A Roman correspondent of the Times seems to think he
has at last discovered an instance of vacillation in the Vatican. On 22nd April the Pope issued a decree formally dedicating the Catholic Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the decree was published on 28th April in the Osservatore Romano and Voce della Veritit, together with the Act of Dedicaticin, issued by the Congregation of Rites on 26th April. That Act was read on 16th June in all the principal churches of Rome, the Cardinal-Vicar having on June 1 called on- all churches throughout the world to recite it. Nevertheless,' the decree ap- pears never to have been published outside Italy, and it is stated by the De'bats, and confirmed by La Semaine Religieuse, a journal published under ecclesiastical authority, that the Pope lately gave an unfavourable reception to petitions forwarded from France, of course in ignorance, praying for the dedication, and replied,
"NM innovandnm." It is suggested that the new cult had troubled the Catholic world outside Italy—where they would hear that the Pope had pronounced the Koran canonical with perfect indifference or perfect faith—but it is to be observed that the evidence for the decree and the evidence for its suppression are very different in kind. There is a "doctrine of reticence" which will cover the limitation of the decree to Italy for the present.
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