The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-02

constitution also enjoins the Jesuits
from seeking advancement to high
office, but if the Roman pontiM con-
strains Jesuit to accept promotion he
is supposed to obey. Among the pres
emit cardinals at Rome the Jesuits are,
indeed, represented with considerable
force, Cardinal Ledochowski, the man
who bearded Bismarck when the Ger
man chancellor was in the height of his
power, being now chief of the propa-
ganda. His career is more suggestive Of
the old-time Jesuit, who, aggressive
and fearless, was perpetually COM
ing into collision with the civil power.
Ledochowski, when bishop in Ger
many, refused to allow the German
language to be taught in the Catholic
seminaries, and, in 1874, under the iron
rule of Bismarck, he was imprisoned
and heavily fined. Time brings its
compensations, for young Emperor Will
liam is said to have been trying to con-
ciliate Ledochowsli in order to secure
for Germany a powerful friend at
Rome. Another influential Jesuit at
Ullc VdtiCttA 10 Il tbAOI kJs ihs LII dAAN4Cs
editor of the Civilita Cattolica, who pre-.
pares each morning selection from
the newspapers which he knows the
pope will be interested in reading. He
is in constant touch with his holi-
ness, who possesses high regard for
him. Thus we see the Jesuits, through
certain distinguished representa-
lives, welding an influence near the
vatican, and yet this fact does not alter
their determination to break away from
vatican pressure. They have clearly
shown their hand by going to Spain
this year to elect their black pope.
1t Is true that since the death of
Father Anderledy the Jesuit order has
been under the regency of Father Mar
tin, who is Spaniard and naturally
partial to his native land. It was I'M
derstood from the first that he would be
the choice of the order for the Office of
general. But, as already stated, it was
the foreign members who raised the
strongest protest against having the
election in Rome.
Keen observers regard the present
situation as the beginning of the end.
and predict an active and decisive CAM
paign between the Jesuits and the vati-
can. They say that the order has long
looked with suspicion and disfavor upon
the increasing liberalism of vatican
policy toward things temporal, and
that, consistently clinging to the medi-
eval tradition of the absolute authority
of the church, the Jesuits consider that
Leo XIII. is weakening against the out
side pressure of modern socialism and
generally leveling tendencies 1t is
also asserted in some quarters that the
Jesuits believe, first, in the ascend
ency of the church, and then in
their own ascendency within the
church over the pontiff, and that they
are now actively at work to realize
their ideal conception of power. The
predictionists claim that this policy, if
carried to its logical conclusion, will re-
suit in the extinction of either the
Jesuits or the papacy. 1t is secretly
rumored that the new general, Father
Martin, has great influence with the
queen regent, of Spain, and that his
object is to form powerful alliance be-
tween the order and the Spanish throne.
Clerical influence at the court-the
priest at the sovereign's elbow, advis-
ing and uggesting-this savors of the
old regime of the middle ages.
The revival of the old Spanish
Catholic blue laws of the time of Isa-
bella is reported to be a part of Mar
tins programme. Spain is once more
to be the theater of the intrigues of
church and state and the lever with
which the Jesuits will seek to move the
vatican in the direction of their own
desires. Extremists even go SO far as
to assert that the total elimination of
Professionalism in Spain is contemplated
by Martin and his disciples, through
the application of the above mentioned
drastic laws of Isabella H., which made
it penal offense for any Spaniard to
embrace any faith but that Of Catholici-
ty and under whose operations numbers
of persons were thrown into dungeons
to languish there during the royal and
clerical pleasure. Time alone can
prove whether or not these prophecies
truly foreshadow events to come.
THOMAS DoNNELLY.