The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-01-01
The spectator ON the Temporal Power Of tho
ffs.isl s4E. Pope. y - fe"

The LondcR Spectator had . thoughtful
article upon The independence Of the
Pope" which, With some rather cool as
snnptions, contains several important nd
missions candidly made. The writer ar
IA good deal Of ridicule was poured
upon Pho Mono because a few days ago he
was SO querplOus about his right to
separate post-boy; but after all, how was
he to get on without one, or transact the
business of his Office, while the most sacred
confessions, the most important. communl-
cations from his bishops, the most compro-
missing letters from disciples of all sorts
were liable to be opened and read, or even,
as happened in 1S4S, to be published to the
world 1t is not fair to say that the Catho-
lie system can be worked under such con-
dition, and that is only one of a hundred
instances in which the absence OF sover-
eighty, the .naers fear that q violent party
may one day treat the Pope as o subject
| is fatal to tho necessary freedom of pre-
late who is either the Vicegerent Of Christ
| for certain matters or nobody. We cay ne
is nobody, but there Is no justice in assn-
ming our Premises at all but from another
1 one which destroys ours. . We must argue
from the Catholic basis, and upon that
basis, as now stated, sovereignty is needfai
to the Pope, but any sovereignty wonid
suffice just as we'll AS Rome, provided 1T
were freely accessible to the world. Rome
without Civita Xecchia and the lands con-
Meeting them would be, nay, is, IN q way, q
| prison for the Pope, all whose correspond
ence must pass through alien or hostile
hands but any place by the sea-Elba or
Capri, or any one of hundred Mediterra-
mean islands-grantedi in full sovereignty,
would do Just as we'll as Rome. He could
govern Catholicism from thence just as
we'll as Garibaldi could govern the revolu.
ton from Caprera."
The Spectator is very clear that the Pope
should possess some temporal power, and
that he should be sovereign. 1t is mani
festto this impartial thinker that the posi-
ton he occupies in the world requires this
much in the interests of 200 900, 900 spirit
} ual subiecte, who must be considered:
"Tbat the Pope should have dominion
, is, we think, clear, the interests of the Ca
tho1ic Church being important enough to
deserve that position for their chief ad-
ministrator; bat it is equally clear that the
smaller the population, and the more
isolated the position of this dominion, pro-
, vided it is accessible, the more perfectly
will it be adapted to its end"
But why should the Spectator argue, as
= it does, that Eba or Capri would do as
. we'll as Rome Does not the Spectator see
/ an absurdity in proposing as matter for q
: convention that the Bishop of ROme shOulC
, not live at his Sect Besides, what guar
: antee does the Spectator suggest for hi
continuing Sovereign of E'ba, If the guar
aptees for his sovereignty in Rome have
a faileda Why should he remain ut Elba
' any more than att Rome, if a band of Carl
s baldians were to land upon the island ant
+ keep up bombardment till he either sur
: rendered or departedf The Spectator al
mits the principle and the necessity OF tn
+ temporal pc wer and sovereignty, and tina
I, is to admit what all contend for. But Gu
= contem porary does not admit that subject
n have no right to rebel against their soy
y ereign, and is perhaps still under the de
: fusion that the Plebiscite was a bona .ha
IL Roman transaction, aud not fraud cnul
E. mitted by outsiders. However, to adof
e. the expression of the Spectator, until tn
y Pope is restored to freedom and sovereign
." % ty, he is likely to be ''the skeleton in tn
K epeooass ~ in, sysfy cabinet'-1aslet'