As if to define with perfect clearness, in the face of the modern world,
the traditional claim of the Roman See, there has issued from the
Vatican, within the last few weeks, a Decree which sets the Roman clergy
above the law of the land. This ordinance, which is issued _motu
proprio_ by the Pope, is the re-enactment and more exact definition of
an old law. It lays down the rule that whoever, without permission from
any ecclesiastical authority, summons any ecclesiastical persons to a
lay tribunal and compels them to attend publicly such a court, incurs
instant excommunication. The excommunication is automatic, and
absolution from it is specially reserved to the Roman Pontiff. This fact
adds enormously to the terror of it, especially among a people like the
Irish Roman Catholics. Great discussion has taken place as to the
countries in which this Decree is in force. No one was surprised to hear
that Germany was exempt. Archbishop Walsh, the Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Dublin, in an elaborate discussion, gives the opinion that the Decree
is abrogated under British law by the custom of the country, which has
in the past rendered impossible the observance of the strict
ecclesiastical rule in this matter, but is careful to add that this is
only his opinion as a canonist, and is subject to the decision of the
Holy See.
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