The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-06-07
[From the Cincinnati Commercial.
THE POPE.
LECTURE BY REV. FATHER BRADY
THE ELOQUENT JESUIT. ON THE
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
THE ROMAN PONTIFF.


THE ELOQUENT JESUIT, ON THE
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
THE ROMAN PONTIFF.
| Rev. Father Brady, the well-known Jesuit
priest, lectured at st. Xavier's Church to a
large audience, last evening, on the life and
character of Plus TX. He said
AS rule, the Catholic pulpit is not occu-
pied with the eulogy Of the living, but the
celebration Of next Sunday presents to the
Catholic mind man whose character would
justify some deviation from the rule. 1t was
to the glory of Christ to mention efect,ally
and affectionately the Vicar of Christ. The
Catholic body is preparing in the four quar-
ters of the earth to observe with due honors
the Golden Jubilee of Plus TX. The event
deserves fully the congratulations OF the
children Of the Church. The Jubilee of his
Episcopacy is the more interesting 10 him
and to us because he is the first in the his
tory of the Papacy-the first Pontiff to whom
it was ever given to celebrate the tiftieth
anniversary Of his Episcopacy. But beyond
this fact the sacred and high character of the
Papal dignity gives the anniversary an espe.
cial interest. His conservation as Bishop
was the completion, the complement and
perfection Of his sacred priesthood. Other
and great honors might be and were con-
ferred upon him by later appointments, and
they were hallowed by touching religious
ceremonies, but no other Holy orders could
be extended to him. Greater authority and
more extensive jurisdiction and the preroga-
tive of Infallibility could be and were invest
ed in him when he became Sovereign Pontif.
But the priestly character was impressed
upon him to the fullest extent, and the sixth
sacrament of the Church was as a sacrament
exhausted when he was consecrated Bishop.
Moreover, his episcopacy has been distin-
guished for its stainless integrity, for its
constant efficiency, and for its remarkable
trials. To speak first OF his integrity as
Bishop, if there were one blot upon his bril-
liant escutcheon, one less fair deed to throw
a shadow over the dazzling purity of his
history, the myriad eyes which have jeal-
ously watched the fifty years of his prelacy
would have detected it, and would have
eagerly paraded it before the world. The
world has found a flaw in nearly every other
public character. It has seen either real or
imaginary guilt even within the precincts of
the sanctuary. 1t has called the Church Of
Rome ''The Scarlet Woman of Babylon
The Dragon. and ssBeast of Revelation"
1t has vituperated unsparingly the memory
OF Pontiffs dead and gone; but when it
speaks of the present living head of the
Church, the illustrious Plus TX, it loses the
venom CT its tongue and the rancor Of its
heart, and it breathes his name in singular
reverence, and bears full and willing tes-
timony both in sectarian and infidel journals
to the blameless life and spotless record of
Plus. Still greater and more sincere has
been the generation of the faithful for him,
and greatest of all, the unbounded admira-
ton and profound esteem in which his own
priests and prelates have ever held him.
They had the advantage Of observing more
| familiarity his secret life-of scrutinizing
more closely his conduct, and all the rela-
tions Of his public and private character.
They had themselves studied the ideal of the
| most tried and truest holiness, and they
speak Of him both openly and covertly as
their ideal Of all that is true, good Or great
in Christian virtue. They speak of him as
the man Of God who has by fifty years Of
| unfeigned piety. of extraordinary self-de-
NAL, Of gentle solicitude, Of singular purity
of ohio ritv osolf
worthy to be styled the unexceptional model
of a Christian Bishop. But his piety, breth-
rem, has never degenerated into quietism,
nor his weakness into inaction. He has in
the course of his prelacy manifested mar
velous spirit Of zeal and an indomitable in
dustry. He has filled up the years Of his
episcopacy with the multitude of remarkable
eDactments, any one of Which would have
laden with honors the life of another man,
whether subordinate Bishop or supreme
Pontuf. Leo XII. made him Archbishop Of
Spoleto, and so devoted was he in his duties
during the years of his life at Spoleto that
Gregory XVI. transferred him to the more
important and arduous see of InOla. And
later on, as reward for his distinguished
zeal and unsparing toll, the same sixteenth
of the Gregorys placed upon his brow the
hat and the burden Of the Cardinalate. But
| the greater and the more arduous his field
of action, the more earnest became his
charity and the more strenuous his exertions.
When, therefore, six years later, he entered
for the first time the conclave Of Cardinals
convened to elect Pope, the discriminating
eyes Of the prelates Of the Church rested
upon him, and in less than forty-eight hours
he was elected Supreme Head of the Church.
Then began career unparalleled in the an
nails of the Papacy. From 1916 to 1877 he
has encircled his brow with nearly every
glory that ever adorned the life, history, or
distinguished the merits of the Popcs who
preceded him through near l 300 years. He
has given to the altar more saints, given to
the Church more Bishops and Cardinals, has
defined more numerous and far more import
ant articles of faith than can be found spread
over the records of as many Popes as were
contained in double the number of his years.
And although during this period heresy and
infidelity outside the Church has increased
to a shocking degree, yet during the last
decade of years he has in the Vatican coun-
ellis convened more prelates, the representa-
tives of more numerous Catholic commune
ties, than could be counted in any one oil
the grand old councils Of antiquity. Twen-
ty-seven years ago, in the face ct bitter op.
position, he re-established the Catholic HE
! rarchy in England, which no one had ven
tured to 10 since the sixteenth century
Twenty-four years ago he restored the HE
rarchy of Holland. Since that time he has
given Cardinals to England, Ireland, and
what no one before him could ever have at