The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1875-12-19
TIE PoPEs SPEECH 10 TIE YENDEAN
PILGRIMS.

Manifestations of faith and works of charity
inc day Sy day and no IN Faspse re . especially
churches and sanctuSries re-echo to the voice of
people raising their hands and hearts to God,
up MeS to
great need in times 80 troubled as the present,
the scourge still hangs over the
Church. and her enemies obstinately continue
to persecute, to oppress and to torment her.
Now. the long duration of this severe trial of
the Church SCENE, in some countries of the
Catholic world, to enfeeble the spirits aud the
courage of certain men to such degree that
fearing that the Church might not be able TO |
support the weight of SO many evils they bow |
their heads to the unjust exactions of our
prosecutors. Bot you, you are not th us stead |
fast and constant, you show to the world that |
you have in no way lost either faith in God or |
| the hope of some day seeing q calm succeed |
| the tempest, Now, 1 say to these feeble ones
Who are you that pretend to understand the
| secret ways of Providence, and to know when
and how these chastisements will endf o my
children, will say to them in the words of st.
Francis de Sales, Take care! the butterfi ysin
flying too clossly round the flame gradually
becomes cinder, and thrs he who indiscreet
in bis scrutiny, ventures TO penetrate too far
into the ways of God, and TO discover their
mysteries, will be hurled down, crust ed, re-
duced to ashes. 1t is, then, necessary to re-
confidence, even in the face of adverse appear
ances. To prove more clearly that which
! firm let me recall u circumstance of the
Sacred Scriptures. The town of Jericho had
| filled the measure of its niquities, and God in
the DEGREES of His justice had ordained that
this town should be taken from the number of
| towns which were on the face of the earth.
Accordingly, calling Joshua, the successor of
the great captain of the people of Israel, he
ordered him to slay at once all the Inhabitants
of Jericho, and to reduce the city itself to
ashes. Joshua obeyed the Divine command,
and faithfully executed all which God had
prescribed. Having called together the priests,
he told them to take the Ark of the Covenant,
eas well as the trumpets of the Jubilee, to MS
semble the people in order, and to conduct
them in procession under the walls of the
guilty city, renewing for several days and in
the same order the prescribed march. The
armed men went first, the priests followed
with the trumpets and the Ark of the Lord,
while the population and the unarmed part of
the multitude closed this grand pilgrimage
(grGnde pellegriRaggio). The frat march was
executed in this order on the first day. and all
was done in like manner on the following
days. But after the first the second the third
and the fourth day. think You not that the
Inhabitants of Jericho, given up to all vices,
full of all iniquities, having seen the process
sion repeated uselessly and without any injury
to themselves-think yon not that from the
height of their ramparts, which were regarded
az impregnable, they delighted in criticiztng,
and the frumpets, the people and the armed
men? Think you not that even on the side of
the Israelites, among whom were some obsti-
nate men-think you not that there were some
of them who said among themselves, OF what
avail are these fruitless marches, which decide
nothing, aid render the conquest of Jericho
|
place in our days through tho conduct of those
who, on the one hand, initiate in their vices
the ancient inhabitants of Jericho, and, on the
other, the weak Israelites in their distrust.
The mpious despise the Church and her rites,
and they declare, in derisive terms, all We
believe holy and salutary and religious to be
brews, always distrustful and ingrateful, mur.
mur, perhaps, at the inutility of their march
around the walls of Jericho. 1t is thus that
A the weak minded, and those who seek to live
sp at rnrinn hat hn AViI
direction of society continues, and gives nc
hope of turning from its way, unite them.
selves, without being aware Of it, with the
first when they show desire of accommoda
ting themselves to the will of the incredulous
ceding and concediDg things which cannot
and ought not to be ceded. But the seventh
day having arrived, and the march around the
walls having recommended, scarcely had the
people, in accordance with their Instructions
given utterauce to their cries in unison with
the trumpets of the priests, than they failed
not to strike terror into the souls of the blind
inhabitants of Jericho: at that instant the
walls fell, and each one entered into the city
by the place that was before hlm. Et dsceHdG
> unusquisqae per loeum qHi contra &c erat Their
was the great massacre accomplished, and the
city reduced to ashes. The besieged recognized
but too late, that God cannot be trided With
and that we cannot safely despise the sacred
ceremonies established by God himself. An'
amongst the Hebrews the uncertain spirits
the base and cowardly ones' perceived that y
lose confidence in God is q crime. However
the massacre being terminated, and the de
struction consummated, Joshua mounted hi
horse, and inspired by God, he turned to ward
the city, and pronounced q dreadful maledic
tion, which will not repeat, because it is in
deed teIrible. against whoever would rebuilt
upon the same spot the destroyed CITY. BE
loved children, venerable brothers, since yoI
find yourselves at Rome, suffer your father Il
share with your hearts some of the bitterness
which afflicts his own. Remember that nine
teen centuries have nearly elapsed since st
Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, set foot il
this city. Remember that be entered into thi
forest, as 81. Leo calls it, whore was heard th
roaring of the lion and the bull and the hiss
ing of the serpent. SylrG JreanentiHm restidrGnl
Mistress of SO many nations, Rome had addec
to her own vices those of all the conquered
peoples in spite of which the Apostle, with
the help of God, planted in this centre o
Paganism the foundation of the religion o
Ch4ist. the which he watered wi h his blood
Three centuries of persecution, and millions o
martyrs were required to Substitute the Cros
for the false deities. Pagan Rome had bel
h, malediction and was destroyed. What remainl
of that Rome are the fragments which are pre-