Ego, THOMAS, Episcopus Midensis, definiens subscripsi. Ego, NICOLAUS, Episcopus Kilmorensis, definiens sub

scripsi.

Ego, GEORGIUS, Episcopus Ardacadensis et Cluanensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, JACOBUS, Episcopus Clogherensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, PATRITIUS, Episcopus Clonfertensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, JACOBUS, Episcopus Rapotensis, definiens subscripsi. Ego, FRANCISCUS, Episcopus Achadensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, HUGO, Episcopus Alladensis, definiens subscripsi. Ego, PATRITIUS FRANCISCUS, Episcopus Ossoriensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, JOANNES, Episcopus Waterfordiensis et Lismorensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, JOANNES, Episcopus Cloynensis, definiens subscripsi. Ego, JACOBUS, Episcopus Arcadiopolitanus et Coadjutor ac Procurator Episcopi Kildariensis et Leighlinensis, definiens subscripsi.

Ego, JACOBUS, Episcopus Echinensis et Coadjutor ac Procurator Episcopi Laonensis, definiens subscripsi. Ego, FRATER BRUNO, Abbas Cisterciensis de Monte Melleario, privilegio admissus, definiens subscripsi.

Praedicta Acta et Decreta accurate in omnibus cum authentico exemplari respondent, et emendationes a S. Congregatione de Propaganda Fide praescriptae, locis suis insertae sunt.

PAULUS CARD. CULLEN,

Archiep. Dublinensis, Hiberniae Primas, Synodi Praeses.

PASTORAL ADDRESS

OF

THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS OF IRELAND, ASSEMBLED IN NATIONAL SYNOD AT MAYNOOTH,

TO THEIR FLOCKS.

IN their Pastoral Address, issued from the first Plenary Council assembled in this country since Catholic Emancipation, the Bishops of Ireland expressed their humble trust that the Synod then closing at Thurles should become an epoch in the history of our National Church, and a source, not only of present and immediate benefits, but also of light and influence on the future. Twenty-five years have elapsed since these words were uttered; and although a quarter of a century is but a brief moment in the life of the Church of God, in whose sight a thousand years are as yesterday,1 yet it has been long enough to furnish proof that these hopes have been abundantly fulfilled.

The history of the Catholic Church in Ireland during the last twenty-five years is a history of graces, manifold and surpassing rich, outpoured on her by God, like precious ointment on the head, running down to the skirts of her garment, as the dew of Hermon which descended on Mount Sion.2 It would seem as if the Synod of Thurles marked that turning point in her fortunes, of old beheld in vision by our apostle St. Patrick, when he saw the mystic lights of her holy places that had been reduced to a faint glimmer, flash forth, at a given time, far and wide, in all the beauty

1 Psalm lxxxix. 4. 2 Psalm cxxxii. 2, 3.

of their pristine brilliancy. Those years have brought to Catholic Ireland what the Prophet designates the revenge of recompense.1 This divine form of revenge is the answer which Providence ever gives to the cries and tears of those who meekly suffer persecution for justice' sake. In it God's mercy repairs the wreck made by man's cruelty, and gives back to the victims of injustice, in greater fulness than before, the blessings of which they had been despoiled. The land that was desolate and impassable shall flourish like the lily: it shall bud forth and be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice and shall blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise; the glory of Libanus is given to it; the beauty of Carmel and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God. And most fittingly has this dispensation of mercy been linked, in the case of Ireland, to the Synod of Thurles, which, among the other synods registered in our history, holds a place of influence peculiarly its own. In it, for the first time, the Irish Church, at the issue of her three centuries of martyrdom, was enabled calmly to survey her own condition, to mark the wounds of which in the heat of the struggle she had hardly been conscious, and to replace in fair order, according to the Sacred Canons, the scattered stones of her sanctuaries. It was one of the first fruits of the blood of her countless Irish martyrs, who had sown in tears that we might reap in joy. It was held amid the prayers of an entire nation, chastened by heroic endurance of recent suffering. Its voice was the unanimous voice of the entire body of the Irish Bishops, speaking with authority inherited, through long lines of venerable predecessors, from the sainted founders of the ancient Episcopal Sees of the land. It was convoked in face of a great danger threatening the faith of the country, and in obedience to a special mandate from the Apostolic See, in whose loving guidance 1 Isaias xxxv. 1. 4. 2 Ibid.

L

all afflicted churches are sure to find "defence and security, 66 a haven where no waves swell, and a treasure of "blessings innumerable." The work of such a Synod was not meant in the designs of God to be transient, nor was its influence to perish as soon as its immediate objects were attained; but, rather, its spirit was long to survive, to be to the Irish Church an abiding source of vitality and strength in which, from time to time, her youth may be renewed as of an eagle.

Gratefully acknowledging the benefits bestowed on us by God through the Synod of Thurles, in the National Synod which has just been happily completed at Maynooth, we have prayed with the Prophet, that He would once again renew His own work: O Lord! thy work, in the midst of years bring it to life. And in the regulations we have made for the renovation of discipline, and for the promotion of piety and morals, it has been our study to follow as far as possible the lines traced in the decrees of Thurles, so that, together united, the enactments of both Synods might form one compact code of ecclesiastical law in keeping with the requirements, and adequate to meet the dangers of our time. In accordance with canonical usage, the results of our deliberations shall not be made public until they shall have received the approbation of the Roman Pontiff, to whom belongs "the full and supreme 'power of jurisdiction over the entire Church, not merely "in things that appertain to faith and morals, but also in "what concerns the discipline and government of the "Church spread throughout the world."

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But, while awaiting this solemn sanction, without which our Synodical enactments lack authority to bind, we feel it incumbent on us to address to you, dearly beloved, on this solemn occasion, words of congratulation and thanks

1 St. John Chrysost. Ep. ad. Innocent I. 2 Habacuc iii. 2.
3 Vatican Council, constit. Pastor Eternus, cap. iii.

giving for the spiritual blessings God has so bounteously bestowed upon you; words of warning, against the special dangers that at present beset you ; and words of guidance, that you may walk wisely in the midst of the snares and violence of the present persecution, because the days are evil.1

Conspicuous among the graces you have received shines forth your gift of faith, of which it may truly be said, that it is spoken of in the entire world. Judged by the tests of a people's faith as assigned by St. Augustine, the Irish still possess, in its original intensity, that grace of Faith which, St. Patrick tells us, made them even in his day pre-eminently "the people of the Lord and the sons of "God." The holy Doctor accounts it as a miracle-nay, as the sum of many miracles together-that in an entire people the knowledge of the true God and of the mysteries of religion should not be confined to a few among the learned, but possessed even by the simple people; that abstinence and fasting should be held in honour and practised; that chastity should be prized beyond wedlock and offspring; that patience should be kept under crosses and in spite of trials the most burning; that liberality should be practised to the length of distributing whole patrimonies among the poor; that, in fine, men should so despise this world as to desire even death. We thank God, dearly beloved, that this miracle of Faith may daily be witnessed in Ireland. Whilst in other countries religious influences are on the wane, and the exclusion of the supernatural from social and political life becomes daily more and more complete, Ireland, faithful to her Christian instincts, ranks among her grandest national glories the Christian traditions of her past, and, in the present, boldly avows that her inmost thoughts and her dearest wishes, belong, first 1 Eph. v. 16. 2 Rom. i. 8.