A GREAT CAREER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1939, Page 7

A GREAT CAREER

LIFE & WORK OF PIUS XI. SETTLEMENT OF ROMAN QUESTION. HIGH IDEALS UPHELD. Pope Pius XI will be remembered primarily as the supreme pontiff who closed the breach between Church and State, known as the Roman Question. His Holiness is said to have devoted more than two and a half years of patient, persistent study to the problems that were involved. An examination of the communiques that were available at the time of the signature of the treaties between the Holy See and Italy shbws that all bore the stamp of the august humility which has always characterised Pius Xi’s utterances. He is reported to have said, on the day' the treaties were signed, February 11, 1929, that he had asked for the least possible indemnity because he regarded himself as a father negotiating with his children, and, therefore, he had wished to make agreement as easy as possible. APPEARANCE BEFORE PEOPLE. .The seven tn anniversary of Pius Xi's coronation, February 12, 1929, i coincided with his appearance on the, balcony of St. Peter’s, when he gave the pontifical blessing, "Urbi et Orbi.” A crowd, 100,000 strong, gathered in the square, shouted, “Hail, Pius, Pope and King!” The ratification of the treaties by his own signature and by that of the King of Italy set the seal to documents the importance of which will appear more and more evident as time goes on. . It is now apparent that the world had, in Pius XI, a great force making I for righteousness, whose influence be-1 came all the stronger the moment it was known that the renewal of papal sovereignty carried with it no territorial expansion or material aggrandizement. A new factor had entered into the relations of the nations. The cause of universal peace and goodwill had received an historic impetus and reinforcement. Whatever view may be taken of the fact, the earth has one monarch whose power is entirely

spiritual and moral, whose office it is to hold aloft the banner of the highest ideals in the eyes of a world whose vision is too often obscured by selfishness and greed.

BOYHOOD & YOUTH. Pope Pius XI was born in Desis. a small town near Milan, in 1857, the fourth son of a silk-plant manager named Ratti. He was christened Ambrose Damien Achille. As a boy he gave evidence of unusual scholarship. Theology and languages he made peculiarly his own province. .He was noted as a "marvellous linguist, having an acquaintance of at least 20 languages. But he was no mere bookworm. Blessed with a sound constitution, he took the necessary steps to preserve it with plenty of out-door exercise, and became noted as a mountaineer. He did not seek to become Pope, and when notified of his election he said he regarded it as his cross and hoped for the support of his people. Ordained at 22 he'became a teacher of theology in the episcopal seminary in Milan. In 1886 he was made assistant librarian at the Ambrosian Library, and in 1911 he was called to Rome to undertake the practical administration of the Vatican Library. He became Apostolic Nuncio to Poland in 1918, and in 1919 was made Archbishop of Pepanto. Two years later he was created Archbishop of Milan and a Cardinal, and in 1922 was elected Pope.

AN INTERNATIONAL FIGURE. An international figure himself, the Pope was very keenly interested in all international questions. The closing years of his life were saddened by the treatment accorded to many of his faith in Germany by the Nazi regime, and by the Nazi treatment of the Jews, for His Holiness was a great humanitarian.

His most outstanding achievement was the solution of the Roman Question in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which restored the temporal power of the papacy and established a concordat between the Church and the Italian Government. It eliminated every reason for enmity between the Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican and released the Pope from being virtually a prisoner in his own grounds.

It created "tne city of the Vatican.” In this territory there was to be no interference by the Italian Government, and there was to be no authority other than that of the Holy See. Italy recognised the right of the HolySee to send its own diplomatists to foreign countries and receive foreign diplomatists, according to the general rules of international law.

CONCORDAT WITH GERMANY. In 1934 Pius XI made a Concordat

with Germany and within recent months he has had sorrowfully to protest that its provisions appeared not to be strictly observed by the Nazi Government. He had occasion, too, to speak sharply to governing authorities in Italy at the time of Herr Hitler's visit to Signor Mussolini in Rome. He was in every sense a Father t< his people. He watched over their welfare at- all times. He was one of the most easily-accessible of Popes. He interested himself in the problems of all peoples throughout the world, and he was always eager to hear at first hand of doings in various countries. Whenever a visitor interested him he would always prolong the audience. Nobody who was granted an audience ever went away from his presence without feeling comforted. Few Popes have led a more strenuous life. His daily labours called for the answering of thousands of letters, and the reception of great crowds of pilgrims. In one year —1925 —he received mure than 1,250.000. Pius was a bronzed, strong-featured man. His fare was simple. His breakfast was the same as that which he first enjoyed as a boy in Lombardy—coffee, a little bread, perhaps some fruit. He dined at 10 —again on simple fare, soup, one egg, fruit. Then work, study, meditation. And at 2 a.m. bed,

for the four hours of sleep he allowed himself. He rose z early to take up hit daily task of ruling, as the supreme teacher, legislator, judge and governor of the Roman Catholic Church, 300,000,000 souls. A PROGRESSIVE PONTIFF. Pius XI discarded many an outmoded tradition. He was the first Pope tc broadcast his blessings, first to speak for talking pictures, first to own an automobile. On February 18, 1929, he granted the first papal interview ever given to a newspaper correspondent, when he received Thomas B. Morgan. United Press Rome bureau manager. He was the first Pope.to come out of the Vatican in 70 years.

His Holiness had great strength of will, and, of this he gave ample evidence throughout his last illness. Time and again he resisted the efforts of his medical attendants to keep him in bed and to refuse audiences. Life to him was nothing unless he could be about his Master’s business.

This strength of will, in conjunction with a magnificent brain and a full understanding of the problems confronting the Christian religion throughout the world today, has given Pius Xi a place in the hearts of his' people that will not soon be forgotten. MANY CONDOLENCES COURT MOURNING IN ITALY. SIGNOR MUSSOLINI’S MESSAGE (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) VATICAN CITY, February 10. Signor Mussolini and Count Ciano visited the Vatican to pay their last respects. Herr Hitler sent a message of condolence.

Flags are flown as half-mast in Rome, Berlin and Paris.

It is officially announced that the Cardinals’ meeting will be held on March 3, not on February 28. The remains of the Pope are lying in state in the Sistine Chapel for three days. All public spectacles are forbidden, and the Italian Court will observe eight days’ mourning.

Signor Mussolini sent the following message to Cardinal Pacelli: “The disappearance of the Pope of conciliation means mourning for the Church and the Italian people. I offer the condolences of myself and the Fascist Government.” GREAT BURDENS BORNE WITH DIGNITY AND COURAGE. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY’S TESTIMONY. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, February 10. The Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to the Pope’s unwearying efforts for peace. He said he was a man of sincere piety, who bore immense burdens with dignity and courage.

ADJOURNMENT OF DAIL. (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) DUBLIN, February 10. The Dail adjourned in mourning. The Prime Minister, Mr E. De Valera, and Mr W. T. Cosgrave paid tributes to the Pope. JARRING NOTE.

NAZI PAPER’S COMMENT. (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) BERLIN, February 10. The “Angriff” carries the headline over the Pope’s obituary of “Pope of Unfulfilled Hope," and says he began life as a spiritual reformer, and died a political adventurer. He believed the world could only be saved through Catholicism. He was spared the experience of the full failure of his ideas. A Wilhelmstrasse spokesman said: “I hope the Pope’s successor will not turn to anti-German activities, but on the contrary will try to improve Ger-man-Vatican relations.”

REQUIEM SERVICES NEW ZEALAND AWAITING ADVICE. ANNOUNCEMENT DEFERRED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 10. The time of the ceremonies in connection with the death of the Pope, and the form which they will take will be advised by the Apostolic Delegate in Sydney, Monsignor Panico, said Bishop Brodie, senior Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand, this evening. Such ceremonies, he said, usually synchronized throughout the world, as far as was possible, with the time of the interment in Rome. Till advice had been received from Monsignor Panico it would not be possible to announce the time or form of the observances.

PRIMATE’S TRIBUTE POPE’S WORK FOR PEACE " PRAISED. STAND TAKEN ON BEHALF OF RELIGION. 'By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 10. 'I would like to express my sym-

pathy with the Bishop and his flock in Auckland particularly, but also with the Roman Catholic Church generally,” said Archbishop Averill. Primate of New Zealand, when informed of the death of the Pope. “We all very much appreciate the stand which he has made for peace and for conditions that make for peace. I think, too, that all Christians are grateful to him for the stand he has taken on behalf of Christian religion in the face of what is being taught and said in totalitarian States and in the face of anti-Christian philosophies of life which are current at present, specially in those totalitarian States.”