The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-09-03
ROME WITHOUT THE POPE.


Considering the clamor of the ire
ligious element which entered Rome
| after the fall of the temporal power
in 1870, says the Rome correspondent
of the standard and Times, one often
wonders what precisely those anti
Catholic societies wish for. Among
their favorite cries are Down with
the Pope" Down with the mon
archy!" and Long live anarchy"
Socialists, anarchists Freemasons and
that ragged. reckless band calling it
self the "Giordano Bruno society," in
memory of the apostate friar of Nola.
agree on one point, no matter how
divergent their views may be on other
things, viz, opposition to the Catholic
church.
Among the various items these men
hope to see one day emblazoned on
their list of successes in Italy are the
suppression of the religious orders, the
separation of church and state and the
humiliation of the Holy See. And so
bitter and violent have been their eff
forts against the Vatican that one
would almost think the pope would be
constrained TO abandon the Eternal
City and the tombs of long line of
pontiffs from St Peter downwards.
would be like without the pope? Ten
years before the breach was made i'll
the Porta Pia the bishop of Orleans
told us:
Rome without the pope, TO speak
plainly, would be d desert. For who
will visit it? Who will fill it? Who
is there to do its honors? There are
already deserts enough at Rome: per-
init me, Romans who would wish to
give US Rome without a pope
to argue with and question
you directly. You want, then, to null
tiply these deserts. The Palatine, the
Aventine. the Viminal, the Forum,
your most important quarters are de-
serted. You would add to them the
Quirinal, the Vatican, the entire city.
In particular what will you do with
the seven basilicas? What will you Go
with 365 churches, answering and rep
resenting all the necessities. all the
recollections, all the vows, all the pill
grimages of the Catholic world? We
would all visit them one day, priests
and faithful, if only in the longings OF
our heart. But, ah! if the pope be alb
sent, who would set out on such pill |
what would your great solemnities
be then? Or rather would single |
one of your hundred feasts be possible |
him? Above all, what would |
you do with st. Peters, with such i'm
such light, such magnifi
cence? The universal pOntiff of
alone can fill it. st. Peters
has been evidently made so vast in
order that the common father of the
great Catholic family may assemble
there all his children and bless them"
And yet, despite the fact that the
city of Rome would dwindle down to
be the third or fourth in Italy. moth
ing would better please those hordes
If bitter sectarians and Goddess men |
than to drive the sovereign pontiff
rom the Eternal City The lot of the
church here on earth is opposition and d
persecution. Were it otherwise, we
should begin to doubt her divine ORR
gin. However, the servant is not
above the Master. and He promised
Ter hardships and trials, but He also
declared that her enemies should
lever prevail against her. Never was
he union of the Catholic church more
,vident: never were her prospects
more bright True it is few sections
# her degenerate sons try to perse-
ute her, but they are rotten branches.
nen whose efforts for good or evil
will come to naught. For their oppo-
ition is like the wavelets beating
gainst a rock, as far as effect goes,
nd their efforts will perish like snow
efOre the morning sun.