29. From all this it is evident that our predecessors have always shown the same fatherly love to the Ruthenians as to the Catholics of the Latin rite. They have also considered it most important to defend the rights and privileges of their hierarchy. When many Latins asserted that the Ruthenian rite was of inferior standing, and some Latin bishops even declared that the Ruthenian prelates did not enjoy full episcopal rights and functions but were subject to them, this Apostolic See rejected these unjust and fanciful opinions; on 28th September 1643 a decree was published to the following effect: "Cardinal Pamphili reported divers decrees of the special Congregation for the united Ruthenians and His Holiness approved the decree of the same special Congregation of the preceding 1st August, that the Ruthenian bishops in union were bishops, and were to be so called and regarded. He approved the decree of the same Congregation that the Ruthenian bishops should be able to erect schools in their dioceses for the instruction of their youth in letters and sciences, and that the Ruthenian ecclesiastics enjoyed the privileges fori, canonis, immunitatis, libertatis, which the priests of the Latin Church enjoy."⁸