Plenary Councils of Baltimore: Encyclopedia II - Plenary Councils of Baltimore - First Plenary Council of Baltimore 1852

Plenary Councils of Baltimore - First Plenary Council of Baltimore 1852

The First Plenary Council of Baltimore was solemnly opened on May 9, 1852. Its sessions were attended by six archbishops and thirty-five suffragan bishops. The Bishop of Monterey, California, Joseph Sadoc Alemany, was also present, although his diocese, lately separated from Mexico, had not yet been incorporated with any American province. Another prelate in attendance was the Bishop of Toronto, Canada. The religious orders and congregations were represented by the mitred Abbot of St. Mary of La Trappe and by the superiors of the Augustinians, Dominicans, Benedictines, Franciscans, Jesuits, Redemptorists, Vincentians, and Sulpicians. The last solemn session was held on the 20th of May. The decrees were as follows:

1. The Fathers profess their allegiance to the pope as the divinely constituted head of the Church, whose office it is to confirm his brethren in the Faith. They also declare their belief in the entire Catholic Faith as explained by the ecumenical councils and the constitutions of the Roman pontiffs.
2. The enactments of the seven provincial councils of Baltimore are obligatory for all the dioceses of the United States.
3. The Roman Ritual, adopted by the First Council of Baltimore, is to be observed in all dioceses, and all are forbidden to introduce customs or rites foreign to the Roman usage. Sacred ceremonies are not to be employed in the burial of Catholics whose bodies are deposited in sectarian cemeteries; or even in public cemeteries, if there be Catholic cemeteries at hand.
4. The Baltimore "Ceremonial" is to be used all through the country.
5. Bishops are to observe the canons concerning ecclesiastical residence.
6. Bishops are exhorted to choose consultors from among their clergy and to ask their advice in the government of the diocese. A monthly meeting of these consultors to discuss diocesan affairs is praiseworthy.
7. A chancellor should be constituted in every diocese, for the easier and more orderly transaction of business.
8. Bishops should appoint censors for books relating to religion.
9. European priests desiring to be received into an American diocese must have written testimonials from their former bishops and the consent of the ordinary here.
10. Our quasi-parishes should have well-defined limits, and the jurisdiction and privileges of pastors should be indicated by the bishops. The ordinary can change these limits and it is his right to appoint the incumbents.
11. After next Easter, matrimonial banns must be published, and bishops should dispense with this only for grave reasons.
12. Pastors themselves should teach Christian doctrine to the young and ignorant.
13. Bishops are exhorted to have a Catholic school in every parish and the teachers should be paid from the parochial funds.
14. An ecclesiastical seminary should be erected in each province.
15. The bishops or their delegates should demand every year an account of the administration of church funds from those who administer them, whether laymen or clerics.
16. Laymen are not to take any part in the administration of church affairs without the free consent of the bishop. If they usurp any such authority and divert church goods to their own use or in any way frustrate the will of the donors; or if they, even under cover of the civil law, endeavour to wrest from the bishop's hands what has been confided to his care, then such laymen by that very fact fall under the censures constituted by the Council of Trent against usurpers of ecclesiastical goods.
17. When the title to a church is in the bishop's name, pastors are warned not to appoint trustees or permit them to be elected without the bishop's authority.
18. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament must be performed in all dioceses in the manner prescribed by the Baltimore "Ceremonial".
19. Bishops should use their influence with the civil authorities to prevent anyone in the army or navy from being obliged to attend a religious service repugnant to his conscience.
20. A Society for the Propagation of the Faith, similar to that in France, should be fostered and extended.
21. The faithful are exhorted to enter into a society of prayer for the conversion of non-Catholics.
22. A petition should be addressed to the Holy See asking for extraordinary faculties concerning matrimonial cases and the power, also, of delegating such faculties.
23. Permission to use the short formula in the baptism of adults is to be requested of the Holy See, either for perpetuity or for twenty years.
24. The sixth decree of the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore is to be understood as applying to those who rashly (temere) marry before a Protestant minister. Priests should give no benediction to those whom they know to intend to remarry before a preacher, or who, having done so, show no signs of penitence.
25. These decrees are binding as soon as they are published by the Archbishop of Baltimore after their revision and approval by the Holy See.

In sending the pope's approval of these decrees, the prefect of the Propaganda exhorted the bishops to add the feasts of the Circumcision of Our Lord and the Immaculate Conception B.V.M. to the festivals already observed. He added that although some diversity as to fasts and feasts is found in the American dioceses, still it is not desirable to lessen the number in those places where they are in accord with the discipline of the universal Church, because fewer feasts are observed in other American dioceses. The bishops are not to labour for conformity among the dioceses in customs that are foreign to the discipline of the universal Church, for thus the appearance of a national Church would be introduced. The cardinal-prefect added that the Holy See tolerated relaxations of the common law of the Church for grave reasons, but such derogations were not to be confirmed and extended, but rather every effort was to be made to bring about the observance of the universal discipline. As to the method of adult baptism, the Holy See extended the dispensations to use the short formula for another five years.

A letter from Cardinal-Prefect Franzoni, added to the acts of the council, treats of the question of how the bishops are to be supported by their dioceses. It likewise insists that priests ordained titulo missionis are not to enter religious orders without the consent of their ordinaries, as they are required to make oath that they will serve perpetually in the diocese for which they were ordained. In the acts of this council is found a statement of the Bishop of Monterey concerning the California Missions. He informed the Fathers that a large sum of money had formerly been placed in the hands of the Mexican Government to be used under the sanction of Spanish law for the support of the Californian missionaries. For years they had received none of this money and the late revolutions made any hope of reparation unlikely. However, as it is reported that the civil power in California intends to demand this money from the Mexican treasury for public purposes, he desired to know what effort the American bishops thought it desirable to make in the premises. The outcome of the whole discussion was the sending of a letter on the subject to the Archbishop of Mexico. We may add here that this money was later recovered and employed for the Church in California.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "First Plenary Council of Baltimore 1852", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki