The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-01-23
VINO sHALL ne rHE sxxr Pors'
III.
why He wm Probably Not Ne IN rtaiisn.
hut q Foreigner and an Auerfcsa.


count Of n crisis or through the development
| OF the Roman situation, we shall have foreign
| Pope. No enlightened man has any doubt OF
| 1t. Most OF tho old Cardinals OF the Curia
will be unable to leave Rome. and the majority
| OF the foreign Cardinals will insist upon their
choice and their judgment. 1t is also evident
that. In that hour OF radical transformatio 1t
will be necessary to conform tho personality
OF the Pope TO the now conditions OF the Papacy.
In this hypothesis 1t will DO n neutral Cardinal,
from n country not mixed up with Continental
complications and rivalries. who will have the
priority. Neither Cardinal Lavlgerie nor Car
dlnal Manning. ho were still living. nor Car
dinal Schoenborn Of Prague. could have any
chance OF success. Tho Primste Of Africa.
most conspicuous for his services and his i'm
mense authority. has himself admitted. In his
illusions that the fact OF his being n French
man constitutes an almost insurmountable
obstacle to his elevation to the tiara. Cardinal
Mermilod 10 in dying condition. and. more
over. his name does not inspire suf-
ncient confidence to rally the two.thirds
vote In his favor. We may admire
his talent, but we have mover counted
upon his political tact. Orators by the grace
OF God never make great administrators or
able governors. Tho Archbishop Of Mechlin.
Mgr. Goossens. does not possess the necessary
surface to make Pope. Cardinal Moran Of
Sydney IL too colonial to be the successor Of
Leo XIII. Neither In Spain nor in Portugal
can we find a conspicuous personality. More
over. these two countries have Continental
situation which classes them among those that
cannot have the privilege OF furnishing candi-
dates for the Ring Of the Fisherman.
There rems aims, then. Cardinal Gibbons. his
Is the one Sympathetic name. II Ia imposing.
Cardinal Lavigerie once said to one OF my
friends that Gibbons would be the future Pope.
In Rome and In the Catholic world the Arch
bishop OF Baltimore has undisrutcd authority.
and receives an admiration which is increased
by distance. Cardinal Gibbons has tho advan-
tage of a particular situation due to the radia-
ton. the coming and going Of ideas and as
pirations. between tho United States and
Europe. No American can appreciate the
vast and profound influence OF his country
uron the old Continent. thrown out of
equilibrium We Europeans. gnawed by So
c!alism. radicalism. and the weight OF abuses.
involunt;,'ily feel the charm and the fascna-
ton Of a Young and OVERLOOKING civilization.
Weare like tho Greeks and Romans. who. ex-
hausted by the refinement OF life. turned their
eyes with hops toward the young nations
coming upon the stage Of the world. 1t ia
law of history that decrepit peoples must seek
life. sap aud methods among the fresh gener-
atoms which bring a sort OF springtime into
their first religious. social. political. and
intellectual manifestations. Since the CEN
tcnary OF the American Constitution. the
European peoples seem to be looking
for an ideal beyond tho ocean. Tho
Christopher Columbus celebrations will
certainly not stop this current OF sympathy.
this sort of moral endosmose and exosmose
between tho two hemispheres A rich and
laudatory literature has sprung up. 1t is not
fIo Hap IL, Sk.,, la
pointing out the American road to Europeans.
but. very strange to say. it is the old social
bodies. the aristocrats. those whom we
hero loosely Gull conservatives. that are
eager for rejuvenation and reform. Power
less and corrupt INSTRUMENTATION having dis
organized the entire national life, it
is to radical clearing of the at
mosphere that all our efforts are
directed. 1t Is from the United States that
many Of our publicists and economists would
borrow political methods. and that marriage
of the old Continental monarchy and the young
American democracy which forms the key
stone Of the Constitution OF the United States.
A check upon the summit Of the parliam entary
pyramid Is the first loan that our political doc
tors are trying to make from the New World.
An analogous phenomenon appears in the
religious world. in the Church. What the CEN
tenary OF the American Constitution has been
for political preoccupations. the festival at
Baltimore and the inauguration OF the Uniyer-
sity OF Washington have been for the aspira-
tions OF Continental Catholicism. The advance
OF the Church in the United States. the crea-
ton OF an intellectual centre. which has ap-
peared as the GROWING work OF a century of
labor and conquest has won admiration. and
what is more essential later on close attention.
This investigation has borne fruit. 1t is the
universal conviction that tho old Catholicism
has something to borrow from the young
American Church. Youth. health, strength,
aud Overlooking sap have something wonder
fully and profoundly sympathetic for al. who
aim ut success. and who look to tho future.
That is the explanation of this attraction.
From this comes the abundance OF books de-
voted to tho study OF the American Church.
We may ask. whence comes this power and
the answer is that 1t lies In liberty. in the alb
sence OF all those old traditional and histori-
cal forms which in two thousand centuries
have hardened the bark OF European Cathol.
icism. These concordats and n,Odus rirpndi.
these antique ecclesiastical organizations,
this incrusting In hieratie in0ulds and in ira
dltioEs of inmobility. all this ensemble OF insti-
tutlons purely human appears to have dried
UP the ovcrflowing springs OF life and ar
rested the march Of Catholicism. Those
preoccupations appear all the more We.
Hemently from the TACT that our
younger generations consider the republican.
democratic. md social policy Of Leo XIII. as
the end of ono period and the prelude of new
era: as talismap. il. u word. which must
adapt the exterior forms Of Che Church to tho
new needs and peculiar conditions OF our
epoch. There is everywhere the pulsation OF
a new life. n movement toward other skies and
other lands. 1t is no longer the past that Mt
tracts: 1t Is the future. Old ecclesiastical Eu-
role. like oil! political Europe. carries. like tho
woman in the Bible. two contending and strus-
Cling worlds In her womb. Which one will
gain tho victory it is not hard to say
THIS thirst for reiuvenation increases the
current toward the United States. There ia a
Church there. they say. which is growing and
spreading like tho grain OF mustard seed in
the parable. 1t has its own life its own social
constitution. its own methods. and its own
FORMS Is 1t not from that Church that we
must learn the secrets OF its youth. its force,
aud Its expansion Like the old Romans. who
refreshed themselves In the Germanic current.
In that ocean OF invasion which has washed
the shores OF a new world. ought we not to
adapt our new forms to American conditions?