To Our Venerable Brethren, 
the Bishops of Ireland Venerable Brethren, 
Health and Apostolic Benediction.

From this supreme dignity of the Apostolic office, We have frequently directed Our solicitude and Our thoughts to your Catholic people; and Our feelings have been more than once recorded in published documents, from which all may clearly learn what are Our dispositions towards Ireland. They are sufficiently attested by the provisions which, under Our direction, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda made in former years respecting Ireland, and also by the letters which on more than one occasion We addressed to Our Venerable Brother, Cardinal M'Cabe, Archbishop of Dublin. Once again, they have been attested by the address which We recently delivered to a not inconsiderable number of Catholics belonging to your nation, from whom we received, not only congratulations and heartfelt wishes for Our preservation, but also expressions of gratitude on account of Our benevolent dispositions, clearly discerned by them, towards the Irish people. Furthermore, within these past few months, when it was resolved to build a church in this city in honour of St. Patrick, the great Apostle of the Irish, We most warmly encouraged the undertaking, and We shall substantially aid it within the limits of Our resources.