Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-09-15
A Talk With the Pope.

|
A door was opened, curtains lifted, ant
there, Immediately in front of me, stoot
the successor of st. Peter. Knowing tha
l was not Catholic. suppose, and wish
ing to save me all the embarrassment in re
gard to the three genuflexions and tn,
kneeling which all Catholics perform, hi
holiness had come TO meet us to the yery
door. He saluted us with blessing snC
then made us enter. When we did so
and he found l knew Italian, he said h,
was very glad to see me, and thanked my
companion for having brought me- He sale
he understood | was interested in philoso.
ply, and replied, "Yes, especially in thai
OF Aristotle. This drew from him very
warm eulogium of Aristotle, to all of which
/ most fully agreed, but meanwhile | was
trying to make my mind about the Pores
personal appearance. had seen, | think
may safely say, thousands of portraits OF
him. l now found that not one of then
gave any notion of his living presence. Lee
NH, If not handsome man, is certainly
a very imposing one. He is about middle
height, straight, thin and wIry, with some.
thing of the ascetic look of Cardinal Man
ming, only in less degree There is a
peculiar curve in his eyes and mouth, and
his nose is very large and prominent. His
manner is thoroughly regal, free, easy and
confident. He speaks with great dignity
and fiuency, and with long, almost hexa-
metric, cadence. He gives the impression
of being man of tremendous will, coupled
with gentlemanly prudence. He was
dressed, when l saw him, in white, with
out adornment of any kind, save number
of very large rings on his fingers. As soon
as he had finished his panegyric on Aris-
totle, took occasion to say that wished
20 thank him for his encyclical restoring
the philosophy of st Thomas. This was
exactly the right chord to touch, and my
friend nodded assent. The Pope, taking
me by the arm with his lett hand and
raising his right in the air, burst out into a
real flow of enthusiasm. ''Questa mia en-
ciciica," he began, and | shall never for
get the satisfaction with which he empha-
sized the mia. had often heard that
he was very proud of his ency-
cliIcal 4Eterni PATHS, but l mad no
notion that the mention of it by hereto
would call forth so much eloquence. He
spoke for 1 should think, ten minutes,
with real Inspiration, of the great value of
St. Thomas philosophy, of its depth,
unity and conformity to revealed truth, of
the motives that induced him to issue his
ency clical, of the favor with which that
document had been received IN all parts of
Europe, and even America, and of the good
he hoped would result from it.
rala inht
shoulder he inquired how long | had been
in Rome and how much longer meant TO
remain. When, in answer to the second
of these questions, | sald only few days.
he looked at me very kindly and said:
But you mean to return, surely" replied,
Every probably" Then he said; ''Yes,
yes, you must return in the autumn and
study st. Thomas and Aristotle along with
my professors and with the same aim. You
will help them and they will help
YOU He then went on to say that his
great aim was to place philosophy on a
sound basis, and to gather round him in
Rome number of profound thinkers who
should thoroughly discuss all difficult ques-
tions and bring as many OF them as posi-
bic to definite solution. With this view
he had founded an academy of Thomstic
philosophy which, he had hoped, would
be of great service. When l told him
mad been present at the Inauguration of
that institution, and had listened with
much pleasure to the speech of
his brother Cardinal Pecci, he seemed
greatly pleased, and invited me to attend a
philosophiCa al dispute soon to be held in the
library of the Vatican, N which he inten-
ded himself to be present. My companion
undertook to give me notice of the date.
After few more questions, manly of a
personal nature, he grasped my hand firm
ly, saying, ''Vu stringo Ia B,aI,O" q
press your hand), gave us his benediction,
and conducted us, still holding my hand,
to the door. My audience had lasted
something less than half an hour. The
room in which it took place was a small
study, comfortable. but by no means ex-
pensively furnished. Italian rooms are
never. as ours often are, domestic mu-
seums. 4 handsome carpet, few chairs,
two arm-chairs and an oval table COW
cred with a red cloth and carrying cruel
fix, few books, writing materials and one
or two silver vessels, possibly recent pres
ents constituted the entire furniture. / am
inclined to thing that Leo XIII is trying,
so far as he may, to do away with the
vauities and absurd ccrem Onials which have
for ages SUM ...l,ied the person OF the pom
tiff he has, however, hard battle to
fight and is closely watched by represen-
tatives of body that scouts all progress,
would fain return to the middle ages,
and would hardly hesitate to send to a
better world any one who stood
in their way in this. 1t Is openly
affirmed in Rome that near the beginning
of the pontificate of Leo Kill, when his
reforming tendencies began to show them
selves, an attempt was made to destroy
him by means OF poison slowly admins
tered; but that, being discovered in time,
the attempt was baffied, not, however, I'M
til after the Pope's health had suffered con-
slderably, and he began to totter like an
infirm old man. can testify that there
is no sign of infirmity about him now. lie
is vigorous, active, alert, and the fttest
man to be Pope of all the Catholics l have
ever seen.