mote and barbarous regions, has unfortunately, by this very act, deprived so many people of most salutary succors of piety and charity, to the great detriment of human welfare and civilization, both of which spring from the holiness, the teachings, and the virtues of our religion. But these laws, already so cruel in themselves, and so diametrically opposed to the interests, not only of religion, but also of human society, have been still more aggravated by the addition, which the ministers of the government have made, of new laws which forbid, under the severest penalties, the living in common and under the same roof, of religious families, the admission of novices, all religious professions among the regulars of either sex. So soon as religious orders were dispersed, the work and project of destruction was directed toward the secular clergy, and then was enacted the law by which we and the pastors of the Italian people were to see, with the deepest sorrow, young seminarians, the hope of the Church, wickedly torn from the sanctuary, and forced, at the very age when they should most solemnly consecrate themselves to God, to don the shoulder-knot of the secular militia, and to lead a life utterly at variance with their education and the spirit of their vocations.

PERUGIA.

Nor is this all: other unjust laws have been enacted, by which the entire patrimony which the Church held by the most sacred, inviolable, and ancient rights, has been in a great measure taken from her, to substitute in its place, and only in part, some paltry revenues, which are entirely at the mercy of the uncertain vicissitudes of the times, and of the good will and pleasure of the public power. We have, likewise, been compelled to deplore the occupation, and the transformation to profane usages, after the lawful possessors, without any distinction, had been driven forth, of a large number of buildings erected by the piety of the faithful, often at very great sacrifices, and which were worthy of the days of Christian Rome, and which offered a peaceful asylum to virgins consecrated to God and to the families of the Regulars.

They have also removed from our control, and from the care of the Holy Ministry, many pious works and institutions consecrated to charity and to the exercise of benevolence, many of which, devoted to the alleviation of poverty and other miseries, had been established by the Sovereign Pontiffs themselves, our predecessors, and through the pious liberality of foreign nations; and if a few of these works

of public charity still exist under the vigilance of the Church, we are assured that a law, that will not long be delayed, will either take them from us or abolish them altogether; this is at least what is clearly and unmistakably announced by public documents. We have, moreover, and we refer to it with the deepest anguish, seen public and private instruction in letters and arts wrenched from the authority and direction of the Church, and the mission of teaching confided to men whose faith was not above suspicion, or to avowed enemies of the Church, who have not shrunk from public professions of atheism. But these traitorous children of the Church were not satisfied with having seized, invaded, or destroyed so many institutions of such vast importance. They must needs throw still more obstacles in the way of the free exercise of the spiritual mission of the ministers of the sanctuary. They have accomplished this criminal object through the law recently passed by the Chamber of Deputies, under the name of the "Law on Clerical Abuses," by virtue of which they impute as a crime and misdemeanor, to bishops as well as priests, and they visit with severe peralties, such acts as the authors of the said law comprise under the insidious name of per

turbation of conscience, which they call public, or of perturbation of the peace of families. By virtue of this law, also, all words or writings whatsoever, by which ministers of religion may consider it incumbent upon them, by reason of their charge, to point out and disapprove of laws, decrees, or other acts of civil authority as contrary either to the laws of religion or to the laws of God and of His Church, will be equally subject to punishment, as well as the work of those who may have published or distributed these said writings, regardless of the rank of the ecclesiastical authority or the source whence it emanates. Once this law is passed and promulgated, a lay tribunal will be permitted to define whether in the administration of the sacraments, and in the preaching of the Word of God, the priest has disturbed and how he has disturbed the public conscience, and the peace of families, and the condition of the bishop and priest will be such that their voices can be restricted and silenced, equally with that of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, who, although declared in his person, through political reasons, exempt from all penalties, is none the less supposed to be punished in the person of those who may have been accomplices in his fault; this is, in fact, what a minister of the kingdom in the Chamber of Deputies did not hesitate to declare openly, when, speaking of us, he freely avowed that it was neither new, nor obsolete in the laws, nor contrary to the rules, the science, or the practice of criminal law, to punish the accomplices in a crime when the chief author could not be reached. Whence it becomes clear that, in the intention of those who govern, it is against our person also that the force of this law is directed, so that, when our words or acts shall come in contact with this law, the bishops or priests who may have repeated our words, or executed our orders, must suffer the penalty of this pretended crime, of which we, as chief author, will be condemned to bear the inculpation of the offense.

This, then, venerable brethren, is how, not only so many asylums and institutions which ages have built up, which revolutions have not been able to destroy, and which are so necessary to the administration of the Church, have been destroyed among us, by the violence and spirit of destruction of our enemies, but how, too, they have succeeded by the most criminal means in making it impossible for the Church to perform that sublime mission of teaching and watching over the salvation of the souls she received from her Divine Founder, by decreeing the most severe penalties whereby to close the mouths of her ministers, who, in teaching the people to observe all that Jesus Christ has ordained, and in insisting, in season and out of season, in reminding, supplicating, and reproving in all patience and wisdom, are simply doing what they are commanded to do by divine and ecclesiastical authority. For now we pass over in silence other dark machinations on the part of the assailants of the Church, from which, as we know, some of the public ministers themselves withheld neither their counsels nor their encouragement: machinations which tend to prepare for the Church days of tribulation still more Bevere, or to create occasions of schisms on the occasion when the election of a new Pontiff will take place, or to impair the exercise of spiritual authority by the bishops directing the churches of Italy. Hence it is that we have been led to declare recently that it should be tolerated to exhibit to the laic power the acts of the Canonical Institution of these very bishops, so as to remedy, as far as in our power, a most sad and fatal state of things in which it was no longer a question of the possession of temporal goods, but rather of the grave and manifest peril to which was exposed that which constitutes our supreme law; that is to say, the very consciences of the faithful, their peace, and the direction and salvation of souls. But in acting in this way, to ward off still graver dangers, we wish it to be again publicly known that we disapprove and utterly detest this unjust statute, which is called the Royal Placet, openly proclaiming that it strikes at the divine authority of the Church, and violates her freedom. Now, after all we have exposed up to this, and although we have omitted many other attempts, to which we could refer only to deplore them, we ask the question: How is it possible for us to govern the Church so long as we are under the domination of such a power as is continually depriving us of every assistance and of every way in which to exercise our apostolate, which closes every avenue against us, which daily raises new obstacles in our way, which is going so far as to set new traps and lay new ambushes along our path? Most assuredly we cannot wonder sufficiently that there can be found men in whom we cannot distinguish whether their thoughtlessness is greater than their wickedness, and who, either in public journals or in private documents, or in imprudent speeches delivered at divers assemblies, endeavor to force the conviction upon the people that the present condition of the sovereign Pontiff in Rome is such that, although placed under the dominion of another power, he enjoys fuil liberty, and can quietly and fully perform all the duties of its supreme spiritual primacy. Now, these men allow no opportunity to escape publicly to confirm this opinion; when the bishops and faithful from foreign lands come to visit us; when we admit their pious assemblies to our presence; again, when, in the addresses we deliver to them, we deplore the enterprises of these impious men against the Church on occasions like these they sedulously and with guile insinuate to the unwary that we are, by these very acts, enjoying a plenitude of power and the fullest liberty to speak, to receive the faithful, or to govern the whole Church. Indeed, we are much surprised that such assertions can be so impudently maintained, as if the exercises of the acts mentioned were entirely free to us; and as if the

sum total of the government of the Church, which devolves upon us, were bound up in those acts. Who does not know, in effect, that the acts of this liberty they boast so much about are not under our control, but under the control of those who rule, to such an extent that we can only perform these acts so far, and only so far, as we are not hindered from performing them? To know really what the freedom of our acts consists in, while it is under their control, without giving other proofs, the recent law we have just complained of indicates and reveals it sufficiently; that law, by which the free exercise of our spiritual power, as well as that of the ministry, and of the ecclesiastical order, is subjected to a new and intolerable oppression. That if those who rule have permitted us to do certain things because they understand how much it is to their interest to create the impression that we are free under their domination, how many things, and very grave ones, too, are yet necessary, and of high import, which belong to the awful duties of our ministry, for the full and correct performance of which we are without the entire necessary means and freedom, while subject to the yoke of the oppressors.

We would be pleased, indeed, if those who write, or who utter by word of mouth, the assertions we have referred to, would only cast their eyes at what is happening to us, and would decide, with a little more impartial spirit, whether it is possible to say that the power of governing the Church, committed to us by God, can accommodate itself to the condition to which we have been reduced by the invaders. Would that they knew the offensive cries, the insults and outrages, which are continually sent up against our humbleness, even in the Chamber of the representatives of the people-outcries that we pay no attention to as coming from the unfortunates who utter them, but that constitute a great offense for the faithful, whose common Father is thus outraged, and that aim at the belittling of the regard, the authority, and the veneration, which the supreme dignity and sanctity of the vicariate of Christ, which we, unworthy of it, sustain, demands. Would that they could witness the reproaches and calumnies heaped on your most reverend order, and on the hierarchy of the Church, in every form, to the harm of its administration. That they could be witnesses of the mocks and jests with which the august rites and institutions of the Catholic Church are outraged; the effrontery with which the most holy mysteries of religion are profaned; and that they could behold how impiety and atheistic men have become the objects of pomp and of public demonstrations in their honor, while, on the other hand, a ban is placed upon religious ceremonies and the processions which the former piety of the Italian people was wont to celebrate freely on solemn festivals. Would, also, that they took cognizance of the blasphemies which are hurled upon the Church with impunity (while public authority feigns not to hear them) in the Chamber of Deputies, where was presented the criminal project of attacking the very Church herself, where her freedom has been denominated "an abominable and pernicious principle;" where it was maintained that her doctrines are perverse and contrary to society and morality; where, finally, it has been openly declared that her power and authority are fatal to civil society. These very heralds of our pretended freedom cannot deny all these many, continued, and grave occasions, brought about with the object of corrupting impru dent youth by inflaming their passions, and of rooting the very germs of faith out of their hearts. If, in a word, they were to walk through the streets of this city, which, because of the Chair of Peter, ought to be the centre and head of religion, they could soon see whether the temples erected in these latter days to dissenting worships, whether the schools of corruption scattered broadcast, whether all those houses of perdition established everywhere, whether,

finally, the shameful and obscene spectacles presented to the eyes of the people, constitute such a state of things as can be tolerated by one who, in consequence of the charge of his apostolate, ought, and most assuredly desires, to ward off so many evils. But, on the contrary, he is deprived of every means and of every assistance, as also of every exercise of power that could enable him to employ the most necessary remedies, even for one of these many evils, and of going to the aid of those souls that are running to their own destruction.

Such, venerable brethren, is the condition we are forced to endure by the act of those who rule in this holy city; such is our freedom to exercise the ministry, the false freedom that is foisted upon us, and which it is impudently asserted that we enjoy. It is the liberty of witnessing the progressive diminution of order and of the constitution of ecclesiastical things; of seeing the loss of souls without being able to exert ourselves efficiently to repair so much destruction. In such a state of things, should we not regard as a piece of bitter irony and as another mockery what is so often repeated, viz., that we ought to take measures of conciliation and harmony with the new masters, when there could be no other means of conciliation on our part than that of entirely giving over, not only the sovereign rights of this Holy See, which, at the time of our elevation to this supreme chair, we received as a sacred and inviolable trust, to be protected and defended, but to deliver besides, and above all, the divine ministry which has been intrusted to us for the salvation of souls, and to abandon the inheritance of Jesus Christ into the hands of an authority of this kind, whose efforts tend to destroy, if it were possible, the very name of the Catholic religion? Now, every one can certainly see in all their manifestness, and under all their phases, the force, the vigor, and the good faith of those pretended guarantees, by means of which, to deceive the faithful, our enemies have boasted of meaning to secure the freedom and dignity of the Roman Pontiff, and which are at the mere mercy of the hostile whims and caprices of the governments on which they depend, according to their plans, their purposes, and the pleasure of their whims, to apply, preserve, interpret, and execute.

Never, most assuredly never, can the Roman Pontiff ever be fully master of his freedom and of his power, so long as he remains subject to the rulers in his capital. There is no other destiny possible for him in Rome but that of a sovereign or a prisoner; and there can never be any peace, security, or tranquillity for the entire Catholic Church so long as the exercise of the supreme ecclesiastical ministry is at the mercy of the passions of party, the caprice of governments, the vicissitudes of political elections, and of the projects and actions of designing men, who will not hesitate to sacrifice justice to their own interests.

But do not imagine, venerable brethren, in the midst of so many evils that afflict and weigh us down, that our spirit is broken, ror that the confidence with which we await the decrees of the Almighty and Eternal God is about to depart from us. Indeed, ever since the day on which, after the usurpation of our states, we made up our mind to reside in Rome rather than go and seek for peaceful hospitality in foreign countries, and to keep vigilant guard over the tomb of St. Peter, for the defense of Catholic interests, we have never ceased, with God's help, to combat for the triumph of His cause, and we continue to do so every day, nowhere yielding to the enemy save when repulsed by force, so as, to preserve the little that yet remains after the assaults of robbers and perverters. Where other assistance wherewith to defend the rights of the Church and of religion failed us, we had recourse to our voice and our remonstrances. You have seen this, yourselves, you who have shared the same dangers and undergone the same afflictions that we have. You have, in effect,

often heard the words we publicly pronounced, either to condemn new assaults and protest against the everincreasing violence of our enemies, to instruct the faithful by timely warnings, lest they be deceived by the snares of the wicked and by a sort of feigned religion, and that they might not allow themselves to be caught by the perverse doctrines of false brethren. May it please God that they, upon whom devolves the duty, and for whom it is of the greatest advantage to sustain our authority and energetically to defend our cause, the most just and holy of all causes, may at last hearken to our voice and turn their eyes toward us! For is it possible for their wisdom to ignore the fact that it is in vain to look for the true and solid prosperity of nations, for peace and order among peoples, and for stability of power among those who wield the sceptre of authority, if the Church, which maintains through the bond of religion all justly constituted societies, is mocked and insulted with impunity, and if its supreme head cannot exercise full freedom in the power of his ministry and continues subject to the will of another power?

We rejoice, most assuredly, at that most happy fact that our words have been most cheerfully received and with much profit by the whole Catholic people united to us by bonds of filial piety. The continual and reiterated evidences we have received of their affection are such, indeed, that they reflect great glory upon themselves and upon the Church, and lead us to hope that brighter days are in store for this same Church and for this Apostolic See. And, indeed, it is difficult for us to find words sufficiently adequate to express the joy and consolation we have experienced, although deprived of all tangible success, when admiring the beautiful movements of minds and the valiant efforts which, springing forth spontaneously, have daily extended themselves even to the most remote countries, and whose aim it is to take in hand the cause and the defense of the dignity of the Roman Pontificate and of our humility.

The generous subsidies that pour in upen us from all parts of the earth, that we may provide for the urgent necessities of this Holy See, and the frequent Pilgrimages of our children which flock from all countries to this Vatican Palace, to show their devotion to the visible Head of the Church, are such evidences of the fidelity of their hearts that it is altogether impossible for us to offer Divine Goodness an adequate evidence of our gratitude. We would, moreover, that all might understand and regard as a

salutary teaching the inward force and true significance of these Pilgrimages, which we see multiplying so much, just at the very time when this Roman Pontificate is the object of such bitter assaults. Because these Pilgrimages are not a mere manifestation of the love and piety of the Faithful toward us, but they especially afford, in a particular manner, a manifest proof of the cares and sorrows which afflict the hearts of our children because their common Father is in a situation entirely abnormal and in no manner becoming to him. And this anxiety and uneasiness, far from diminishing, will go on increasing until the day when the Pastor of the Universal Church will be restored, at last, to the possession of his full and genuine freedom.

In the mean time, venerable brethren, we desire nothing so much as to see our words extend beyond the confines of this Hall to the uttermost ends of the earth, that they may bear witness to the sentiments of our heart toward the Faithful of the whole world, in gratitude for the admirable evidences of love and of filial devotion which they unceasingly display toward us. We desire, therefore, to thank them for the pious liberality with which, not unfrequently, forgetting their own necessities, they come to our assistance, fully confident that everything they give to the Church is given to God. We desire also to congratulate them upon the magnanimity and courage with which they disregard the anger and railleries of the impious, and to tell them that we are

deeply grateful to them for the enthusiasm with which they endeavor to offer us the testimonials of their affection so as to celebrate the anniversary of the day on which, 50 years ago, we, unworthy as we were, received the grace of Episcopal Consecration. What we desire none the less, is that all the pastors of the churches scattered afar over the earth, in receiving our words, will draw courage from them to make known to their Faithful the dangers, the assaults, and the increasing injuries of which we are the victim, and to assure them, over and over again, that we will certainly never cease, whatever may be the issue of this situation, to condemn the iniquities practised against us. They must also be made to understand that the day may come when our words will no longer reach them as often nor as easily as now, because of difficulties that may arise, either in consequence of the laws above referred to, or of others still more cruel, the presentation of which has been announced. We, therefore, exhort all pastors personally to warn their flocks not to allow themselves to be misled by the perfidious artifices with which deceitful men endeavor in their speeches to disguise and distort the true state of things in which we are now situated, either by concealing its severity, in exalting our independence, or in declaring that our power is subject to no one, while we can really define our position in a few words by saying that the Church of God suffers violent persecution in Italy, that the Vicar of Jesus Christ enjoys neither his liberty nor the full and entire use of his independence.

In this state of things, we consider nothing more opportune, and we desire nothing more ardently, than to see these same pastors, who have given us so many evidences of their union in defense of the rights of the Church, and of their good-will toward this Apostolic See, exhort the faithful confided to them to make use of all the means which the laws of their country place within their reach, to act with promptness with those who govern, to induce these fatter to consider more attentively the painful situa tion forced upon the Head of the Church, and take effective measures toward dissipating the obstacles that stand in the way of his absolute independence. But as it belongs to Almighty God to send light into the understanding, and to soften the hearts of men, we ask, not only you, venerable brethren, to ofer up your fervent prayers to Him, especially in these days of propitiation, but we most earnestly exhort the pastors of all Catholic peoples to assem ble together in their churches the faithful committed to them, that they may there offer up, from the bottom of their hearts, humble prayers for the salvation of our Mother Church, for the conversion of our enemies, and for the end of our so numerous and so heavy afflictions. God, Who loves those that fear Him and trust in His mercy, will, we are fully confident, vouchsafe to hear the prayer of that people

that cries unto him.

For the rest, venerable brethren, let us take courage in the Lord and in the power of His virtue, and, vested in the armor of God, with the shield of His justice, and with the buckler of the faith, let us bravely and mightily march forth against the powers of darkness and iniquity of this world. Already, indeed, the care that has been taken to confuse and disturb everything has reached that point that the movement threatens, like a torrent, to carry everything over the precipice, and many of those who were the authors and accomplices of this new state of things now look back in alarm, uncertain themselves as to the effect of their work. But God is with us, and He will remain with us until the consummation of ages. They, indeed, must tremble of whom it is written: "I have seen that those that work iniquity and sow sorrows and reap them, perish by the blast of God, and are consumed by the spirit of His wrath."* But to those that fear God,

*Job iv. 8.

who combat in His name and who trust in His might, for them is reserved succor and mercy, and there is no doubt that, since there is now question of His cause and of His combat, He will sustain His warriors unto the hour of victory.

Protests

The allocution attracted general attention, and the most impartial of the great European journals admitted that the Pope's arraignment of the Italian Government was well founded. In France members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies formally brought the matter to the attention of government. were made in Germany and England, and the Catholic bishops in Holland, in a pastoral (May 3d), discussed a question which, striking at the head of the Catholic Church, affected Catholics in all parts of the world. The Keeper of the Seals in Italy at once issued a circular to the Procurators-General of the Court of Appeal, charging Pius IX. with having exceeded all conceivable limits, and the allocution a "confirmation of pontifical ingratitude toward a government that had shown itself so free and generous toward the Church." The circular prohibited any adhesion to the argument advanced by the Pope. Cardinal Simeoni, on the 21st of March, in a circular to the Pope's nuncios, cited this very circular as a proof of all that the Pope charged.

The result was that the bill of Clerical Abuses failed to pass. The principle, however, was maintained in theory, that there was no limit to the power of the Italian Government over the Papacy and the Church.

A

The Episcopal Jubilee of Pius IX. excited the greatest enthusiasm among Catholics, who sent delegations from all countries to congratulate him on the fiftieth anniversary of his consecration as a bishop, and to offer rich presents. In his allocution, June 22d, he cited this as an evidence that the Catholic world desired "that the Supreme Pastor of the Fold of the Lord should preside with full dignity, freedom, and independence." On the 19th of July, he protested through Cardinal Simeoni (August 23d), in a circular addressed to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, against the seizure of three churches, actually used for divine worship in Rome, to be converted into a hospital, a gymnasium, and barracks. circular note of the Minister of the Interior (July 28th), prohibiting religious processions, was resisted, and two courts having decided that they were legal, and one that they were illegal, the Minister of Grace and Justice (August 23d) defended the circular note. Cardinal Simeoni (September 24th), in a circular, called "attention to the ever-growing restrictions upon the freedom of worship at this centre of Catholicity, and upon the ever-growing obstacles that are placed in the way of the exercise of the spiritual power of the Holy Father. It is difficult to understand how, in a Catholic country, where that religion is the religion of State, the rulers strike at acts of worship so dear to the faithful people, and which have always been peacefully performed

for ages past, while, in Constantinople itself, we see that not only religious processions are allowed, but that the Ottoman military supplies them with a guard of honor." During the year Pius IX. made three promotions of Cardinal, giving that dignity, March 12th, to Francis Paul Benavides y Navarrete, Patriarch of the West Indies; Francis X. Apuzzo, Archbishop of Capua; Manuel Garcia Gil, Archbishop of Saragossa; Edward Howard, Archbishop of Neo-Cæsarea; Michael Paya y Rico, Archbishop of Compostella; Louis M. J. E. Caverot, Archbishop of Lyons; Louis di Canossa, Bishop of Verona; Louis Serafini, Bishop of Viterbo-priests; and to Lorenzo Nina, Æneas Sbaretti, Frederick de Falloux du Coudray, deacons; on June 22d, to Joseph Mihalovitz, Archbishop of Zagabriaz; J. B. Kutschker, Archbishop of Vienna; and Lucido M. Parocchi, Archbishop of Bologna; and on the 28th of December to Vincent Moretto, Archbishop of Ravenna, and Anthony, of the Counts Pellegrini, deacon.

The Sacred College lost during the year Cardinals Vannicelli Casoni, Trevisanato, De Angelis, Bizzari, Riarío Sforza, and Capalti. A Catholic Congress was held at Bergamo, in Italy, and received an encouraging brief (September 27th). Similar meetings were held in Germany (September 9th) and other countries. The position of the Catholic Church in Germany, during 1877, continued to be one of great difficulty; bishops and priests were still constantly punished for exercising the ministry without the sanction of government; and another Catholic bishop, Dr. Blum, of Limburg, Nassau, was deposed from the episcopate by a State court (June 13th). The number of Catholic parishes deprived of pastors steadily increased, the State having decided that, on the death of the pastor, the curate's assistants could no longer exercise the ministry, and several were punished for continuing to discharge their duties. In a few cases priests were installed in Catholic parishes without any appointment by a bishop, but simply by government authority. These were known as "State priests," and were at once excommunicated by the bishops. They formed a class distinct from the so-called "Old Catholics." The government maintained a strict supervision at Marpingen, where an apparition was said to have taken place, and many obnoxious to the authorities were punished by fine and imprisonment.

The position in Switzerland resembled that of Germany, in some respects: bishops had been expelled from their sees, though the State did not assume to depose or consecrate; many Catholic churches had been seized, and State priests put in by the votes of the few who voted at elections for pastors under a State law, and all State influence was given to foster the Old Catholic movement. No events of general importance marked the history of the Church in the other States of Western Europe. But

in Poland the persecution of the Greek Uniats continued with unrelenting force, especially in the diocese of Chelm, where troops compelled the Catholics to enter their churches, where a State priest was officiating. All were then declared to have conformed to the State Church; and many, for resisting, were cut to pieces by the soldiers. An official act suppressed the diocese of Chelm, and all the Catholic clergy are removed. The statements in Catholic journals were denied by the Russian Government, but were fully substantiated in a report made to the English Government, and published by Parliament. Among Catholic anniversaries of the year in Europe was that at Kremsmünster, in Austria, where a Benedictine monastery celebrated the elevenhundredth anniversary of its foundation. In America, the Catholic Church in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, had more or less difficulty with the civil powers. In Mexico, Bishop Moreno, of Lower California, was imprisoned, and finally expelled; in Colombia, the Bishop of Popayan was banished (March 18th); in Ecuador, the whole system of Garcia Moreno was swept away. Archbishop Checa, of Quito, was poisoned at the altar on Good Friday (March 30th); on May 28th, President Veintimillia suspended the Concordat entered into between the Pope and the Republic in 1863, and revived an old Colombian law. In June the Administrator of Quito was banished. Against these acts the bishops protested, and notably the Bishop of Riobamba (September 11th).

In Canada, the action of some clergymen warning their parishioners against voting for men of atheistical ideas had been held by the authorities to invalidate the elections. The Archbishop of Quebec and his suffragans sustained the priests (March 27th), and the whole affair was laid before the Pope, who sent Dr. Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh, as ablegate to examine the whole question on the spot, and also the matter of the establishment of a second Catholic university at Montreal, that at Quebec being considered by many as local rather than Canadian. He arrived May 17th, and remained till the close of the year. The Catholic Church in Canada was gratified by the decree of Pius IX. (September 20th) permitting the introduction of the cause for the beatification of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation, who founded the Ursuline Convent at Quebec in the early days of the colony.

The foreign missions of the Catholic Church record a persecution in China, in which Pehouetsin was beheaded near Nanking (January 13th). Difficulties occurred in the White Earth Indian Reservation (March 1st), in which the United States Government expelled the Catholic missionary, and seized all his chapel furniture. Missions were begun during the year among the Urlichez, Therelchez, Quinechez, and Palmachez, Patagonian Indian tribes, by priests of the Salesian Congregation of Turin,