The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-02-24

clearness W hich sets fire to the train, becau go
latter all, what is the point at issne The whole
1matter may be expressed as follows: "Will
There still be Christian nations, whose govern
uent, however secularized it may be, will be
compelled to respect the belief and to allow
that law Of perfect liberty be preached to the
people; else will not this law become the ex-
solusive property of some Caesars, great and
small. absolute and republican, for Cue 9,arsm
is to be found at the bottom rs well ss at the
top of society Will these Caesars have to
Rdiotate their decrees CT motu proprio, or else
following the advice of their o0urtiers of both
sexes will they cay to their peoples: Here is
what you must believe and practice under pen.
lalty of exile or the scaffold
4 II the temporal throne of the Pope be given
5up to those who oovet its possession. what will
become of tho Sovereign Pontiff He becomes
.hroned Him. or of any other, which may offer
Him an syslum. Occupying such q position,
wonld His liberty be full and unabridged Z A
miracle would be required to render this pos
2sible; it would be necessary that the protecting
government should throw no obstacle in the
! way of His administration, should promulgat
no law contrary to the laws of the Church
That would indeed be miracle; and we know
lit did not happen in Italy, during the past
few years. Still, let us suppose an impossi bill
fifty that such . miracle has occurred there
would remsin another .ficuly, and to keep
Catholic unity together, miracle greater
5even than the former one would now be re-
squired. 1t would be necessary to grave in the
minds of all Catholics and of their rulers, a
complete independence OF the Pope. Govern
3mepts are already suspicious of the actions Of
the Pontiff King, whom their Legislators call q
!" foreign sovereign "-they are SO jealous
3of taking part themselves in the admIni
|tion of public worship throughout their do
lminiops, that it would require but very little
Ito causs them to suspect that the protecting Il
power had directly or indirectly brought in
|huence to bear upon the decisions of the Pom
|tifical Court.
All this would suppose 100 complete depar
)ture from tee laws of moral order, it would
lbe q permanent miracle, which we have mo-
Right to expect. What then would happen q
IL sch government would go on enlarging the
|cirole of its interference in the administra-
|tion of public worship, until the Pope would
mo longer be allowed to intervene Q eeriously
because he would be considered the instrument
|of rival government; his protests would bel
seized at the frontier. and after q few years
certain number of national official churches
land the religion which of old emaucipated|
Europe, w:uld become servile instrument in|
the hands of an uncontrolled despotism.
The foregoing arguments may be brit fly fe
'eapitulated rs follows: In the first place the
temporal sovereignty, the most ancient and
THE most august in .he world, has been conf s.
Gated for the benefit of the revolution; by
what right is this COZ fiscation maintained in|
defiance of all law, divine and human By|
the same right which the thief arrogates to
himself when, grasping his victim, he cries
|out: I" Your purse or yoIr life!" Suoh an &C
fact will never be sanctioned by
eternal justice more than the murder of the
Just Abel, whose innocent blood cries out I'M.
lc ceasingly for vengeance.
In the second place it req uires no demonstra-
|tion to prove that the temporal power can
alone secure to the Sovereign Pontff that inde
lpendence which is necessary to him in tho ex-
!erose of his supreme charge the arguments
lin support of this thesis are exhaustive, they
|are crushing, to the free thinker especially,
who is not 80 weak-minded as to believe in a
miracle, the existence of which, however, be
ha l1ad 70 odr hn 70
suppose that the Pope would enjoy complete
independence and be, at the same time, the
subject of any government whatsoever On
this point we are fortified by the confession of
the great general of modern times, whose per-
!ceptions were clear when they were not
blinded by colossal ambition The Pope,
said he, with characteristic precision. 80 the
Pope must be neither at Madrid,nor at Vienna
nor at Paris, his place is at Rome" AS 8 mat
ter of course, he meant Rome before the VatiI !
can had been transformed into prison.
From all that has been said, is it necessary
to waste time in refating the magnloq uentI
theories of the would be illustrious proposers|
of compromises
People may answer, we understand that the
Pope, in order to maintain his dignity and theI
freedom of his relations with the governments
of the world, should be bject to none of them;
but II he be given guarantees that be will bel
inviolable ought he complain All those whoE
have not forgotten what has taken place att
Rome during the last few years, will not deemI
10 reply to this question urgent it will only bel
necessary to recall some of the measures taken
to confscate the property of the clergy taeI
hideous language made nse of by cert tn de
magogues in the Italian Parliament may asoI
be alluded to the SAn-Culottes of 1913 couldI
not have howled with greater fury, they would
certainly be glad to embrace tsnderly thoseI
whom they found to be their worthy brethrenI
and disciples Who is there that, in presenceI
of Euch disgusting orgies, would still dsrel
even to name the celebrated " Law of guaran-
teesp
He who was the head of the usurping Gov
ernment has already appeared before his
Judge. Concerning him we will be silent, i'm
itating the generous magnsnimity of the com.
mon Father of the fAithful, who prayed for
His despoiler. 1t must be admitted 200, that
the unfortunate monarch who was popularity
called " II Re Gslantuomo " had not entirely
lost the recollection of the tradition of his
family; o smouldering spark of faith must
have made him deplore the ex
cesses caused by his ambition, and the revolu +
tionary whirlwlnd. Does that spark glow iu e
the heart of the present kingi We would
fain believe, but the general belief is to the
which, in truth, has not been les {
sened since the accession ofthe new sovereign
His fathers heart had scarcely ceased to pulSste
ere the death was published to the universe;
still the name of God does not even make its