The contents may be reduced to three heads. The first regards the sacraments, and embraces a short form for blessing the baptismal font; the rite of confirmation when administered by a simple priest by delegation from the Apostolic See; instruction for priests who duplicate; manner of carrying the Eucharist in secret to the sick among unbelievers; decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites concerning the oil for the lamp of the Blessed Sacrament. The second contains various forms of blessing, twenty-two in number, and including those for erecting the Via Crucis, and for enrolling in the scapulars of the different orders. The third part contains the ceremonies appointed by Benedict XIII. to be performed in the smaller parish churches on the great festivals of the Christian year.
_Popular Objections against the Encyclical._ By. Mgr. de Segur. Authorized Translation. Dublin: John F. Fowler, 3 Crow Street.
We are delighted to welcome this little work, both for the sake of its own proper merits, and because it is the first instalment of the authorized translation of the admirable works of Mgr. de Segur. The Encyclical and Syllabus still continue to be the great event of the day. Indeed, as yet, we see only the beginnings of the influence it is surely destined to exercise on men’s minds; and for the due development of that influence, works like this of the French prelate are very necessary. The docile Catholic, for whom St. Peter lives and speaks in Pius IX., will find set forth herein the majesty and beauty of the doctrine he had before received in simple faith. The Catholic whose mind has been coloured for good and evil by modern ideas, and who has felt alarm at the apparent contradiction between the teaching of the Pope and certain social doctrines he has long held to be as sacred as first principles, will find in these pages wherewith to calm his apprehensions and steady his judgment He will see that what the Church condemns is already condemned by reason and history; and that, far from placing under the ban any of the elements of true progress, the Holy See censures the very errors which make all true progress impossible. The priest who has charge of the wise and the unwise together, will be glad to have, in these few pages, what may enable him to provide for the wants of both. We quote a few passages:—