The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-23
POPE'S imprisonment"
Will Plus y Disregard 1t and Step
Out of Rome.
Rome Gable to New York Sun.

Rome Gable to New York Sun.
The telegraph brings sensational
news. The Pope is reported to have an
| nounced that he would go to Monte
Casino, the celebrated monastery of
st. Benedict, forty-five miles from Ma
pies. If this news were trne, it
would undoubtedly mean a simple visit
such as Wilhelm II made last year. 1t
would be none the less an eXtraordi-
nary event, because no Pope has left
the Vatican since the taking of Rome
by the Italians in 1870. Plus TX. con-
demned himself to voluntary impris
onment to emphasize his protest
against the spoliation of which he was
the victim. He would not appear
again in that city of Rome of which
he was the legitimate sovereign. If he
had done so Immediately after the in
justice committed by the Italian gov
eminent it would have been recog
milton and acceptance of the accom-
plished fact.
The law of guarantees promul-
gated in Italy in 1871, assured to the
Pope liberty in his spiritual ministry.
1t declared that the Pope was sacred
and inviolable, recognized his right to
special honors, and withdrew from
Italian jurisdiction the palaces re-
served for the Sovereign Pontiff. That
spiritual liberty demonstrated all the
more clearly that the Pope was wholly
stripped of his temporal domain. Much
later, on the occasion of an incident
which we shall relate further on, the
Riforma, the organ of CriSpi, the all
powerful minister of the King of Italy,
defined distinctly the position which
the Italian government made for the
Pope, by declaring that there was no
papal territory, that the Pope had
merely the usufruct and the enjoyment
of the Vatican, of st. John Lateran
and Castel Gandolfo, and that the ex
ira territoriality granted to him was
at best analogous to that which the
diplomatic custom of nations comedies
to the abode of an ambassador or an
officially accredited agent.
The Pope, being no longer a terrific
rial sovereign, became, therefore, a
subject of the New Italy," which
could take away the liberty it pro-
fessed to leave him. He was hence
forth truly established in an enemy's
power" sub hostili Dotestate constitu-
tus. On Nov. l, 1870, in fact, the gov
eminent had seized the encyclical adj,
dressed to the faithful throughout the
world. Under the Nicotera admins
tration the Italian government caused
the private dispatches addressed to
the Pope to be intercepted. The SOW
ereign Pontiff is, therefore, in fact, the
prisoner of the Italian government
This expression must not be taken in
the material sense, such as that the
Italian police keeps guard over the
Vatican to prevent the Pope from leav--
ing. 1t is rather the contrary that is
true. When, on the occasion of Leo,
kits election in 1878, it was thought
that the new Pope would appear at
the external balcony of st. Peters
and step outside the limits of the
Vatican, the Italian cabinet. under
Crispi's directions. prepared the cere-
monial for the event. The troops were
to render military honors to the SOW
ereign Pontiff, "as to the King HIM
self in person." To these arrange
ments was added: 1.-THE guard of
honor is the Popes due, when he asks
for it; if the Pope makes jour-
ney in official form. he shall be re-
ceived with the same honors as the
King; his arrival and his departure
are greeted with a salvo Of fifty guns.
Leo XIII did not give the italian
government an opportunity to exhibit
it's official politeness. If Plus x were
to carry out the journey which he is
said to have promised, it is likely that
he would avoid demonstrations on the
part of the government. He can make
use of the incognito or the semi-incog
nito. 1t is very certain that the ideas
of misinformed Catholics and of many
non-C Catholics will be wrong about this
plan for journey. Some would see
in it what it does not mean, namely,
a recognition and acceptance of the
state of affairs created by the spolia-,
ton of 1870. Others would turn on the
faithful with: What did you mean by
saying that the Pope is a prisoner,
when he buys a railroad ticket to take
a trip to Monte Cassino?"
Nevertheless, though the italian gov
eminent should have the politeness to
place a train at Plus KS disposal, that
would not wipe out the injustice of
thirty-three years ago; and when the
Pope returned to the Vatican from
Monte Casino. or even during the
Journey, nothing would be changed as
regards the situation which past
events have created for him, as head
of the Church and as temporal sover-
eign. The italian government will still
be his jailer. Innominato.
Bought an Orange Grove.