Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/551

 the Spanish yoke was removed the patronage of the Spanish kings ceased, and as a result the Church attained to a larger share of Uberty, ensuring for every one rights which are safe and unassailable.

To provide against the relaxation of ecclesiastical disci- phne in this new state of affairs, a plan of action and of organization had to be sought promptly and with great care. For this purpose We sent Our Venerable Brother Placide Louis Chapelle, Archbishop of New Orleans, as Our Delegate Extraordinary to the Philippine Islands, who, after examining in person and putting to rights whatever would not admit of delay or postponement, was then to report to Us. The duties thus imposed he has discharged faithfully in Our behalf, and deserves for this reason that We should bestow on him well-merited praise. Later it happened auspiciously that the Government of the United States of America undertook, by means of a special legation, to consider plans for a way of adjusting certain questions regarding Catholic interests in the Phil- ippines. This enterprise We gladly encouraged, and by the skill and moderation of the negotiators a way has been opened for a settlement, which is to be effected on the ground itself. After hearing the opinions of some of the Holy Roman and Eminent Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation presiding over Extraordinary Affairs, We decree and declare in this Apostolical Constitution what has seemed, after long deliberation, to be most conducive for the interests of the Church in the Philippine Islands, trusting that what We, by Our supreme authority ordain, may, with the civil government righteously and favorably disposed, be zealously and piously observed.

First of all, therefore, it is Our intention and purpose to increase the sacred hierarchy. When the diocese of Manila had been created by Gregory XIII., as We have said, as the faithful rapidly increased in numbers, both by reason of the natives who embraced the Catholic re- ligion and of the arrivals from Europe, Clement VIII