Las Vegas optic., 1914-08-20

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who accompanied them, explained that
1t was a pilgrimage of his country
men who desired 70 pay homage to the
Holy Father They had asked for an
audience and were waiting for the
appointed day. The pontiff immedi-
ately said there was no necessity to
wait, and that he would receive the
Americans at once in the adjoining
Museum Lapidarium. Thus Plus x
received the first pilgrimage of his
pontificate, held in his hands and
blessed the two American flags which
are still preserved, one in Rome and
one in New York.
Plus X did not intend to change the
substance of the policy which his two
predecessors had followed towards
Italy. His protests against the loss
of the temporal power, however, lost
the vehemence and bitterness which
formerly characterized them.
ollOhSCoI vi Ills BAONCoNo Oh
this subject was issued when Presi-
dent Loubet, disregarding the prohi-
bition to all Catholic rulers and heads
of states to visit the king of United
Italy in his capital. was the first, with
the exception of Prince Ferdinand of
Belgium, since 1870, to go as guest
to the quirinal
This, however, was not only caused
by the feeling towards italy but much
more by the state oil religious war
with France. which was the most re-
markable event in the last pontificate,
and of which many have attributed
the responsibility to Plus X, while the
hostilities had already begun under
Leo XIII.
France found imitators in Spain,
which passed in parliament bills
against the religious congregations
and the clergy, Heading to the recall
of the Spanish ambassador accredited
to the Holy See; and in Portugal,
where the republic proclaimed on Oc-
tober 5, 1910, brought about a COM
plete separation between church and
state, the expulsion of the religious
congregations and the confiscation of
their properties.
While such serious crises were TAX
ing place between the Vatican and
some Of the Latin countries, which had
been known in history as the most
faithful to the Holy See, the relations
with Italy, while maintaining in the
outside form the usual character Of
hostility, were in substance much
more cordial.
1t would take long to enumerate all
the reforms of religious character
initiated by Plus X, such as that of
restoring the Gregorian chants, of
preaching every Sunday from a text
from the Bible, himself giving the
good example by having as long as
his strength allowed him, the faithful
of the different parishes of Rome in
the court yard of San Damaso to hear
him explain the gospel story, and car,
rying out one after the other as pope
the same ideas and principles which
he had professed and advocated as
bishop and patriarch. One of his un.
dertakings will leave an important
mark in the history Of the papacy-
the codification of ecclesiastic law.
He entrusted the work to an Illus
trious scholar in canon law, Mgr.
Pietro Gasparri, on whom he conferr-
ed the Red Hat in December, 1907.
Another epoch making task was that
OF the revision of the Vulgate, which
he confided to Father Francis Aidan
Gasquet, abbot-president of the Eng
lish Benedictine congregation so well
known as a learned historian.
Plus X was determined to restore
the most iron discipline among the
clergy, and this led tofan unrelenting
campaign against that section of &C.
clesiastics who professed unorthodox
opinions and were called modernists.
The encyclical promulgated on Sep
tember 8, 1907, condemned the mod
ernists andr their doctrines.
Following this several leaders of
the modernist movement were excom-
municated in italy, England and Ger
many. The pope displayed even great
er energy when on November Is,
1907, when he reaffirmed the neces-
sity of combating by every possible
means the spirit of rebellion, and or
dered the bishops to watch and if
necessary to dismiss the professor in
fected with the condemned doctrines
and to prevent from taking orders
those students who we're suspected
of gympathiZing with the movement