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gained only once, may be applied in suffrage for the souls which have passed from this life united i in charity with God.

We do, moreover, concede that travellers by land or sea may gain the same indulgence immediately t they return to their homes provided they perform the works already noted.

To confessors approved by their respective ordinaries We grant faculties for commuting the above works enjoined by U^ for other works of piety, and this concession shall be applicable not only to regulars of both sexes but to all ot ers who cannot perform the works prescribed, and We do grant faculties also to dispense from Communion children who have not yet been admitted to it.

Moreover, to the faithful, all and several, the laity and the clergy, both seeular and regular of all orders and institutes, even those calling for special mention, We do grant permission and power, for this sole object, to neleat any priest, regular or secular, among those actually approved (which faculty may also be used by nuns, novices and other women living in the cloister, provided the confessor they select be one approved for nuns), by whom, when they have confessed to him within the prescribed time with the intention of gaining b present jubilee : and of fulfilling all the other works

r' quisite for gaining it, they may on this sole occasion and only in the forum of conscience be absolved from all excommunication, suspension and every other ecclesiastical sentence and censure pronounced or inflicted for any cause by the law or by a judge, including those reserved to the ordinary and to Us or to the Apostolic See, even in cases reserved in a special manner to anybody whomsoever and to Us or to the Apostolic See ; and they may also be absolved from all sin or excess, even those reserved to the ordinaries them-

selves and to Us and to the Apostolie See, on condition, deeem a salutary penence be enjoined together with the other preseriptions of the law, and in the case

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of heresy after the abjuration and retraetion of error as is enjoined by the law : and the said priests may further commnte to other pious and salutary works all vows even those taken under oath and reserved to the Apostolie See (except those of chastity, of religion and of obligations which have been accepted by third persons); and with the said penitents, even regulars, in sacred orders, such confessors may dispense from all secret irregularities contracted solely by violation of censures affecting the exercise of said orders and promotion to higher orders,

But We do not intend by the present Letters to dispense from any irrigularities whatsover, or from crime or defect, publie or private, contracted in any manner through notoriety or other incapacity or inability ; nor do We intend to derogate from the Constitution with its accompanying declaration, published by Benedict XIV, of happy memory, which begins with the words “Sacramentum peenitentin”; nor it it Our intention that these present Letters may, or ean, in Any way avail those who, by Us and the A postolie See, or by any ecclesiastieal judge, have been by name exeommunieated suspended, interdicted or declared under other sentences or censures, or who have been publiely denouneed, unless they do within the allotted time satisfy, or, when necessary, come to an arrangement with the parties concerned,

To all this We are plensed to add that We do eoncede and will that all retain during this time of Jubilee the privilege of gaining all other indulgences, not ex. cepting plenary indulgences, which have been granted by Our Predecessors or by Ourse *

We close these Letters, Venerable Brethren, by manifesting anew the great hope We earnestly cherish that through this extraor mary gift of Jubilee granted by Us under the auspices of the ] inaculate Virgin, large numbers those who are 1 ihappily separated from Jesus Chri: may return to Him, and that love of virtue and fervor of devotion may flourish anew among the

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of error as may furworks all ved to the igion and bird peroulars, in ' from all lation of id promo-

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Christian people. Fifty years ago, when Pius IX. proclaimed as an article of faith the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Mother of Christ, it seemed, as we have already said, as if an incredible wealth of grace were poured out upon the earth ; and with the increase of contidence in the Virgin Mother of God, the old religious spirit of the people was everywhere greatly augmented. Is it forbidden us to hope for still greater things for the future ? 'True, we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentat/on of the prophet: “There is no truth and no mercy and no knowledge of God on the earth. Blasphemy and lying and homicide and theft and adultery have inundated it" (Os. iv., 1-2). Yet in the midst of this deluge of evil the Virgin Most Clement rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man : ^I will set my bow in the clouds and it shall be the sign of a covenant between me and between the earth" (Gen. ix., 13). Let the storm rage and sky darken—not for that shall we be dismayed. “And there shall no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh" (Ibid. 15). Oh, yes, if we trust as we should in Mary, now especially when we are about to celebrate, with more than usual fervor, her Immaculate Conception, we shall recognize in her that Virgin w~-st powerful “who wi: virginal foot did erush the he of the serpent" (Off Immae. Cone )

In pledge of these graces, Venerable Brethren, We impart t! :tolie Benediction lovingly in the Lord to y: to your people.

ven at Rome at St. Peter’s on the second day of y, 1904, in the first year of Our Pontificate.

PIUS X., Pope.

Gième Série —No. 7.

PASTORAL LETTER

OF

Archbishop of Ottawa,