Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-28
REQUIEM MASS.
SERVICES IN MEMORY OF LEO
XIII AT ST. MARY's CATH.
oLlc CHURCH.

Rev. Father F. w. Hoppman, Assisted
by Reverend Fathers John o'FarreIl
and James Foley Celebrated Ponti.
fieal Requiem Mass.
At 9 o'clock a. m. Wednesday at St
Mary's Catholic church Pontifical Sol.
emn Requiem Mass was celebrated by
Very Rev. Father F. w. Hoppman,
celebrant; Rev. Father John O'Farrell,
hof st. Patrick's church, as deacon and
Rev. Father James Foley, of the Sac
red Heart Catholic church as sub-dea-
con. The male choir of st. Mary's
church sang the Georgian Requiem
Mass.
The church was well filed and the
services were deeply impressive. Very
Rev Father Hoppman spoke with great
feeling of the wonderful power and in
fluence, which Pope Leo XIII has had
upon the Christian world He told Of
his long career and the love and ven
Grafton with which the whole world
has regarded the great pope who has
just passed away.
The address was in part as follows:
'In this hour of profound sorrow it
, causes the reverend fathers who unite
today true consolation to see the large
congregation which is here to take part
in the service in memory of the illus
trous Leo XIII who is deceased. Today
| in spirit We are transferred to the
Eternal City, to the home of the pope
Rome. We are in spirit mingling
with representatives of every nation on
| the globe who are there to give honor
and reverence to the great white shep-
herd, Pope Leo XIII.
Life Spawned Almost One Century.
ITO many millions living in the
world he is the only pope known. 9th
| ers are remembered only as historical
| facts. God gave him long life. His
| cradle We find at the beginning of the
nineteenth. century and his casket at
the threshold of the twentieth His
life spanned almost one hundred years
Had Sympathy for All.
II feel incapable and unworthy to
speak of our great shepherd who is nc
more. l can only repeat what you
have heard and read many times. Lee
XIII seemed wonderfully familiar to us
all. We have not seen him but we
have read his encyclicals and letters
and his name is household expires.
| sion. He was truly father to the
| whole human family as we'll as head
| of the great Roman Catholic church
He had sympathy for every man, what
ever might be his creed, Catholic OF
not, rich or poor His sympathy was
4 as universal as his jurisdiction.
Excelled in Everything.
| Since the middle ages he is one OF
the greatest popes who have ever sat
| upon the throne of ST. Peter. Almost
every pope has eXcelled in some es-
pecial thing, but Leo excelled in all.
He was pope to the laboring classes
and he was the poet pope. More than
any other one he was the true friend
of the laboring masses. He did not
| fear to tell the rich and the great of
the world that they had duty to per-
| form to the poor who did the work of
the world.
ITO say that he was the poet pope
was to signify that he was a learned
| and scholarly man. Whenever great
questions arose throughout the world
| and it was learned that Leo was to
| issue an encyclical the world waited
! spellbound to learn what would be
said Almost before the ink was dry
the message would be hurled around
the world and placed upon the break
| fast table as part of the meal
Love of Humanity Universal.
''Leo's love for humanity was uni
versal. Away down in Southern Brazil
the question Of freeing five millions of
slaves arose. Leo wrote to the bishops
and the archbishops to use every en-
deavor to obtain manumission for the
slaves. They did so and the slaves
were freed. This is not the only in
stance of Pope Leo's love for the poor
and oppressed. He was an advocate
of humanity interested in every coun-
| try in the world. We honor Lincoln
for freeing the slaves of the United
States and justly do we honor him,
| but how much more honor is due to
| Leo who has Influenced the freeing of
many millions of slaves, not by war
and the booming of cannon, but
through the gentle offices of the
church.
VIII be Called "Great."
"Much can be said of the long reign
of Pope Leo XIII. He will undoubt-
eddy, as time goes on, be called ''the
great" His writings and the influence
of his reign will tend to direct and
govern the church and the affairs of
| Christ's kingdom upon the earth.
"Never before in history was the
world so stirred by the death of pope
or so deeply interested as today in
the departure Of the head of the Ro-
man Catholic church. When Pope
Gregory XVI died, only fifty-seven
years ago, the world took no more
notice of the death than it did of the
death of the infant scion of some petty
princeling. Today the world waits
breathless for the smallest item of
news from the death chamber. Who
has brought about this change? An
old man SO years of age, whose intel
lect was as bright as it was at the age
of As or so years. This is something
that we can only explain by the pres
ence and guidance of the Holy Ghost.
A Magnificent Line.
"See the grand line of supreme rulers
of the church. We seen an unbroken
line from st. Peter who was the first
link who was commissioned by the
Master Himself to Leo XIII, the last