The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-08-28
Italy And The Pope
Catholic View of Relations
Between Holy See and
House of Savoy
(From the Ia let. }

sion of the Archbishop's singularly
clear statement as to the Catholic
position in regard to the relations Of
the Holy See and the kingdom of It
ally. AT the outset he disclaimed
any feeling of hostility toward the
aspirations of the Italian people for
national unity. Such feelings were
natural and inevitable, and not in
compatible with the essential rights
of the sovereign Pontiff. E. There was
a time when even Italian statesmen
recognized the impossibility of asking
the Vicar Of Christ to accept the po-
sition of a pensfbner at the court of
the King of Italy. When in 1860
Victor Emmanuel was about to in
wade Umbria and the Marshes he is
sued proclamation in which he said
Il intend to respect the seat of the
head of the Church, to whom I am
willing to give, together with the al
lied and friendly POwers,al the guar
anteeS of independence and secur-
! fty.' There, at any rate, was a rec
ognition of the international position
OF the Papacy and that the indepen-
European concern. Four years later
Signor Crispi in the Italian Parlia-
ment used these words:
The Roman Pontiff cannot be a cit
lien of a great State descending from
the throne on which the Catholic
be Prince and master in his own do
main, second to none.
The truth of that admission in
spite of all the triumphs of violence
that have since taken place, has been
amply indicated by events. But if
the Popes have not become the SUD
jects of single State, if they have
not sunk to be the domestic prelates
of the Quirinal, that is due-and at
what cost of suffering and priva-
t!on!-to the life long protests of Pom
tiff after Pontiff. The truth to which
even Signor Crispi witnessed has Of
ten been explicitly recognized by
1919 Lord Lansdowne, confirming a.
despatch of Lord Palmerston's, said:
There was no country with Cath
Ollie subjects or Catholic possessions
which had not a deep interest in the
Pope being so placed as to be able to
exercise his authority unfettered and
unshackled. by any temporal influence
which might affect his spiritual au-
thority.
Those words state a commonplace,
but they lay bare the very roots of
the problem. Lord Brougham in the
same year not only insisted on the inter-
national position Of the Pope but con-
tended that the possession of tenn
poral power was a necessary condi-
ton Of his spiritual independence:
Stripped of that secular dominion
he would become the slave now Of
one Power, then Of another; one day
the slave of Spain, another of Aus
tria, another of France, and worst of
all, as the Pope has recently been
the slave Of his own factious and re-
beIlious subjects. His temporal DOW
er is a European and not a local ques-
ton. and the Pope's authority should
be maintained for the sake of the
peace and interests of Europe.
Lord Brougham moderated the
courage and the faithfulness Of the
Roman Ponttffs. They were robbed
by Italian bayonets of the last of
their dominions forty-one years ago;
they have suffered and the. normal
life of the Church has suffered, but
who shall say that any one of them
has shown himself the slave of any
secular Power From that evil sus-
picion at least the constancy of the
Popes has saved the Church
But when we point out that Lord
Brougham's prophecy has been. prov
ed untrue, and that forty years after
the spoilation the Papacy is still I'M
enslaved, let US not forget the price
that has been paid. The ransom CT
the liberties of the Church has been
the sufferings of the Pontiffs. Even
help us to some dim idea what it
must be for an old man to have to
endure the heats of Rome without
ever a thought of change, with never
a glimpse of the hills and never a
breath from the sea. &And even
though he never ventures into the
streets and lives his life with pail
ace for prison, and takes his only
exercise within the limits of gar
den, the Holy Father, as recent events
have shown. is still not safe from
insult. But it may be said that his
IL
and that it is always open to him
to accept the position assigned to
him by the Italian Government under
the law of guarantees. Apart from
the fact, which the Archbishop so
clearly brought out at Newcastle,
that the law of guarantees is SUBJ
ject to the whim of the Italian Par
lament, this is certain, that if the
Pope were to abandon HAS position
Of protest and accept the protection
of the Italian kingdom the state of
things foreseen and denounced by
Lord Brougham would at once come
to pass. Even the suspicion of sub
would be fatal, and how
could such suspicion be avoided? IF
by any acquiescence on his part the
Pope were to come to be regarded as
a sort of great court functionary, tn en-
certainly the second bondage to the
House of Savoy would be worse than
the first. Would not the enemies of
the Church be quick to suggest that
the Holy Father was spending his
pensioned afternoons composing an
encyclical which had it's inspiration
from the Quirinal? A situation
would be created for which there
was no parallel in the past. The Holy
See would suddenly be deprived both
Of that temporal sovereignty which
was the safeguard of her liberties in
the past and of that attitude of aloof-
ness and protest in the face of the
Italian Government which is the
of her independence in the
present. 1t is difficult to imagine
a situation more likely to be fatal
to the peace of the Church than one
in which it lis possible for men %
suspect that this or that act of the
Pope was influenced by compIacency
towards his benefactors or partially
for the nation that protected him.
Is there then no solution for an |
position? 1t will be OBJ !
served that the Archbishop through |
out his address avoids the term ITEM |
poral power" and prefers to speak Of |
The civil independence of the Pope. |
Temporal power was for so long the |
safeguard for the liberty of the Pope |
that by many it came to be regarded |
is necessary correlative of Spiri- |
.ua1 independence. The words, how |
sver, though 80 commonly used, al |
ways had this disadvantage that they |
seemed to lay stress on the means |
'ather than the end. The civil and |
spiritual independence of the Papacy