Happy (Holy) Father's Day!

This Sunday is Father's Day. In the Catholic Church, we all share one spiritual father, the Pope. This week we thought we'd highlight records from some of the Holy Fathers who have reigned since the creation of the diocese in 1841.

Gregory XVI: February 2, 1831 - June 1, 1846

1839 apostolic letter of Gregory XVI condemning the slave trade.

M PS21.01
Bishop Macdonell Fonds

Blessed Pius IX: June 16, 1846 - February 7, 1878

This photo of Pope Pius IX is a carte de visite, which was a popular photograph format of the 1800s. Cartes were traded and collected by many. You could almost say they were the 19th century Facebook!

PH 25/23AL

Part of a letter from Pius IX to the Catholics of Toronto, complete with signature.

July 9, 1862
L RC44.15

Leo XIII: February 20, 1878 - July 20, 1903

Another carte de visite from the same album as the photo above with a drawing of Leo XIII.

PH 25/23AL

Signed letter from Leo XIII in response to the Bishops of the province of Toronto on the occasion of the Pope's Golden Jubilee of Priestly Ordination.

June 20, 1886
L RC69.10

Saint Pius X: August 4, 1903 - August 20, 1914

Postcard of Pius X from 1954.

PH 59/03PC

Benedict XV: September 3, 1914 - January 22, 1922

Letter from Benedict XV to Archbishop McNeil imparting apostolic blessings on the occasion of McNeil's 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration.

September 8, 1920
MN RC109.03

Pius XI: February 6, 1922 - February 10, 1939

A telegram from Pietro Di Maria, Apostolic Delegate, informing Archbishop McNeil of the election of Cardinal Ratti as pope under the name Pius XI. The apostolic delegate is the pope's representative to the Church in Canada. Since the 1960s Canada has had an Apostolic Nuncio, who is the pope's representative to the government as well as to the Church.

February 7, 1922
MN DS24.02

Venerable Pius XII: March 2, 1939 - October 9, 1958

Postcard of Pius XII.

PH 62/04PC

Saint John XXIII: October 28, 1958 - June 3, 1963

John XXIII with Toronto Mayor Nathan Phillips and Mrs. Phillips.

PH 63/13CP

Blessed Paul VI: June 21, 1963 - August 6, 1978

Image of Paul VI printed on silk and used as a greeting card.

PH 64/03

Letter from Paul VI to Cardinal McGuigan congratulating him on his Golden Jubilee of priestly ordination.

May 10, 1968
PO RC4810.09

Servant of God John Paul I: August 26, 1978 - September 28, 1978

John Paul I blessing Cardinal Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II).

1978
PH 82/01P

Booklet from the Requiem Mass for John Paul I at St. Michael's Cathedral. Unfortunately, this pope only lived 33 days in office, which made 1978 a year of three popes.

1978
OC29

Papal Encyclicals of the Past

Last week, the world received a letter from Pope Francis entitled Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home. He wrote about our responsibility to care for the environment.

Encyclicals, which are circular letters written by the Pope, have been around in their modern form since Pope Benedict XIV began to write letters in the 1740s. The letters are written in a pastoral teaching style, and generally address the ways that the Catholic faith interacts with contemporary issues of the world at large. 

Below are a small selection of Papal Encyclicals from ARCAT's holdings:

1846 - Pope Pius IX - Qui Pluribus - On Faith and Religion
P PS28.01 

1847 - Pope Pius IX - Praedecessores Nostros - On Aid for Ireland
P PS29.01

1851 - Pope Pius IX - Exultavit Cor Nostrum - On the Effects of the Jubilee
C AK01.05

1864 - Pope Pius IX - Quanta Cura - Condemning Current Errors
L PS46.01

1894 - Pope Leo XIII - Iucunda Semper Expectatione - On the Rosary
W RC77.03  

1903 - Pope Pius X - E Supremi - On the Restoration of All Things in Christ
O RC86.04

1907 - Pope Pius X - Pascendi Dominici Gregis - On the Doctrines of the Modernists
O RC90.11 

1932 - Pope Pius XI - Caritate Christi Compulsi - On the Sacred Heart
MN PS114.01

1936 - Pope Pius XI - Vigilanti Cura - On Motion Pictures
MG PS118.01

1953 - Pope Pius XII - Fulgens Corona - On the Marian Year and the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
MG PS135.02

1954 - Pope Pius XII - Sacra Virginitas - On Holy Virginity
MG PS136.04

1956 - Pope Pius XII - Haurietis Aquas - On Devotion to the Sacred Heart
MG PS138.01

1957 - Pope Pius XII - Miranda Prorsus - On Motion Pictures, Radio and Television
MG PS139.04

1962 -Pope Saint John XXIII - Paenitentiam Agere - On the Need for the Practice of Interior and Exterior Penance
MG PS144.02

1967 -Pope Paul VI - Populorum Progressio - This Is Progress
MG PS149.03

1968 - Pope Paul VI - Humanae Vitae - On Human Life
MG PS150.04

And just for fun, an encyclical from the office that was a precursor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemning the use of magnetism in superstition, hypnotism and clairvoyance:

1856 - Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition - Adversus Magnetismi Abusus - Against the Abuse of Magnetism
C RC38.05

ARCAT holds many more Papal Encyclicals, including Pius IX's Nullis Certe, on Temporal Power and Napoleon III, Leo XIII's Quod Apostolici, which condemns socialism, and Pius XI's Mit Brennender Sorge on the state of the Church in Germany. 

Record of the Week: The Reinstatement of Scotland's Catholic Hierarchy

If you've been reading the news lately, you will have noticed some stories about Scotland. The news got me wondering what kind of records about Scotland we might have in the archives.

The most interesting item I found was this:

"In the wild and brutal fury that raged in the Sixteenth century, laws the most cruel, unjust and persecuting were put in force against the Catholic Church - her doctrine, her discipline, and her children; and to cut off instruction and propagation of true faith, bishops and priests were thrown into prison and put to death, because they would not renounce the religion of Christ preached to them by holy Apostles. In England and Scotland the laws were so rigorously enforced that not a single bishop was left alive or in the country, and their hierarchy was broken when there were no longer chief pastors to rule the flock. In Ireland, too, the laws were equally cruel and were enforced with the greatest vigilance; the bishops concealed themselves in the caves and fastnesses of the mountains as well as in the cottages of the poor, and thus evaded most unjust edicts and preserved an unbroken succession of bishops; though at one time the number was reduced to three, still the line was never severed... In thanksgiving to God for His mercies to Scotland and her people, our brethren in Christ, we ordain that the Apostolic Letter of our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, establishing titular bishops in that country, be read, and a solemn Te Deum be chanted in all churches of the Diocese at the conclusion of Mass, on the most convenient Sunday after the reception of this letter."

In 1878, Archbishop Lynch wrote a circular letter to the clergy asking them to read from the pulpit an Apostolic Letter of Pope Leo XIII which reestablished the Catholic Hierarchy in Scotland. For various reason, including the rise of Protestantism and the Scottish Reformation, there hadn't been a bishop in that country since the early 1600s. Though Catholicism remained in some areas, Scotland became heavily Protestant.

For more information about Christianity in Scotland, see here, here, here and here.