Imperial Valley press., 1914-02-03
Pope Surprises
Catholic World
By Henry Wood

prlSed the entire Catnollc WOrlu, ana
not little bit of the international po
litical as we'll, by what is conceded to
be the most important step of his pom
tifcate. This is nothing less than the
admission that the Vatican is now
willing to accept the condition i'm
posed upon it for forty years when
Italy deprived it of its temporal power
by the confiscation of Rome and the
papal states. The Vatican does not
renounce its claim to temporal power;
it admits only the futility of hoping to
regain it, but this admission is suffi-
cient to permit the establishment of
peace between the Quirinal and Vat
lean That such peace will be
brought about is now practical GER
tainty.
One of the most conspicuous things
that will be gained by settlement of
"the Roman question" will be the end
ing of the self imposed imprisonment
of the pontiffs. For DO years no pope
has ever been known to leave the walls
of the Vatican. With the final fall of
Rome into the hands of the new king
dom of Italy, Pope Plus TX, the then
reigning pontiff, shut himself up in
the Vatican. He declared himself
prisoner there at the hands of the Ital-
ianS whom he said robbed him of his
temporal power and of his means for
protecting his person should he ever
issue forth. Pope Leo XIII, his imme-
diate successor, continued this tradi-
ton. He went even farther in devot-
ing practically his entire pontifcate to
the furthering of diplomatic relations
and intrigues with all of the leading
oowers in the hope that they might as
sist him in regaining his temporal
kingdom. He died with his dream un-
filled and the tradition of imprison-
ment was handed down to Pope Plus
X. No one. however, has ever be-
lieved that the latter was in full SYM
pathy with it, and now this belief has
been justified.
Pope Plus, it now appears, has for
10 years merely been awaiting the op-
perfume moment, and preparing the
church in the meantime, for the
change in policy which he is believed
to have always considered inevitable.
The moment which he has finally chos-
en- for announcing a change in atti-
tude on the part of the Vatican has
not been without certain dramatically
historic background. 1t seems certain
also that the moment was chosen by
him all of a year in advance The
past year of 1918 marked the six
teen hundredth anniversary of the
adoption by the Emperor Constantine
Of Christianity as the official religion
of the state. This was the beginning
of the temporal power and political
independence of the popes. A little
more than a year ago Pope Plus de-
cided to celebrate the entire year as an
anniversary and the celebration has
been carried out at Rome on the most
magnificent scale possible. At least
100000 pilgrims from all parts of the
world attended the various functions.
This celebration came to a close in the
early part of December and it was
precisely the close of this celebration
OF the sixteen hundredth anniversary
of the establishing of the church as
an independent political entity and
power that Pope Plus chose for max
ing 1t known that the church will no
longer insist on it. AT the national con-
gress of Catholics held at Milan in
honor of the close of the Constantine
year, Archbishop Rossi of Udine. a
close personal friend of Pipe Plus. ir
the opening address to the congress
made known the future attitude of the
Vatican.
He announced that society is now Or
ganlzed on such a basis that an indie
pendent political state such as had
been conferred on the popes by Con
stantine was no longer necessary in
order to insure the spiritual independ.
ence of the pope. This independence
he admitted, could now be secured bv
other means which would be Just as eff
tective. AS one Of the possible ways of
establishing the future spiritual inde-
pendence of the popes, Monsignor Ros
81 suggested that the Italian law Of
papai guarantees, which Italy passed
at the time it appropriated Rome from
The popes, be guaranteed by a number
Of the leading powers. This law of
papal guarantees the Vatican has new
er accepted, although Italy has lived
constantly up to its part. 1t guar