"The work, the plan of which we lay before you to-day, is one which recommends itself to your zeal and your love for the Church.
"The touching words of the Sovereign Pontiff have stirred us to lend assistance to martyred Poland. May the Church of Ireland second the Church of France in this endeavour, which is so noble, and, at this moment, so necessary.
"I venture to unite my humble voice with that of the pious prelate and of the eminent men who are at the head of this work, in the hope that the bishops and priests of Ireland will listen with favour to an appeal on behalf of a persecuted church and nation. Accept, my Lord, the expression of profound respect and lively gratitude with which I am,
"Your most devoted humble Servant,
"ADOLPHE PERRAUD,
"Director-General of the Work".
LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.
One of the objects which the founders of the Irish Ecclesiastical Record had proposed to themselves from the very beginning of their undertaking was to offer to the Irish clergy in its pages an appropriate place for the discussion of liturgical questions. They judged that they could not better recommend this object to their readers than by laying before them a sample of the actual working of the liturgical department of an ecclesiastical periodical of long standing and renown. With this view it was resolved to insert in our early numbers some of the questions which from time to time had been asked by French clergymen in the Revue des Sciences Ecclesiastiques (edited by the learned Abbé Bouix), adding in each case the answers given by those charged with that part of the Review. No official character has ever been claimed for these answers by their authors, who invariably give for what they are worth the arguments on which their answers rest. In the same way the excellent Archivio dell'Ecclesiastico of Florence devotes every month a portion of its pages to the liturgical questions which are continually addressed to the Editor by the clergy of Northern Italy. We are happy to announce to-day that several distinguished ecclesiastics who have devoted much time and study to liturgical pursuits have undertaken to attend to any similar questions that may be addressed to the Record by the clergy of Ireland. Following the custom of the periodicals just mentioned, all information shall be withheld concerning the sources whence the questions have come, except where publicity is expressly desired. Every question with which we may be honoured, shall be carefully attended to. We hope that every priest will assist us in this effort to make the Irish Ecclesiastical Record a work of practical benefit to the clergy of Ireland.
We give to-day a collection of the decrees of the S. Congregation of Rites on various points of the Rubrics of the Missal. We extract them from the first Ratisbon edition of the Manuale Ordinandorum, March 1842. In order that the words of each decree of the S. Congregation may be distinguished from those of the editors, the former are printed in Italics.
EX DECRETIS S. RITUUM CONGREGATIONIS.
Ad § II. De ingressu sacerdotis ad altare.
1. Acolythus aut alius accendens cereos ante Missam, aut ante aliam sacram functionem, incipere debet a cereis qui sunt a cornu evangelii, quippe nobiliori parte. 12 Aug. 1253 (Anal. II. p. 2201).