Author Topic: St. Pope Pius X (Read 4077 times)

Lighthouse · « **Reply #15 on:** March 09, 2016, 12:52:41 PM »

Normally designated Pope St. Pius X, but who's counting?

poche · « **Reply #16 on:** March 09, 2016, 11:50:51 PM »

4. Now, therefore, having pondered long on this matter, so that, as far as lies in our power, we may endeavor to remedy such great evils, with humble and suppliant prayer we beg of God that He may deign in His goodness to show us some opportune way of healing these wounds. For He Himself, Who is the most loving Maker and Redeemer of all mankind, since He has given us this desire of laboring for the saving of the Indians, will also assuredly give us those things that conduce to this end. Meanwhile, it greatly consoles us to know that those who bear rule in these Republics are making every endeavor to remove this outstanding disgrace and this stain from their States; which endeavors, indeed, we cannot sufficiently praise and approve. Since, however, these regions are far from the seats of Government, and are for the most part not readily accessible, these human endeavors of the civil powers, whether from the craft of the criminals, who can speedily cross the frontiers, or through the inactivity or perfidy of the officials, often do little good, and sometimes come to nothing. But if the work of the Church is added to the work of the State, then at length the desired fruit shall be obtained in greater abundance.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_07061912_lacrimabili-statu.html

poche · « **Reply #17 on:** March 11, 2016, 12:44:05 AM »

5. Wherefore, Venerable Brethren, we call upon you, before all others, to give special care and thought to this cause, which is in every way worthy of your pastoral office and duty. And leaving the rest to your solicitude and diligence, we particularly urge you to foster and promote all the good works instituted in your dioceses for the benefit of the Indians, and to see that other works likely to contribute to this end may be instituted. In the next place you will diligently admonish your flocks on their most sacred duty of helping religious missions to the natives who first inhabited the American soil. Let them know that they ought to help this work especially in two ways, to wit, by their gifts and by their prayers; and that it is not only their religion, but their country also, that asks this of them. Do you, moreover, take care that wheresoever moral instruction is given, in seminaries, in colleges, in convent schools, and more especially in the churches, Christian charity, which holds all men, without distinction of nation or color, as true brethren, shall be continually preached and commended. And this charity must be made manifest not so much by words as by deeds. Moreover, every opportunity must be taken to show what a great dishonor is done to the Christian name by these base deeds, which we are here denouncing.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_07061912_lacrimabili-statu.html

poche · « **Reply #18 on:** March 12, 2016, 01:15:14 AM »

6. As for our part, having good reason to hope for the consent and support of the public authorities, we have more especially taken care to extend the field of Apostolic labor in these broad regions, appointing further missionary stations, where the Indians can find safety and succor. For the Catholic Church has ever been a fertile mother of Apostolic men, who, pressed by the charity of Christ, are brought to give their lives for their brethren. And today, when so many abhor the faith or fall away from it, the zeal for spreading the Gospel among the barbarous nations is still strong in the clergy and in religious men and holy virgins; and this zeal grows greater and is spread abroad more widely by the power of the Holy Ghost, who helps the Church, His spouse, according to the needs of the time. Wherefore, we think it well to make greater use of those aids which by God's goodness are ready to our hand, in order to deliver the Indians, where their need is greatest. from the slavery of Satan and of wicked men. For the rest, since the preachers of the Gospel had watered these regions, not only with their sweat, but sometimes with their blood, we trust that at length a fair harvest of Christian kindness shall spring forth from their great labors and bear abundant fruit. And now, in order that what you shall do for the benefit of the Indians, whether of your own accord or at our exhortation, may be the more efficacious by the help of our Apostolic authority, we, mindful of the example of our aforesaid predecessor, condemn and declare guilty of grave crime whosoever, as he says, "shall dare or presume to reduce the said Indians to slavery, to sell them, to buy them, to exchange or give them, to separate them from their wives and children, to deprive them of goods and chattels, to transport or send them to other places, or in any way whatsoever to rob them of freedom and hold them in slavery; or to give counsel, help, favor, and work on any pretext of color to them that do these things, or to preach or teach that it is lawful, or to co-operate therewith in any way whatever." Accordingly, we will that the power of absolving penitents in the sacramental tribunal from these crimes shall be reserved to ordinaries of the localities.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_07061912_lacrimabili-statu.html

Änσnymσus · « **Reply #19 on:** March 12, 2016, 08:20:41 AM »

There is a church near me dedicated to Pope St Pius X with a fine seated wooden statue. Sadly, the Star Trek altar shows that it has been brutally wreckovated. The medallions of the Saints would have been white washed were they not up at a great height.

poche · « **Reply #20 on:** March 12, 2016, 11:53:04 PM »

7. It has seemed well to us, moved by our paternal affection and following the footsteps of your predecessors, among whom we may specially mention Leo XIII, of blessed memory, to write these things to you, Venerable Brethren, on the case of the Indians. But it will be for you to strive according to your strength to give abundant satisfaction to our desires. You will assuredly be helped in this by those who bear rule in these Republics; nor will you want the work and care of the clergy, especially those devoted to the sacred missions; and, lastly, all good men will be with you, and those who can, with gifts or other offices of charity, will help a cause in which both religion and the dignity of manhood are involved. And, what is the chief thing, the grace of Almighty God will be with you, in token whereof and as a pledge of our goodwill, we most lovingly impart new Apostolic benediction to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your flocks.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_07061912_lacrimabili-statu.html

poche · « **Reply #21 on:** March 15, 2016, 12:40:21 AM »

You are already, We think, well aware, Venerable Brethren, of the incredible series of excesses and crimes which has been enacted in Portugal for the oppression of the Church. For who does not know that, when the Republican form of Government was adopted in that country, there immediately began to be promulgated measures breathing the most implacable hatred of the Catholic religion? We have seen religious communities evicted from their homes, and most of them driven beyond the Portuguese frontiers. We have seen, arising out of an obstinate determination to secularize every civil organization and to leave no trace of religion in the acts of common life, the deletion of the feast days of the Church from the number of public festivals, the abolition of religious oaths, the hasty establishment of the law of divorce and religious instruction banished from the public schools. And then, to pass over in silence other enormities which would take too long to enumerate, the Bishops have been savagely attacked, and two of the most prominent of them, the Bishops of Oporto and Beia, men who are illustrious by the integrity of their lives and by their great services to their country and the Church, have been driven out of their sees and stripped of their honors.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #22 on:** March 15, 2016, 11:05:20 PM »

2. Whilst the new rulers of Portugal were affording such numerous and awful examples of the abuse of power, you know with what patience and moderation this Apostolic See has acted towards them. We thought that We ought most carefully to avoid any action that could even have the appearance of hostility to the Republic. For We clung to the hope that its rulers would one day take saner counsels and would at length repair, by some new agreement, the injuries inflicted on the Church. In this, however, We have been altogether disappointed, for they have now crowned their evil work by the promulgation of a vicious and pernicious Decree for the Separation of Church and State. But now the duty imposed upon Us by our Apostolic charge will not allow Us to remain passive and silent when so serious a wound has been inflicted upon the rights and dignity of the Catholic religion. Therefore do We now address you, Venerable Brethren, in this letter and denounce to all Christendom the heinousness of this deed.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #23 on:** March 16, 2016, 11:12:35 PM »

3. At the outset, the absurd and monstrous character of the decree of which We speak is plain from the fact that it proclaims and enacts that the Republic shall have no religion, as if men individually and any association or nation did not depend upon Him who is the Maker and Preserver of all things; and then from the fact that it liberates Portugal from the observance of the Catholic religion, that religion, We say, which has ever been that nation's greatest safeguard and glory, and has been professed almost unanimously by its people. So let us take it that it has been their pleasure to sever that close alliance between Church and State, confirmed though it was by the solemn faith of treaties. Once this divorce was effected, it would at least have been logical to pay no further attention to the Church, and to leave her the enjoyment of the common liberty and rights which belong to every citizen and every respectable community of peoples. Quite otherwise, however, have things fallen out. This decree bears indeed the name of Separation, but it enacts in reality the reduction of the Church to utter want by the spoliation of her property, and to servitude to the State by oppression in all that touches her sacred power and spirit.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #24 on:** March 17, 2016, 11:54:40 PM »

4. First, so far as property is concerned, the Portuguese Republic severs itself from the Church in such a way that it leaves her nothing at all from which to provide for the decency of the house of God, the maintenance of the clergy and the exercise of the manifold duties of charity and piety. For by the articles of this decree not only is the Church despoiled of all the property, whether real or movable, which she holds by the strongest of titles, but she is deprived of all power of acquiring anything for the future. It is indeed provided that certain civil bodies shall have the care of exercise of religious worship; but it is astounding to see within what narrow limits permission to receive any offerings for this purpose is circuмscribed. Moreover, the obligations under which Catholic citizens have been accustomed to assist or maintain their respective parish priests, these the decree abolishes and suppresses, forbidding anything to be henceforth demanded for this purpose. It allows Catholics to provide for the cost of divine worship by voluntary alms, but it requires that a third of the sum so contributed shall be set apart and employed for works of civil assistance. And to crown all, under this new law, the buildings which may be henceforth acquired or erected for the exercise of religion are, after the lapse of a given term of years, to pass from the rightful owners without any compensation and to become public property.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #25 on:** March 18, 2016, 11:53:21 PM »

5. But in those matters with which it is the sacred prerogative of the Church to deal, much more seriously injurious is this mockery of Separation, which, as We have said, reduces the Church to shameful servitude.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #26 on:** March 20, 2016, 12:20:33 AM »

6. First of all the Hierarchy is set aside as if its existence were unknown. And if men in holy orders are mentioned, it is only that they may be prohibited from having anything to do with the ordering of public worship. This work is entirely handed over to associations of laymen already established or to be established as societies of public assistance according to the regulations of the administrative under the power of the Republic and in no way depending on the authority of the Church. And if from the actions of the associations to which this duty is entrusted disputes arise between clerics and lay people or between lay people alone, the decision is to lie not with the Church but with the Republic, which claims all power over these bodies. Indeed, so completely do the rulers of the Portuguese Republic deny any place to the clergy in the organization of divine worship that they have definitely laid it down and provided that those who exercise the ministry of religion may not be coopted as members of the aforesaid parish associations or be allotted any part in their administration or direction. Than such a provision nothing can be imagined more unjust or more intolerable, for it puts the clergy at the beck of other citizens in the very matters upon which they are the rightful directors.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #27 on:** March 24, 2016, 12:32:15 AM »

7. The way in which the Portuguese law binds and fetters the liberty of the Church is scarcely credible, so repugnant is it to the methods of these modern days and to the public proclamation of all liberty. It is decreed under the heaviest penalties that the acts of the Bishops shall on no account be printed and that not even within the walls of the churches shall there be any announcement made to the people except by leave of the Republic. It is, moreover, forbidden to perform any ceremony outside the precincts of the sacred buildings without permission from the Republic, to go round in procession, to wear sacred vestments or even the cassock. Furthermore, it is forbidden to place any sign which savors of the Catholic religion not only on public monuments, but even on private buildings; but there is no prohibition at all against so exposing what is offensive to Catholics. Similarly, it is unlawful to form associations for the fostering of religion and piety; indeed societies of this sort are placed on a level with the criminal associations which are formed for evil purposes. And whilst on the one hand all citizens are allowed to employ their means according to their pleasure, on the other, Catholics are, against all justice and equity, placed under restrictions like these if they wish to bequeath something for prayers for the dead, or the upkeep of divine worship; and such bequests already made are impiously diverted to other purposes in utter violation of the wills and wishes of the testators. In fine, the Republic - and this is harshest and gravest stroke of all - goes so far as to invade the domain of the authority of the Church, and to make provisions on points which, as they concern the constitution of the priesthood, necessarily claim the special care of the Church. We speak of the formation and training of young ecclesiastics. For not only does the Decree compel ecclesiastical students to pursue their scientific and literary studies which precede theology in the public lycees where, by reason of a spirit of hostility to God and the Church, the integrity of their faith plainly is exposed to the greatest peril; but the Republic even interferes in the domestic life and discipline of the Seminaries, and arrogates the right of appointing the professors, of approving of the textbooks and of regulating the sacred studies of the Clerics. Thus are the old decrees of the Regalists revived and enforced; but what was grievous arrogance whilst there was concord between Church and State, is it not now, when the State will have nothing to do with Church, repugnant and full of absurdity? And what is to be said of the fact that this law is positively framed to deprave the morals of the clergy and to provoke them to abandon their superiors? For fixed pensions are assigned to those who have been suspended from their functions by the authority of the Bishops, and benefices are given to those priests who in miserable forgetfulness of their duty shall have dared to contract marriage; and what is still more shameful to record, it extends the same benefits to be shared and enjoyed by any children there may be of such a sacrilegious union.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #28 on:** March 29, 2016, 05:07:06 AM »

8. Lastly, it is not enough for the Republic, after having despoiled her of her property, to impose an almost slavish yoke upon the Church of Portugal; it even, on the one hand, strives as far as it can, to tear her from the bosom of Catholic unity and from the arms of the Roman Church, and on the other to prevent the Apostolic See from exercising its solicitude and its authority in the religious affairs of Portugal. Thus, in virtue of this Decree, it is not even lawful to publish, without permission publicly given, the commands of the Roman Pontiff. Similarly, a priest who has gained his degrees in sacred science in a college constituted by Papal authority, even though he has made his theological course in his own country, is not permitted to exercise his sacred functions. What the Republic in all this wants is plain; it is to prevent young clerics, who are desirous of improving themselves and finishing in the higher studies, from coming for this purpose to this City, the head of the Catholic world, where certainly more than anywhere else it is a fact of experience that minds are more imbued with the incorrupted truth of Christian teaching and by sincere piety and faith to the Apostolic See. These, to omit others which are equally pernicious, are the chief points of this wicked Decree.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

poche · « **Reply #29 on:** March 30, 2016, 04:44:56 AM »

9. Accordingly, under the admonition of the duty of Our Apostolic office that, in the face of such audacity on the part of the enemies of God, We should most vigilantly protect the dignity and honor of religion and preserve the sacred rights of the Catholic Church, We by our Apostolic authority denounce, condemn, and reject the Law for the Separation of Church and State in the Portuguese Republic. This law despises God and repudiates the Catholic faith; it annuls the treaties solemnly made between Portugal and the Apostolic See, and violates the law of nature and of her property; it oppresses the liberty of the Church, and assails her divine Constitution; it injures and insults the majesty of the Roman Pontificate, the order of Bishops, the Portuguese clergy and people, and so the Catholics of the world. And whilst We strenuously complain that such a law should have been made, sanctioned, and published, We utter a solemn protest against those who have had a part in it as authors or helpers, and, at the same time, We proclaim and denounce as null and void, and to be so regarded, all that the law has enacted against the inviolable rights of the Church.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-x_enc_24051911_iamdudum.html

Author Topic: St. Pope Pius X (Read 4077 times)

Änσnymσus