The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-09 00:00:00

CARDINAL MANNING'S LENTEN
PASTORAL.

In his Lenten Pastoral Letter, which was read on Sunday
In the various Roman Catholic churches and chapels of his
diocese, Cardinal 31anning says :

"The 40 days of Lent come upon us seasonably at
this time, when the whole Christian.world is held in
suspense by restless fear. The strong and the unjust
for a time reign over it. The words of the Prophet
are visibly fulfilled, before our eyes: "The wicked
are liked the raging sea which cannot rest, and the
waves thereof cast up dirt, and mire. There is no peace
to the wicked saith the Lord." There is not a kingdom
or a people which is not either menaced from with-
out or troubled from within, or both. Every nation
in Christendom stands upon he arms and strains
all its power to increase its armaments. The
arts and industries of peace languish because every
man must be called to learn the arts of war. Uni-
versal fear, suspicion, and mistrust are upon all the
nations of the world. Faith and justice have been
outraged in their sanctuary. There is now no inter-
national law hut the will of the strongest, and right
gives no safety to the weak. Such are at this time the
mutual relations of kingdoms and states which once
were united in the peace of the Christian world. They
have no common bond to hold them together, no
supreme moral authority to adjust or to allay their
conflicts; and if there be trouble from without, there
is also everywhere trouble from within. Authority is
weakened in all lands. Rulers can only follow the '
will of those whom they are set to rule. A tide of re-
volution has swept over all countries. Every people
in Europe is inwardly divided against itself, and
the old society of Christendom, with its laws,
its sanctities, and its stability, is giving way
before the popular will which has no law,
or rather which claims to be a law to itself.
This is at least the forerunning sign of the Lawless
One, who in his own time will be revealed. But where-
soever public authority is weak, paternal authority is
already passing away. In these times the hearts of
4hildren are not turned towards their fathers, and the
independence of the Prodigal Son is by the youth of
to-day claimed as a right. But where paternal
authority is weak no authority is strong. The authority
of self-control can hardly be found in those who render
no obedience to the will of parents. Such is, in truth,
the character of this last age. St. Paul has foretold
that in the last days men should be breakers of treaties,
disobedient to parents, and lovers of their own selves.
It is good then that we are called by this penitential
season to look into our homes and into ourselves; for
we can do nothing for the Christian world but to re-
form ourselves, and to pray for it, that the scourges
of war and of revolution—now visibly impending—
may be stayed if not turned aside, and that the
church may once more enter into liberty and peace.
Let us then turn to ourselves; and in this time of
penance let us lay on ourselves some acts of self-denial,
some practice of self-chastisement. Learn these well
in this season of Lent, and do not forsake them when
Easter comes. In such days as these it is no wonder
that the spirit of penance should be faint and low.
The world, with its relaxations, has insensibly per-
vaded the Christian society of men. All the whole-
some austerities of the Christian life are mitigated to
+Liget the self-indulgence of the world. Softness, and
ease and the full enjoyment of all liberty which is not
positive sin, have enervated the self-control and re-
laxed the self-denial even of the good. Few internal
moz tifi cation s, and many external devotions, have taken
the place of the simple and austere piety of our fore-
fathers,