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Council aper.
i
TITLES OF ROMAN CATHOLIC PRE-
LATES.
(No. 238.)
I
Copy of a despatch from Earl Grey to Governor Sir
C A. Fitz Roy New South Wales, and Acting-Governor
Robe, South Australia. ~ ~
Downing-street, 27th Dec., 1849.
Sir. My attention has been lately called, In several
instances, to the position of Roman Catholic Prelates in
the Australian colonies, and the necessity which appears
to exist of establishing some general rules, both as to
the refer tful attentions which they ought to receive
from the local governments, and also the manner of
conducting their correspondence with those govern-
ment);.
2. In official correspondence and intercourse, it is
advisable that the local government should recognise
that rank which Roman Catholic prelates are by the
members of their own church recognised as possessing
in it that is, the rank of archbishop or bishop, as the
case may be, with the proper honorary prefixes attached
to those titles. But they must not be allowed to
assume for their church, in any public and official flour
ments, the style of the " Catholic Church." That assumption
is injurious to~thê~fêeling* of other communities,
and especially of the Church" of England, as it
confines the character of Catholicity to the Roman
Church alone, and impliedly represents all others a
schismatical. The style invariably used for the purpose
above mentioned should be that of the Roman Catholic
Church, which at once recognises the Catholicity or that
community, and does not deny the same quality to
others. In a deed, for instance, executed In Order to
carry out the provisions of a legislative enactment in
favour of that church, and sheer to the superintendence
of the government, this latter description should be
adopted.
S The bishops of that church must be styled, at
directed by ra> circular of the SUih November last, by
their names, as,
'. The Most Reverend Archbishop ' ? -,"
"The Right Reverend Bishop' tee., and not
by the titles of their dioceses, which are assigned to
them by their own church ; or else, as " The Bishop of
the Roman Catholic Church at ---," ice, Which
last would be the proper title in various instances; for
example, In a deed of which the provisions apply to the
bishop for the time being.
4. In conduct ting their official correspondence with the
government, either local or home, the prelates of the
Roman Catholic Church must conform to the same rules
by which all other persons in the colonies are governed.
They must forward their letters to the Secretary of State
through the Governor. In their correspondence with the
Governor himself, the trsage in their case must be the
same with that which is followed by the prelates of the
Church of England. If it is customary for the latter to
address the Governor direct, the Roman Catholic prelates
may do so likewise. If, on the contrary, the practice is
for the Bishop of the Church of England to address the
Governor through the Colonial Secretary, the Roman
Catholic should conform to the same rule. The Roman
Catholic prelates should also if the bishops of the
Church of England do so address the Governor in their
own person, and not through the medium of the Vicar
General or other subordinates ; this being the ordinary *
usage in other colonies as regards Roman Catholic and
Anglican Bishops alike, and one from which I see no
reason for sanctioning a departure.
-I have, ice, -
GREY.
2 A similar despatch was addressed to the Governor
of Van Dieman's Land and Western Australia, 27th
December, 1848.
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