In obedience to the voice of the Holy Father, who solemnly warns us not to follow prescriptions contrary to the laws of God and of His Church, and "placing, according to his word, everything else below religion and the Catholic doctrine", some of his sons assembled on the 24th of September, 1864, for the purpose of obtaining in behalf of Poland that which the Emperor of Russia refuses her.
Borrowing the very expressions of the Pontifical letter, the following are their engagements:
"The Czar wishes to extirpate Catholicism"; we will uphold it.—"He would drag the whole of his people into this wretched schism"; we will lend them our aid.—"He prohibits writings that are propitious to Catholicism"; we will print them.—"He impedes the communications with the Holy See"; we will free them from difficulty.—"He forbids showing, either by preaching or instructing, the difference that exists between truth and schism"; we will receive and propagate works that demonstrate this difference.
"Bishops are torn from their dioceses and sent into exile"; we should be proud to own them.—"The religious are expelled from their communities, and their monasteries are turned into barracks"; we are ready to offer them a refuge.—"Priests are cruelly persecuted, deprived of all they possess, reduced to poverty, exiled, thrown into prison or put to death"; we undertake to receive them with honour, to alleviate their sufferings, to create or to support houses of education, both elementary and of a higher order, so that the source of priesthood in Poland may not be dried up, and so as to disseminate the benefits of Christian education.—"Numbers of Catholics of every rank and age are removed to distant countries"; we will open our doors to them.
In a word, the nucleus of an exclusively religious association, under the denomination of "Work of Catholicism in Poland", has been formed in Paris, with the view of maintaining, "by all the means that charity can suggest", this generous nation in her fidelity to the Church.
Mgr. de Ségur, prelate of his Holiness' household and Canon of St. Denis, has consented to honour this most important work with his patronage.
The Rev. Father Pététot, superior-general of the Oratory, and the Rev. M. Deguerry, parish priest of the church of La Madeleine, at Paris, the Count Montalembert, and M. Cornudet, councillor of state, have also kindly accepted the vice-presidentship.
Our first duty is to receive with sympathy the representatives of Polish heroism, men who have not hesitated between tortures and apostacy. Many of them were in the enjoyment of affluence at home; and after having proved in the last struggle the vitality of their invincible nation, the spirit of faith and of sacrifice is now the sole treasure which they possess.
Amongst the Poles now in Paris, there are representatives of every profession; employment must be found for them, either in the capital or the provinces. A neighbouring country of two millions and a half of inhabitants, Switzerland, has harboured about two thousand. There, not one of the exiles but has found both assistance and means of gaining his livelihood. An asylum even is being founded for the reception of invalids; a residence is offered to them. Public opinion in Switzerland is so favourable to the Poles, that in their presence even religious differences are done away with. What the Helvetian republic has effected, the whole of France will not fail to accomplish. So much for the more immediate necessities.
Whenever there is question of works of the apostleship in foreign lands, we are always ready to assist the missionary. Have we not a short time ago signalized our zeal for the Christians of Syria and Lebanon, and still more recently for the Bulgarian nation, for whose return to unity we may safely hope? What we require at present, and what is easier to perform, and less uncertain, is to maintain in her attachment to the Church a Catholic nation of 25 millions of men. To accomplish this, we must provide for the religious education of those whom the misfortunes of the times prevent from entering into the seminaries of Poland. The Holy Father has himself given the initiative, by opening a Polish seminary at Rome. Why should we not follow his example? At the time of the persecutions in Ireland, we counted in the north of France alone, no less than four colleges for the use of young Irishmen: Saint-Omer, where the great O'Connell was formed: Douai, whence came in the time of Elizabeth, forty of England's early martyrs: Lille, and Paris.