The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry was formed.
A very famous National Guard unit, at one time it was mostly made up members of Philadelphia's social elite. It is still in existence.
The troop was originally called Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia.
Last edition:
The First Prayer of the Continental Congress was delivered.
O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!
Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Reverend Jacob Duché
Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m.
The effect of this opening prayer was profound.
The KKK was in Lilly for one of their ceremonies in a local field and was returning to the station for transport to Johnstown, PA. They did catch the train, and upon arrival at Johnstown they were met with 50 policemen who arrested 25 Klansman and confiscated 50 firearms. The next day, an additional four residents of Lilly were arrested. Twenty-nine people were charged with murder.
Lilly was a mining town, and like most of them it had a strong contingent of Catholic and Orthodox miners, members of ethnicities that the Klan didn't like. A strong UMW union town, the residents weren't cowed by the KKK. A monument to their efforts has been placed in the town in recent years.
Locally, there were concerns about spring floods. And the flight around the globe was suffering delays.
The Greek government ratified the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, following the Turkish ratification two days prior.
1.5 million Orthodox Christians from Turkey were accordingly involuntarily sent to Greece and 500,000 Greek Muslims involuntarily sent to Turkey.
Violence broke out in Carnegie Pennsylvania when 10,000 Ku Klux Klansman held a rally on a nearby hill and moved towards the heavily Catholic town. Town residents threw rocks and ultimately a Klansman was shot dead.
Sometimes missed, the Klan was not only racist, but nativist, and anti-Catholic.
Germany put workers on the gold basis rate in an attempt to stem inflation.
The government was trying to stave off coal labor problems again.
And a lecturer declared Woodrow Wilson's idealism too advanced for the world.
This, obviously all male, occupation was exactly what it sounded like. Clerks who took appointments and handled the same. Sort of the equivalent of a secretary/receptionist.
As late as the Second World War, in government service this occupation was a male one. And, as the fine clothing in the photo demonstrates, one that paid a decent living to its occupants.
Indeed, every man here is wearing a three-piece suit of good quality.
Also of note, at least two are smoking cigars, not even taking time out from tobacco consumption to appear without one. When was the last time you were in an office and somebody was smoking a cigar?
A coal mine explosion in Spangler, Pennsylvania, killed 79 miners.
Ali Kemal, age 53, who we mentioned the other day, was lynched on his ways to the gallows by a mob.
By the way, in the long odds category, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a direct descendant of Ali Kemal. I.e, not a cousin, Kamal is BoJo's Great Grandfather.
_-_Ad_1.jpg)
Released this day in 1922.
I don't know that this needed to gone to Part VIII, but the last version was long enough that it was hard to edit. So here we are.
April 25, 2022.
Okay, who the heck is running anyway?
All the press is on this race, and it's all concentrated on the Cheney v. Hageman race. Having said that, it's been quiet for a while.
This is no doubt in part because as time moves on, and more and more is known about the January 6, insurrection, the more quiet rank and file Republicans and independents are likely moving towards Cheney. This might be best summed up by op eds from last Sunday's Trib, which we noted here:
April 24, 2022
Fremont County's Sen. Cale Case, a long time Republican conservative, wrote an Op Ed published in the Tribune today going after the State's Central Committee. He urges Republicans who have left the party to get back in and run for office and precinct positions to reclaim the party.
My prediction is that by the end of the day Case will be branded a "Rino".
Harriet Hageman also has an op ed asserting that her role as an attorney with the New Civil Liberties Alliance in a suit opposing Federally mandated cattle ear tags shows she's advocating for Wyoming, as she has this role while, she asserts, Congressman Cheney has been spending time on the January 6 Committee rather than being on the Resources Committee.
Her point that one represents Wyoming more than the other can fairly obviously be debated on an existensial sense.
Put another way, if a long term Republican is asking Republican traditionalist and moderates to "come back", and the primary contender for Cheney's seat is asserting her role with an organization fighting cattle ear tags vs Cheney's role in the January 6 committee as proof of her better concern for Wyoming, it's sort of telling where things are going.
Republicans for the House:
Liz Cheney. The embattled incumbent.
Harrient Hageman. Hageman, former Cheney supporter and Trump opponent who has switched on both in what Cheney has proclaimed as "tragic opportunism".
Robin Belinsky: Belinsky is a businesswoman from Sheridan who is billing herself as Wyoming's Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Anthony Bouchard: Bouchard is a member of the legislature from Goshen County who has been in a lot of local political spats and who is a far right firebrand in the legislature and who is still running in spite of having no hope of getting past the primary.
Bryan Eugene Keller: He's a resident of Laramie County who has registered, but I don't know anything else about him.
Denton Knapp: Knapp is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a current Brig. Gen. in the California National Guard who is still, surprisingly, running.
Democrats for the House:
Nobody, yet.
Somebody will show up. . . probably.
Independent
Casey Hardison. This is a gadfly campaign as it is based on drug legalization. Indeed, he has a case on appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court right now for felony marijuana delivery.
It seems like we get these campaigns every election now.
This race was heavily contested in 2018 and was the first Wyoming race to really feature the outright split in the GOP. It's where Hageman first emerged as a candidate, although at that time she wasn't anti-Cheney, but then nobody was. Gordon won, of course, but that somehow left those on the far right embittered.
Nonetheless, this seat is now safe for Gordon.
Republicans for the Governor's Office.
Mark Gordon: Gordon is the incumbent. He's going to get the nomination, and he's going to win the General Election.
Harold Bjork. Who Bjork isn't really clear, but he's started a Facebook and internet campaign for Governor.
Aaron Nab: Nab is a truck driver from Southeastern Wyoming who views Gordon the same way that Hageman supporters view Cheney.
Rex Rammell: Rammell is a perennial and unelectable candidate who ran last time and will again. His views can be characterized as being on the fringe right/libertarian side.
Democrats for the Governor's Office.
Nobody. Democrats really have to find somebody, sacrificial running though it will be, or they'll look completely irrelevant in the state.
Ed Buchanan. He's the incumbent.
Kriti Racines. She's the incumbent.
This race featured very recently the problem that Cale Case just noted.
Rather than submit the really qualified candidates for this office, the state's GOP chose to submit three names for the vacant office that fit into a sort of red meat narrative. Of the three, Schroeder was the best pick, which doesn't mean that he's a name that would have gone anywhere in an open race or that would have been submitted in normal times.
This office is likely up for the picking.
Brian Schroeder. Schroeder is the presumptive nominee.
Megan Degenfelder. She has an education background but who has been working in the petroleum industry, announced for Superintendent of Public Education.
She was once employed as the department's Chief Policy Officer.
April 25, 2022, cont.
Brian Kemp of Georgia has received the NRA's endorsement. That might not be that surprising, but when it's considered that Trump, who the NRA has been a big back of, has endorsed Kemp opponent David Perdue, it is.
Trump has really been gunning for Kemp. The NRA obviously isn't, and it may very well have figured that Perdue is going to lose.
There's been a lot of speculation this election on how much Trump's endorsements will really mean. Here we now have a contest between an NRA endorsement and a Trump one.
April 28, 2022
An anticipated action by the Republican Central Committee to strip Laramie County, the state's most populous county, and one which is opposed to the far right direction of the Central Committee, for rules violations at their county convention has led that country to request that a rules' violation by Sublette, Albany and Crook also be addressed.
This highlights the ongoing civil war inside the state's GOP. A better indicator, although one that is little noted, is that far right GOP legislators now caucus in something called "The Freedom Caucus" rather than with the Republicans, meaning it's actually now operating as two parties in the legislature.
April 29, 2022
Wyoming's voter ID law has been challenged by a lawsuit filed by former Democratic legislature Charles Pelkey.
May 10, 2022
Incumbent State Treasurer Curt Meir has announced for a bid for a second term.
The State GOP reduced Laramie County's delegation to a handful due to a minor rules violation. A counterproposal to sanction other counties for minor rules violations, filed in retaliation, failed. As a result of the strike against Laramie County, its delegation walked out of the ongoing state convention.
Natrona County's delegation has already been reduced for failure to pay dues.
The net result is that the far right wing of the GOP has decapitated its opposition by depriving the most populous counties with the largest delegations from participating in the party.
Long serving Republican Senator Cale Case, who recently wrote an article in the Tribune asking for departing members of the GOP to come back and reclaim their position in the party, faces a censure complaint in his county organization for acting "contrary to the will of the party and the Wyoming Republican Party platform".
These last two items are serious indications that the party is seeking to eliminate all dissent within it, including dissent which, ironically, comes from someone like the highly conservative Case.
May 11, 2022
Fremont County's GOP censured long serving and highly conservative Republican Senator Cale Case.
There is a move to unseat the head of the Laramie County GOP following the loss of most of its delegates.
May 16, 2022
The new legislative district maps are out. Here they are:
Some have changed, so it's best to check. FWIW, in Eastern Natrona County, including areas of Casper, and western Converse County, it's particularly important to check.
May 27 is the final date for candidates to register to run.
May 17, 2022
It seems that getting attacked by the Republican Party has freed Liz Cheney to say things that we normally wouldn't have expected, to wit:
The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.
Only those in bold are actually registered right now. All are Republicans. Gordon will win the primary so all of the other candidats are quixotic to some degree.
Mark Gordon: Gordon is the incumbent. He's going to get the nomination, and he's going to win the General Election.
Brent Bien. Yet another retired career military officer returned and running for office, something we've been seeing a lot of in recent years.
Harold Bjork. Who Bjork isn't really clear, but he's started a Facebook and internet campaign for Governor.
Aaron Nab: Nab is a truck driver from Southeastern Wyoming who views Gordon the same way that Hageman supporters view Cheney.
James Scott Quick: Owner of an oilfield service company in Douglas, which is about all that is obvious about him so far.
Rex Rammell: Rammell is a perennial and unelectable candidate who ran last time and will again. His views can be characterized as being on the fringe right/libertarian side.
Treasurer's Race
Again, only Republicans so far.
Curt Meier. He's the incumbent.
Bill Gallup: I don't know who he is, but he's running.
This race is heating up.
Republican candidates.
Brian Schroeder. Appointed incumbent.
Megan Degenfelder. She has an education background but who has been working in the petroleum industry, announced for Superintendent of Public Education. She was once employed as the department's Chief Policy Officer.
Thomas Kelly: One of the three finalist for this position, and hence one of the controversial ones. He's from the far right and won't go anywhere.
Democratic Candidates
Sergio A. Maldonado, Sr. Long time Fremont County political figure and, I believe, an enrolled member of one of the Wind River tribes.
Something ought to be said about primary races coming in elsewhere, which in my view have been badly analyzed by the press. Frankly, at least up until yesterday, Trump's picks have not done that well. Yes, J. D. Vance one in his primary, but the author with populist roots may have anyway. Up until yesterday Trump endorsements have not, in fact, been the deciding factor in races.
Yesterday they weren't really either, maybe. Trump endorsed the winning candidate in the GOP Governor's race, but last week, when it was obvious he was going to win.
Having said that, the PA Senate race is too close to call, with Mehmet Oz neck and neck with David McCormick. There was some thought that a third candidate would pull ahead.
Why on earth anyone would vote for Dr. Oz simply defies description.
Well, maybe it is explicable. Oz is described as MAGA, McCormick as More MAGA, and the third candidate was Ultra MAGA.
Still, the thought the race would develop with Oz as the least MAGA candidate and a credible contender is a scary thought, as Oz is . . .well OZ.
Idaho's Governor Brad Little easily beat far right Janice McGeachin, who is is lt. governor. McGeachen was Trump endorsed, but you'll probalby see little press about her going down in flames.
CPAC starts its convention this week in Hungary.
May 19, 2022
Yesterday controversial right wing House member Chuck Gray, who had filed to be reelected to his Casper seat, announced for Secretary of State, leaving his Natrona County Republican spot open and, unusually anymore, only a Democratic contender presently running for that office.
Gray is a far right politician who had announced early that he was running against Cheney. That campaign never took off. He obviously aspired to higher office, so now he's taking a run at Secretary of State, but he almost certainly has in the back of his mind, or maybe the forefront, running for higher office yet once the opportunity presents itself, which it likely will after Governor Gordon serves out his next term.
Gray has not been universally popular in the legislature and was the center of a story in which he was insulted in an open mike moment last session. He became involved in the erroneous Arizona ballot problem episode after the last Presidential election.
Donald Trump urged Mehmet Oz to declare victory before the votes were done being counted in the PA Senatorial primary race.
May 20, 2022
WyoFile, the online newspaper, has just published a long article on the head of the Wyoming GOP. It's intersting reading, which will be guaranteed to offend at least some of his followers. The article is here:
After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion “rights” and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance. I have accordingly sent her a Notification to this effect, which I have now made public.
We bring that up as it now seems relatively clear that Trump's endorsement of Hageman may have been due to Lummis.
In an interview with KTWO Radio, the former President stated:
I had some good people. I really did have some good people, but I just felt that [Hageman] was very good and your wonderful senator up there ... who’s a tremendous person by the way, was very strong on her, wanted her very badly
Barasso's office denied that they had any role in picking a contender for the seat. Lummis' office did not, but they darned nearly confirmed obliquely. Lummis has called Hageman "an inspired choice".
Lummis was inspired in the 2020 race to switch her tune on Trump, going from somebody who had stated she was going to hold her nose and vote from Trump to backing the Ted Cruz effort to question the election. Here it appears that whatever occurred in 2020 between her and Cheney may not have been forgotten.
Or at least it could be interpreted that way. Given as the only notable difference between Cheney and Hageman on at least domestic issues (foreign policy issues haven't entered the race in any fashion yet) is support for Trump, Lummis may have well felt that Hageman was an establishment Republican who was willing to go along with Trump for political reasons, which might very well be said of Lummis too, rather than a real radical like Bouchard or Gray, who were contenders at the time.
A Democrat has now filed for the Governor's race, the same being Theresa Livingston. She's apparently from Worland, has run for the State Senate from there, and has no chance whatsoever.
May 26, cont.
Liz Cheney officially filed for reelection, releasing this video at the same time.
Also, the Trump rally released information that a collection of Trump suppoerters and accolytes will appear at the Hageman rally in Casper this Saturday, including Florida Congressman Gaetz and Colorado Congressman Boebert. Frank Eathorne, head of the Wyoming GOP will also speak, although a party head is not really an appropriate speaker in a contest between two Republicans. Reps. Kevin McCarthy of California, Elise Stefanik of New York and Ohio's Jim Jordan will appear in a special video address, making it plain where they stand in regard to the Republican internicene dispute.
Interestingly, Trump's star has been waning as some of his primary choices in other states have been losing.
Last Prior edition:
I don't normally combine these two, but today offers an interesting example of early 20th Century conditions in the form of the centennial of the birth of Charles Bronson.
I don't idealize actors the way some people do, and that would include Bronson. But his early life really provides a glimpse of how things were in "the good old days". Indeed, of his films, only the short speech in the film The Dirty Dozen about why his character speaks German mirrors his own origins. Bronson spoke, in addition to English, Lithuanian, Russian and Greek, unlike German and Polish like his character in the film.
Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, the eleventh of fifteen children of his parents. His father was a Lithuanian immigrant who changed the family name to that from. Bučinskis. His father was actually a Lithuanian Lipka Tatar, many of whom are Muslims. His parents were however Roman Catholic.
Bronson's family was desperately poor. His father died when he was ten and he began working in Pennsylvania coal mines at that age. He nonetheless graduated from high school, being the first member of the family to do so. He was a full-time miner until 1943, when he joined the Army and entered the Army Air Corps. He ultimately became a B29 crewman and was wounded in action over Japan. After the war he returned to Pennsylvanian and worked odd jobs until breaking into acting in the early 1950s. Unlike many of his acting contemporaries, his wartime service had nothing to do with acting at all. He was acting in movies by 1951 and had regular television and even leading television roles by the mid 1950s. His breakthrough star role came with The Magnificent Seven in 1960.
Reviews like this tend to become hagiographies, and I don't intend for that to be the case. In fact, I don't like most of the Bronson movies from the 1970s, when his star power was at its height. Interestingly, he broke into full-scale stardom after age 50, which is rare in acting, but a lot of his roles of that period were cartoonish violent exercises. He was married three times, the first time to aspiring 18 year old actress Harriet Tendler which ended in divorce nearly twenty years later, then to Jill Ireland, and lastly, after her death, to Kim Weeks. His character in real life always remained hard to get at as he was intensely private and shy, but he was known to hold grudges for protracted periods, seemingly caused, in some people's minds, by lasting surprise that he'd succeeded in movies.
So what, if any, lessons can we draw from this life?
Well, for one thing, while poverty certainly remains in the United States, early childhood stories like Bronson's have gone from common to extremely rare. We don't read about families of fifteen much, and if we do, they tend to more often than not be regarded as interesting oddities, like the now fallen Dugger family. Bronson's family was big, because it was big, and there's not much else to that.
We also don't see miner works himself to death and then boys begin mining as kids stories either. But at that time, that was common. Child labor laws were in effect by 1920, but in the coal mining regions of Appalachia, they obviously weren't really enforced. This is an American story we thankfully don't see much of, even with the very poor, and even with immigrants.
It also demonstrates that even relatively recently an era remained in which people could be intensely private, even secretive. Surprisingly little is known about Bronson as a person. Finding out what happened to his fourteen siblings is darned near impossible, other than that they all retained the Buchinsky name. We know that he was raised in a Catholic family, and his fist father-in-law, who was Jewish, objected to the marriage partially on those grounds, but we don't really know how observant Bronson was, if at all, as an adult. Indeed, some rumor mills have him as a Lutheran or Russian Orthodox believer, both of which are unlikely. He clearly wasn't observant in regard to the Catholic views on marriage. He was a Nixon supporter and his series of early 1970s crime films are of a stout right-wing vigilante character, neither of which tells us more about his deeper views. We just don't know that much about him.
American success story or American tragedy? Hard to say.
To
the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ordinaries in Peace
and Communion with the Apostolic See. Venerable Brothers, Health and Apostolic
Benediction.
1.
We regard as most opportune that solemn festivities will be held for the
seventh Centenary of the Third Order of Penance. Many motives prompt Us to
exalt the occasion in the eyes of the Catholic world, in virtue of Our
Apostolic authority, but before all is the hope of the incontestable advantages
which the Christian people will draw therefrom.
2.
In the next place there is the personal remembrance which they evoke for Us. We
love to recall that in 1882, when the centenary of his birth spread amongst the
mass of the Faithful the fervent cultus of Francis of Assisi, We wished to
range Ourselves amongst the disciples of that great Patriarch, and received
regularly the habit of the Tertiaries in the celebrated Church of Ara Coeli, served
by the Friars Minors. Today, placed by Providence on the chair of the Prince of
the Apostles, We are particularly happy to seize this occasion to testify Our
devotion to Saint Francis in exhorting the Catholics of the entire world to
affiliate themselves with eagerness or to remain faithfully attached to this
Franciscan institution, which today responds marvelously to the needs of
society.
3.
That which matters now is to replace before all eyes the true moral physiognomy
of Saint Francis. The Saint Francis of Assisi whom certain moderns present to
us, and who springs from the imagination of the Modernists, this man, guarded
in his obedience to the Apostolic See, a specimen of a vague and vain
religiosity, is assuredly neither Francis of Assisi nor a saint.
4.
The striking and immortal services rendered by Francis to the Christian cause,
which have shown in him the defender whom God in such troubled times reserved
for the Church, found, as it were, their coronation in the Third Order. Is
there anything which proves more clearly the greatness and violence of the
burning desire which consumed his soul to spread throughout the whole earth the
glory of Jesus Christ?
5.
Profoundly saddened by the misfortunes which the Church was then passing
through, Francis conceived the incredible design of renewing everything
conformably to the principles of the Christian law. After having founded a
double religious family, one of Brothers, the other of Sisters, who pledged
themselves by solemn vows to imitate the humility of the Cross, Francis, in the
impossibility of opening the cloister to all whom the desire of being formed in
his school drew to him, resolved to procure, even for souls living in the
whirlpool of the world, the means to tend to Christian perfection. He founded,
then, an Order properly called Tertiaries, differing from the two other Orders
in that it would not bear the bond of the religious vows, but would be
characterized by the same simplicity of life and the same spirit of penance.
Thus the project which no founder of a regular Order had yet imagined, to cause
the religious life to be practiced by all, Francis first conceived the idea of
and the grace of God gave him to realize it with the greatest success. We have
no other proof of it than this beautiful homage of Thomas de Celano: “Marvelous
workman, whose example, direction, and teachings have this admirable result, to
renew in both sexes the Church of Christ and to lead to triumph a triple
phalanx of souls preoccupied with their salvation” (I Cel. xv. 40).
6.
We shall confine Ourselves to this testimony of so authoritative a
contemporary; of itself it suffices amply to show to what a depth and to what
an extent this initiative of Francis of Assisi shook the popular masses, what
notable and salutary reparations it worked therein.
7.
Uncontested founder of the Third Order, as he was of the two first, Francis was
for it, further, without doubt, the most wise legislator. We know that for this
work he had the precious aid of Cardinal Ugolino, who later, under the name of
Gregory IX, was to make illustrious this Apostolic See, and who, after having
whilst he lived, maintained the closest relations with the Patriarch of Assisi,
elevated later on his tomb a magnificent and sumptuous basilica. As to the rule
of the Tertiaries, no one is ignorant that it was regularly approved by Our
predecessor, Nicholas IV.
8.
But We shall not, Venerable Brothers, delay Ourselves too long on these
questions; Our object is here, before all, to bring to light the character,
and, as one says the particular spirit of the third Order, for the Church
expects from it special advantages for the Christian people in this age, as
hostile to virtue and to faith as was the epoch of Francis of Assisi. With his
profound sense of situations and times Our predecessor,
Leo
XIII, of happy memory, desirous to adapt better the regulation of life of the
Tertiaries to the social level of each of the faithful, brought, by the
Constitution Misericors Dei Filius (1883) to, their statutes or rule most wise
motivations which should put them in accord with the actual state of society;
he modified it in some secondary points responding but imperfectly to our
customs of today.
9.
“Let none believe,” said he, “that these changes take away anything whatsoever
from the essential principles of that Order. We wish absolutely that they
remain in their integrity, and secure from any branch.” The rule of the Third
Order has then undergone only retouchings of detail; its range and spirit have
been respected, which remain what their holy founder willed them. Now it is Our
conviction that the spirit of the Third Order, altogether impregnated with the
wisdom of the Gospel, would be a powerful element for the making healthy of
private and public orals if it were spread anew as in the times in which by his
word and example Francis preached everywhere the Kingdom of God.
10.
What Francis wished to shine out, above all, in his Tertiaries, and which ought
to be as their characteristic mark, is fraternal charity, most watchful
guardian of peace and concord. Knowing that charity is the special commandment
brought by Jesus Christ and the synthesis of the whole Christian law, Saint
Francis was careful to make of it the spiritual rule of his children; and he
attained this result, that the Third Order rendered naturally the greatest
service to the entire human family.
11.
Further, Francis was powerless to contain in the recesses of his heart the
seraphic love which consumed him for God and his brothers; he was compelled to
permit it to overflow on all the souls which he could reach. Thus it was that
he set himself to reform the individual and family life of his disciples in
forming them to the practice of the Christian virtues with such ardor as would
make one believe that it was all his program. But he did not dream that he
ought to limit himself to this; individual conversion was but an instrument of
which he availed himself to reawaken in the bosom of society love of Christian
wisdom, and to gain all men for Christ.
12.
The preoccupation which had moved Francis of Assisi to make of the members of
the Third Order messengers and apostles of peace in the midst of the bitter
discords and civil wars of his time was ours in the days wherein the
conflagration of a horrible war was kindled in almost the entire world; it has
not ceased to be so at a moment in which, here and there, the smoking hearth of
this ill-extinguished conflagration still shoots out flames.
13.
To this scourge had been added the interior crisis which the nations are going
through, first of the forgetfulness and prolonged disdain of Christian
principles. We wish to say that this fight for the sharing of goods which sets
in conflict the different classes of society is so relentless that it threatens
already to lead to a universal catastrophe.
14.
In this so vast field, wherein, as representative of the pacific King, We have
lavished Our especially attentive cares, We make an appeal for the zealous help
of all those who claim for themselves Christian peace, but especially for the
collaboration of the Tertiaries. They will exert a marvelous influence in
restoring concord in spirit the day wherein their number and their efforts will
be developed. It is, then, desirable that in every city, town, and even in each
village, the Third Order count henceforth a sufficient group of members, not of
inactive adherents satisfied with the mere title of Tertiaries, but instead, of
those who spend themselves with zeal for their own salvation and the salvation
of their brothers. Why even should not the various Catholic associations which
multiply everywhere, associations of youth, of workmen, of women, not affiliate
themselves to the Third Order to continue to work for the glory of Jesus Christ
and the triumph of the Church with the same zeal that Francis had for peace and
charity?
15.
The peace for which humanity cries out is not that which the laborious
treaty-making of human prudence can decree, but that which Christ brought by
its message: “My peace I bring you; I do not give it as the world gives it.” (John
14: 27). The accords between State and State or between class and class which
men have been able to shadow forth will not be durable, and will not have the
force of true peace except on condition that they are founded on the
pacification of hearts; and that itself is only possible if duty has bridled
the passions whence all conflicts spring. “Whence comes,” asks the Apostle
James,” wars and quarrels amongst you? Is it not from your passions, which
combat in your members?” (James 4:1.) Now to regulate wisely all the movements
inherent to nature in such a way as to make man the master, not the slave, of
his passions, submissive himself, and docile to the divine will, the hierarchy,
which is at the base of universal peace, that belongs to Christ, and its action
manifests a marvelous efficacy in the family of Franciscan Tertiaries.
16.
This Order, having for its object, as We have said to form its members in
Christian perfection, even whilst they may be plunged in the embarrassments of
the age, so true is it that no state of life is incompatible with sanctity, it
happens, as it were, necessarily, where the Tertiaries in numbers observe
faithfully their rule, that they are for all about them a source of
encouragement in fulfilling their duties, and even to tending towards a
perfection of life superior to the exigencies of the common law. The testimony
rendered by the Divine Master to those who attached themselves closely to Him:
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16) may
justly be applied to the sons of Francis who, if they observe the evangelical
counsels of mind and heart as far as possible in the world, may lawfully put to
their account the words of the Apostle: “As for us, we have received not the
spirit of this world, but the Spirit which comes from God” (1 Cor. 11:12).
17.
They will seek, then — completely strangers themselves to the spirit of the
world — to introduce the Spirit of Jesus Christ in the current of social life
on every side to which they have access.
18.
Now there are two passions today dominant in the profound lawlessness of morals
– an unlimited desire of riches and an insatiable thirst for pleasures. It is
this which marks with a shameful stigma our epoch; whilst it goes ceaselessly
from progress to progress in the order of all which touches the well-being and
convenience of life, it seems that in the superior order of honesty and of
moral rectitude a lamentable retrogression leads it back to the ignominies of
ancient paganism. In that measure, in truth, wherein men lose sight of eternal
goods which Heaven reserved for them, they permit themselves to be more taken
in by the deceitful mirage of the ephemeral goods here below, and once their
souls are turned down towards the earth, an easy descent leads them insensibly
to relax themselves in virtue, to experience repugnance for spiritual things,
and to relish nothing outside the seductions of pleasure. Hence the general
situation which we note: with some the desire to acquire riches or to increase
their patrimony knows no bounds; others no longer know, as formerly, how to
bear the trials which are the usual result of want or poverty; and at the very
hour in which the rivalries We have pointed out set by the ears the rich and
the proletariat a great number seem to wish to further excite the hatred of the
poor by an unbridled luxury which accompanies the most revolting corruption.
19.
From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so
many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they
do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every
honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those
toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not
suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear
to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the
Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the
Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We
speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into
fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine
anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty.
20.
In considering attentively this state of things, the Tertiaries will understand
what it is that our epoch expects from the disciples of Saint Francis. If they
bring their gaze back to the life of their Father, they will see what perfect
and living resemblance to Jesus Christ, above all in His flight from
satisfactions and his love of trials in this life, had he whom they call the
Poverello, and who had received in his flesh the stigmata of the Crucified. It
is for them to show that they remain worthy of him by embracing poverty, at
least in spirit, in renouncing themselves, and in bearing each one his cross.
21.
In what concerns specially the Tertiary Sisters, We ask of them by their dress
and manner of wearing it, to be models of holy modesty for other ladies and
young girls; that they be thoroughly convinced that the best way for them to be
of use to the Church and to Society is to labor for the improvement of morals.
22.
Moreover, after having created divers charitable works for the solace of the
indigent in their wants of every kind, the members of this Order would wish,
further, We are sure, to cause those of their brothers who are deprived of
goods more precious than those of earth, to benefit by their charity.
23.
Here comes back to Us the memory of the counsel of the Apostle Peter, asking
Christians to be, by the holiness of their lives, models for the Gentiles, and
this in order that, “remarking your good works, they glorify God in the day of
His visitation” (1 Peter 2:12). Like them, the Franciscan Tertiaries ought, by
the integrity of their faith, the holiness of their lives, and the ardor of
their zeal, spread abroad the good words of Christ, to warn those of their
brethren who have gone out from the road, and to press them to reenter upon it.
Behold that which the Church asks, that which she expects from them.
24.
As to Us, we cherish the hope that the coming celebration will mark for the
Third Order a new development, and We doubt not that you yourselves, Venerable
Brothers, as well as the other pastors of souls, will make great efforts to
cause to flourish again the groups of tertiaries where they vegetate, and to
create others everywhere possible, and to render all flourishing, as much by
the observation of the rule as by the number of their members.
25.
In truth what is in hand definitely is, by imitation of Francis of Assisi to
open to the greatest possible number of souls the way which will lead them back
to Christ; it in this return that resides the firmest hope of salvation for
society. The word of Saint Paul, “Be my imitators, as I myself am of Christ” (1
Cor. 11:1), we can with good right put upon the lips of Francis, who, in
imitating the Apostle, has become the most faithful image and copy of Jesus
Christ.
26.
Thus, in order that these celebrations bear still more fruit, upon the
instances of the Ministers General of the three Franciscan families of the
First Order, we accord the following favors drawn from the treasury of the Holy
Church:
I.
In all Churches wherein the Third Order is canonically erected, and wherein
will be celebrated by a Triduum the solemnities of the Centenary in the year to
run from April 16, next: the Tertiaries each day of the Triduum, the other
Faithful once only, may gain a plenary indulgence from their sins. All the
Faithful who, with contrite hearts, will visit the Blessed Sacrament in one of
these churches may gain at each visit (toties quoties) an indulgence of seven
years.
II.
All the altars of these churches will be deemed for those three days privileged
altars; during the course of the Triduum every priest may celebrate there the
Mass of Saint Francis, following the rite of the Mass pro re gravi et simul
publice de causa according to the general rubrics of the Roman Missal inserted
in the last Vatican edition.
III.
All the priests who serve these churches may, during these same days, bless
beads, medals, and other objects of piety, enrich them with Apostolic
indulgences, and apply to beads the Crozier and Bridgettine indulgences.
As
pledge of Divine favors, and in testimony of Our paternal benevolence, We
accord with all Our heart, to you, Venerable Brothers, and to all the members
of the Third Order, the Apostolic Benediction.
Given
at Rome, near Saint Peter’s, the Feast of the Epiphany of the year 1921, in the
seventh year of Our Pontificate.
