Financial Support

9. It pleases Us to encourage those arts by which the Christian cause may be promoted among you. May your resources not be less than your good will and may the realization of your excellent plans not be hindered by the lack of money! Contrary to the past, the public treasury no longer provides money for you, for the canons, for the seminaries, for the priests, or for the construction of churches. That leaves you only one resource: the charity of the people. Nonetheless, the custom of the Brazilian people offers great hope in this matter; they are always ready to be generous, especially when this results in obtaining the favors of the Church. We have already praised them in Our letter mentioned above in which We said that We command nothing concerning the endowment of the poorest of the new dioceses; We have confidence in the piety and the faith of the Brazilians that they will not abandon their bishops.