Letters From Rome on the CouncilDöllinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
History
Letters From Rome on the Council
Döllinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
Popes -- Infallibility; Vatican Council (1st : 1869-1870 : Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano)
The first dogmatic _Schema_ has gone back to the Commission on Faith after
a long, many-sided, and severe criticism, and is to be revised and again
laid before the Council as little altered as possible. The revision is
intrusted to three of the most zealous Infallibilists, Martin, Deschamps,
and Pie, with the indispensable Jesuits, Schrader and Franzelin. The
Bishops are then simply to accept it without discussion. It is not to be
discussed, first, because there can be no discussion in the Hall;
secondly, because this wretched patchwork does not bear discussion;
thirdly, because there would be no coming to an end this way; fourthly,
and chiefly, because an excellent precedent will be created, which may be
made a rule for the forthcoming _Schemata_, and will open the prospect of
carrying through matters far more important and more valuable for the
_Curia_.
If once the first _Schema_ were voted without discussion, by the help of
the devoted majority of 400, though against the opposition of many
Bishops, the same method might be pursued with subsequent _Schemata_, and
thus the most important of all, on the Church and the Pope, could be
carried, which contains the most exorbitant assertions of Papal
omnipotence, and implies Papal Infallibility, which is introduced by a
side-wind. By this means the maxim observed at former Councils, and even
at Trent, that decisions can only be settled by a unanimous vote, would be
happily got rid of, and the resistance of the Opposition broken or
rendered useless. Such a victory of the curialistic party would exceed all
other successes in importance and practical value. The Council is
accordingly come to a momentous crisis. Father Theiner, the Prefect of the
Papal Archives, has had a part of the first volume of his _Acts of the
Council of Trent_ printed. We find there a _modus procedendi_, which
secures to the Fathers of the Council much more freedom and action than
the present regulations, of which Italian Prelates say themselves that
they leave no freedom, and only allow a sham Council. Theiner has been
altogether forbidden, by the management of the Jesuits, to publish his
work, and has received the most strict commands not to show the part
already printed to any Bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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