Source
"First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all; because your faith is spoken of in the whole world."— Romans I, 8.
The great Apostle of the Gentiles thus praised the people of Rome before he had visited the imperial city of the Caesars. The foundations of the Church there had been laid by other hands than his. Who built up that flourishing church, so famous from its very infancy? Whence its importance in all subsequent ages of Christian history? And why do we now, after the lapse of nineteen centuries, still look up to it, and speak of it with the reverence, and in the terms of praise with which it was looked up to and spoken of by the whole world in the days of St. Paul? I will tell you. One day in far off Palestine a Man was walking attended by twelve other men in that mountain region in the neighborhood of Caesarea-Philippi. The men were the disciples of One who called himself by the mysterious title, "Son of Man"; and He asked them, "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" They answered: "Some say that He is John the Baptist, others that He is Elias, others that He is Jeremias or one of the prophets." Then the Man said to His disciples: "But whom do you say that I am?" And one of His disciples thereupon answering said: "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God." Then the Man, turning to him who had answered His question, said to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and flood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven."
A year had passed away, and the same Man was sitting at table with these same twelve men. The time of His Passion was at hand, and in view of it, He had instituted the rite in which He had created the chiefs of His kingdom, and He spoke to them of the kingdom He was disposing to them, described the nature of its government, and indicated the character of the person who was to exercise it. And then, singling out from among the twelve that same disciple, whom He had distinguished in the instance just mentioned, He said to him: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and thou being converted confirm thy brethren." On the same night, the Man who had thus twice conferred a special charge on the same disciple was taken by the chief priests of His nation, delivered to the secular power, and put to death by the procurator of the Roman Emperor, as one who claimed to be king of the Jews. After dying on the cross, He was buried, but His disciples said that He arose again and appeared to them. And in one of the appearances, as seven of them were fishing in the Lake of Galilee, they saw Him standing on the shore. And He called to them, and invited them to dine with Him. And after the dinner, He said to the same disciples whom he had twice before distinguished in the company of twelve by giving him a singular charge: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these ?" He said to Him: "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." He said to him : "Feed my lambs." He said to him again: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ?" He said to Him : "Yea Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." He said to him : "Be shepherd over my sheep." He said to him the third time: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?" Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, "lovest thou me?" And he said to Him : "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." Jesus said to him: "Feed my sheep." Some years later a stranger from the East entered Rome by the Appian Way and said to himself : "Here will I remain ; from here will I feed my Master's lambs, and my Master's sheep." The stranger in Rome was Peter, to whom Christ had spoken in Palestine. Peter brought to Rome her greatest glory. He made her the seat of a universal and never-ending empire—the empire of the Church of the living God. It was because Rome was the great city of the Caesars, towards whose forum converged the highways of the world, that Peter chose her to be the chief city of Christ's empire. Here he fixed his See, and now for nearly nineteen hundred years his successors, the bishops of Rome, have ruled the Church of Christ.
In history there is nothing like the Papacy. The record of its life is the proof of its divine origin. It has lived nearly nineteen hundred years. It carries us back to the time of the early Caesars. Its hands were uplifted to bless the martyrs given over to the wild beasts of the Coliseum. It worshiped in the sacred recesses of the Catacombs. The Papacy welcomed
Constantine to Rome after his great victory over the tyrant Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge before the gates of the city, and listened to his proclamation of freedom for Christ and His followers. It crowned Charlemagne, when a new world had risen upon the ruins of the old Roman empire. But the Papacy did not pass down the centuries without struggles against fierce and powerful enemies. Strength of arm and power of mind, such as would have dealt destruction to the most mighty kingdoms, assailed it in every age. "And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon the house, and it fell not; for it was founded on a rock." "And Jesus said to them: why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, He commanded the winds- and the sea, and there came a great calm." These two quotations from the Gospel of St. Matthew present under two different figures, a forcible illustration of what has often happened to the Papacy at various epochs in its long and eventful history. A house strongly and securely built upon a firm foundation by an all-wise and all-powerful Architect, it has been at all times the object of the fiercest and most obstinate attacks. The armies of the world and the hosts of Satan have been successively marshalled against it in formidable array; dark and threatening storms have often broken over it; erring men, and the powers of darkness have over and over again conspired to destroy it ; but "it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."
Launched like a bark on the boisterous sea of this world, the Papacy has been at all times assailed by the most terrible tempests; the winds have howled fiercely around it; the waves, lashed into fury, have threatened to swallow it up; everything pointed to a speedy and fatal shipwreck, and its stoutest-hearted mariners quailed and trembled with fear. But, the good old ship has braved all storms and out-lived all dangers. It could not suffer shipwreck, for it was freighted with the riches of redemption and the hopes of mankind, and Jesus was constantly on board, watching over its destiny and shielding it from impending danger. Sometimes, indeed, He seemed to slumber; but even then His Divine Heart was wakeful; and in the hour of the greatest gloom and of the most imminent peril to His trembling disciples, He listened favorably to their earnest supplication, "Lord, save us, we perish." He rebuked their want of faith, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" "And rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm."
It has ever been so in the history of the Holy See. It has come victorious out of every struggle, sometimes,, indeed, bearing on its body the mark of cruel wounds, and with its garments dripping with blood, but always with the principle of life as strong in it as ever. The Papacy has survived revolutions which have swept away the most mighty states and empires; it has weathered storms in which the stoutest barks have suffered shipwreck; it has come unscathed out of fiery ordeals which have consumed all other institutions, creations of merely human wisdom and power. Empires have fallen around it, dynasties have disappeared, thrones have tottered and sunk to the dust, scepters have been broken in pieces, laurels which have decked the brows of conquerors have faded, and regal crowns have dropped to the earth; yet the Papacy has survived every change and revolution and has stood forth a pillar of strength, solitary and alone in its wonderful stability amidst the ruins everywhere strewn in around it. And now, after all its conflicts, the Papacy is still as vigorous, as full of health and1 life, as buoyant with hope, as when it first entered the great battle-field of this world, almost nineteen hundred years ago.
The greatest trial that the Papacy had to sustain in modern times was when Pius VII was dragged into exile by the imperial despot who rode the storm of the French revolution and controlled its destinies. Napoleon I was determined to chain the Papacy to his chariot. He sent General Radet to Rome, who forced his way into the private apartments of the Pope in the Quirinal Palace, on the 9th day of June, 1809, and seizing the aged Pontiff, carried him off a prisoner to France. We all know how shamefully the Holy Pontiff was treated, and to what indignities and humiliations he was subjected by his imperial jailer, in the royal palace of Fontainebleau, near Paris. But did the aged Pontiff quail? Did his purpose falter? Did he lose faith or hope? Did he fear the result? And was his hope groundless? Calm, mild, dignified, strong in faith and hope, Pius VII was not appalled by the dreadful storm that raged around the vessel of which he held the helm. He knew and felt that the tempest would soon subside, and that the bark of Peter would once again pursue its prosperous course over the placid waters. And he was not left long in suspense. Soon the scene shifts. The long persecuted Pontiff is borne back in triumph to Rome. His victory and that of the Church is glorious and complete. But what of Napoleon, the great all-conquering Emperor, who had put forth his hands against the Lord's anointed; had sarcastically boasted, when the Pope excommunicated him, that this should not cause the arms to fall from the hands of his brave soldiers, and had flattered himself with the vision of an universal empire over Europe, of which Rome and Paris would be the two great centers? What was the fate of this towering genius and proudly boasting conqueror of Europe? Everyone knows what it was. In the very room at Fontainebleau where he maltreated Pius VII, by a strange irony of fate, he was forced to sign his abdication. And, confined upon a barren rock in the ocean, he languished out the last years of his feverish existence, with full leisure to reflect on the evils he had done to the people of God and on the blind ambition and sacrilegious invasion of the Church which had marred his destiny; and with time enough, too, to repent of his misdeeds, to lament his false steps, and to return to a more sober and more Christian frame of mind. Forgetful of all past injuries, the noble Pontiff exerted his influence with the European powers and in particular with the British Government, and succeeded in obtaining permission to send him the spiritual guide for whom he had earnestly asked. One of the most remarkable incidents in this drama, is the circumstance that Napoleon was overthrown, the Pontiff restored to his See and the Church to its rights, chiefly by the agency of three great powers, England, Russia and Prussia, all distinguished for their firm, constant and relentless opposition to the Church, and to the Papacy. Who does not see the finger of God in all this? Who will not conclude that both the Church and the Papacy bear a charmed life; that God Himself stands pledged for their defense and protection, and that man, therefore, cannot destroy them?
The Papacy has always exercised a civilizing influence on the world. From the Rome of Peter, Christianity and civilization went abroad over the earth. Blot out from history the influence of the Papacy—what remains to the world of Christian truth, spiritual life, and moral culture? The Apostle of Christianity was ever the apostle of civilization; the missionary was the explorer of new countries, while preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants of unknown and untraveled regions, and it was at Rome's bidding and under Rome's guidance that Christianity was preached in every nation of the known world. As early as the second century Irenaeus of Gaul wrote: "To Rome because of its supremacy must believers from everywhere turn." From Rome Augustine went to England and Patrick was sent to Ireland. Rome sent Boniface to Germany, and Ansgar to the tribes living near the North Sea. And what Rome sowed in the souls of men she protected and nurtured. The Papacy was at all times the great promoter of education, the valiant defender of the weak, the vigilant guardian of liberty. When feudal lords and kings sacrificed womanly virtue, and the sacredness of the marriage bond, a Pope quickly excommunicated the guilty ones, and the haughtiest and mightiest men of earth were compelled to do homage to justice and good morals. When tyrants smote liberty and trampled on the sacred rights of the people, a Pope called them to Canossa and curbed their pride and ambitions. The famed universities of the so-called Dark Ages, were blessed and encouraged by the Popes, and often founded directly by them. The ceaseless efforts of
the Papacy rid Europe of slavery and diminished the number and repressed the savagery of feudal wars.
It has been well said that he knows but little of history— but little of the battles waged for truth, virtue, liberty and civilization, who does not reverence the Papacy. Who, visiting Rome, does not pass from one basilica to another in love and gratitude, to kneel before the tombs of some of the giants amongst the Popes, and thank heaven that the Papacy was given to humanity to defend the poor and the weak, to protect woman, to preserve on earth purity of morals, and liberty of soul, when pride and passion conspired to hurl the world back into paganism. The Papacy stands out in history the most sublime and constant evidence that God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. To the minds of many the crucial period in the life of the Papacy had come when the pontificate of Pius IX was drawing to its close. The Papal States had fallen, and the spoliation of the temporal power of the Holy See was complete. Prophets of evil were not wanting who foretold the speedy extinction of the Papacy. But God never abandons His Church. Providential Popes have always been seated in the chair of Peter at every crucial period of her history. And so, twenty-six years ago, when the hour seemed the darkest for the Papacy, Leo XIII was proclaimed Supreme Pontiff. For over a quarter of a century Leo did his work thoroughly and well, and when death claimed him in July, 1903, he left the Papacy recognized by all intelligent men as the first and greatest moral power in the world. Leo has passed to his reward, but the Papacy lives on in his successor Pius X.
A few weeks ago, through the kindness of Cardinal Satolli, I had the happiness of being received in private audience by the Holy Father. A few days after my ordination, I had the honor of representing the old imperial university of Innsbruck at the Vatican, and enjoyed the distinction of a private audience with Leo XIII, then happily reigning. Leo was all intellect; Pius is all heart. Leo was the scholar, the philosopher, the statesman, the diplomat, the nobleman. Pius is the mild, the gentle, the humble, the benevolent commoner. He is a man of charming personality, and graceful, dignified bearing. He is a fine, large, handsome, manly man, with snow-white hair, a healthy, ruddy complexion, and a kind, sympathetic face. He meets you with a kindly smile and a gracious cordiality that puts you at once at ease. He has dispensed with a good deal of the etiquette of the Papal court, for he is a very democratic Pope. I at once felt at home in his presence. I have visited Rome, the city of the Popes, the metropolis of religion; I have seen Peter, in his successor Pius X, the living link in the Apostolic chain, the first ring of which is riveted to the shrine of the Apostle St. Peter. I am grateful for the encouragement and inspiration I received from the hands of the successor of Peter. I now realize better and appreciate more the power and majesty of the Holy See, and I understand more clearly the vastness of its influence.
The Papacy, like the sturdy oak shaken by the storm, has taken deeper root, and become more firmly established in the soil of the earth by each successive tempest that has swept by it in the long lapse of ages. Persecution has not only not impaired, but it has rather served to extend its empire, even as the wind scatters the seed of the plant, and sows it broadcast upon the earth. The Papacy cannot be destroyed, it cannot perish, because God is its light and its strength, Jesus Christ is its head, and the Holy Ghost is its Teacher and Comforter. The Papacy cannot fall, unless the Saviour God fail in His word; and He said: "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words shall not pass away." "Strong as the rock of the ocean that stems A thousand wild waves on the shore," it has survived every tempest, and withstood every storm and assault. Its triumphs are strewn over the history of the past; other triumphs await it in the future. Who does not admire, if he will not love, this glorious Spouse of Christ, "pure as a virgin, and as a virgin meek," this heroine of a thousand triumphs., this imperishable mother of Christians! Who is not proud to rise up among her millions of children and to call her blessed!
Source: The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church, Imprimatur 1911
"First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all; because your faith is spoken of in the whole world."— Romans I, 8.
The great Apostle of the Gentiles thus praised the people of Rome before he had visited the imperial city of the Caesars. The foundations of the Church there had been laid by other hands than his. Who built up that flourishing church, so famous from its very infancy? Whence its importance in all subsequent ages of Christian history? And why do we now, after the lapse of nineteen centuries, still look up to it, and speak of it with the reverence, and in the terms of praise with which it was looked up to and spoken of by the whole world in the days of St. Paul? I will tell you. One day in far off Palestine a Man was walking attended by twelve other men in that mountain region in the neighborhood of Caesarea-Philippi. The men were the disciples of One who called himself by the mysterious title, "Son of Man"; and He asked them, "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" They answered: "Some say that He is John the Baptist, others that He is Elias, others that He is Jeremias or one of the prophets." Then the Man said to His disciples: "But whom do you say that I am?" And one of His disciples thereupon answering said: "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God." Then the Man, turning to him who had answered His question, said to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and flood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven."
A year had passed away, and the same Man was sitting at table with these same twelve men. The time of His Passion was at hand, and in view of it, He had instituted the rite in which He had created the chiefs of His kingdom, and He spoke to them of the kingdom He was disposing to them, described the nature of its government, and indicated the character of the person who was to exercise it. And then, singling out from among the twelve that same disciple, whom He had distinguished in the instance just mentioned, He said to him: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and thou being converted confirm thy brethren." On the same night, the Man who had thus twice conferred a special charge on the same disciple was taken by the chief priests of His nation, delivered to the secular power, and put to death by the procurator of the Roman Emperor, as one who claimed to be king of the Jews. After dying on the cross, He was buried, but His disciples said that He arose again and appeared to them. And in one of the appearances, as seven of them were fishing in the Lake of Galilee, they saw Him standing on the shore. And He called to them, and invited them to dine with Him. And after the dinner, He said to the same disciples whom he had twice before distinguished in the company of twelve by giving him a singular charge: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these ?" He said to Him: "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." He said to him : "Feed my lambs." He said to him again: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ?" He said to Him : "Yea Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." He said to him : "Be shepherd over my sheep." He said to him the third time: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?" Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, "lovest thou me?" And he said to Him : "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." Jesus said to him: "Feed my sheep." Some years later a stranger from the East entered Rome by the Appian Way and said to himself : "Here will I remain ; from here will I feed my Master's lambs, and my Master's sheep." The stranger in Rome was Peter, to whom Christ had spoken in Palestine. Peter brought to Rome her greatest glory. He made her the seat of a universal and never-ending empire—the empire of the Church of the living God. It was because Rome was the great city of the Caesars, towards whose forum converged the highways of the world, that Peter chose her to be the chief city of Christ's empire. Here he fixed his See, and now for nearly nineteen hundred years his successors, the bishops of Rome, have ruled the Church of Christ.
In history there is nothing like the Papacy. The record of its life is the proof of its divine origin. It has lived nearly nineteen hundred years. It carries us back to the time of the early Caesars. Its hands were uplifted to bless the martyrs given over to the wild beasts of the Coliseum. It worshiped in the sacred recesses of the Catacombs. The Papacy welcomed
Constantine to Rome after his great victory over the tyrant Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge before the gates of the city, and listened to his proclamation of freedom for Christ and His followers. It crowned Charlemagne, when a new world had risen upon the ruins of the old Roman empire. But the Papacy did not pass down the centuries without struggles against fierce and powerful enemies. Strength of arm and power of mind, such as would have dealt destruction to the most mighty kingdoms, assailed it in every age. "And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon the house, and it fell not; for it was founded on a rock." "And Jesus said to them: why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, He commanded the winds- and the sea, and there came a great calm." These two quotations from the Gospel of St. Matthew present under two different figures, a forcible illustration of what has often happened to the Papacy at various epochs in its long and eventful history. A house strongly and securely built upon a firm foundation by an all-wise and all-powerful Architect, it has been at all times the object of the fiercest and most obstinate attacks. The armies of the world and the hosts of Satan have been successively marshalled against it in formidable array; dark and threatening storms have often broken over it; erring men, and the powers of darkness have over and over again conspired to destroy it ; but "it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."
Launched like a bark on the boisterous sea of this world, the Papacy has been at all times assailed by the most terrible tempests; the winds have howled fiercely around it; the waves, lashed into fury, have threatened to swallow it up; everything pointed to a speedy and fatal shipwreck, and its stoutest-hearted mariners quailed and trembled with fear. But, the good old ship has braved all storms and out-lived all dangers. It could not suffer shipwreck, for it was freighted with the riches of redemption and the hopes of mankind, and Jesus was constantly on board, watching over its destiny and shielding it from impending danger. Sometimes, indeed, He seemed to slumber; but even then His Divine Heart was wakeful; and in the hour of the greatest gloom and of the most imminent peril to His trembling disciples, He listened favorably to their earnest supplication, "Lord, save us, we perish." He rebuked their want of faith, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" "And rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm."
It has ever been so in the history of the Holy See. It has come victorious out of every struggle, sometimes,, indeed, bearing on its body the mark of cruel wounds, and with its garments dripping with blood, but always with the principle of life as strong in it as ever. The Papacy has survived revolutions which have swept away the most mighty states and empires; it has weathered storms in which the stoutest barks have suffered shipwreck; it has come unscathed out of fiery ordeals which have consumed all other institutions, creations of merely human wisdom and power. Empires have fallen around it, dynasties have disappeared, thrones have tottered and sunk to the dust, scepters have been broken in pieces, laurels which have decked the brows of conquerors have faded, and regal crowns have dropped to the earth; yet the Papacy has survived every change and revolution and has stood forth a pillar of strength, solitary and alone in its wonderful stability amidst the ruins everywhere strewn in around it. And now, after all its conflicts, the Papacy is still as vigorous, as full of health and1 life, as buoyant with hope, as when it first entered the great battle-field of this world, almost nineteen hundred years ago.
The greatest trial that the Papacy had to sustain in modern times was when Pius VII was dragged into exile by the imperial despot who rode the storm of the French revolution and controlled its destinies. Napoleon I was determined to chain the Papacy to his chariot. He sent General Radet to Rome, who forced his way into the private apartments of the Pope in the Quirinal Palace, on the 9th day of June, 1809, and seizing the aged Pontiff, carried him off a prisoner to France. We all know how shamefully the Holy Pontiff was treated, and to what indignities and humiliations he was subjected by his imperial jailer, in the royal palace of Fontainebleau, near Paris. But did the aged Pontiff quail? Did his purpose falter? Did he lose faith or hope? Did he fear the result? And was his hope groundless? Calm, mild, dignified, strong in faith and hope, Pius VII was not appalled by the dreadful storm that raged around the vessel of which he held the helm. He knew and felt that the tempest would soon subside, and that the bark of Peter would once again pursue its prosperous course over the placid waters. And he was not left long in suspense. Soon the scene shifts. The long persecuted Pontiff is borne back in triumph to Rome. His victory and that of the Church is glorious and complete. But what of Napoleon, the great all-conquering Emperor, who had put forth his hands against the Lord's anointed; had sarcastically boasted, when the Pope excommunicated him, that this should not cause the arms to fall from the hands of his brave soldiers, and had flattered himself with the vision of an universal empire over Europe, of which Rome and Paris would be the two great centers? What was the fate of this towering genius and proudly boasting conqueror of Europe? Everyone knows what it was. In the very room at Fontainebleau where he maltreated Pius VII, by a strange irony of fate, he was forced to sign his abdication. And, confined upon a barren rock in the ocean, he languished out the last years of his feverish existence, with full leisure to reflect on the evils he had done to the people of God and on the blind ambition and sacrilegious invasion of the Church which had marred his destiny; and with time enough, too, to repent of his misdeeds, to lament his false steps, and to return to a more sober and more Christian frame of mind. Forgetful of all past injuries, the noble Pontiff exerted his influence with the European powers and in particular with the British Government, and succeeded in obtaining permission to send him the spiritual guide for whom he had earnestly asked. One of the most remarkable incidents in this drama, is the circumstance that Napoleon was overthrown, the Pontiff restored to his See and the Church to its rights, chiefly by the agency of three great powers, England, Russia and Prussia, all distinguished for their firm, constant and relentless opposition to the Church, and to the Papacy. Who does not see the finger of God in all this? Who will not conclude that both the Church and the Papacy bear a charmed life; that God Himself stands pledged for their defense and protection, and that man, therefore, cannot destroy them?
The Papacy has always exercised a civilizing influence on the world. From the Rome of Peter, Christianity and civilization went abroad over the earth. Blot out from history the influence of the Papacy—what remains to the world of Christian truth, spiritual life, and moral culture? The Apostle of Christianity was ever the apostle of civilization; the missionary was the explorer of new countries, while preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants of unknown and untraveled regions, and it was at Rome's bidding and under Rome's guidance that Christianity was preached in every nation of the known world. As early as the second century Irenaeus of Gaul wrote: "To Rome because of its supremacy must believers from everywhere turn." From Rome Augustine went to England and Patrick was sent to Ireland. Rome sent Boniface to Germany, and Ansgar to the tribes living near the North Sea. And what Rome sowed in the souls of men she protected and nurtured. The Papacy was at all times the great promoter of education, the valiant defender of the weak, the vigilant guardian of liberty. When feudal lords and kings sacrificed womanly virtue, and the sacredness of the marriage bond, a Pope quickly excommunicated the guilty ones, and the haughtiest and mightiest men of earth were compelled to do homage to justice and good morals. When tyrants smote liberty and trampled on the sacred rights of the people, a Pope called them to Canossa and curbed their pride and ambitions. The famed universities of the so-called Dark Ages, were blessed and encouraged by the Popes, and often founded directly by them. The ceaseless efforts of
the Papacy rid Europe of slavery and diminished the number and repressed the savagery of feudal wars.
It has been well said that he knows but little of history— but little of the battles waged for truth, virtue, liberty and civilization, who does not reverence the Papacy. Who, visiting Rome, does not pass from one basilica to another in love and gratitude, to kneel before the tombs of some of the giants amongst the Popes, and thank heaven that the Papacy was given to humanity to defend the poor and the weak, to protect woman, to preserve on earth purity of morals, and liberty of soul, when pride and passion conspired to hurl the world back into paganism. The Papacy stands out in history the most sublime and constant evidence that God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. To the minds of many the crucial period in the life of the Papacy had come when the pontificate of Pius IX was drawing to its close. The Papal States had fallen, and the spoliation of the temporal power of the Holy See was complete. Prophets of evil were not wanting who foretold the speedy extinction of the Papacy. But God never abandons His Church. Providential Popes have always been seated in the chair of Peter at every crucial period of her history. And so, twenty-six years ago, when the hour seemed the darkest for the Papacy, Leo XIII was proclaimed Supreme Pontiff. For over a quarter of a century Leo did his work thoroughly and well, and when death claimed him in July, 1903, he left the Papacy recognized by all intelligent men as the first and greatest moral power in the world. Leo has passed to his reward, but the Papacy lives on in his successor Pius X.
A few weeks ago, through the kindness of Cardinal Satolli, I had the happiness of being received in private audience by the Holy Father. A few days after my ordination, I had the honor of representing the old imperial university of Innsbruck at the Vatican, and enjoyed the distinction of a private audience with Leo XIII, then happily reigning. Leo was all intellect; Pius is all heart. Leo was the scholar, the philosopher, the statesman, the diplomat, the nobleman. Pius is the mild, the gentle, the humble, the benevolent commoner. He is a man of charming personality, and graceful, dignified bearing. He is a fine, large, handsome, manly man, with snow-white hair, a healthy, ruddy complexion, and a kind, sympathetic face. He meets you with a kindly smile and a gracious cordiality that puts you at once at ease. He has dispensed with a good deal of the etiquette of the Papal court, for he is a very democratic Pope. I at once felt at home in his presence. I have visited Rome, the city of the Popes, the metropolis of religion; I have seen Peter, in his successor Pius X, the living link in the Apostolic chain, the first ring of which is riveted to the shrine of the Apostle St. Peter. I am grateful for the encouragement and inspiration I received from the hands of the successor of Peter. I now realize better and appreciate more the power and majesty of the Holy See, and I understand more clearly the vastness of its influence.
The Papacy, like the sturdy oak shaken by the storm, has taken deeper root, and become more firmly established in the soil of the earth by each successive tempest that has swept by it in the long lapse of ages. Persecution has not only not impaired, but it has rather served to extend its empire, even as the wind scatters the seed of the plant, and sows it broadcast upon the earth. The Papacy cannot be destroyed, it cannot perish, because God is its light and its strength, Jesus Christ is its head, and the Holy Ghost is its Teacher and Comforter. The Papacy cannot fall, unless the Saviour God fail in His word; and He said: "Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words shall not pass away." "Strong as the rock of the ocean that stems A thousand wild waves on the shore," it has survived every tempest, and withstood every storm and assault. Its triumphs are strewn over the history of the past; other triumphs await it in the future. Who does not admire, if he will not love, this glorious Spouse of Christ, "pure as a virgin, and as a virgin meek," this heroine of a thousand triumphs., this imperishable mother of Christians! Who is not proud to rise up among her millions of children and to call her blessed!
Source: The Beauty and Truth of the Catholic Church, Imprimatur 1911
RSS Feed