The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-10-23
"Dsvassn Z to r.paey."

I'M Nj ~ Az and CATHOLIC
"Dsvafan u tAs Pspasy."
Picadilly," the London correspondent,
Of the New York World, Furnishes, al
epitome Of thesentiments of various classe,
on what Protestants call the g downfall o
the Papacy." He, is usually candid, sant
his letters, 50 far as we have been able te
observe, characterized by a fairness which
forms an agreeable exception. In one o,
his last letters he says:
The emulation Of the Protestant and non
religious community here over what they
The Protestants rejoices because be
thinks he sees In the dow nfali Of the Pope
as sovereign, the prom ice Of the fall Of q
false religion the non-religiOus rejoices
| because he thinks he sees in that event the
| fall aud destruction of all hierarchies. The
| believe that both the Protestant and the
| lnhdel are mistaken. The Roman Catholic
tbinks he knows that God will preserve his
Church, even to the end of the world, and
| that the trials through which it is. now
passing, like those through which it has so
often passed, are but the prelude to fresh
triumphs; he remembers that nothing is
new to, the See of st. Peter; nothing can
happen to it that has not happened to it be-
fore the world has often sought to destroy
| it, but it has immortal life it has seen the
rise and fall of countless empires, dynasties
and republics, and while every thing else
decays it continually renews it's youth !;
exile is no new trial to the Popes; for
eighty years they were exiled from Rome
and dwelt in poverty in their refuge at
Avlgnon /; imprisonment is nothing new to
them ). death at the hand of their foes is
" OIL af ne Ia
and the threat of it has no terror for them.
Plus TX. is about to be made a prisoner
and be kept in honorable confinement as the
Emperor Napoleon is or he may be ex-
lied, IS he has been before; or he may even
De put to death, as st. Peter and SO many
lowed with the blood of myriads of mar
tyrs, But, in the firm faith of the whole
Catholic world all this will matter little.
Its heart Is filed with anguish and resent
ment at the thought Of the wrongs inflicted
on the Pope as q temporal ruler; but they
have no fear, or shadow of fear, for the
Church of which he is the head. A Catho-
lie friend told us that he attended Mass
yesterday morning in an obscure and hum
BILE chapel, of which the congregation was
composed almost wholly of working people
and poor tradesmen. It was low Mass,
SO there was no music the1 chapel was
small, and the poor congregation knelt
close to the altar rails. There 10 prayer
in the Mass for the Pope, and, said my
friend, "When Father NJ: came to recite.
this prayer his voice .trembled and tears
gushed from his eyes, while from the con-
gregation came sound rarely heard in a
Catholic Church, moan of entreaty, grief
and sympathy" Deeply do the Catholics
here feel for the sorrows that are poured
out on the head of their venerable father
but if you talk to them of danger to their
Church through anything that men can do
Dina anil of oiy 1Sast
8. They may drive him away" said one of
them to me, " but either he or his success
sors will return. They drove his predeces-
sors away, and. their successors returned,
and SO it will be to the end" L do not
think that among the Catholics of this
expresses itself in such phrases as: The
oss of the temporal power will be a bless
ing in Disguise" and The Church will be
;he gamer if the Popes cease to be kings
md remain simply Popes." Iknow that
bis feeling does exist to some extent in
veD as among the laity. The Anglo Ca
helics," as Puseyites delight 10 cali them
elves, profess to see in thesepoliaton a ]
lessing in disguise. They sre men with !
ne absorbing and controlling idea-the c
eunion of Christendom is one Church.
nth the Bishop of Rome as it's head, but d
nth themselves cleansed from the stains '
heresy and schism, and recognized, not
8 a branch, but as part of the one Holy
atholic Church. They say that the one Z
reat obstacle to this reunion, in England 81
least, has been the claims of the Papacy y
} exercise temporal power ard to control d
vii governments. As long as this claim
maintained, say they, the traditional
ars and prejudices of Engiishmen blind
lem to the spiritual claims of Rome as the
cad and centre of the Christian world.
ut if the Pope should be Invested of every
her attribute than those which belong to
i'm as the Primate. of Christendom, If it -,
ere made clear to even the most bigoted N N
ind that hereafter the power of the Ro- p,
an Catholic Church is to be only di
'iritual power, and that England, for in st
ance, can no longer dread political SUBJ IN IN
ction to a foreign potentate, the way for I'll
e much desired reunion would be greatly &c
.,oothed, and the Mother Church might M M
nd her long alienated daughter ready to II
turn to her embrace. TO entertain these n eo
onions is, of course, only possible to men Fl
hose wishes are fathers to their thoughts, p p
I'd who are absurdly blind. Rome never 70
langes she is the same yesterday, to- day 10
I'd forever converts she is willing to re- an
i've, if they are really converts-that is,
they yield to her teaching and her au- tr
ority that implicit and perfect obedience
hich she demands. But it. is impossible to
r her to make concessions or couapro- TO,
ises; her whole fabric rests on the prin-
pie that she is the custodian and infallible g.
of truth, and as truth is immu-
BILE, she must also be immutable. They at,
a 10 mr. 4 1. co.k L.. ~. =