The Irish standard., 1916-02-26
SEVENTY YEARS OF THE PAPAcY.
N. Y. Freeman's Journal.

themselves to be indebted to the pro.
gressive genius, in material, political
and social affairs, which characterized
the Chief of the spiritual world.
In material affairs, for example, he
sanctioned and encouraged the building
of railways within the Papal domain;
in educational matters he was the first
to remove the restrictions that fettered
the liberty of the Press, and was the
supporter of a dozen new Catholic pa,
pers; he distinguished himself from all
other men of exalted position in his
day of removing Jewish disabilities
where he could in political matters, he
came near to proving the greatest
Pope-Sovereign who ever occupied the
See of st. Peter, for in 184S, the vari-
GUS portions of extra-Papal Italy were
willing to consider federated Italy
under the presidency of the reigning
POpe-then man of less than fifty. |
The Constitution of such federal
scheme was already drawn up, and in
Article II, it was stated that the Popes |
were to be the perpetual presidents"
of this system. But anti-clericalism |
forbade, and it was left for Italian
Unity to achieve itself twenty-five years
later on terms which had originally
been thought out by Plus.
The author who deals with this
phase of history declares that although
a confederation such as that conceived
by Plus would hardly have succeeded,
yet it shows how far-sighted that Pope
was in foreseeing the necessity of
Unity for the Italian Peninsula.
1t was in 1S4S ("the year of unrest')
that Italy and Austria laid the founda-
tions of that inter-racial hate which to-
day is running out it's sinister career
in bloody battles. Had they then lis
tened to the voice of Plus, which was
exerted for peace, Rome would have
been spared scenes of violence and
murder which recalled the days of the
later imperial Caesars. The Pope's
premier minister was stabbed, his pri-
vate secretary shot, and Plus himself
was forced to flee to Gaeta. Europe
had gone mad" as the American, Craw-
ford, wrote, and Plus was only one
among many mOnarchs whose thrones
went a-tottering. He only returned to
Rome in 1S49, with the help of French
forces, and thereafter governed till
1870 with great wisdom and with splen.
did economic results for his people.
1t was in 1852 that Plus restored the
English Hierarchy by appointing Wise
man Archbishop Of Westminster, and
the Immaculate Conception was de.
fined in this period. On June 18, 1870,
the doctrine of Papal Infallibility was
decreed, though by this time the Pope
had ceased in actual territorial pos
session to be a sOvereign-pontiff He
. passed away in 1878, and as showing
to what extent anti-clericalism had
grown, when the body of Plus was TAX
en- from the Vatican to the old Church
Of San Lorenzo in Rome, screaming
mob well-nigh overturned the bier, call
: ing out that the Pope's ashes should
be thrown to the Tiber fishes.
Leo XIII succeeded Plus, and the
change may roughly be said to be from
, one of a political nature to papacy
of an academic one. Leo, it was once
we'll said, was at once the political and
the spiritual schoolmaster of the world
and had the nations but listened to his
advice 1t is doubtful if we should have
witnessed the upheaval of the present
hour. He entered upon the scene wheA
Scientific Atheism was at it's height
He fought this vicious philosophy with
the strongest weapon in the possession
, of the Church, namely, the Philosophy
9 of ST. Thomas. He was accused OF
observation and medievalism, yet re
suits proved Especially in Germany
Q where atheism was especially rife)
: that the strong current of common
n sense which underlies Thomastic teach
: ings proved triumphant over the dole
8 full and morbid philosophy on which
atheistic philosophy is based. The Pope
: too, taught the need of Scriptural in
4 struction among Catholics, and in all
!; Catholic Christendom, there was ar
immediate revival.
In Germany, owing to Bismarckiar
ti-Catholic action-in the Kultur
kamp-Leonine policies suffered man,
setbacls. 1t was the Bismarckian ides
to "Gallicanize" the Catholic Church
: in Prussia that is to say, to make Il
subservient to the State. The persecu
tions of the Kulturkamp were hardly
d less severe than those of Penal Day.
j. in Britain, Ireland and North Amer
9 lea. Bismarck admitted himself pow
n erless against the great Spiritual Fore,
! of the Papacy, which at last brough
d the policy Of Blood and Iron to Canos
n sa and by 1882, Leo could say that tn
:, Church was triumphant.
j: France broke out in series Of anti
+ Papal outrages in this reign, ant
e French Republicanism may be said t.
: have been almost wholly anti-clerical
This was seen to eliminate in the rup
turo 0f the Concordat the fiaeata hliah