The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-06-19
Bishop WHELAN's LEcTURE.-The

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last night, on the temporal power of the
Pope, drew out very large audience.
The lecture was one of the best we ever
heard on the subject and was delivered
with that simplicity Of STYLE. force and
clearness for which Bishop Whelan is
noted, and which so few speakers have
acquired. There is little or no orna-
mentation or attemps at oratorical dis.
play in the Bishops address, but in
stead he presents ideas and thoughts
that bristle through his lectures like bay
onets, demanding and receiving the at
tention of the nearer from first to last,
and when he has finished, we feel tn at
we have heard something unknown be-
fore. r..
The Bishop opened his lecture by
saying that the great question Of the
present day was the temporal power or
authority of the Chief Pastor of the
Church, and one that has divided the
minds of men as they have adopted one
or the other OF the forms Of Christian
faith. On this question, however, the
Catholic Church shows liz unity and one
ness OF purpose and faith. For the
Catholic the question Of the temporal
power of the Pope was settled by the
Bishops when gathered in Rome. who
declared that the temporal power Of the
Church OF God must be maintained
Reasons may be assigned why the
Pontiffshould confne himself exclusive.
ly to spiritual matters, for Satan is
always busy to make trouble and raise
doubts, and the question may be asked,
why should the temporal and spiritual
be thus mixed? Why was the Pope
advised by the Bishops to retain his
temporal power? Because he should
be free and untramelled in teaching the
word. TO us he is one set up to teach
what are truths and what are not, and
he must be free to do this unswayed by
threats, fayors or fears. That he might
be the Bishops advised him to retain
the inheritance handed him by his pre-
decessors, not for hims.lf but for the
Church Of God.
The reverend lecturer then traced the
decline OF the greatness Of Rome, from
the time Of Constantine to the time
when she sent out her armies in the
vain effort to staying the barbarian
hordes that were descending upon her.
Then il was, he said, that the people
turned to the pontift for protection, for
they saw in him the power that could
yield protection when their need was
greatest-the power OF the Church OF
God. Thus papal power became estab-
lished, not for the glory ofone man, but
for the glory of God; not by any coup
detat, but slowly and by degrees, and
because the pontif could protect when
all others failed. When the Emperor
of the East attempted TO do away with
the teaching of the word Of God, then it
was God miraculously divided Rome
and gave temporal power to the pontitf,
And from that day forth, until within
the last few months, the pontiff has
been free; not a subject bound to teach
or refrain from teaching as his sover-
cign might dictate, but free to utter the
word Of God without hindrance.
1t is difficult, said the lecturer tor
any one to point ont the precise moment
when power came TO the Pope it came
so gradually as to seem to have been or
daned of God, and we can never sur
render, at the demand Of robber and
sacrilgious government, what We be-
lieve was not brought about by human
calculation And we never will do it.
The Bishop kept constantly before
his audience the idea of the necessity
for perfect freedom for the head OF the
Church, and that freedom could only be
had where he also was the head of the
State.
He contrasted the low rate of taxa
ton, the immunity from duty as so,-
diers and from the great and devastG-
ting wars endured,by the people OF the
Roman States under the mild and gen
tie government of the Pope, with what
the people living under the other gov
ernments OF Europe are called to pay
and endure
Men speak 10 US, he said, of the au-
thority OF zone man" Is there no con-
sttution for the government oflhat zone
MANI Aye, it is the written and un-
written law of God. This he is sworn
to obey. And will men tell us that they
for us better law than that,
a more perfect constitution than the
word of God ?.
You can now understand why the
Pope returned the answer for a demand
that he surrender the temporal author-
i,y, 81 cannot do it" He has not much
longer to live, his days are almost num-
bered, but still, like a brave soldier, he
is determined TO keep, and hand down
as he received it, the patrimony Of the
Successors OF the Apostles. 1t is the
citidel Of God and cannot be surren-
dered. It's soil is holy. 1t is Gods.
1t was given for the support of the
servant of God, the chief pastor Of his
church. What nonsense, then, to talk
of vote and plebescite That vote was
simply delusion. Thirteen independ.
ent States issued their plebescite in this
country few years ago; was it respect
ed? No, it was determined that the
great good OF the whole demanded that
it should not he, and it was not. So
the great Christian Church demands
that the vote in Rome shall not be re-
srected because it Injuries the Church at
large. What would be thought OF the
District of Columbia if it were to issue
a plebescte attaching itself TO another
Would such q vote be
OF course not. That is
precisely the condition OF Sardinia an
nexing Rome, the chief capital OF the
Christian world, to her.