Author Topic: St. Pope Pius X (Read 4922 times)

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