CARDINAL NANNING ON THE PAPAL ALLOCUTION.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 45, 23 July 1877, Page 2

CARDINAL NANNING ON THE PAPAL ALLOCUTION.

At the Pro»Oathedral, Kensington, on April 15, Cardinal Manning, in the course of a sermon founded on the text, " I am the Resurrection and the Life," said— That which is true of individuals is true also of Christ's Church on earth. There is in it a life against which the gates of hell cannot prevail; there is in it a divine liberty which can never be bound ; and a power which, though it may be temporarily embarrassed and held in check, must in the end prevail. You will anticipate what I am about to say. I fain would have spoken of other things, but duty presses me to speak of this, for the men of this world have been writing and saying within the last few days that it appears as if the Romish question is to rise again, and that, though the thoughts of men areobuiously engaged in the East. What if the Eastern and the Romish questions rise together ? And what if men have to deal with both at the same

time P True, indeed, it is, men thought the Vioar of Jesus Christ was buried in the Vatican, deposed from his sovereignty, bound as in the tomb. They little counted on the power of resurrection, and they have little read the history of the last 1800 years, or they would have known what would happen. It is the law of the Church of Christ, above all, of the head of the Churoh, to be bound, and to be buried from age to age : but it is the law also of the Church and of its head always to rise again. Tbe Eomish question (continued the Cardinal) was this : Chris* gave to his Churoh and to the head of the Church, in all things pertaining to His Kingdom, an absolute independence of all civil, earthly, or temporal power. From the year 800 down to 1870 the Pontiffs had held a true and proper sovereignty in Rome ; as true, as proper, and more sacred than that sovereignty to 1 which we all bowed with every fibre of our hearts every motion of our will— the i sovereignty of our most gracious Queen, The Cardinal then described how Rome had been taken possession of, though the use of the Vaticon had been allowed to the Pope, and he was invited to go freely through the streets. Now, suppose some conquering Power by violence established in the ancient Palace of St. James ; that it permitted the use of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Close to our gracious Sovereign ; that it told all the world that the Queen of England was free and that she might really come out as before and pass to and fro between the streets of London and the parks and suburbs— that is to say consecrating by the presence of her Majesty the sovereignty of those who had taken possession of her own. Would Englishmen like that ? No, and Pics IX. knew very well the duties of the Vicar of Jesus Chrisfc. He said, " I will not look ou the deed, my eyes shall never sanction it ; I will live and die within the threshold of my palace.*' Yet there are Englishmen who will write every day to say that these are only the complainings of an old man who chooses to say that he is a prisoner. There are two kinds of imprisonment. There is the imprisonment by iron fetters and the imprisonment of deep moral degradation. Pius IX, is, indeed, not bound by fetters of iron. He is bound round by a sense of his own dignity and the supernatural office he bears ; and he knows it would be deep moral degradation to put his feet over the threshold of the palace where he lives so long as another Sovereign claims to rule over the city which the providenca of God made his own. After describing the oppressive laws undpr which the clergy now suffered in Rome, Cardinal Manning concludes 86 follows :— T have no desire to be a prophet of evil. For twelve months we have had all the threatening* of a war in the East. God only kuows nt this moment whether the dangerMs to burst into (lame or to be extinguished. Each nation in Europe is arming to such a point that it must make war or be well-nigh bank* rupt. Pius IX., as the Vicar of our Lord, will never striko the staff of war, but whatever war is kindled will involve the whole of Europe will involve Italy and Rome, and then will come the solution, but not brought about by us. Scorner may scorn, but God setteth up the waterclouds. The world is at this moment under the sway of revolution, which began in 1789, bursting out it 1798, 1830, and 1848, then extending to Italy, and continuing for a long period, ending as men thought, in 1870, when they believed the Eomish question was buried, though, as j our Holy Father told them, it was only begun. The world is at this moment under the influence of revolution. Ou the one side are tbe powers of anarchy, j all united in the wish that Borne should continue as it is ? On the other side, are the Christian and the Catholic world and the powers of order who believe in God* Those two arrays are marshalling and approaching nearer to each other. Collision is some day inevitable. All I pray from my heart as a Christian is that when that day comes England may not suffer.