The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-07-07
THE DYING POPE.


Aiddle-aged men were young wheI
Leo became Pope. He was sixty-eigh
years old on his accession to the Papa
throne and has lived to the year Of {
triple jubilee-the silver jubilee Of hi:
pontificate, having been elected Pope
on February 20. 1873; the golden jubilee
of his cardinalate. having been pro-
claimed cardinal by Plus TX in the
Consistory of December 10. 1858: and
the diamond jubilee OF his priesthood
his conservation by the Archbishop OF
Damietta having taken place on Feb
ruary 10. 1928. For twenty-five years
and more Leo has been Pope and of all
the cardinals who elected him but two
are living-perhaps but one. Quite
alone of his generation. himself the en-
bodiment almost solely of mind and
spirit. he has ruled the Catholic world
with a genius which has put him with
his secular contemporaries, Gladstone,
Bismarck, Gortschakoff and Cavour. in
the very front rank OF the worlds mod
ern statesmen.
Born in the VolscIan mountains, of
hardy ancestors, living a simple and
active life in pure air, Joachim Pecci,
the future Pope, easily became an
athlete and in early years was noted
for his feats of strength. For the rest
his life has been studious, quiet, full of
h1i1dinQ a
structure of longevity on the solid basis
OF youthful health. AS Pontiff he or
dered his living along lines which.
though rigid. were not ascetic, and so
grew old without the ordinary pairs
and penalties OF advanced years.
The policy of Leo XIII has never, in
its relations with Italy, taken the
querulous, embittered tone Of his
predecessors Plus TX. The latter had
seen himself stripped of temporal power
and he always had a poignant sense OIL
indignity; the former never enjoyed
temporal power and so, in dealing with
the relations of the Vatican and Italy,
he did not approach them in a spirit OF
personal acerbity. The dignity of the
Papacy was always maintained; there
was no yielding to Italy, but COM
plants and determinations ceased and
the world was no longer compelled to
gaze at the Pope as the prisoner of
the Vatican"
In the domain of foreign affairs Pope
Leo proved himself more than the equal
OF Bismarck. especially as concerns the
famous controversy over the Kultur-
kampf Bismarck did not go to Ca
nossa," but his policy did. and there is
little left in Germany now of the bar
riers the great chancellor reared
against Catholicis-1. In dealing with
the American emeute of Father Nc
Glynn- and the troubles which conferred
about ArchbishoJs Ireland and Corri-
gan, the Pope was wise, patient and
successful. Even the Philippine friaryl
problem is in the way of settlement.
France alone has baffled him but even
there the story is not yet complete. |
The church can wait, for patience is
one OF it's serene virtues.
The successor of Leo XIII VIII be |
chosen from among men of widely diff |
fering qualities, some of whom are op-
posed in toto to the policy of the man |
who has held the Papacy so long. |
Worldwide concerns depend upon wis
dom in the choice of Pontiff and on |
that account the coming conclave of |
cardinals will be watched with an in |
terest vastly wider in it's scope even |
than that which will be supplied by the |
Roman Catholic communion.