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Latin American Bishops of the First Vatican Council, 1869–1870

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Charles J. Beirne S. J.
Charles J. Beirne S. J.*
Affiliation:
Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland
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Extract

In the summer of 1870, Napoleon III desperately withdrew his troops from the stronghold where they had been staving off Italian patriots from the greatest prize of the drive for unification, the city of Rome. Bismarck’s armies were sweeping west, a thrust which would end in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. This Franco-Prussian War also emptied the Roman Catholic bishops out of St. Peter’s Basilica where they had been meeting since the previous December at the First Vatican Council.

The parents of most of the Council fathers were born in the decades before the French Revolution. The sons grew up during the Age of Metternich when the firemen of Europe, the Concert Powers, tried to stamp out the embers of the Revolution. Many of these men had just been ordained, a few already wore episcopal mitres when most of Europe exploded in 1848. As they assumed leadership in the Church, Garibaldi and Cavour were evicting Pope Pius IX from most of the Papal States.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , January 1969 , pp. 265 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1969

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References

1 The following Latin American bishops attended the Council:

Wenceslaus Achaval, San Juan de Cuyo, Argentina

Ignacio Arciga, Michoacan, México

Carlos Bermúdez, Popayán, Colombia

Juan Ilario Boset, Mérida, Venezuela

Francisco Cardozo Ayres, Pernambuco-Olinda, Brazil

Pablo Benigno Carrión, Puerto Rico

José Ignacio Checa, Quito, Ecuador

Antonio Clarét y Clará, Titular Archbishop of Trianopolis, formerly of Santiago de

Cuba

Calisto Clavigo, La Paz, Bolivia

Carlos Maria Colina, Tlaxcala, México

Manuel Teodoro del Valle

Sebastião Dias Larangeira, São Pedro do Rio Grande, Brazil

Juan Antonio dos Santos, Diamantina, Brazil

Luis Antonio dos Santos, Fortaleza, Brazil

Mariano Escalada, Buenos Aires, Argentina

José Antonio Esteves de Toral, Cuenca, Ecuador

José Gelabert, Paraná, Argentina

Ignacio Matéo Guerra, Zacatecas, México

Silvestro Guevara, Caracas, Venezuela

Juan María Huerta, Puno-Trujillo, Peru

Pedro María da Lacerda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Pelagio Antonio Labastida y Davalos, México City

José M. Lizarzaburu, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Anselmo Llorente, San José de Costa Rica

Pedro Loza, Guadalajara, México

Antonio de Macedo Costa, Belém do Pará, Brazil

Vicente Marquez, Antequera-Oaxáca, Mexico

Jacinto María Martínez, Havana, Cuba

José Francisco Moreyra, Ayacucho, Peru

Ignacio Ordóñez, Riobamba, Ecuador

Juan Batista Ormaechea, Tulancingo, México

José Manuel Orrego, La Serena, Chile

Bernardo Pinol y Aycinena, Guatemala

Pedro José Puch y Solana, Charcal-La Plata, Bolivia

Manuel Restrepo, Pasto, Colombia

Bonaventura Rizo, Salta, Argentina

José Ipólito Salas, Concepción, Chile

Ambrosio Serrano, Chilapa, México

Manoel da Silveira, São Salvador da Bahía, Brazil

Juan Francisco Solar, San Carlos de Ancud, Chile

Francisco Suárez Peredo, Vera Cruz, México

Luís de Tola, Auxiliary in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Bonifacio Toscano, Nueva Pamplona, Colombia

Manuel Ulloa, Nicaragua

Rafael Valentino Valdivieso, Santiago de Chile

Eduardo Vásquez, Panamá, Colombia

Germán Villalvaso, Chiapas, México

Juan Félix Zepeda, Comayuga, Honduras

The list of those who attended the first session can be found in Mansi, Joanes D., Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, ed. Petit, L. and Martin, J. B. (Leipzig, 1923-1927), L, 22–35 Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Mansi. Tomás Iglesias attended the Council as Patriarch of the West Indies. This title, created by Leo X at the beginning of the sixteenth century at the request of the King of Spain, was purely honorary and gave no jurisdiction over Latin America. For a few years, the title also included the role of vicar general for the Spanish army. Fisquet, M. Honoré , Actes et Histoire du Concile Oecumenique de Rome (Paris, 1871), V, XIVGoogle Scholar. Juan Cardinal Morena, although born in Guatemala, lived most of his life in Spain and was Cardinal Archbishop of Valladolid. Some of the Latin American and Spanish bishops used to meet in his apartment. Maccarrone, Michele, Il Concilio Vaticano I e Il Giornale di Mons. Arrigoni (2 vols.; Padua, 1966), I, 416 Google Scholar.

2 Caillet-Bois, Ricardo R., “The Rio de la Plata and the French Revolution,” in Humphreys, R.A. and Lynch, John, eds., The Origins of the Latin American Revolutions, 1808–1826 (New York, 1966), pp. 94–105 Google Scholar.

3 Mecham, J. Lloyd, Church and State in Latin America (Chapel Hill, rev. ed., 1966), pp. 3–37 Google Scholar.

4 Mecham, pp. 163–64.

5 Mansi, L, 570.

6 For example, the four Colombian bishops who attended the Council had been exiled previously by the Mosquera government: Bermúdez, Restrepo, Toscano, and Vásquez. Mecham, p. 124.

7 Thirty-eight archbishops and bishops did not attend for reason of health or the needs of their dioceses. A complete list of the Latin American hierarchy can be found in the Annuario Pontificio (Rome, 1870)Google Scholar. Four Latin Americans died in Rome at the Council: Cardozo Ayres, Escalada, Suárez Peredo, and Vasquez.

8 Hennesey, James J. S. J., The First Council of the Vatican: The American Experience (New York, 1963), p. 40 Google Scholar. See also Aubert, R., Le Pontificat du Pié IX (Paris, 1954), pp. 311–67 Google Scholar.

9 Mansi, L, 45.

10 Ibid., L, 51.

11 Forty out of the 48 in attendance signed petitions for the definition. See Mansi, LI, 646 ff. for the names. See also Hennesey, especially pp. 42–43.

12 Mansi, L, 50. Rafael Valdivieso had battled with the civil officials but took the oath of allegiance to the government in 1848. Pius IX abrogated this oath in 1854. Valdivieso and President Montt opposed each other in the 1850’s over a number of issues but relations with the government had smoothed out enough by 1869 for a 20,000 peso subsidy to be granted to the bishops for the trip to the Council. For details see Arévalo, Julio Duque et al., Historia Eclesiástica de Chile (Sanitago de Chile, 1945), II, 160–180 Google Scholar. See also Pike, Frederick B., “Church and State in Peru and Chile since 1840: A Study in Contrasts,” American Historical Review, 73 (October, 1967), 34, 37.Google Scholar

13 Mansi, L, 120.

14 Mansi, L, 159.

15 Browne, Henry J., ed., “The Letters of Bishop McQuaid from the Vatican Council,” Catholic Historical Review, 41 (January, 1956), 416 Google Scholar.

16 Mansi, L, 267.

17 Ibid., L, 269. “In quocumque statu homo conditus fuisset, nunquam esset in potestate ad libertatem hominis seligere cultum. . . .”

18 Ibid., “. . . repugnat rationi et praxi et auctoritati ecclesiae, et est impossibile.”

19 Ibid., L, 454.

20 Ibid., L, 455. Dehon, Leone, Diario del Concilio Vaticano I, ed. Carbone, V. (Rome, 1962), p. 76 Google Scholar. “Mgr. Ormaechea, de Tulancingo, prélat espagnol [sic], est intelligible. Les pauves sténographes y perdent leur latin.”

21 Ibid., L, 457. “Desiderandum est ut iterum atque iterum declaretur quod in synodo dioecesana unus tantum episcopus votum resolutivum habet: caeteri omnes consultivum.”

22 Ibid., I, 457. “Quod si fuerit vir scientia canonica et praxi praeditus, quamvis sacerdos non sit, praeferri debet sacerdoti has non habenti qualitates.”

23 Ibid., L, 459. At least five other Latin American bishops at the Council had held posts in the assemblies or senates of their respective nations according to their biographies in Fisquet, M. Honore, Actes et Histoire du Concile Oecuminique de Rome (Paris, 1871)Google Scholar, Achaval (Argentina), V, 3; Boset (Venezuela), V, 76; Clavigo (Bolivia), V, 122; Llórente (Costa Rica), VI, 188; Puch y Solana (Bolivia), VI, 77.

24 Dabbs, Jack A., The French Army in Mexico, 1861–1867 (The Hague, 1963), p. 77 Google Scholar.

25 Callcott, Wilfrid H., Church and State in Mexico, 1822–1857 (Durham, 1926), pp. 252–53 Google Scholar.

26 Mansi, L, 450 ff. See also Ramírez, Pedro Rivera S. J., “Mexico en el Concilio Vaticano I,” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia, 18 (1959), 18–45 Google Scholar. Rivera’s account is heavily slanted in favor of the bishops. He describes the government as one “en manos de rabiosos anticlericales.” (p. 33).

27 Ibid., L, 463. Bishop Del Valle also submitted a written suggestion for the schema on infallibility in the same vein: “Unde damnamus errores dicentium, electionem pastorům ecclesiae pertinere de jure ad populum, aut esse jus immanens, naturale et majestaticum potentiae saecularis, ab iliaque neque avelli, neque alienari posse.” Mansi, LI, 831.

28 Ibid., I, 464.

29 Ibid., L, 618. Sixty-six year old del Valle had been ordained a Capuchin priest but became a secular priest after his order was expelled from Spain. He served many years in his native Peru before he was consecrated bishop of the newly created diocese of Huanco in 1865. Fisquet, VII, 236–37.

30 Mansi, L, 619. “. . . ad negotiationem, spectacula publica aut ad loca prostitutionum facilius adeunt.”

31 Ibid., L, 658. “Volebas ne quod concilium oecumenicum tale pronuntiaret decretum: si quis sacerdos postea occidet archiepiscopum Parisiensum, anathema sit? “

32 Ibid., L, 652.

33 Ibid., L, 645. “. . . quasi nubes locustarum infensissima maria permeant et ad Americae terras advolant.”

34 Ibid., L, 647.

35 The full story of the Freemasonry incident can be found in Sr.Thornton, Mary Crescentia, The Church and Freemasonry in Brazil, 1872–1875: A Study in Regalism (Washington, 1948)Google Scholar. See also Macedo Costa’s pastoral letter on the occasion: “A Maçonaria em Opposiçao á Moral, á Igreja e ao Estado” (Recife, 1873)Google Scholar. The Pan American Union library in Washington has a copy of the pastoral which indicates the strong feelings involved in the dispute.

36 Martin, Percy Alvin, “Causes of the Collapse of the Brazilian Empire,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 4 (1921), 4–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See, however, Boehrer, George C.A., “The Church and the Overthrow of the Brazilian Monarchy,” HAHR, XLVIII, 3 (August, 1968), 380–401 [Editor’s note]Google Scholar.

37 Mansi, L, 825.

38 Ibid., “. . . oportet ut ecclesia catholica murum erigat pro domo Israel, praecipiendo omnibus et singulis ut habeant catechismum unum talem . . .”

39 Ibid., 826. “Catechismus est lac ecclesiae . . . terra repleta est innumeris mulieribus: invenimus mulleres colorem album, colorem nigrum, colorem aeneum, colorem aureum praeferentes; sed tamen quantum ad lac ejusdem est naturuae, earumden proprietatum, semper album, semper innocentiam significans. Quapropter si catechismus est lac ecclesiae; quaecumque sint illae matres, . . . eumdem catechismum, qui est lac quo nutriuntur fideles . . .”

40 Ibid., LI, 153. “Oportet, ut abstineat a quaestionibus pure scholasticis.”

41 Mansi, LI, 216. “Venerabiles patres, quid est hoc ordinarium ecclesiae magisterium, nisi magisterium Romani pontificis, capitis ecclesiae, vicarii Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui post decem et octo saecula ecclesiam docet, et infallibiliter docuit, et infallibiliter docebit usque ad consummationem mundi.”

42 Ibid., LI, 327.

43 Ibid., LI, 216. “Nos sumus lux, nos sumus Christi, illi autuem sunt tenebrae, sunt Belial . . . Ergo nulla est vera religiosa societas, nisi illa vera sancta ecclesia catholica.”

44 Leiseca, Juan Martín, Apuntes para la Historia Eclesiástica de Cuba (Havana, 1938), pp. 172–76 Google Scholar.

45 Mansi, LI, 238–39. “. . . efficitur ut fidei certitudo infinita quodammodo sit.”

46 Ibid., LI, 381 ff.

47 Ibid., LII, 126. A number of prelates sent in written suggestions for minor changes and clarifications in the text. They are contained in Mansi, LI, 679 ff. Moreno served on a special subcommittee discussing war and peace. See Hennesey, p. 287.

48 Ibid., LII, 232. An excellent account of Salas’s role at the Council is Cruz, Adolfo Etchegaray, SS. CC, “Mons. José Hipólito Salas en el Concilio Vaticano I,” Historia, 2 (1962-63), 134–67 Google Scholar.

49 Ibid., LII, 233.

50 Ibid., LII, 234. “Ego ex republica venio, ego republicanus sum, sed catholicus apostolicus romanus et etiam, parcite mihi, ultramontanus (risus). Ratio igitur agendi politica guberniorum non est catholica (ego unam exceptionem agnosco) non est catholica, sed regalista, jansenistica, febroniana, rationalistica, aut massonica, et quibusdam in locis est etiam athea et judaica.” For a fuller development of Salas’s views on relations between church and state see Etchegaray, p. 147.

51 Ibid., LII, 235.

52 Ibid., LII, 238.

53 Leiseca, pp. 158–60.

54 Mansi, LII, 364. “Utinam consummare valeam sacrificium, anno 1856 inchoatum, descendendo ex ambone post praedicationem de fide et morte! Ego stigmata Jesu in corpore meo porto, in maxilla, et brachio dextro. Utinam consummare possem cursum meum confitendo ex abundantia cordis hanc veritatem: Credo romanum pontificem esse infallibilem.” Claret actually had a scar from a would-be assassin’s knife attack in 1856.

55 Mansi, LII, 636.

56 Ibid., LII, 514.

57 Ibid., LII, 577. Kenrick’s speech appears in Mansi, LI, 1060. See also Hennesey, pp. 244 ff.

58 Ibid., LII, 578.

59 Ibid., LII, 1026.

60 Ibid., LII, 1302.

61 Ibid., LII, 1293.