Archbishop Walsh has published a letter with the object of
allaying anxiety caused by the promulgation of the Papal decree " Motu Proprio." After pointing out that the decree is not an enacting decree, but merely defines the meaning of an important phrase in an earlier Pontifical Constitution issued in 1869, Archbishop Walsh proceeds to explain how far the prohibition of private individuals from bringing ecelesiaaties before lay tribunals holds good in practice. He quotes at length from the case of O'Keeffe v. Cullen in 1873, when Cardinal Cullen answered the question, "Is there not at this moment an actual universal law of the Church that no layman shall bring a cleric before a lay tribunal P" in the negative, for the law had in most countries been abrogated by the Concordat. In countries where there was no Concordat, such as Great Britain and the United States, the custom was the same, for " the Holy See has declared that breaches of ecclesiastical immunity are to be overlooked."
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