The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-06 00:00:00

PRAYERS FOR THE POPE.

On Sunday morning a pastoral from the Right Rev.
Dr. Grant, Roman Catholic bishop of Southwark, was
read at the high mad in all the churches and chapels
under his jurisdiction. The right rev, prelate remarked
that all the faithful children of the Church were full
of anxiety when they reflected !the present position
of His Holiness the Sovereign ntiff, their spiritual
father on earth. They heard ...v by day of the
different plans and calculations for 4drespectins him
and the small even of territory on via I hedwelt, but
they did not hnd in any of those plans one that
promised help or rapport or even consolation to him.
If his children were troubled by these thoughts, their
surprise was even beyond their trouble. Events had
passed so rapidly in our timed that their history seemed
already to belong to some remote and ancient period.
They who were beginning life twenty years ago heard
with wonder that at that date lived a Pontiff whose
first act when he had been, after a short conclave,
given to the Church was to open the prisons and give
freedom to those who had been once, and were to be
again the enemies of his throne. When his subjects be-
lieved that the institutions of other countries would offer
new rules and principles of government to his States
he yielded with fatherly confidence in their loyalty
and in their justice and obedience. When he was
surrounded by thousand, rd was hailed everywhere
with acclamatione, his twas among the poor, who
had enjoyed the chief tof his episcopal revenues,
among children whom 'wished to train in virtue and
innocence, amongthe rwly sufferers who in Ireland
and in other landswe e wasted by famine, ruined by
fires or inundations, or shaken by earthquakes. Great,
indeed, mud be the wonder of tilde who heard the
dory of his reign, and were told that after he had
desired eagerly the happiness of his people, had toiled
for their prosperity, and hail shown eympathy and
tenderness towards all who were afflicted' he was
obliged to become an exile, and to leave the palaces
that had been a home to every one but himself. Such
would be their surprise that gratitude had been for-
gotten and that even pity towards the vanquished
had lod its power, that they would scarcely be able to
believe how the extremes of glory and disregard should
be contrasted in the same reign, and that he whom all
men sought to honour was to be deprived of SIN little
which now remained to him. Bid Pius IX. still re-
tained the affection of the devoted children of whotti
he was the Shepherd, and they were encouraged by
his confidence in God and by his hereditary trust in
the powerful intercession of Mary the Immaculate
Mother of God.

After referrmg to the viciardtndes which had checkered
the career of previous Popes, especially of Pius V.
and Pius VII., the bishop remarked that sad and end.
den changes bad taken place since he saw the
reigning P' antiff giving his first blessing in 1846
and since he saw him return to his cathedral in
1850; but the faithful must not be disheartened, though
the clouds were now dark and deep. The "Star of
the Sea" could penetrate this darknees and Mary could
again urge her Divine Son to rise up and bid the wind
and the waves to be calm. The right rev, prelate then
exhorted his flock to offer up many petitions for His
Holiness on Sunday next, the solemnity of the Most
Holy Rosary. The clergy would show their filial
loyalty to His Holiness by offering on that day the
holy sacrifice for his welfare and to the end that he
might he freed from all danger, and regain all that
had been wrested from him. The Bishop then alluded
to the circumstance. recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles, that when Peter was kept in prison prayer
was made for him without ceasing to God by the
Church, and concluded by assuring his flock that if
their prayers were earnest and true the effect would be
certain and wonderful, although it was not given to
nis to measure the dispensation of Our Father's power,
hor to know the way in which he would vindicate his
of justice and his mercy towards the weak and
~, reseed.