-countrymen was about being touched by the Italians, he despatched his zealous and able Coadjutor at once to Washington with a letter to the Government of his country. That Government, Protestant as it was, at once recognised that a right lawfully acquired—though without consideration or subscription, or deed of transfer—of American Catholic citizens was about being violated. Did they talk about “Italian laws” or “subscriptions,” or “Italian internal affairs not concerning outsiders?” Did they seek, subterfuge, evasion, or delay for the purpose of making necessary inquiries? Far from it. Instantly there flashed across the Atlantic to the United States Embassy at the Quirinal, instructions to tell the Italian Government that it would touch the interests which American citizens had acquired in Rome at its peril, and demanding instant cessation of the sale of the North American College. There was no further parley about the matter. The Ministry of King Humbert knew that Uncle Sam had ironclads, and could make his arm felt upon Italian ports and in Italian waters. And what was the consequence? Well! Such American citizens as were then in Rome had the satisfaction of knowing that they had a country. They had the satisfaction of seeing, one hour after the ultimatum of the United States Government was received, a number of employes of the Italian Government running about the streets with ladders and water buckets and carefully rubbing away from the walls every vestige of the placards which announced the sale of the Catholic North American College of the Propaganda. The College remains, and will continue to remain unmolested, for the Americans have a Government not afraid of Italy.

In the face of this fact I assure you that we British subjects then in Rome felt and looked very small indeed. The Propaganda, we knew, belonged to us by rights as sacred certainly, as the portion of it exclusively appertaining to North America belonged to the United States. It was handed over for our benefit by legal deeds of transfer. It was ours. It had absolutely nothing to do with Italy. It had everything to do with us. It was always so considered by the Popes. Outside its own limits it has positively no jurisdiction in Rome or in any part of Italy. Its funds were contributed for us and to us, and to that portion of the world—always outside Italy—committed to its care. Its spoliation was clearly, even if none of our money was in it, a violation of our most justly acquired legitimate rights, unquestioned and in action for generations.

We expected some effort would be made by our rulers for us. We expected some representations, more gentle, perhaps, than those made by the President of the proud Union, but, as we thought, with some reason, not less efficacious, would be made by our Government. We confidently predicted that such would be the case. But we were bitterly disappointed. Our bishops in a body made representations far more energetic and explicit than Cardinal M’Closky or his Coadjutor made to Washington; but nothing came of them. The Catholics of the United States had a country. We felt that we had a country but in name, which for one reason or another treated us as stepchildren or outcasts, or worse and more humiliating still, was impotent to help us in our need.

Yet I believe that this policy of the Ministry would not, if the case were fully understood, be endorsed by our non-Catholic fellow-citizens. I am sure a very large proportion of them would deem the complete inaction of the Government, not wise, or sound policy—certainly not the policy of the British Lion that used to be, in cases of the violation of the rights of British citizens, so potent once. I am sure they will feel for and with us when they come to understand that it is a question of unjustifiable interference with rights lawfully acquired by British subjects in a foreign nation which are interfered with by that nation. I am sure of this from the feeling which would, I know, possess myself, if, for instance, the Government of France, or any other Government, induced any body of my Protestant fellow-countrymen to acquire in France legitimate interests for their religious necessities, and that upon the coming into power in that same country of another form of Government, monarchical or republican, such incoming government should have confiscated the rights so acquired by my fellow-countrymen. If, for instance, the Wesleyans of England established a training-school for health or other reasons, say in the south of France. If they were permitted to do so by the lawful government of that country. If the funds of that institution were recruited from Wesleyans in England, in the United States and all the world over. If the Wesleyans had the free use of that sanatorium for a number of years, and depended upon it for the training of their choice ministers, and for the management of their affairs. If their Moderator happened to be a Frenchman, and needed such an institution for the government of their body. If they could not dispense with it without serious loss and money outlay; and all this because the new Government of France had decided that such establishment should perish. If in pursuance of this law such Government proceeded, as France did actually at the Revolution, to confiscate all religious rights, and amongst the rest the legitimately acquired rights of English Wesleyans, I know that I would expect that the most strenuous efforts of the rulers of England should never cease until France was taught that while she might plunder the interests of Frenchmen as long as Frenchmen let her, she should desist from such a course when the question came of plundering the rights of English citizens lawfully and peacefully acquired. I am certain there is not a Catholic in the land who would not feel aggrieved at the injury thus inflicted on his unoffending fellow-citizens, and who would not move with them until the wrong insolently inflicted in defiance of international rights was redressed.

X. MEASURES TO MEET THE DIFFICULTY.

Speaking of these, I am yet sanguine that our rulers will open their eyes to see the grievance which Catholic British subjects suffer in the spoliation of the Propaganda. For my part I cannot altogether blame the Ministry. I think we have not pressed the matter upon them sufficiently, and they need, and, indeed, invite this kind of pressure. I know, too, that they are much disinclined to disoblige Italy, which the great Whig leader, Lord Palmerston, formed, though, as we have seen last Monday evening, for motives very much other than the real good of England. Still English Statesmen have had proof enough of what they may expect from “United Italy” since its formation. And I am persuaded, notwithstanding seeming favourable symptoms regarding Egyptian affairs, that England is destined to experience still more of the nature of Italian Masonic “gratitude.” I think I know the feelings of the party now ruling in Italy. It is perfectly intolerant of English domination in the Mediterranean, and would, if it could, give a blow to her rule in Malta, in Cyprus, in Gibraltar, and in Egypt to-morrow. Masonic Italy is best kept in order by wholesome fear, and had England shown a bold front in favour of the rights of British subjects involved in the spoliation of the Propaganda, she would have obtained, I firmly believe, much more from the respect her conduct would inspire than she will ever get from the love of Piedmontese Freemasons. There is also something in the blessing of God which follows the doing of the right thing for the oppressed, and perhaps much more will be soon lost to the nation by the want of this blessing in the conduct of Egyptian affairs than ever could be gained by siding with the heartless violation of British international rights by the Freemasons, now working their unholy will upon the city and the property of the Popes.

On this subject I had in London lately a long conversation with a great and good Catholic Irish Statesman, Mr. A. M. Sullivan. He was, of course, acquainted with the fact of the spoliation of the Propaganda, but he only knew in part the nature of the injustice. When I laid that fully before him he suggested that I should deliver such a lecture as I have given this evening upon it, and he promised to take the chair at that lecture, and to speak also himself upon the matter, as he of all living Irishmen could best do. He had, I must say, great faith in the justice and spirit of fair play characteristic of Mr. Gladstone, and he believed that if the great Premier were properly approached by the Irish Parliamentary Party, he would use his influence to have the injustice done to us by the Italian Freemasons removed. He thought it, perhaps, difficult to get back lands already sold, but he also thought that the men in power in Italy would surely yield to the pressure of England and liberate the vinculated bonds, thus at least saving us a portion of our property. He thought the case of Father Michael Doyle, one which no Government could refuse to recognise, while that of the other donors to the same institution, whether Spanish or of any other nation, was equally strong. I grieve that this good man is gone from our midst whilst the injustice I complain of, and which he would willingly have removed, lives on; but I feel myself bound to give utterance not only to my own but to his sentiments, however feebly, regarding the merits of a case for redress, although in itself it is all-powerful.

Our duty is to seek this redress if only to save our national honour. But come what may, I believe that all who have heard what I have stated this evening will agree that it is our duty to save at any cost an institution so valuable and so necessary to us. By it, we reach and save the Heathen. By it, we comfort the sadly oppressed Oriental Catholic, still groaning under the oppression of the Mahometan. By it, we carry on the vast machinery of the Church of God in three-fourths of the entire world. As Catholics, we can never permit Italian Freemasonry to destroy it. We must sustain it; and how can we? Lately, on hearing the news of its Spoliation, an Italian noble, faithful to the traditions of his princely house, gave us an example. He left it several thousand pounds which the Italian Freemasons tried to prevent the Propaganda receiving, but failed. It is for us who benefit by the Institution to follow so noble an example. It is a way by which everyone blessed with worldly wealth may make a most useful protest against the Spoliation, and at the same time contribute to the continuation of the work of the Sacred Congregation. It can find for twenty times the wealth it had at any time, immense fields, yet unexplored by the Christian Missionary. I do say that no one ought permit a shilling to go where an Italian Freemason can manage to steal it, but money for the Propaganda can be left in trust to one’s Bishop or Archbishop, as the case may be, and, as the testator may direct, that money can be applied either in a lump sum, or still better, as principal, producing interest, for the purposes of the Propaganda. It will then go surely and safely to its destination. I indicate this as one way by which God’s people may help a work so worthy. There are many other ways which the generosity of the faithful will easily discover. But there is one unfailing means which all, even the very poorest, can employ to assist the great Institution in the day of its need. That is by fervently praying to God, through the intercession of His Blessed, Immaculate, Virgin Mother, that the pride of the infidel may cease, and that the elect of the Lord may be liberated; that counsel, and love, and strength may reign amongst the faithful of Christ; and that surrounding His Vicar in a spirit of filial unity, they may show an unbroken, intelligent front to the foe, and so sustain the grandest cause ever given by God to man to support on earth—the cause of Christian Faith and Civilization, now imperilled by the most deadly enemies of the Cross that have ever appeared in this world.

NOTE.

The following statement is taken from the second edition of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland Under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puritans, by the Most Rev. Patrick Francis Moran, D.D., Archbishop of Sydney. Dublin: 1884. Appendix ii., p. 464:—

The many links that for centuries have united Ireland with the Holy See are familiar to our Irish readers. Even during the persecution of Elizabeth we find our country engaging Rome’s special care. Pro-nuncios were despatched to her shores, to guard and defend the interests of the Catholic faith; her children, who rose in arms to assert her rights, received from Rome not only words of encouragement but funds to aid their cause; and when her clergy were persecuted and imprisoned, the Holy Father not only stretched out to them an assisting hand, but by repeated briefs solicited the mediation of foreign princes, that the rigour of the persecution might be relaxed, and the captives restored to liberty.⁠[26]

During the period of which we treated in the preceding pages, at the very commencement of the struggle of the Confederates, the saintly Scarampo was sent to encourage them, and guide them by his counsels. Later still, we find the Nuncio Rinuccini sent on a like mission, besides being the bearer of ample subsidies. At every stage of their momentous proceedings, letters were sent from Rome to the French and Spanish monarchs, as well as to the minor princes of Germany and Italy, exhorting them to lend their aid to the Irish nation; whilst other letters were from time to time transmitted to the bishops and confederate leaders, rejoicing with them in their triumph, condoling in their afflictions, healing their dissensions, and exhorting them to union and constancy in the cause of justice and religion.

It would be easy to give further instances of the solicitude of the Holy See for its faithful children; and to record the many letters of exhortation and encouragement which were addressed to the citizens of Dublin, and others, during their long struggles and sufferings in the cause of religion and their king; but we reserve them for another occasion, not wishing to extend this note to too great a length.

We shall merely state for the present that during the interval of Cromwell’s triumph, we find the assistance of the Holy See bountifully given to the banished clergy and people; and immediately after the restoration, letters were again addressed to all the Catholic powers, praying them “to commission their respective ambassadors at the English Court to defend and protect the interest of the poor Catholics of Ireland, and especially of the priests who were imprisoned for the faith in many parts of that kingdom.”⁠[27]

Thirty years later, when the sword of persecution was again unsheathed against the Irish Catholics, the Pope was still their unflinching advocate. Remittances were yearly sent from Rome to the Court of St. Germain for the relief of the Irish exiles, whilst additional aid was bountifully supplied to the banished and persecuted members of the Hierarchy. In the Vatican archives we find it registered that 72,000 francs were then annually supplied by Rome for the support of the Irish secular clergy and laity; on the 15th of July, 1698, we find an additional remittance of 23,655 livres for the religious who were banished from Ireland. Instructions were, moreover, sent to the Nuncios in the foreign Courts to give every protection and aid to the Irish Cathodes; and even a jubilee was proclaimed in Italy to solicit the prayers and alms of the faithful of that country for our suffering people. In the month of January, 1699, we meet with a list of 27,632 livres received from the Holy Father, and distributed to various Irish ecclesiastics who had lately taken refuge in France and Belgium. In the month of February there is another list of 11,832 livres similarly distributed; and in March, as we learn from a letter of the Nuncio in Paris to Cardinal Spada (dated 9th March, 1699), 53,000 livres were sent by the Pope to St. Germain, and distributed by King James to “the Irish ecclesiastics then sent into exile.” There is another list dated from St. Germain, 29th March, 1699, which we give entire. Its details must be peculiarly interesting to our readers:—

“To Mr. Magennis, Superior to the College des Lombards 1,200

To do. do. to be distributed amongst the Irish Missioners 1,200

To Mr. Nolan, Superior of another Irish Community in Paris for the support of the poor students in his community 1,000

To Mr. O’Donnell for the Irish nuns in Ipres 1,000

To the almoner of the Queen for the use of the Community of poor Irish girls at St. Germain 500

To Father Nash, an Irish Franciscan, for some members of his Order 41

To various other religious 99

To the confessor of the Queen for a young ecclesiastical student 150

To Mr. Burke, chaplain to the Queen, for an Irish Carmelite 60

Set apart for four missioners coming from Ireland 600

To a poor Irish officer who has a wife and six children 150

In all, six thousand scudi.”

Again, on the 8th of June, 1699, the secretary of the king, writing from St. Germain, acknowledges the receipt, from the Holy Father, “of 37,500 livres to be distributed amongst his subjects, persecuted for their faith.”

When, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the enemies of Catholicity had recourse to new arts to assail the time-honoured faith of our nation, and sought to poison the sources of instruction of our Catholic youth, the Holy See was again ready, not only with its exhortations and counsels, but also with its pecuniary aid to support Catholic poor-schools through the country, and from that time to the close of the century, when the Pope was momentarily deprived of his states and driven into exile, 1,000 Roman crowns were annually transmitted to our bishops for that purpose.

Thus were the Roman Pontiffs at every period the fathers of our country, the guardians of our persecuted people, the support of our exiled clergy. “The blessings of faith were transmitted to us by the Popes, not only as the successors of St. Peter, but as sovereigns of Rome; and when an opportunity is given Catholic Ireland of making them some return, it would be strange, indeed, if she did not gratefully remember the services rendered in her hour of distress.”⁠[28]

FOOTNOTES