Pius IX: Those Who Seized Catholic Churches Are Lost

Pope Pius IX, Quod Nunquam (#7), Feb. 5, 1875, on the Church in Prussia: “We do not, however, want you to think that We consider these people justified who prefer to obey men out of fear rather than God. The divine judge will condemn those unworthy men who, supported by the protection of civil authority alone, heedlessly occupy parish churches and have dared to seize the holy ministry in them. Moreover, We declare them to be lost. In the future, whoever intrudes into the government of the Church by a similar crime will incur excommunication according to the holy canons, and he will incur it ipso facto. We advise the pious faithful not to approach the holy rites of such people nor to receive the sacraments from them.”