The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-21
All Italy is Interested In the condi-
ton of Wives y Tuto, the Con-
fessor Of Pope
Plus x.
VATICAN DOGGY MAE
Imagination Of the Romans Is Stirred
up More Than Usual Over
the Present Sick
Man.

lhy denry Wood, Home Correspond
ent of the United Press.l
ROME, July 21.--At no time In the
past fifty years has Rome been so in.
terested in the serious illness OF car
dinal as 1t is in that Of the present
time of Cardinal Wives , Tuto.
Since the time when the new gov
eminent OF Italy took Rome away
from the popes and the quirinal became
the predominating factor In the city's
life instead of the vatican, the Ro-
mans have rather vauntingly prided
themselves on the lightness with
which they regard church matters.
Cardinals may be created, or they may
die, and the Romans heed It not. Even
the pope may become seriously Ill,
and II the newspapers occupy them
selves with It at all, they do SO In a
more or less tocular vein.
But with the recent serious Illness
Of Cardinal Wives y Tuto, Rome at last
sat up and took notice. The papers at
once were filed with 1t, and 1t still Is
topic Of deepest interest.
However this sudden change in the
attitude OF irreligious Rome must not
be attributed in any way to a possible
return OF Its former interest In all
that pertained to the church. Rather,
the explanation Is more likely to be
found in the fact that In the italian
mind there has ever been q kink
which has made all things mysterious,
all things which limited of darkness,
OF tragedy, Of cunning, of conspiracy
and Of plot. appeal to it with a force
and with stimulus to the magma
ton well nigh irresistible. And to this
same Italian mind, Cardinal Wives y
Tuto has ever been the DOGGY man OF
the vatican.
The combination of the Cappuccini
monk-which he is-barefooted, cloth
ed in the long brown, hooded cloak of
his order-and the exalted position Of
confessor to Pope Plus x-the one
man In the world who enters into the
most intimate relations with his holt
ness, who knows every secret of his
innermost soul-has been one that has
constantly kept fired even the irreligi-
ously inclined Imagination of the Ro-
mans. 1t was perhaps partly for this
that Rome assigned to Cardinal Wives
y Tuto a position in the triumverate
which the Romans are pleased to in
sist has ever controlled every move of
the pontificato Of Pope Plus x.
Just as in the days of old Rome,
Pompey, Crassus and Caesar divided
up the entire known world between
them, just SO. the Romans insist i'm
liar triumverate has divided up the
world wide rule of the vatican. To tho
Cappuccini monk and papal confessor.
Cardinal Wives y Tuto, they assigned
the entire religious policy Of the
church; to Cardinal De Lai, was given
the executive work of carrying out
of all that pertained to the political
policy of the church.
This, of course, has left no part In
the church government to the rather
forceful, energetic and deeply religious
figure of Pope Plus. But again this
may have been, merely because he
anu CbpCSloliy do lO SdLlO liOhi "
peasant family-did not appeal to the
Imagination of the Roman public.
In any event, upon the basis Of this
triumverate the Roman legend crea-
tors have been busy, but about the fig
ure of Cardinal Wives y Tuto, they
have conferred more than anyone else.
A man who has spent his entire life in
the deepest religious studies, who for
years burned the midnight oil in his
little cell in Spanish convent, writ
ing profound volumes on religious
dogma, he has been credited with
alone being responsible for Pope Plus
famous propaganda against modern.
1 ism" 1t was he alone, the Romans as.
sert, who wrote Pope Plus encyclical
letters against this tendency to elm
mate from the Catholic faith all that
cannot be explained upon scientific
basis, and 1t was he alone, they are
convinced, who was responsible for
such drastic measures to this end as
/ the order of Pope Plus forblddins
priests and seminary students from
reading even the newspapers.
The Romans, too, were pleased dur
ing the recent illness of Pope Plus X
to picture always at his bedside eth
er this Cappuccini monk and cardina
or else his brother also member OF
the same religious order-ready to re
ceiye his holiness dying confession
The sombre figure of either the one OF
the other of these brown-robed mW
standing beside the bed where lay the
white-robed figure of his holiness was
one they could not forget, even wher
it developed later that at the time
! Cardinal Wives Tuto. himself, was
too Ill to be in attendance on his holi
ness. while his brother is SO deaf that
be could not possibly hear comics
sion
And now that ~ ts nnsifiveIv known