The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-21
STATEMENT ISSUED. BY FATHER COYLE ON DEATH 0F THE POPE
Reviews His Career-Wide- spread Sorrow Among LO- cal Cath0lics-NO Spec
 ulatiOn as to Successor

The announcement of tf1e death of Pope Plus was received among the Catholics of Birmingham with unfeigned sorrow, and in all the Catholic churches prayers were said privately for the repose of his soul
 The clergy of Alabama will receive offi- cial notification of the popes death from
 Bishop Allen of Mobile, who win within the next flew days issue a circular letter prescribing a period of mourning and
 setting apart a day for memorial serv- ices.
 The Rev James E. Coyle, pastor of St. Paurs church. gave out the following statement last night:
 sro millions of Catholics the world over. the news of the death of the saintly pointiff. that guided the destinies of the greatest church in christendom, brought
 sense of personal loss. To countless souls striving after the spiritual, seeking
 to climb above and beyond the mere af-
 fairs of earth searching after the things
 of heaven, the death of Plus X brought
 real grief
 No pontiff of eecent centuries Gin
 speaking of the Catholic church we speak of centuries whereas of other institutions
 we speak of decades) was so beloved, or
 got so close to the hearts of his subjects
 in every land under heaven, and with
 reason, for did he not, at the beginning of
 his pontificate, lay down as the object of
 his labors in the highest position on
 earth instaurare omnia in Christo to restore all things in Christ. and did he not, year after year. renew that pledge, and labor, in season and out Of season, to
 fulfill that pledge, to win once more the world to God, to give the careworn, rest
 less hearts of men and women, the Christ and the peace that Christ alone can give
 Yes, Leo XIII was a greater pontiff, he
 was a brilliant diplomat, a man of the
 world, a litterateur a poet who penned
 beautiful Latin verse, but Piux x was
 the pope of all men, not alone of those in high estate, but, above all and before all, of the poor. toilworn sons of men, of those whose lives were not cast in pleasant places of those whose pleasures and joys were few and far between. of
 those who day in and day out had to
 labor hard to keep body and soul to-
 gether and to win their daily bread. To
 them, for of them he once was, he
 showed himself a loving friend and
 father, and then he showed where true peace and happiness dwelt, in their own
 clean hearts and simple consciences, and
 in their union with their Lord and God in the grandest of the sacraments the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord He was the father and friend of
 the poor and the pope of the eucharist.
 Though his pontificate was short, though to those who view things from
 the viewpoint of the world, 1t was, in
 many respect a failure to those who view the late pontificate in the light of the history of nigh two thousand years, the
 history, that is. that begins with Peter the Fisherman, martyred in that city
 where Plus had just died that pontificate is remarkable and will stand out among recent pontificates as distinguished by wonderful and far reaching legislation Plus x startled the world by urging daily holy communion, not alone for those in secluded closter and nunnery, not alone for the orders of men and women who, in the world bound by vows. serve him, but for all, for men and women of every rank and station. rich and poor and high and low. Piux x startled the world again by declaring that little children even should be suffered to approach the holy table and to feed their souls with the bread of
 angels, and that when they knew. not with perfect, accurate. theological knowl- edge, but in a general way, that they were receiving not bread, but the body of God.
 Plus codified canon law and got order from chaotic systems of legislation. Plus X reformed the breviary used by all priests of the church and made it beau tiful indeed. and solemn as it was before, the most beautiful. the most solemn the most remarkable book of devotions that the world will ever know. The simplifi- cation and increased usefulness of various councils and congregations that attend to
 the mass of business at the headquarters
 of Catholicity, must be credited also tc this simple, gentle. hard working pope
 Many. archepiscopal and episcopal sees
 were erected during the pontificate of the tenth Plus, and so, though anti-clericalism seemed to triumph in this or that country the pontiff went on serenely, and by these internal reforms, by his watchful supremacy. the deposit of the faith that
 modernism would fain assail, and by his appeals. his successful appeals to the piety and devotion of, his children of every nation, he has left behind him a record that will stamp his pontificate as, if short, yet one of the most fruitful of the pontificates of any age from Christ till now
 Who will succeed? None may say. Vain would be all prophecies and fore casts. The late. pontiff was never men
 toned among the papable,' before the late conclave. Loyal, faithful Catholics are not much concerned They know that the present college of cardinals is an eminent and distinguished body, though the cardinals could select an outsider for that matter, who would be d fit and proper person to guide, heaven assisted, the church of God Loyal, faithful Cath olics know that now. as in every age of history the church, not of the world but In It, Is fulfilling its destiny, is true to its mission, and will till the end of time continue its work in the world the one interchangeable society, the one stable, cer- tain, divine institution. that while nations rise and fall, while thrones and empires pass away, while geographical boundary lines vary. never fears or falters. but serenely with the Holy Spirit abiding, and guided by her invisible head, Christ and her visible head, Gregory. a Clement, a Leo, Plus or Benedict, does the work Christ sent her to do-to bring sanctifca- a- tion. light and salvation to all the sons of men,.
 AT1 A -uO~