The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-20 00:00:00

sufficient to excite us to indignation. What a sin-'
gu lar love of freedom, indeed, is manifested in the
acts of the ruler of Franew! What a love of liberty
in the English press, that cannot find a word of
condemnation for the bigotry and intol;:annce of
Sweden, Denmark, and Russia,
in the fiercest invectives the it denounces
—Em
for having abolished the peror of Austria
penal code of Joseph 11.,
and restored religious liberty to 30 millions of Ca-
tholics ! But, passing over these considerations in
silence, let us look to the doings of the two great
leaders of the Italian cause, Victor Emmanuel and
Garibaldi—the men who are extolled as heroes,
apostles of liberty, and benefactors of mankind.
Have they shown themselves lovers of freedom and
national progress ? No, they have no claim to such
a distinction ; they are mere despots, and bitter
enemies:of religion and of the best interests of
mankind. Victor Emmanuel has introduced a ge-
neral system of spoliation in his own States, rob-
bing convents, monasteries, and churches. He has
banished men distinguished by their learning and
virtue, and cast into prison or exile venerable
bishops and priests. He has also oppressed with
penalties and doomed to confinement the editors of
newspapers who had the courage to condemn his
tyrannical proceedings. The very first decree pub-
lished in his newly acquired dominions drives the
Jesuits from Ancona and Perugia. Are these the
doings of lovers of liberty, and has Napoleon, or
Palmerston, or Russell, or the English press ever
uttered one word of censure against them ? As to
Garibaldi, he has only walked in the footsteps of
his master. Scarcely landed in Sicily, he proscribed
the Jesuits and Redemptorists, and he afterwards
sent into exile some venerable bishops and the
illustrious Cardinal Archbishop of Naples. More-
over, he has confiscated a large amount of pro-
perty and perpetrated other acts of spoliation.
He, however, and Victor Emmanuel have one great
merit in the eyes of England, they have opened the
way to public proselytism, and it is now well known
that hundreds of missionaries have set out with
the benevolent intention of preaching Protestan
tism in Sicily and Italy. Time will soon tell
whether the destruction of children, the mur-
ders, the poisonings now so rife in .England
will be introduced with Protestantism, and whether
the inhabitants of Southern Italy shall be brought
to that state of worse than Pagan ignorance and
immorality in which the Church Pastoral Aid So-
ciety so often assures us that their own people are
languishing at home. Garibaldi has another great
merit with the bigoted press. He has manifested
a great love for anti-Catholic education; he has
established a system of public instruction on the
model laid down by a Robespierre and a Marat, and
he has appointed a man named Boni to preside over
it, who, we are informed by the correspondent of
the Times, is remarkable for nothing so much as his
hatred to the Papacy. But, without proceeding
further on these matters, do not the factsjust stated
sufficiently show that it is not the love of liberty,
but a bitter hatred of Catholicity, that animates
the enemies of the Pope, and their abettors and de-
fenders ? The triumphs of such men, if we consider
them in a temporal point of view, are certainly
most afflicting, and hold out only faint hopes for the
future prospects of society. However, enlightened
by faith, and looking to the experience of the past,
we are not to be surprised or scandalised ; for the
Scripture tells us that scandals and heresies must
come, that the wickedness and hypocrisy of many
may be revealed, and we know that the Church has
often been exposed to the severest trials from her
wicked and ungrateful children, but that she has al-
ways come triumphant out of every trial. We can fear
nothing for the Church, because she is thepillar and
the ground of truth, and Christ will be with her all
days, even to the consummation of the world. We
can fear nothing for the successor for St. Peter, for we
believe that his authority cannot be destroyed. It is
founded on the words of eternal truth—' Thou art
Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and
the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.' Indeed
if we have grounds for human fear and affliction,
have we not the highest and most noble motives to
strengthen and encourage us ? There is the Pope
himself, calm and resigned, defending his rights
with authority and majesty against open enemies
and treacherous friends, and proving to the world
the sanctity and justice of his cause. It is a glorious
fact that a feeble old man, without wealth, without
earthly power, should be able to resist and over-
come the great ones of the earth, and baffle al their
wicked projects. They advance against him like
Goliah, boasting in their strength and their armour ;
he defeats them by prayer and the power of the
Spirit. Like St. Paul, he can say, Cum infirmior
tune fortis sum—' When I am weak, then am I
strong.' If we look to the condition of the Church,
is it not also well calculated to dissipate our fears ?
Were the pastors and people of the immense fold of
Christ ever more united together, or more closely
bound by love to the Chair of Peter? At the time
of the persecutions of Pius VI., in the last century,
there were Febroniuses, and Scipio Riccis, Con-
gresses of Emms, Synods of Pistoja, Jansenists and
Gallicans. All such evils have now disappeared.
Even the spirit of infidelity is gradually losing its
force, and in France the rising generation are
growing up in the fear and love of God, and imbib-
ing a sincere attachment to religion. 'What shall
I say of Austria, where the present noble-minded
Emperor has broken the chains of the
Church, and given every encouragement to
Christian liberty, and the fullest scope to the
practices of religion ? He has even emancipated
the Protestants, and given them entire control over
the education of their children and their religion,
though, with the blackest ingratitude, English
writers are endeavouriug to blast his fame. Even
Italy, in the midst of the convulsions and the per-
fidious acts to which she is abandoned, has still a
great Catholic spirit ; and I read some days ago
with great pleasure a letter from the exiled Cardi-
nal Archbishop of Pisa, bearing ample testimony to
the wonderful faith and good works of the people
of Turin, while the inhabitants of Pisa itself dis-
played dispositions equally praiseworthy when
they received in triumph, and with ecstacies of de-
light, the same venerable Archbishop, who had been
freed from captivity. Such things show that the
faith is still strong in the Italian heart. Un-
doubtedly, there are wicked and perfidious men
beyond the Alps, but, in my opinion, though vio-
lent and daring, they are not very numerous, and if
compared with the true Catholics as to numbers,
they are not more in proportion than the Orange-
men in Ireland, who, though only a handful, have
been able to disturb for so long a period and to
trample on the peaceful inhabitants of this country.
't'urning from Italy to Australia and North
America, what a glorious prospect presents itself to
our eyes in the new and glorious churches spritm•-
ing up in those distant regions. churches which
afflicted and persecuted Ireland has so largely con-
tributed to establish ! But, omitting all these
corsidtrations, if we look to our own Church.
what motives for confidence and hope ! 'What
an unshaken spirit of faith, what a burn-
ing zeal for the glory of God in our
people, what unbounded charity, what fre-
quency of the sacraments, what perseverance in
prayer, what a thirst for Catholic instruction,
and what efforts to prevent the blighting effects of
mixed and godless systems of education ! If any
one with so many reasons for confidence, with such
glorious prospects before his eyes, were still to fear
for the ultimate safety of the Church or its supreme
head, would he not deserve the reproach of our
Redeem er—.2l/odieceficiaz, quare dubitasti ! Thoughwe do not fear for the authority, and even the
triumph of the Pope, yet, as the members of the body
of which he is the head, we cannot but suffer when
he is insulted and afflicted; and we are only acting
as loving and faithful children when we sympathise
with him in his trials and his disasters. This you
are determined to do this day, and I am confident
that you will do so in a way that will give en-
couragement to your faithful flocks and bring balm
and consolation to the wounded heart of our loving
Father. But while adopting words of love and
sympathy, we are never to forget that it is by
prayer, by persevering humble prayer, that we are
to render the greatest assistance to the cause of God
and the Church, and nothing will so much console
and delight the chief pastor of our souls as to learn
that all the charity, and zeal, and purity, and other
virtues of good ecclesiastics, shine forth in our lives,
and that we are performing all the arduous duties
of labourers in the vineyard with fervour and per-
severance, and that our lives present a model worthy
to be imitated by the flocks committed to our care."