The Irish standard., 1903-03-07
sheep and the lambs of Christ's fold,

NAiNSh tAiS piOlCSliOA VI ny SlS ldNOl |
of crowned prince or sovereign people.
His freedom must not be il concession
from any earthly monarch He is the
spiritual head of the church universal,
not of Il national church, or of Il re-
ligiOus organization established by act
| of parliament.
The subjection of the pope to Il civil
ruler would of necessity result in the
subjection of the Church to that par
ticular government that claimed the
pope as Il subject, and arouse the sus-
picion and distrust of the other civil
| governments of the world. Leopold |
Won Ranke. the Protestant historian of
the papacy. thus records his deliberate |
Judgment: Il was once of the opinion |
that it would be good to separate the |
spiritual wholly from the temporal |
power; but l have learned that the |
pope, without the patrimony of Peter,
would be nothing more than the slave
of kings and princes" Lord Lans- |
downe maintained in an address be-
fore the British House of Lords i'll 1919
that. "There was no country With
Catholic subjects and Catholic pos
sessions which had not IL deep interest
in the pope being so placed as to be
able to exercise his authority unfetter-
ell and mslacklcd by any temporal in
tiuence which might affect his spiritual
I
Brouglam declared: My opinion is
that it will not do to say that the pope
is all very we'll as Il spiritual prince.
but that we ought not to restore his
temporal power. For, what would be
the consequence? Stripped of that
secular dominion he would become the
slave, now of one power, then of an
other. His temporal power
is Il European. not IL local one; and the
poDes authority should he maintained
for the sake of peace and of the inter-
est of Europe" More emphatically
still than historians and statesmen
does the Church itself. with it's init
, mate consciousness of it's needs and
it's paramount claim to be heard in its
own defense. proclaim the necessity of
the civil independence Of it's supreme
t pontiff. and his right to this independ-
ence.
5 Every pope would re-echo the words
5 which in 1887 Leo XIII. addressed to
e Cardinal Rampolla his secretary OF
t state: I'VE have ever as in duty
J. bound. claimed IL real sovereignty for
J. the Roman pontiff. not from ambition
e or worldly glory. but as true and
l. etticacious guarantee of his independ-
o ence and freedom" Every intelligent
e Catholic throughout the world would
IL endorse the declaration made to Pope
: Plus IN by the prelates of Christen'
IL dom assembled in Rome in 1862:
I'VE recognize the civil princedom
o of the Holy See as Il necessary insti
II tuition and as manifestly founded by
IL the Providence of God: and we do not
1t hesitate to declare that. in the present
rs condition of human things. this civi
If princedOm is altogether requisite tt
le the salutary and free government O.
ar the Church and of souls For th'
or head of the whole Church must b'
ce subject to no sovereign. the hOnOret
lie guest of none; but be established il
n his own domain and his own prince
is dom and be in every respect his owl
II. MASTER"
al The inalienable rights of the papac
MS to independence and freedom is a
re that Leo demands. He can be salts
re fed with nothing less. He cannot re
main silent while sacrilegiOus spola
Ill ton is committed against the Churc
a of all nations and bitter blasphemie
iii are spoken against God and religion
~. The bl:lsphemer is protected in hi
'ly license to speech in the capital {
of Chrstendom which the papacy ha
of made glorious The sovereign ponti
he will not he protected from insult an
re- violence by the imbecile and frivOlou
in government presided over by til
VII House of Savoy should lie insist upo
ed his undoubted right to appear i'll pu
ro- lie in the streets of the Eternal Cit
by Hence the venerable pontiff is Il priso
OH er in that homely but historic old pi
nd of buildings known as the Natic
ea- Palace. Three small rooms i'll an II
be per story of that vast structure sutfi
na- for the personal needs of the create
by sovereign of the Goth century. III
Ow remainder of the vast editice is l
of served for the use of the civiliz
Try world. Leo NH. has thrown open
ldo priceless treasures of art of literatul
lid of science, of pagan and Christie
the culture to the free use of mankil
The pope is ambitious only to ser
the higher interests of the soul, to pl
,so- mote the moral and intellectual int
the csts of man. He is not ambitious
the yainglory and does not aspire to tie
But roral dominion. The civil indcpcl
,ry, ence of the Holy See became IL rec'
the nized fact among Christian natic
the before the foundations of any OF
pes existing dynmSties of Europe W.
hall laid. After the fall and dismemb
ON. ment of the mighty Roman Empl
of after the incllrsiOns of the larmria
IN Il when the conservative and saw
,,+l, | ,,,,,,,, Of tl,n ,,onon1- was rppOUui,