The Holy Father blesses God, Who, in the midst of trials and sufferings which afflict the Church, has also given spiritual joys such as the increase and spread of the faith to the most remote parts of the earth. He himself has known of the progress of the Church in the United States, first, when he was a consulter and later as cardinal prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda. Now, as a pope, he has new evidence of the growth of the Church in the United States and prays that it will continue. At the request of the Bishops, because some of the diocesan boundaries have become indistinct and uncertain, he has decided for the increase of the faith to state clearly those boundaries. Acting then on the advice of the Sacred Congregation and that of the bishops in the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Detroit, Bardstown, Saint Louis, and Vincennes. To Archbishop Whitfield is committed the publication and notification of all those concerned and the carrying out of all that concerns these boundaries, and all the necessary faculties for that purpose are granted to him. A copy of all documents drawn up in the execution of this decree are to be sent within the month to the Sacred Congregation to be kept in its archives. Should anyone try to invalidate these decrees, the Pope now calls such judgments invalid. Contrary decisions of apostolic constitutions and decrees are to be properly made and certified and sent to those concerned and no one is to make any change in the wording of the decree. This copy was made by Alexander Macioti, officialis deputatus, and signed by B. Con Rosati? S. Battaglio?. In the Detroit papers. :: III-2-g All copies Latin 9pp. 8vo.