Читать книгу Letters From Rome on the Council - Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger - Страница 4

In former times, the assembling of an Œcumenical Council was caused by a general sense throughout the Catholic world of some religious need, whether the definition of an article of faith or the abolition of grave evils and abuses – in short, a reformation – was felt to be necessary. It was universally known what questions the Council was to treat of. The sovereigns communicated, for this end, with the heads of the Church and the Pope, and brought forward their own wishes and requirements, as at the last Œcumenical Council of Trent, which had at least to be taken into consideration. But how entirely different is this Council under Pius ix.! Already, in 1854, an episcopal assembly, at Rome, raised to the dignity of a dogma the thesis of a theological school of the middle ages, combated even by Thomas Aquinas, but which happens to have become a favourite opinion of the Pope, although no ground had been discovered for this new article of faith in any want of the religious life which the Church has to cultivate. And this was done against the judgment of a considerable number of the prelates who were consulted, without any basis for the doctrine being able to be found in Scripture and Tradition, by the acclamations of the assembled bishops – after a fashion, that is, in which no dogma had ever been defined before. The Abbé Laborde, who craved permission to lay his objections before the assembly, received for answer his banishment from Rome, and the name of another priest was subscribed to the Bull proclaiming the dogma without his knowledge or consent, so that he found himself compelled to protest publicly against it. In view of these facts, and under the just anticipation that at the approaching Council the dominant party in Rome will be equally tyrannical in their treatment of dissentients, – it is already reported that three members of the present Commission, who are opposed to Jesuit tendencies and practices, have been suffered to retire – several distinguished heads of the Church have renounced the idea of delivering their testimony there. And how is this Council the outcome of any urgent requirements of the Church's life, and does Catholic Christendom know what end it is designed to serve, and what is to be expected of it? Nothing of the sort. The necessity of the Council, if it will not put its hand to a reformation of the Church, in accordance with the needs of modern civilisation, is not everywhere understood by the clergy themselves. Only this winter wishes were loudly expressed by some of them that its assembling might be dispensed with, considering the position of the Church in Austria and Spain; but in the Holy Father's state of exaltation on the subject these wishes could have no effect. Then again, – what is perhaps without precedent in all Church history – the the matters to be treated of in the Council have been carefully kept secret; the Bull of Indiction confines itself to vague generalities, and the theologians employed in the preliminary labours were bound to silence by the oath of the Holy Office, —i. e., the Inquisition – imposed under pain of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto. It seems not to be necessary, therefore, at least for the present, that Christendom should have even any inkling of the doctrines on the acceptance or rejection of which salvation or damnation is to be made dependent.

It is not the satisfaction of real religious needs that is contemplated – there would be no need to shun publicity in that case – but chartering dogmas which have no root in the common convictions of the Catholic world. Leibnitz used to call even the Council of Trent a “concile de contrabande;” the way in which this last Council is to be brought on the stage would make the designation for the first time fully applicable.

If these circumstances alone are enough to make Governments that have Catholic subjects suspicious of the designs of the Curia, there are also further proofs that their designs are not confined to strictly ecclesiastical affairs, but involve direct encroachment on the life of the modern State. Not to dwell here on the too open-hearted confidences of the Civiltà, which, although published with the approval of the Holy Father himself, have been characterized by him as an “imprudenza,”4 we will pass to other facts which sufficiently indicate the projected decrees of the Council.

To the inquiries of ambassadors about the reasons for summoning a General Council, Antonelli could only reply by referring to the great revolution and fundamental change in civil and political relations. It may be inferred from this declaration that the Council is intended to discharge a political office also, and in what sense, Rome has told us in the Syllabus and the condemnation of the Austrian Constitution. For this object an ecclesiastico-political consulting committee has been formed, subordinate to the Commission intrusted with the supreme control of the Council, with Cardinal Reisach at its head, and whose Italian members are as conspicuous for their want of scientific culture as for their opposition to any concession to the requirements of the age, and their hostility to all foreign countries, and especially to the non-Roman portions of Italy. The Syllabus will be put into shape in its affirmative form by this Section, in order thus to be submitted for sanction to the Council. One of its members lately expressed himself in the following terms, with the applause of his colleagues and of the Holy Father himself: – “The Syllabus is good, but raw meat, and must be carefully dressed to make it palatable.” This skilful dressing, which is to make it everywhere acceptable, it is hoped to effect by publishing the propositions in the form of exhortations, instead of commands, which, however, will come to the same thing, as the exhortations emanate from the head of the Church.

It is with good reason that Prince Hohenlohe, in his despatch, expresses the fear that the Council, according to the programme of the Curia, will publish decrees on political rather than ecclesiastical questions, and he rightly states that the projected dogma of Papal Infallibility is also an eminently political question. For when once that is defined, the mediæval pretension of the Pope to dominion over kings and nations, even in secular matters, which has never been abandoned, is thereby also raised to the rank of an article of divine faith. Thiers lately made the remarkable observation that the temporal power alone holds the Pope in check; – a monk, who was Pope, would think himself omnipotent. Certainly, without the temporal power, the maintenance of which depends on the goodwill of the French Government, and the administration of which keeps the Pope within a political area, he would give freer rein, when it was possible, to his views of the corruption of the modern State. Once seat a monk on the Papal throne, as many have already sat there, unacquainted with the actual world, and in heart alienated from it, and arm him with the prerogative of infallibility, – his decrees in the present condition of society are sure to evoke the most deplorable conflicts.

The ultramontane press in Germany, which is itself beginning to find the decisions sketched out by the Civiltà intolerable, now adopts the tactics of denying the official character of the Jesuit journal, and clings to the straw of hope that neither Papal Infallibility nor the Syllabus will be made dogmas. But it is no secret in Rome that those alarming communications of the Civiltà were letters written by French Jesuits, prepared and published with the sanction of the Holy Father himself, and cannot therefore be treated as mere chance contributions of private correspondents.

For several years past the Court of Rome, with the aid of its indefatigable allies the Jesuits, has been preparing the way for securing beforehand the votes of the Bishops on Papal Infallibility. Thus some years ago the Bishops of different countries received, quite unexpectedly, an urgent admonition from Rome to hold Provincial Synods, and frame decrees at them. These decrees had to be sent to Rome, to the Congregation exclusively charged with the revision of such ordinances, and were then returned, after correction and enlargement by the Cardinals and Committees of the Congregation. When they came to be printed, it was found that all these Synods had shown a wonderful unanimity in adopting Papal Infallibility as a self-evident principle into their exposition of universally known Catholic doctrine. The Jesuit organs have not failed to point triumphantly to these decisions of so many Bishops and Synods.

It is a fact that Antonelli publicly declared there could be no difficulty about the promulgation of Papal Infallibility, because it was a doctrine already held by all good Catholics. And this is the watchword of the whole ultramontane party at Rome. It is also a fact that the question was brought before the directing Commission in order to be put into shape, and then submitted for confirmation to the Council. And although it is certain that the discussion of it by the Commission is finished, the decision will be carefully kept secret for a time, because as yet courage fails them for a straightforward course of procedure, and they hope to gain their end by a sort of coup d'état, viz., carrying the dogma by spontaneous acclamation, to be evoked by a foreign prelate.5 And thus Governments will be deprived of the opportunity of gaining any influence over the decisions of the Council, and protecting themselves against threatening eventualities.

Well-informed persons, who do not deny the intention of making Infallibility into a dogma, think that some innocuous formula will at last be discovered, such as prefixing a “quasi” to “infallibilis,” so that all the trouble expended in gratifying this darling wish of Pius ix. will be almost labour lost. But so long as the decision rests with the Jesuits, who have an overwhelming majority in the preparatory Congregation, there is no ground for this hope. They foresee the possibility of being again driven from the helm a few days after the death of the Pope, and therefore press for an unqualified definition, that they may make capital out of the infallible Pope for conquering a new position of influence for themselves in civilized Catholic countries. And if they could not reckon without some regard to other factors also, still their calculations had a good prospect of success, for Pius ix. is completely in the hands of the Jesuits, especially of Father Piccirillo, the chief person on the Civiltà staff, who will act as spiritus rector of the Council. The Pope is seldom left alone, lest he should fall under the influence of others who judge more correctly of the situation of the modern world and the real wants of the Catholic Church; he lives in an artificial atmosphere of homage poured forth by the ultramontane journals. He is so possessed with a sense of his own power that he believes he ought not to regard or fear any possible opposition of the French Government to the decisions of the Council.

Meanwhile there are growing signs that at least a portion of the French episcopate are not willing to degrade themselves to the humiliating rôle of mere acclaimers to the propositions of the Curia. In two articles of the Français (for March 18 and 19) Dupanloup has already decisively disclaimed sympathy with the tendencies and insinuations loudly expressed in the notorious correspondence of the Civiltà. He gives a specimen of the hopes and wishes about the Council intimated by the French Bishops in their pastorals, where he shows that they are all far from expecting it to assail political and social liberty and freedom of conscience, to condemn modern civilisation and widen the breach between the Catholic Church and other Christian bodies, by proclaiming new dogmas; but, on the contrary, that they look for a reformation of Church discipline adapted to the age, and a work of general reconciliation with the great ideas of cultivation, freedom, and the common weal. These declarations of the French episcopate excited great surprise and deep disgust at Rome, without, however, to all appearance, having disturbed the Curia in their plans, as they know from the statistics that they can count on an imposing majority in the Council.

Seats are prepared for 850 Bishops at the Council, but the question whether Bishops in partibus are to have decisive votes is not yet decided. Since, however, their admission will not materially affect the relative position of the two parties, they may be left out of the account. To these voting members of the Council must be added 57 Cardinals, and the number might be raised before its opening to 72, by the bestowal of the 15 hats vacant at present. There are thus about 920 decisive votes, including 40 Italian Cardinals, 294 Italian Bishops, 66 Spanish, 22 Portuguese, 90 French, – in all 512 prelates of the Romance race in Europe, to whom must be added 77 Brazilian, Mexican, and South American Bishops, raising the whole Romance representation to 600 votes. From this number about 60 must be deducted for vacant Italian Sees, and some 140 who may presumably be unable to attend. And so about 400 are left, whose votes, with the exception of a number of French Bishops, are counted upon by the Curia. The Court also reckons on the votes of 48 from England and Ireland, 52 from North America, 20 from Greece and Turkey, 6 from Belgium, 5 from Holland, 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.