CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND BULL-FIGHTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—While in Rome a few months ago, I read a decree or order, then recently issued by the Pope, relative to bull-fights. The two chief points in the decree were,—(1), a prohibition against any ecclesiastic being present under any circumstances at a bull-fight ; (2), a prohibition against any priest absolving or giving any spiritual consolation of any kind to a man injured by an accident of the spectacle,—even in artists& mortis. There were apparently plenty of ecclesiastics present
at the recent notorious bull-fight, and the great matador died fortified by all the rites of the Church. I know you have many Catholic readers. I should like to know from one of them how far such Papal orders are to be looked upon as obligatory, and how far as brute falmina.—I am, Sir, &c., A. N.
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