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of our ^ present most gracious sovereign ; nevertheless , the hostility to our > holy religion continues to exist in full force : and every artifice is practised , and every inducement held out * to seduce the Irish Catholic from the practice and profession of his
religion . Rewards are given to every Catholic clergyman who apostatizes from his faith $ public schools and hospitals are maintained , at great expense , in which hostility to the creed and character of Roman
Catholics , constitutes the first principle of instruction ; commissioners are appointed to prevent Catholic institutions receiving any benefit from the donations , of pious persons ; societies are established , under the favour of
our rulers , for proselytizing the Catholic poor ;* and bribes offered and given to Catholic parents for the purchase of their children ' s faith ; at the same time that every effort of bribery and corruption is exerted , to influence Boman Catholic schoolmasters , to seduce the Roman Catholic children ,
intrusted to their care , from an attachment to their creed . Every member of the legislature , every minister of the government , every judge of the land , every superior naval , military or civil officer , and almost « very individual in an official situation ,
i& * obliged to swew , and has actually sworn , vin the following words : viz . *« I do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God , profess , testify and declare , that I do believe , that in the sacrament ofthe Lord ' s Supper , there is Dot any transubstantion of the elements , of bread and wine into the
body aad blood of Christ , at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever ; and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are- now used in the Church of Rome , are
superstitious and idolatrous ; and 1 do solemnly , in the presence of God , profess * testify and declare , that I do make this declaration , and every part thereof ; in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me , as
they are commonly understood by English Protestants , without any evasion , equivocation > * or mental reserration whatsoever , and without any dispensation , already granted me for this purpose / by the Pope , > or any authority or person whatsoever , or
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without any hope of any siich dispfcn , sation from any person " or authority whatsoever , or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before Cod or man , or absolved of this
declaration , or auy part thereof , although the Pope , or any other person * persons or power whatsoever , should dispense with or annul the same , or declare that it was null or void from the beginning . '
It is to persons who have taken these offensive oaths of hostility against our holy religion , that we are now required , Most Holy Father , to confide the selection and appointment of the prelates of our church ; and thus , the efforts of persecution having been found unsuccessful , it is now
sought to accomplish , b 3 intrigue , the destruction of that church , whose pre-eminent perfection has excited the jealousy and the hatred of our religious opponents . We cannot suffer ourselves to suppose , that your Holiness wotild ,
knowingly , sanction so pernicious a measure ; for , it is bur decided conviction , that any such concession to our Protestant prince / or to his Protestant ministers , of a right to interfere , directly or indirectly , in the appointment of our prelates , Vould inevitably destroy the Catholic
religion in Ireland , Its first consequence would be , a general indignant revolt against the framers or favourers of the detested system , " without regard to rank or station ^ and it is not difficult to imagine , that so lamentable a breach would lead to such a state
of distrust and dissatisfaction , as might end in the dissolution of that confidential connexion , in r spiritual concerns , which ' at present so happily subsists between the Holy See and the Romau Catholics of Ireland . The prelates and" priesthood would be shunned and despisedj the altars and confessionals would be deserted ;; a
state of irreltgion and immorality would succeed in the place of the religious and moral conduct , which at present distinguishes the people of Ireland ; public disorders and private misfortunes would folIoiV , and
our neglected Church would become an easy prey to thdae who now labour for the extirpation of the Roman Catholic faith from this nation . We desire to assure your Holiness , that the Romau Catholic teity of Irc-
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472 Jvtellifferice . —Address of the IrisfcCatholte to Pope PMs'VTT .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1815, page 772, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1767/page/44/
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