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liberty accorded us by the sacred ministry which we exercise, who are the candidates for whom you ought to vote on account of their good principles. We will now instruct you as to who are those who do not merit your confidence.
Assuredly, our very dear brethren, those do not deserve your suffrages who show themselves hostile to religion, and to the divine principles which it teaches; who advance and maintain in their speeches and writings, errors which the Church condemns; who, in order to secure their election at all costs, make use of corruption, lies, frauds and the excess of intemperance; who refuse their Curés the right to give instructions with regard to the conscientious duties devolving upon the candidates as well as the electors, pretending that they ought not in any way to mix themselves up in elections; who would have the Church separated from the State; who support doctrines which are condemned by the Syllabus; who oppose all intervention by the Pope, Bishop or Priests, in the affairs of the Governments, as if these Governments were not subject to the principles that God has revealed to the Church for the good government of the people; who presume to teach that the Church has nothing to do with political questions, and that she errs when she meddles with them; who criticize and blame the pastorals and circulars of the Bishops and the instructions of Pastors relative to elections; who, in spite of their protestations in favor of religion, effectively favor and openly praise the papers, books, and associations of men which the Church condemns; who do not fear to say that the Priests ought to remain secluded in the Church and the sacristy, and who organize themselves to prevent them, if they can, from teaching sound political principles, such as the Church herself teaches; who dare to predict that the Priests will be persecuted, ill-treated, imprisoned and exiled, in Canada, as they are in Germany and other countries, if they continue, as they are doing, to engage in elections.
Again, in his other Pastoral, read at all the Churches on Sunday, 4th April. 1875, he proscribes the Montreal Witness, and denounces spiritual penalties and disabilities here and hereafter against all who should subscribe for or even read that paper.
Again in his Pastoral Letter of 3rd October, 1875,
