The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1939. PIUS XI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1939. PIUS XI

’’pHE personality of an occupant of the Papal chair is seldom fully appreciated in his own time, and Pope Pius XI is no exception to this rule. The cause is not difficult to divine: for the members of the Catholic Church view him with veneration, while those who see him from outside the fold are too frequently unable to divest their minds from their conceptions and misconceptions about the Roman See. The one is too appreciative: the other not enthusiastic enough. Pius the Tenth possibly gained the most universal reverence of modern Popes. This was due to the circumstances of his time and the singularly ascetic and pietistie. countenance which gave an index to his character. The Great War broke on the world, and mankind, in its anguish, was willing to turn to anyone who could offer the least prospect of bringing such a catastrophe Io an end. It was by no means an easy task for the Vatican to guide a Universal Church in a clash of nations, nevertheless the task was accomplished with considerable, skill and the, Vatican was enabled to continue its policy of seeking a modus vivendi with every nation. With the stepping down of the great personalities of that time, and in the crumbling of what appeared to be stable empires, the Vatican continued to exercise its influence, and it was not surprising that men came to attach to the personality of Pius the Tenth and his saintly, smiling face, all that the Pontiff merited. Possibly because so much was accorded him, less than was their due was given by the world at large to his two immediate successors, and it is precisely because of this that a conscious effort should be made now to assess the personality and the work of the man who is now being laid to his rest alter his heavy labours in his high office. The years which have followed the war have been years of difficulty and discord. Many voices have claimed public attention, and in this distracting scene, which lacked the coherence of the pre-war world, the Papacy has had many competitors for public notice. Tremendous experiments have been the order of the day. The League of Nations, the disarmament of Germany, the setting up of new nations, the discarding of dynasties and the abdications of monarchs, the Communist experiment in Russia, the Fascist! Corporate State experiment in Italy, the Nazi usurpation of power and the National Socialist experiment in Germany. Great Britain’s great moral gesture of disarmament was also a tremendous experiment which merits being remembered. These great experiments, too, have thrown up personalities which have fascinated the minds of many men and challenged the logic of others. Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Pilsudski. Hitler, Marsaryk, Benes, Titeleseu, Lloyd George. Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald. Woodrow Wilson, Mussolini, Primo de Rivera, Kernel Pasha, Ibd Saud. Gandhi, Franco, have played the outstanding spotlight parts on the world stage. Small wonder, then, that the Prisoner of the Vatican should have been to a great degree overlooked. There need be no misgivings that Pius XI will receive his due recognition to a place in the Hall of Fame, for he. accomplished the outstanding feat of establishing the Vatican as a. Temporal State, eliding the. Roman Question which for so longhad disturbed the relationship between Italy and the Papacy. Gradually, however, it dawned on the world at large, that in him was to be found a great force making for righteousness. The evils of capitalism, which saw the making of profits the be-all and end-all of industrial effort, were as thoroughly denounced as were the State cults of Communism and Fascism. The way of life he proclaimed to be that in which the. spiritual in man dominated, for materialism was blind. He conceived of his high office as that of the Father of Christiandoni, ami in that role he laboured to break down the walls of misunderstanding and prejudice. To the second Lord Halifax’s explorations for some basis between the Holy See and Anglo-Catholics, under the chairmanship of Cardinal Mercier, lie gave, his blessing, and while insisting on the one inc Visible Church, of which he was the august Head, he nevertheless, could say: “We are especially grateful to all Catholics, who for the brethren who disagree with them have striven, under the. influence of Divine Grace, to preserve that, road which leads to the adoption of a. kindred faith, by removing prejudice, and explaining Catholic teaching, and especially showing in themselves that which is known to mark the disciples of Christ, which is charity.” He also said: “One does not know all that is precious, all that is good, all that is deeply Christian, in the separated particles of the Catholic Faith. The cleft fragments of an auriferous rock themselves bear veins of gold. The venerable Christianities of the East keep objectively such sanctity that thy deserve not my respect but my fellow feeling.” It is possibly because of the Pontiff who could thus speak that the more intelligent communities of the world owe much of their atmosphere of religious toleration and mutuality of respect and the absence of sectarian contention. Time will have to pass before Pius XI can be seen in proper perspective, but the immediate survey of his life and work is such that the great stem of Western Christiandoni has every right to be truly grateful and proud that he should have been the 260th successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome.