The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-26 00:00:00

TILE PAPACY AND THE AGE.

Although a leading daily journal recently re-
minded us that by the turn affairs have taken in
Italy, the tiltr.amontanes have won another feather
for their cap, and may be permitted to exult over
their victory, it is not our intention to give utter-
ance to any noisy expressions over the defeat once
more, in the person of Garibaldi and his followers,
of the designs of the Church's bitterest enemies.
Of course, all Catholics are deeply thankful that
events have ended as they have, nor is their thank-
fulness any the less from the fact that the result is
just what they foresaw from the beginning. No
doubt, the prospect was black enough, and the
storm raged very high ; but the Hand which has
already so often guided the barque of Peter through
much greater dangers was not wanting to steer it
through this its last peril.

But though thankfulness is necessarily upper-
most in our mind, it is not our intention, as we
have already said, to boast over the discomfiture of
Garibaldi and his rabble host. The punishment
which they have already encountered upon the
field of action, must have been a sufficiently severe
blow to their misguided and misplaced zeal—
patriotism, love of country, glorious martyrdom,
it is termed here : with what truth we leave to be
decided by the inner conscience of those of our
journalists who are loudest in their denunciations
of Fenianism. It is useless, however, we feel, to
revert to this aspect of the matter ; for nothing is
ever to be gained by attempting to force notions
of justice upon those whose ideas of right are wil-
fully distorted. To some Englishmen, no doubt,
united Italy is a great idea ; but to them, and
many, many more of our countrymen, the destruc-
tion of the Papacy is a greater, and, indeed, it
would be the consummation of the dearest, wish of
a large majority of our Protestant fellow-country-
men. In their ardent desire for the accomplish-
ment of this object, that general sense of right for
which England, notwithstanding its many interna-
tional shortcomings, is justly renowned, has been
lost sight of. Does any one doubt what would
have been the cry if the idea of Italian unity had
emanated from the Vatican, and the freethinkers
of Italy were now reduced to their last stronghold ?
Who cannot realize the howl of execration that
would resound through the land at such a stupen-
dous exhibition of priestly ambition and tyranny ?
Unity, forsooth! The whole movement and effort
of the spirit now distracting the Peninsula is to
overthrow the soul and centre of all Unity—the
Power which has ever striven to bind the whole
world in the unity of faith, brotherly love, and
civilization. That such has been the mission and
effect for centuries of the Papacy is indelibly
written in the history of every civilized nation of
the earth : no honest man presumes to deny it. But
we are now told that it is an institution behind
" the age ;" that it is antiquated ; and, like all
things opposed to the age, must be abolished at all
costs.
To any one who watches the signs of the times
this accusation is perfectly intelligible. What is
called " the age" here in England is one of the
"glorious" results of the Reformation—a result
which, on the Continent, has more rapidly flowed
from similar principles—those, namely, of 'B9. By
rejecting the guiding and restraining authority of
the Church, England has in the course of the last
three hundred years effected that which the lead-
ing spirits of the Revolution attained by a far
quicker and simpler process—by the summary re-
jection of all moral restraints. It is curious and
instructive to observe the two schools freeing them-
selves from the authority of the Church and pursu-
ing such widely different paths, and yet eventually
arriving at the same result ! In both systems, every
one is practically left to follow his own conscience,
unfettered, unguided; but the conscience, deprived
of its appointed guide, succumbs to the ill-regu.
lated desires of human nature ; and thus we are
brought at once to that wide licence which passes
under the name of liberty, and which is euplio-
nistitally termed the " spirit of the age." This is
the doctrine of the day preached throughout
Europe. Throw off the restraint imposed upon
you by an effete and superstitious system of reli-
gion. Be your own high priest in the midst of
your family; let your own judgment be your

guide— your ;intellect your God. Such arc the
dogmas of what was recently announced to the
world as "the religion of God." It is, indeed, a plea-
sant doctrine for poor, weak human nature, whose
lot is cast in the midst of a luxurious age ; and no
wonder that its votaries are many in the midst of
the eager quest of pleasure which is going on
around us. The apostles of this new religion—bril-
liant men for the most part, well stored with worldly
knowledge—know the'.r advantage, and have
not been slow to turn it to good account ; and it
is with sorrow we acknowledge the rapid strides
they have made in the propagation of their perni-
cious creed. It is useless to try to conceal from
ourselves, or to disguise the fact, that Rationalism,
having desolated western and central Europe, is
now making sad havoc in the Italian peninsula.
It is the rationalistic doctrines alone—the spirit of
the age—brought to bear upon the disorganised
and politically demoralised state of Italy, which
have rendered possible the Garibaldian demonstra-
tions against the Papacy we have just been wit-
nessing. The violent political changes the country
has undergone have brought down unwonted dis-
tress and poverty upon a proverbially excitable
nation ; and their minds being thus unsettled and
heated, the more ignorant and helpless portion of
them have fallen easy victims to the subtle influ-
ences of godless and crafty leaders, who have
found no difficulty in turning to their own pur
poses the passions of the hour. Notwithstanding
this partial success, however, of the revolutionary
tactics, there are manifest signs—witness the fruit-
less endeavours satisfactorily to dispose of the
Church property—that the movement does not
make that progress which its friends---particularly
its English friends—desire. Vain expectation !
Catholicism is the only barrier to the headlong
career of the " age," and yet it was expected that
its power would be swept away at the fountain
head at the first rush of the storm. But the Church
stands with all her power for good, with all the evi-
dences of her Divine commission, invincible in her
power. It is not that the Papacy is behind the
age, but that it is against it—against its pride,
its corruption, its luxury. The age will not be
reminded of its error, nor checked in its licence ;
and hence the feeble contempt, the hatred, and the
calumny gratuitously heaped upon the Papacy.—
Vestminster Gazette.