OF HIS

LOlj^DSHlP THE BISHOP OF MOpE/lL

OONOERNING THE JUBILES OF 1881.

Edward Charles Fahue, b\ the grâce of God and of THE Apostolig See, Bishop of Montréal.

To the Clergy seculai' and regular, to the religions CoM' mimities and to ail the Faithful of Our diocèse greeting

and blessing in Our Lord.

" I hâve lifted up my eyes to the mouiitaiiis from " whence help shall corne to me. My help is from " the Lord who made heaven aiidearth. " Ps. 120, y. 1, 2. Such, my dearly beloved Brethern, was the cry that went forth from the lips of the Impérial Psalmist in the midst of the tribulations that assailed him, and behold the confidence that buoyed him up in the midst of his troubles. " In my trouble, " says he, " I cried to the Lord and he heard me" Ps. 119, V. 1. Thèse words of the Royal Prophet singularly suggest themselves to us as we peruse the admira-

ble Incyclical of our Holy Father Léo XIII. Casting a glance over the Christian world, he sees ail the evils that afflict the Church of Grod at the présent moment ; his vision even extends beyond the horizon of the présent and he foresees the terrible calamities that the mischievous doctrines of the day shall give birth to, — calamities that, like a mighty tempest, shall rage around the bark of Peter and shall threaten to submerge the whole Christian world His 'anémies hâve not only had the andacity to despoil Him of His temporal power, allowing Him only a semblance of liber ty that is left to the mercy of scheming statesmen and an unfriendly parliament ; but they hâve gone iarther : they are attacking and trying to demolish L^u itutions which, until the présent moment, hâve reniai ned intact. There is no institution that deserves more of Christian countries than the Propaganda, that home of Apostolic zeal and missionary enterprise and yet we see this glorions institution, w^hich in the divest persécutions of the past was left untouched, exposed to the most virulent attacks. And even error and heresy under the fostering care of the same enemies are allowed to take root in the eternal city, whilst catholic worship and catholic truih are incessantly exposed to every mode of persécution, and it is the woeful sight that floods the soûl of the great and magnanimous Léo Xni wiih such bitter sorrow. There is one evil that adds a spécial poignancy to his grief ; it is the diabolical attempt that is made to poison the innocent and unwary heart of children and youth w^ith the most pernicious and deadly drachings. This interesting portion of the Church's flock has ever preoccupied lier heart and filled her with an especial hope

and consolation. And now our holy Father, notwithstanding* the untold sacrifices that He has imposed on Himself to shield the Roman yonth against the lures of thèse godless enemies, is doomed to see his work frustrated and checked by the evily machinations and seductive prosélytisme of his opponents. The revokitionary and immoral éducation so landed for its unsectarian spirit is oiily developing the présent génération of Roman children into a race of matricides breathing endless hâte against that Holy Roman Church that so jealonsly watched over their infancy.

Wonld that the eyil, great as it is, rested hère. There are still darker shadows in this lugubrious picture.

" By the practices that are in vogue in its very " clear, says our Holy Father, meanwhile, that the " plague is creeping more and more through the

" rest of the body of the Christian commonwealth

" And so the commerce of human society, though " already it has received very rude sliocks, stands in " dread ; looking out for yet greater périls."

Is it not terrifying to hear such mournful and such impressive w^ords escape the lips of Christ Yicar on earth. From his elevated position on the Chair of Peter, he possesses a spécial right and authority to forewarn the nations of the périls that menace them ; for, like the eagle soaring in the upper skies, who in one single glance embraces the world beneath him, our Holy Father sees society as none else ; He sees it in its varied combination kjl light and shade, He sees it devoid of that glamer that ^a:îzles and blinds the ordinary eye ; He sees it with its hideous ruins and its mignty wrecks ; He sees its undermined in ail its

parts with revolutioiiary doctrines that may oiie day explode and embrace in their stupendous conflagration not only those who govern in high places but even those who live in the common ranks of society. What means mnst be adopted to confront snch calamitics ? There is but one only efïicacious means and that is to lift our saddened eyes to the eternal hills of Sion and in holy and humble supplication wrest, as it were from heaven the favors which we so earnestly désire. Our only means of safety is to thfow ourselves at the feet of our Eternal King, the Lord and Master of heaven and earth and implore ïïim who can bless and chastise at will to stretch forth His arm and smite the puny andacity of the wicked, to raise his voice and command the angry waves, that lash the bark of Peter into silence, that this ark of the new alliance may successfully accomplish its glorious and beneficent destiny which is the salvation of individuals and nations.

" Because, then, the Church, says our Holy Father, " seeks to baffle her enemies, and to discharge her " dut y for the good of ail, she must do hard work, " and stand on the breach of the battle-field."

For ail those therefore who by their position or authority hâve any influence over their fellow brethern, it is a paramount duty to unsheath the sword and valiantly fight the combats of the Lord and maintain against ail opponents the rights of our Holy Faith and the claim of Christian morality. Let it be their glorious duty to profess and défend that pure and stainless faith of our Holy Mother Church, let them consider it an honor to profess that manly and vigorous faith that knows no fear or compromise, that disdains and crushes thèse new fangled

théories of our day, which only make heresy meii intolérant and weaken within m en the sensé of truth and the spirit of belief. It behowes them also as Christian purified in the blood of the Spotless Lamb to sustain the dignity and integrity of Christian moral against the advances of immorality, against the spirit of intempérance, luxury and sensual living that is fast obliterating and defili ng the Grodiike semblance of our humanity.

Thèse dangers are already abroad and not a moment must be lost. We must throw ourselves into the thick of combat ; otherwise the torrent of destruction, that is fast overspreading the world, shall engulf us or at least those who shall immediately come after us, that rising génération upon which we center such affection and such hope.

But it suffices not to labor and to combat ; a higher power must be evoked to insure success, the omnipotence of prayer. As our Holy Father so pertinently expresses it.

" Because in times of trouble and sorrow for the " Christian name, it is a practice of long date to ask " of Grod, by most effective prayers, as the accusto- " med refuge for labors and cares, that he would " vouchsafe to his church, that is in labor, strength " for the conflict, and power for triumph."

And it is in order to concentrate and intensif y this power of supplication, that the children of this Church may hâve but one heart and one voice, that our Holy Father has accorded an Extraordinary Jubilee, which has already began on the 19th of M^rch and which shall continue, for us, until the last day of Deeember of the présent year.

The faithful of both sexes who shall confess their

sins and receive holy communion and shall also comply with the other conditions, to wit : the Visitation of certain church designated by the ordinary of each diocèse, the observing one day of fast, alms giving and the recitation of certain prayers ofFered np according the intention of the sovereign Pontiff, shall gain a Plenary Indulgence. The condition refering to the visits to be made to the churches and the alms to be given shall be exposed more minutely a little further on in the spécial ordinance found at the end of this letter.

Your spirit of faith, my Dearly Beloved Brethern. will, I hâve the intimate and consoling conviction, make you enter heart and soûl into ail the views of Our Holy Fat her ; and we earnestly hope and beg of Grod that none among you will fail to profit by this marked favor which the Vi(îar of Christ has thought fit to grant us. Let us unité our voices w^ith the mighty voice of the TJniversal Church and prostrate before the Throne of Divine Mercy, let us cry out : " Spare, O Lord, spare the people and give not thy inheritance to reproach, and let not thy anger forever rest upon us. " If some of you be in the toils of sin, do not lose this opportunity to implore of Grod your conversion ; and for the just and righteous, let them beg of Clod an increase of holiness and justification. It is our most earnest w^ish and hope that our prayers and sighs, like a cloud of fragrant in censé, may pierce the skies and ascend before the Face of that Grod w^ho desires not the death of the sinner but his conversion and his return to the life of grâce, who softened by the charity of our supplications shall w^ithdraw^ from the ranks of error many a poor soulj that has been entii'ed away from the path of

rectitude by the false, seductive teachings of the day.

We will pray with ail the fervor of our hearts for our owii country, that Heaveii may shield it from the evils that now desolate the older civilizations of Europe. AYe will pray that Grod may protect us against those niodern errors, that activate their rotaries to destroy the liberty of the Church, to diminish its civilizing and salutary influence upoa the nations of the earth. Thèse errors hâve engendered a multitude of evils. Among others, godless and immoral éducation which is ravaging so many young hearts at the x)resent moment, instilling into them a poison of the most deleterious nature. The sole aim of thèse false teachings is to pander to the sensual apj)etites of tho heart and leave the soûl in complète ignorance of that light that illuminâtes every man coming into this v^^orld and directs him to his eternal destiny. This nefarious System of culture shall one day bear its fruits in the midst of those Christian families that encourage it ; for it shall beget a génération of ungrateful children headstrong in their own desires, forgetful of every parental right and filled with a spirit of impiety.

\Ye will beseech Heaven to exterminate in ' our midst two evils that threaten to sow ruin and désolation in the land, intempérance and the immoderate love of dress. It is sad to admit, but it is an obstinate fact, that intempérance is producing incalculable mising among our people.

How many homes that are darkened by this terrible spectre ! How many poor wives or mothers are drooping under their load of grief on account of the unfreling conduct of their husband or sons, who

lost to every sensé of honor, sink their humanity beneath the level of the brute ! Would that this evil stopped hère ! But also it is but too true tbat even women allow themselves to become the victims of this horrid vice, begreathing to their own flesh and blood an inheritance of woe that shall be a living curse to their posterity ! How and bright destinies hâve not been ignominiously drowned in the fatal cup of intempérance ! How many goodly fortunes hâve been squandered, how many well to do families hâve been beggared and thrown upon the street to s well in time the ranks of mendicity and crime. You are not, Dearly Beloved Brethern, w^thout examples in your mind that men verify this sad picture. How are we to meet and overcome this evil ? We must ail become true apostles of tempérance, attacking by our words, our examples, and by our jirayers this monster of unhappiness ; we must range ourselvcs under the wise and zealous direction of our iiastors and wage a truceless war against it.

The other evil to which we dos ire to draw your attention is the immoderate love of dress that is so prévalent to day. The spirit of vanity has become so x>redominant in thèse times that to the outer eye Society no longer possesses an y of those distinguishing grades that must necessarily characterize a well ordered civilization. The poorest classes not only emulate, but even vie with the most opulent classes in the matter of dress and outer show.

Aye mau}^ then are who not only employ their time and ingenuity but their little earning to bedeck themselves with the gaudy and oftentimes ridiculous trappings of the protian fashions of the day.

But this is not ail. So irrisistible has become the tyranny of this vice that it is no common thing to see people outrage in the most flagrant way ail sensé of justice and honesty ; they plunge their creditofs into difficulties and ruin their own fortunes and the fortunes and welfare of their children. Oh ! if people were wise and knew how to live within the limits of their means, if they could but understand the fblly of this overweening love of show, if they could clearly see its rediculousness and its utter bad taste, if they could appreciate and imitate the grand simplicity of our forefathers, what an evil would disappear from our midst, an evil that serves as an incentive to ail kinds of danger ous amusements and criminal associations, that aliénâtes ail affection from the domestic circle, that weakens ail attachment for home and its innocent pleasures, that spreads a spirit of effronterey and recklessness, that too often leads to the direct and most lamentable conséquence ! Disabuse ourselves of this fatal delusion so ruinons especially to the young, and let us try to acqiaire that good old-fashioned simplicity which is the Christian's best adornment ; and let us hâve a holy horror for ail thèse fictitious embellishments that dégrade the beauty of the Christian character, We shall also pray during thèse days of salvation for ourselves, for our families, for the prosperity of our country, for the diifusion of our holy faith, for the triumph of virtue in the away Christian peoples^ especially in our own country.

We beseech you not to allow this favorable opportunity to pass without riping a harvest of blessing^ upon you and your interests. Try particularly to correspond with filial submission and respect, with

ail the views and desires of our Commoii Father. Fearlessly and loyally give yourselves for the combat which He desires you to wage witli the world, its false doctrine and its polluted morals ; and nobly take your stand to défend Christ's cause upon earth, attacking specially with gênerons zeal thèse so called modem errors. And finally we earnestly beg you to pray that God may change the hearts of ail those who are erring- from the paths of truth or of rectitude, pray that He may couvert the implacable enemies of His holy Church into obedient and ardent advers of His Divine Will.

For thèse reasons, after having invoked the Holy name of Grod, and having advised with ourYenerable Brethern the Canons of our Cathedral, we hâve decreed, ruled and commanded, and we do decree, rule and command as follows :

I. — The exercises of the Jubilee shall begin on the first day of May next. On the eve of this day, after the Angélus, the bells of ail the churches shall be rung during one half-hour.

II. — In ail the i)arishes outside the city, thefaithful, in order to comply with the prescriptions of the Encyclical Letter touching the visits to be made, must visit the parish church six times.