A GREAT ORATORIAN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1162, 24 June 1911, Page 9

A GREAT ORATORIAN.

JUBILEE Or' CAPECELATKO.. -The Cardinalitinl .Inbilco of Cardinal Capeoelatro was celebrated bj lb? d oe<4.ns of his beloved Capua, of vnich no hVs been" Archbishop for Hio last thirty--0110 veers feivs tho Pome con-cspondtnt of the "Tablet." writing on April 30). Tin ovont oalv fell in' July of lost July 27, ISSo, that his Eminence, together with Cardinal Moran and others wlu have .since gone over to tho majority, was raised to tho purplo bv L"o >'UL But the Archbishop of C'enuti, although ho is in his eighty-eighth vr-ir, and junior in age only to Cardinal Cnnc-ha, who will be ninety-one in JSovernier, could easily afford to «'a}t. toy be i" a marvel of nhysica! and -intellectual health. On tho same day a quarter of n century ago Leo XIII honoured two crcat Orntorians bv elevating Newman lo the Secred College and calling Capeclatro to Koine to be a .Domestic Prelate and Sub-Librarian of Holy Church. Like Newman, ho was supposed to bo for a while under a cloud on account of certain views expressed by him in his writings—indeed, his appointment'.to. the comparatively insignificant .'archdiocese. of C-i.pua was described by Foment the time as a piinishnient. But if there was any cloud, it was lifted in ISS-V when the bi'llia'it Oratorian was created Cardinal and Librarian ':■'- Holy Church. His literary -activity since then has been prodigious, and, strange to say, it seems to grow with advancing years. Ho is universally recognised as one of the contemporary master* of style in Italy. The Holy Father himself took a warm part in the' Cardinal's jubilee, by writing a long autograph letter to the organiser of the feasts; almost all tho Cardinals sent their colleagues letters of congratulation and great- numbers ef bishops in various countries have did likewise. Cardinal Mercier's tribute addressed to Professor Parcnte at Capua, is especially eloquent. "I doubt," ho says, "if there is in the whole Catholic world to-day a man who synthesis"? so well as Cardinal Caprcelatro the vital interests of the Church. A priest before all else, a faithful disciple of St. Philip Xeri and St. Alphonsus Licuori, whose edifying lives he has traced in such lofty terms, the first thought of hi.> apostolic zeal has always been the moral and religious forinali'iii of his clergy, and more especially of (lie young Levites of the- sanctuary. A servant and soldier of Hie Church, and at tho same time a staunch .patriot, be has powerfully contributed to the prestige, of tho hierarchy of his proud country, Italy. His numerous writings, in.'tinct with charm and replete with doctrinal substance, occupy one of the first nlaces in the religious literature of the last fifty years.''