Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1911-03-11
Pope Plus Sees Only Humiliation
OF Church in Rome's
Exposition.
Italian Government Now Threatens
to Suspend Law of
Guarantee.
OUTCOME ANxIOUSLY AWAITED

| Late adV1ceS from Rome TO the
secular papers say that the Vatican
/ is very much in earnest about abat-
ing pilgrimages and suspending
, public audiences this year. All this
comes about through the hostile at
titude of the Italian Government to
the Vatican. The Pope's edict pre-
venting pilgrimages will cause a
serious falling off in the attendance
at the proposed Italian exposition in
Rome. Pope Plus has ordered the
Sistine chapel, the Raphael Loggia
and Stanza, the sculpture and paint
ing collections in the Lateran
Museum and other attractions
barred and bolted from now until
November /. AS a result thousands
of Catholic tourists will stay away
from Rome this year.
La Tribuna, one of the Govern
ment organs, bitterly complains that
the efforts of the Vatican are based
on false assumption that the fetes
are in commemoration of the
actual possession of the Eternal
City by the Italian Government, July
1, 1871, and not of the Turin declar-
alton of ten years before, March II,
1861, when the kingdom of Italy
came into being and Rome was des-
ignated as its capital.
Catholic organs are divided on
this point. Some declare that the
Italian Government is preparing to
celebrate the humiliation the church
suffered in 1871, under the guise of
the fifitieth anniversary of the color
less Turin event. Others are of the
opinion that whichever anniversary
is to be commemorated it is the in
tent of the Government to humiliate
the church.
ment has formally declared that the
exposition is to commemorate the
fiftieth anniversary of Rome as the
capital of the kingdom, while the
Vatican has by several documents
and a quantity of authorized yet un-
official literature declared with
equal formality that the Italian Gov
ernment was about to celebrate the
humiliation the church suffered
forty years ago. One of these docu-
ments reads as follows: "The open
and secret enemies of the Holy See
have decided to celebrate, in the
Eternal City, in commemoration of
the sacrilegious capture of Rome
forty years ago. This celebration by
its character is a prolonged and ex-
plicit insult lasting an entire year.
1t is the evident and declared intent
to inflict a deep and stinging pain on
the Vicar of Christ by celebrating
this affair under his very eyes"
The entire Catholic world realizes
the reason for the attitude of the
Pope. When Constantine the Great
was Emperor he gave the reigning
Pope dominion over several Italian
States or provinces, so that the Pope
became a temporal as we'll as a
spiritual potentate. From century
to century the temporal dominion
of the Popes We're increased, always
by gift, never by conquest. For
1 500 years the right of the Popes
to temporal power was unopposed in
Italy. Then came the events OF
/ S61 and 1871. which resulted in the
destruction of church
the taking away of the
patrimony OF the Popes and the i'm
prisonment in the Vatican of Plus
TX. His successors, Leo XIII. and
Plus X, have likewise been prisoners
Of the Italian Government There is
small wonder that the Vatican Is
frowning on the coming exposition.
Now the Government is threaten
ing to retaliate by suspending the
so-called law of guarantee and fore
ing the Vatican to open its doors
and the doors of its famous chapels,
basilicas and museums to the public.
The outcome will be watched with
interest by all Catholics.