Barnabo, Alexander, Cardinal Prefect, Rome, Papal States, to Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1866 April 26

Barnabo acknowledges the two letters of Purcell of January 11 and 22 containing the money collected for the Holy Father. He has offered it to the Pontiff and the Holy Father has given his blessing to Purcell, his flock and all the pious works he undertakes. As to the indults Purcell has asked, on the one for the power to delegate to priests the faculty of dispensing in mixed marriages, since this too easily opens the way for other petitions, Barnabo thinks it best that the matter be considered in the next national council and the result of the deliberations of the bishops be brought to the Holy See. Relative to the faculty for using the briefer form for baptism of adults, Barnabo says that Purcell does not need this faculty, since according to the faculties granted him Sept. 28, 1858 he has the faculties for 10 years, in the answer to the second council of Cincinnati, provided that they use the formula in the Roman ritual. This is wider than the faculty given to the archbishop of Baltimore in 1852 for 5 years, with the condition that the bishops demand the return gradually to the usages of the ritual. In what Purcell asks concerning the vows of nuns in the United States, the answer is contained in the answer of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars which Purcell will find attached to this letter, by which these vows are considered as simple with the exceptions listed therein. As to the vows of poverty and obedience, the Bishops can dispense as delegated by the Holy See, according to the declaration of the Holy See to the Bishop of LeMans in 1836. According to Gury in his appendix page 180 on particular states nothing can be done about the vow of chastity which is absolute and perpetual, but such vows are reserved to the Holy See. So in the case of Sister Aloysis O'Connor in the chapel of Mary Ann, according to the premises set forth, Barnabo acquiesces in Purcell's granting the dispensation and for peace of conscience the Holy Father ratifies it. However, as to the calling of a plenary council at Rome or Loretto as mentioned in Purcell's letters, Barnabo thinks that the Holy Father has already communicated his news through the Archbishop of Baltimore. The only news he can convey is that the Holy Father has set the date for the canonization of the new saints for the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, 1867 and has permitted bishops who were to make their ad limina visits in 1866 to fulfill that obligation in the coming year. This is signed by H. Capalti, Secretary. Enclosure