The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-08 00:00:00

THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF

ENGLAND AND HIS HOLINESS THE POPE.

On last Sunday an eloquent and powerfully-written
pastoral letter, which was addressed by the Right Rev.
Dr. Walsh, Roman Catholic Bishop of the London dis-
[ trict, and his coadjutor, the Right Rev. Dr. Wiseman,
to the clergy of that district, was read from the pulpit
in all the churches and chapels of the metropolis, and
was listened to with the most marked attention by the
several congregations. The pastoral, after alluding to
an order which had been recently given for the suspen-
sion of the recital of the daily collect for the Sovereign
Pontiff, an order which arose from the belief that the
storms which had gathered round his temporal throne
had passed away, proceeds as follows:
"But, alas! how have our hopes been deceived—how
have our fondest expectations been dashed to the ground.
Within a few days of the issue of your circular, a d :rk
and impious conspiracy burst forth, and a fiendish
murder was its first work. For 30010 hours, and even
days, evil spirits seem to have had power given them
over the populace of the Eternal City, and to have
swayed their feelings through their godless leaders.
Murder was glorified in the City of the Saints; assas3i-
nations extolled amidst the tombs of tne martyrs.
" But the sacrilege ended not here. A furious mob,
urged on as it had once been at Jerusalem by wicked
men, assailed the sacred abode of the Holy Pontiff, at-
tacked his small faithful guard, and heedless of either
the insults or the danger to his person, poured their
balls into his palace, and, it is said, into the very room
in which he was. One truly learned, truly pious eccle-
siastic, well known for his labours fur the Church, and
a faithful and well-beloved servant of the Holy Father,
was struck down by a fatal shot, within the precinct of
the palace, while in the act of consoling and allaying the
fears of a very aged mother. It was with cannon planted
against the palace gates, with threats of setting them on
fire, and of massacring every soul within, except the
Pontiff himself, that, acting under the advice of the am-
bassadors who had gathered around him, his Holiness
virtually surrendered the reins of secular government to
the counsels of his enemies.

" Every subsequent account describes this our be-
loved Father, as brokenhearted and alone, narrowly
watched and guarded by those who value him only as a
necessary sanction to their further purposes. There is
every reason to fear that his precious health has se-
riously suffered from the cruel-shocks thus inflicted on it.
" This, dearly beloved in our Lord, is the moment
for them to rally in affection round the throne of Peter
and the sacred person of its occupant, who understand
the deep mysteries of the law whereby it stands, and of
the providence whereby it is sustained. Let them
wonder and doubt (for here surely none will scoff or
glory) who see in the amiable and virtuous Pius IX.
only one more sovereign whom the impetuous passions
of a misguided people is casting forth from a temporal
throne. But to a Catholic heart that sees in his august
person the living vicegerent, representative, and vicar
of Christ Jesus, never will he appear more truly in-
vested with glory, more worthy of deepest reverence
and tenderest love, than when, as his Divine Master,
his high and unalienable prerogatives are combined
with sorrow, with captivity in the hands of his own
people, and with treachery of those most dear to
him. If, when the Great Pontiff Boniface VIII. was
seized and made captive by his rebellious subjects, one,
who through life had been his bitter foe, could not
forbear exclaiming in immortal song, that our Lord's
passion was renewed in his Vicar, and that Christ once
more was bound and led among thieves, what shall we
say when he who for two years, who had gone about
doing nothing but good, is assailed with bitter and blas-
phemous taunts ; when he whose entry was cheered
with little less than Hosannas of joy, is hurried by the
furious outcries of the same voices, to a cross of bitter
anguish and even bodily pain ; when he, of whom not a
single act of severity is on record, is rejected, while the
Barabbas who committed murder and sedition, is borne
in triumph, and made the infamous lord of the hour ;
when he is abandoned and left along in his trials by all
who have sworn fidelity to him on their swords, or have
protested to love him as disciples; when the cup of bitter-
ness is forced upon him in his dark solitude, and they
who are allowed to approach him will do so only with
the treacherous kiss; but, oh ! worse than all, when
they whom exiles from their country he invited back
outcasts from their homes, he welcomed to his own
bosom, doomed to death, he forgave, when even they
kneel before him in mockery, and affect to salute him
as their King and Lord, although they have but just
changed his sceptre into a reed, have cast a ragged pur-
ple over him in place of his royal robe, and have
crowned his head with thorns. Yes; what shall we say
when we see all this even now performed before us, but
that now is our time to rush forward with gushing heart
and weeping eyes, and burning lips, to tender our
deepest, solemnest, and sincerest homage; to recognise
now more than ever in our holy Pontiff, the head of our
Church, the Lord of our spiritual life, the master of our
faith, and the true representative of our crucified Re-
deemer? The words which we now utter will probably
never reach his ear, but not therefore the less do we in
our own name, and we doubt not, in yours, publicly
and earnestly profess our undiminished allegiance,
and our increased affection towards the venerable Father
of the Faithful. May the love of his spiritual children
which his tribulations will not fail to call forth, com-
pensate for the ingratitude and unfaithfulness of his
subjects; may the prayers of millions of Catholics rally
round his sacred person, as a surer guard than a human
host; may the blessed Apostles St. Peter and Paul,
from their hallowed tombs, lift up their hands in suppli-
cation and protection, as St. John Chrysostom imagined
them, over the holy city; may the angels of peace gather
round the annointed High Priest of God and shield him
from every enemy; and may every blessing of the Holy
Spirit descend in fulness, and to overflowing, upon his
sacred head; be it again crowned with an earthly dia-
dem, or be it bare to the blast, like that of his Divine
Master!

" And let the permission of these hard trials strengthen
rather than weaken your faith. Fur, beloved brethren
and children, well ye know that in this is the wonder of
God's power in the government of his Church, that to men,
and most to them that believe not in her, she should ever
appear like the Apostle, as dying, and behold she liveth ;
as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing ; as needy, yet enriching many.' It is this life
in death, this immortality through repeated destructions,
this victory over thousands of seeming overthrows, that
forms the mystery and the marvel of the supremacy of
Christ's Church. It was not a course of prosperity, and
a superiority over the vicissitudes of the world, that was
granted to it, but a power to struggle over and to win,
to suffer and survive, to resist, to stand, to remain un-
shaken, but yet to be buffetted by billow, and hurricane,
and lightning, and all the fierce force of the storm. A
rock would not have been needed for the foundation of
the Church, if the gates of hell were not to let loose
their savage host against it.

"And, —therefore", did Jesus still the storm which
threatened Peter's barque; but not till he had slumbered
while it raged and terrified his disciples. Therefore was
that blessed Apostle upheld on the dark sea by his mas-
ter's hand, but not till he had felt himself sinking. And
he who heard the words Feed my sheep,' no less was
told When thou was younger, thou girdest thyself ; but
when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands
and another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou
wouldst not.' And from that time forward that eternal
city which has witnessed so long and illustrious a line of
successors to his power, can also testify to the perpetua-
don of this law, the Pontiffs now lurking from heathen
persecution in the catacombs, then pursued by heretical
Emperors into obscurity; now driven from their thrones
by invading foreigners, then made prisoners or exiles
by their factious subjects ; till the living Pope, the
ornament of our age, continues and shows forth in him-
self the same proof of his true descent, and a further
evidence of that rescusing power, which is inherent in
his dignity. The very name which he chose on his
election to the Pontificate could not but remind him
how they, who has/ lately borne it, had witnessed the
destruction of their earthly sovereignty, and had endured
the hardships and the humiliations of captivity. True,
it is, that their calamities came on them from foreign
enemies. But so much more important was it now to
have proof, that even from within, no less than fromwithout, no violence can overthrow the spiritual king-
dom whereof he is the centre. The earthquake must be
as powerless as the tempest to uproot the foundation
rock of Christ's Church."

The pastoral concludes by calling on the faithful to
unite their hearts with those of their fellow• Catholics of
other countries, in supplicating the Father of Mercies to
protect his Anointed from insult. "Let," observes the
document in question, " this last persecution of the
Visible Head of the Church be met by us as was the
first. Peter, therefore,' says the Holy Scriptures,
was kept in prison; but prayer was made without ceas-
ing by the Church unto God for him.' "
The pastoral letter than proposes that next Sunday,
being the second Sunday of Advent, should be devoted
to supplicating God on behalf of his Holiness, and
that the "Collect for the Pope," be added to each Mass,
and that certain prayers, such as the 0 Salutaris,
Oremus, Jno. Pongee nostro Pio, &c., be sung in the
evening after Benediction.