The Irish standard., 1902-04-19
ian purple; the armament overhead

/
J voys Of the Powers of Earth, in all the
pride Of their worldly frippery, bowling
the head before the unarmed old man
: who was the soul of the scene; the
music of the Mass pouring out the
whole meaning Of the story in ecstatie
pulsations, and around and far away
the expanse of eager faces in their
black environment. marvelously hush.
ed hour after hour, save for an occa-
sional faint murmur like the wash of
waves on 4 distant shore. If NJ. lola
had witnessed such scene before he
wrote of ST Peters rs of cemetery of
dead things, either he would write
himself blown blind to anything above
the level Of the sewers of Rome, or he
would confess that never in the best
days of the Papacy and nowhere else
in the world, could be found more Life,
more Reality, more majestic Power,
more buoyant confidence both as to the
Here and Hereafter. When during the
the Renedictus at the Elevation. the
silver trumpets broke forth faint and
far from loggia at some impossible
height up in the Dome, it really did
not require too fervid an imagination
to ask oneself whether the heavens
themselves We're not beginning to catch
up the silvery song.
The browning moment was that
when the Holy Fathers own indom-
table voice began to intone the TIE
Deum, and every second vcrset was
taken up by the congregation Mt large.
When the magnificent old mans "In
tie Domino, speravi" was answered
with the joyous mon confundar in
;eternum!' in a measured peal of en-
ultation by tens of thousands of voices,
not more firmly set seemed the tremen-
dous dome on it's four tremendous col
umns than was the cause of that trem-
bling old man of more than ninety win
tiers upon those pillars of prayer to
which all the jubilant myriads in the
great Basilica added, as it We're, as
many living blocks. The final scene
was the Papal Benediction. The Sedia
| Gestatoria halted beside the bronze
statue of st. Peter, and there. the Holy
Father, looking almost into the sar
cophagus which is already marked out
to be his tomb. but still so full of un-
conquerable life that after all those
two long hours Of kneeling and emo
ton his dark eyes kindled with an i'm
mortal fire and n faint tinge of rose
color had actually risen to his cheek.
like some subtle tint in transparent
vase of delicate yellow, the Holy Fa-
Their arose and stretching forth his
arms to a width that might well ex-
tend urbi ct orbi, scattered his blessing
wide rs If it came from the clouds
from some Being who had shaken off
the burden Of flesh and blood. 1t was
MS If the greatest of living men were
passing into Immortality before our
eyes and leaving luminous train of
benediction behind him. Then, once
more, the peoples enthusiasm burst all
bounds, and for the rest of the time un-
til the cloudy white Papal apparition
disappeared in the chapel of the Pieta,
peal Of passionate cheering rolled
after peal rs among the mountains of
marble and gold overhead, until even
the rude harmonics of human cheering
were transmitted into divine canticle
worthy of the hour and place. AS one
for whom an all too long experience
might we'll have taken off the bloom
of great public spectacles. I can truly
say that never in any land or in any
cause beheld manifestation so incom-
parably. so divinely grand.
The italian Journals make much of
the circumstance that the cries of
"Evviva il Papa-Re!" were few. 1t is
quite true I only heard one, and it
was reprovcd by one of those half
spoken murmurs by which well-bred
crowd puts stop to an indiscretion.
To me, at least, it seemed as if there
is an irreverence akin to insult in link
ing the title Of the Sovereign Potentate
who could command such worldwide
love and reverence MS lay Mt Pope Leo's
feet that day with the poor trade of the
kinglets Of the earth who strut through
their threadbare court festivities and
nmusc themselves with their hoyns of
soldiers, until the knife or bomb of
some lunatic subject turns the pcor
little comedy into tragedy. There
are three live things in Rome-Re.
ligion, Nationality, and the gathering
power of Labor. Whatever ephemcral
excuses may disfgure all human
ideals. the Papacy has nothing to fca1
from the true and passionate longing
for italian unity which sounded
through Dante's immortal song and il
! Filicergn's cry
Och! fossil tn men bella almen Dit
forte!
; (Ah! vert thou only less lovely or more
strongD
many century before the cause fcl
, under the sinister patronage of TIL,
{ Victor Emmanuels and the Crispis
, Still less need ''the Democratic Pope
who pcnned the famous Bull which il
hn oy,o