The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-08-28
LONGED TO SEE
7 BELOVED VENICE
Pope Plus Inconsistencies Led to
Installation of Family at
Vatican.

ROME, Aug. 25.-Pope Plus at
one time declared that he would will
lingly give up two years of his life if
ne mi ht be able to visit only once
more his beloved Venice. One of the
pronounced characteristics Of the
private life of the pope was his home
sickness which, time and time again,
was displayed in connection with his
pontifcal duties.
When. Cardinal Sarto, was elected
pope in 1908, he adopted the same at
Eitude as had his two immediate prede-
cessors toward the present Italian gov
eminent which, in 1870, annexed the
papal states to the united Italy and
took the city of Rome away from the
pope and made it the capitol of the
italian kingdom. This attitude was
for the popes to declare themselves
prisoners in the Vatican at the hands
Of the Italian government, which they
described as 'the despoilers of the
papacy" and never during their entire
pontificate leave either the Vatican or
The Vatican gardens.
In spite. of his self-enforced impris-
onment, Pope Plus gave frequent ex-
preston during the first few years of
his pontiicate that he would yet be
able to revisit Venice, which he had
never wanted to leave. AS the years
went by, however, Pope Plus was fore
ed to realize this could never be with
out renouncing all claim Of the church
20 the papal states, the city of Rome
and the temporal power. He finally
came to keep his inconsistencies to him.
self. In the summer Of 1911, however,
when the pope became seriously i'll, all
the yearning came back to him and in
spite of his former reserve he broke
down and expressed his desire again
to see Venice.
When one of his old Venetian
friends came to visit him and describ-
ed the completion of the new campanile
or bell tower of the famous cathedral
of St. Mark at Venice, the pope said:
| During the' last few years of my
life it has come to be one of the last
great worldly pleasures which I desire
to have that might go back to Venice
even for one fleeing glance to see
whether they have been able to build
the new campanile as beautiful as it
was before.
''To do this willingly I would give
at least two years of my life"
It was in the hope of alleviating this
inconsistencies that, on the urgent ad,
vice of the two pontifcal physicians
all Vatican precedents were broken
and the immediate members of Pope
Plus family were given residence ir
the Vatican for a time. A consequence
was that he had during the last years
of his life two, three or four of his
sisters, a niece who always remained
with them, and his brother, Angelo
Sarto, close at hand. The brother
rose from the position of mail carrier
20 that of postmaster in the little vii
iage in which Pope Plus was borr
during the early years of the pontif
cate. His little son, who was bor1
after Cardinal Sarto became pope, wa!
! great favorite Of his holiness. HI
aad never seen his distinguished uncle
until he visited the Vatican with his
iather in 1911. One of the touching
scenes Of the convalescence at thai
time was when the little nephew re-
,eived his first communion from his
uncle.
The love of Pope Plus for children
was another of his chief character
istics. 1t was he who established the
custom of having children from the
various parochial schools of Rome
and other parts of Italy brought fire.
luently to the Vatican to see him. His
owe for the poorer classes was mani
tested time after time. In the little
town of Salzano in Veneto, where the
pope spent nine years of his early life
as a parish priest, is marble slat
placed in the facade of the presbytery
N recognition of the service rendered
during the cholera pestilence which
swept the district in 1872. Father
Sarto was with the sick and dying day
and night, ministering to them, Civ:
ing them the last rites and doing al
in his power to alleviate their suffer.
ings both physically and spiritually
The little town is very poor, but the
people were able to raise the money
for the slab in honor of their former
priest.