Barnabo, Alexander, Cardinal Prefect, Rome, Papal States, to Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1865 December 19

Barnabo acknowledges Purcell's letter in which he gave his judgment of the candidates proposed as coadjutor of Boston. The brief of the Holy Father will announce the one he chooses. In the same letter Purcell proposed two questions. In the first he asks whether the vows of Ursulines, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and the Mesdames of the Sacred Heart are to be regarded as solemn vows. In the second he asks whether the Ordinary has the power of dispensing from their vows, at least that of obedience. In answer to the first Barnabo refers him to the letter of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars to the Archbishop of Baltimore concerning the vows of nuns in the United States. As to the second, Barnabo thinks that without doubt all solemn vows, vows of perpetual chastity and of religion, secretly or privately taken, and all other vows, even temporary, taken in any institution are reserved to the Holy See unless the taking and dispensation of such vows was permitted by the authority of the Superior or the Bishop. In this matter Barnabo quotes the words of Pope Benedict XIV that in the dispensation of these kinds the Bishop should not concern himself. Purcell should add to this the decision of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars on the constitutions of nuns taking only simple vows which declares that such vows can be dispensed only by the Holy See., Signed by H. Capalti as secretary. No. 4 :: II-4-c L.S. Latin 2pp. 8vo.