Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-21


 i've of class or creed, are to-day mourn ing the death of Pope Leo XIII, the head of the Catholic church. The 1 fight the aged pontiff has been making against the grim reaper has been watched from day to day by millions r of people, and it was their earnest wish that if it were the will of Divine Providence the venerable Leo would recover and continue to direct, gov ern and guard his flock, until as he said himself, his work would be done. Pope Leos great power lay in his gen. tleness of manner and the broad, kind ly and good natured character that sought to bring all the people of the globe more closely together and under one fold. He was a giant in intellect, and a born leader among men It is no wonder that the entire world now pays tribute to his memory for such character is met with only rarely. If the reins of government fall into
 
 work allotted them as were Pope Leo there will be no faltering or turning aside of the doctrines he so faithfully followed Tn it's editorial obituary The Hartford Times last evening said: we shall read to-day and tomorrow d multitude of estimates of Leo XIII. Will any one of them be fully just that does not rest on the character of the man and suggest somehow that the pope was merely the developed, older type of the priest Joachim Pecci? Tn fact, the life Of the pope was mere continuation, without essential change, of the life of the priest and bishop whom multitudes had come to love for himself. He was in vastly larger and more difficult place, but he retained in it the lovable qualities for which he had been known from his childhood. Tn his earlier years he had proved that gentleness was not weak ness when he was governor of small principality of the papal states. He was kind to the poor, in the same fash ion in which not long before he had worked hard in the care of those sick of the cholera, but he put down by prompt force the brigandage from which the principality had suffered, and it was found that neither influence nor wealth would save an offender against justice an the law. Then he was sent to a larger province, full of revolutionary societies, and he brought them to order, by. judicious severity and by removing grounds of reasonable complaint Tn these things, to mention only those at the beginning of his life, was proof of the strength that went with his kindli- ness. So, when he became pope at the age of 6S, none who knew him doubt ed his strength, although all knew his gentleness. After this the strength was more used to refrain from unwise action than to force any issue, but 1t was no less needed and no less useful.
 
 Here it is worth while to remark that 1t is hard for any of us here to realize what it was to a man who reverenced his church and remembered the temporal dominion it had enjoyed, to enter upon a pontifcate just after this temporal power had been rudely shattered. The pope was no longer lord of the world as he had once been. He was not even lord of any part of Italy itself outside the vatican. All relations with the civilized world had taken new form. A noble of an old family, the head of the Roman Catho- lie church, the pope was doubly griey- ed and huniliated at the position to which the head of the church had been condemned. Follow his life for the twenty-five years that remained and see if it were not guided in wisdom and patience and self-control and faith. Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war;