The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-28

lamented head of the church. the peru
sal of the letter which our beloved Bis
hop addressed to us, and through US
to you, few days ago on the sad
event is most appropriate and becom-
ing in this place and time. He says:
bishop KeiIey's Words.
"A calamity well nigh irreparable
has Overtaken the Catholic world. Leo
XIII, for the prolongation Of whose
precious life heaven has been be-
sieged with prayers, has gone from us.
Fortified by the sacred rites OF the
holy church. he yielded up mis- pure
soul to God on the Goth day of July,1903
There was a pathetic sublimity in the
scene. when the vicar Of Christ Jesus
and infallible head of ChTist's flock on
earth, surrounded by his household,
with murmured prayers on his dying
lips; humbly received the last sacra-
ments and those wondrous spiritual
comforts which are the solace of the
humblest as well as the highest of the
children of Mother Church.
1t is no exaggeraton to say that
the world stood at the door of this
dying Old man. 1t was but natural to
expect that we, his children, had watt
ed with anxiety for news from the lit
tie room where our father lay bat
Ting with death; it was to be expect
ed that our prayers had been said to
the Great and Invisible Head of the
Church that He might prolong the
days of one who had governed so
wisely and so Well: but we were CRATE
full witnesses 10 the heartfelt sympa'
thy and interest of our non-Catholic
friends and their prayers for our holy
fathers recovery.
In one sense he belonged to the
world, for he was the representative
of the one who came to save ALL and
he never forgot the claim which those
outside the fold had on his charity. AS
the days go by, thinking men will rec
ognize the debt, which all men, who
believe that the social fabric cannot
stand unless based on Christian princi-
pies owe him.
IF his words had been needed. a
solution of our labor troubles had been
found. When in the days to come
confronted by such social ruin as well
may cause many to tremble
they will find it an imper-
alive necessity to defend the
home against the iniquitous ravages of
divorce legislation. then, they will re-
member the apostolic words of the old
man OF lNe NdICan ana lament Indl
they fell on needless ears.
The Papacy Lives.
True it is. that though the Pope
dies, the p2pacy lives and will live
forever; true it is, that soon another
white robed figure will sit on Peters
chair there in the Vatican, to rule the
church of the living God; but he had
been with us so long and had done so
haf hrfp
ourselves to believe the news which
came to us that Leo XIII was dying.
During his glorious pOntificate he
did much for his children in these
states. He appointed nearly every one
of our bishops; he established a num-
Der of new sees, and he never ceased
to express his love and admiration for
his children here.
mo greater proof of his love could
be given than the establishment of the
Apostolic Delegation at Washington,
whereby we were brought more closely
in union with the center of unity,
Rome. Love and duty combined to
make us offer fervent prayers to God
for the preservation and prolongation
OF a life so precious to us, so needed
by the church. But God has deemed
it best to call him home and reward
him. He had long since passed the
goal which marks the ordinary limit of
human life. Ninety-three years and
more had he labored for Christ and
now the Master, as the evening of his
day came, calls him home. We cannot
forget him, and thanks to a merciful
God we are enabled, through a consol-
ing and divinely revealed doctrine of
our holy faith, to make such remem-
brance as proves our love and aVails
his SOUL
Not Forgotten in Death.
Brethren; in union with Catholics
the world over, your assembling here
this morning in this temple of God and
Offering up with me to the common
Father of us all. the pure, holy and
unspotted victim of the sacrifice of the
mass in behalf of the eternal repose of
the soul of him who for nearly seventy
years daily assembled the steps of the
altar and offered the self-same sacri-
flee to appeass the anger of an offended
God and beg of Him mercy and pity for
sinful world, your presence here /
repeat in such large numbers to pray
for your fallen chief is your magnif1-
cent tribute to the memory of the
departed Leo. Though a silent mani
festation of the faith that is in you
your tribute speaks volumes, for it
than the most Understanding phrases
can of his real worth and of the deep
regard in which he was held. Your
tribute moreover transcends the con-
fines of earth. and shows to the selfish
world around us that having reVered
him in life you have not forgotten him
in death; and that by the bond of pray
er you have followed him into the great
beyond whittier his soul has gone and
towards which we are hourly speeding.
Such is the tribute-a tribute of prayer
he now asks for.
Had Finished His Course.
Having guided the bark of Peter and
protected it for twenty-five years amid
the many shoals that encompassed it
on the boisterous ocean of this world,
Leo has finished his course and has
been called by the Invisible Head of the
Church to give an account of his stew
ardships. May the praise of men on
the life-work and character of our late
Sovereign Pontiff find assent and APP
prevail at the hands of the impartial
judge of all mankind to whose throne
from Peters chair he has been lately
summoned. Let us hope for him a
blessed and blissful immortality. If,
however. the all-seeing eye of God
should perceive in the long life of
prayer and sacrifice of His vicar some
slight stains which exclude him from
the immediate enjoyment of the beati-
fic vision (for the Holy Ghost has de-
clared that even the just man falls
seven times a day. or should demand
atonement yet to be made, let us Ie-
double our supplications in behalf OF
one who spiritually did so much for us
that his time of detention in the land
of accomplishing agony may be brief