THE POPE'S ANNIVERSARY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 72, 12 September 1874, Page 11

THE POPE'S ANNIVERSARY.

Most bbv. 3>b. ckokb's sebmoit.— Concluded.

No man, it- is now said, has a right to regulate another man's move- ■ merits. Each one is to guide himself. There is ro certain measure of right and wrong. Every ruler is a tyrant ; every restraint ia unreasonable. Liberty alone is to be worshipped ; and whosoever dares to stand in tb.6 way of universal liberty is the avowed enemy of human progress, and a fit object for the vengeance of every freeborn man. I shall not pause here to refute the oft repeated calumny that the Catholic Church is unfavorable to human freedom, and that Catholics from the very nature of their creed must necessarily be slaves. We unhesitatingly assert the contrary. We fearlessly say that we yield to no denominations of Christians in our love of liberty. Life would be ecarce worth having if it were not accompanied by freedom, and one of the choicest gifts of the God of Nature to his creatures is liberty. Look around you and above you, and see are not all things wholesomely free. What can arrest the progress of the earth's waters - towards the sea, or who dares bid the ocean to cease its murmuring ? Fire is free to consume — it is its nature. The lion ia free to roar ; the fishes are free beneath the wave ; the birds are free in the air ; and even the meanest reptile that crawls beneath our feet is free to roam -within the limits which the generosity of Nature has assigned it. And ■ can it be .that man, the masterpiece of creation, may be rightfully despoiled of this, the grandest portion of inheritance ? No. Tyrants may trample on the outward shrine of liberty ; but they cannot extinguish the living flame on which it feeds. Like the vital spark •within us, which leaves its earthly tenement only to travel to a better sphere where it hopes to be clothed in perennial beauty, liberty excelled one country is sure to settle in another ; its home may be altered, but its essence is immutable and eternal. We, Catholics, then, are for liberty, but we are for liberty founded on the Gkmpel. " Where the spirit of God is, there," the Scripture says, '• is liberty." Now, the spirit of God is a spirit of order, a spirit oi meekness, a spirit of fairplay, a spirit of charity that thinketh no evil, a spirit of universal love ; and such is the spirit of liberty which the Council of the Vatican was anxious to encourage and diffuse. Liberty to teach, liberty to command her subjects, liberty to point out evil that it may be avoided, and the right road that it may be followed ; freedom of education, freedom for ibe religious orders, now so scandalously trampled under foot ; freedom of association for all righteous ends ; such is the only liberty that deserves the name; that liberty the Church •fcas always claimed, and in defence of that liberty every Bishop of the Church, like the mart* red Bishops of the German empire — yea, every •Catholic now before me, should, and I believe would, be prepared to risk his life and fortune. And, beloved brethren, in this respect, as in all others, our Holy Father the Pope has set us a most encouraging example. Hobbed of the sacred patrimony which had come down to him through an unbroken line of his predecessors since the time of •Charlemagne ; Bcoffed at, calumniated, and almost reduced to poverty ; expelled the palaces hallowed by the footsteps of so many saintly pontiffs, a prisoner in the very city in which the ashes of the first Pope have found a fitting resting-place ; he haß spent the last seven 4Hid twenty years of his life ia praying for his enemies, ia blessing the children that have remained faithful to his gentle sway, in extending the boundaries of that Church of which he ia the holy and infallible liead — condemning errors, proclaiming God's truth, oftentimes at the peril of his life ; erecting new Sees, establishing sentinels on the watch towers of Israel, walking fearlessly in the footsteps of his Lord and Master, ever " zealous for the law," and defeating all the machinations of his enemies by the dignified uniformity of his attitude, as well as by iris thorough and uncompromising independence. Long live, then, our Holy Father, Pope Pius the Ninth, to rule over, to edify, and •encourage uu. May his days on earth be yet many ; and may triumphs to come fully atone to him for all the trials and troubles of his past Pontificate. He was " zealous," brethren, " for the law ; " and let me now add, as a temporal ruler, he was the true friend and the best benefactor of his country. Let ub briefly glance at the history of this «ase. The present illustrious occupant of the chair of St. Peter, Pope Pius the Ninth, was raised to the Papal dignity on the 16th of Juno, 1846 ; and on the 16th of July of the same year, just one month after his election, he published the famous amnesty of which you al 1 have lieard, and which opened every prison door in the Pontifical States. One condition alone waa imposed on each political offender — that he should eign a declaration as follows : — " I, the undersigned, acknowledge the spontaneous pardon which my lawful Sovereign, Pope Pius the Ninth, haß accorded me, and I promise upon my word of honor not to abuse in a«y way, nor at any time, this act of his sovereign -clemency in my regard." Immediately after the promulgation of that decree there was not in Europe, it may be safely stated, a more popular prince than the Pope. That is to say, he was popular amongst his own people, and in every country where constitutional liberty was ,-respected. But he was not popular in certain despotic European States ; in Austria, for instance, and Nap]es, and the smaller Principalities of the Italian Peninsula ; and he became less so when, on the 19th of April, 1847, he announced his intention of summoning a National Council to aid him in all his deliberations, and to share with him the responsibilities of government. Austria, thereupon, became •not only angry, but insolent ; and the Correspondent of the • Times,' writing from Kome on the 28th of March, 1817, for once spoke the truth when he said : — "The resolution of the Pope to pursue a course of reform, to encourage railroads, to emancipate the Press, to admit laymen to offices in the Sate ; above all, the dignified independence of -action manifested by the Court of Some, has filled the Auatnans with apprehension and anger." The promised Council was inaugurated on the 15th of November, and his Holiness addressed the assembled Senate in the Quirinal as follows :—": — " I have three millions of subjects as witnesses that I have hitherto accomplished much to unite with me my people. You will now aid me with your wisdom to discover that •which is most useful for the security of the throne and the real appiness of my subjects." Shortly after came the year of revolutions.

Europe wns in a blaze. Popular excitement everywhere knew no> bound*. Louis Philippe fled from France. The Austrian Eagle was trampled under foot in »he streets of Milan. Barriendes became fashionable in Berlin and Vienna, and the ancient Republican glories of Teuice were for a season, at all events, revived. Koine partook largely of the general intoxication. The so-called apostles of liberty were abroad, and nothing sliort of a Republic would satisfy the excited populace. What need I say more ? Tlie amnesty wns forgotten j pußt concessions were despised ; the Pope's Prime Minister was a-sussinated in open day ; the Pope himself was forced to flee from his palace ; the great Iligh Priest of revolution was installed in his stead, and the Eternal City had to witness the most Satanic atrocities from the 25th of November, 1843, to the 14th of April, 1850, when the> Pope returned once more to his capital amidst the blessings nnd acclamations of his people. Since then, and up to the period of hi* last dethronement, his policy was one of liberality and reform, and I was, therefore, justified in saying that, even as a temporal I'rince, ho proved himself to be the true friend and best benefactor of his country. But, brethren, speaking individually for myself, and yet I fancy, reflecting the convictions of many, if not all of you, I unhesitatingly si»y that even though I did not recognise in him the divinely constituted head of Christ's Church upon earth, or the wise and beneficent rule of a portion of God's people, I yet, somehow, should respect Pope Pius the Ninth, and entertain for him the highest reverence and esteem. He has been so tried, so brave, so patient, so consistent, so unyielding ! Borne down upon, and buffetted, and reviled, and persecuted, no effort of malignity was spared to precipitate him from his lofty station. Bub it was all in vain. He i 3 always dying, and yet he lives ; he is alwaysfalling, and yet he holds his ground ; ho is always growing more and more feeble, and yet he flourishes ; he has far exceeded the averageyears of man, and yet he is radiant with the irailes of youth and cheerfulness ; he is always losing his power, and yet when he strikes a blow, hammering down a King, or bidding defiance with unarmed hand toan arrogant Emperor, the sound thereof reverberates through the universe, and is felt and spoken of from pole to' pole. The wires are always busy with him. The movements of the mightiest of the world's great ones are but rarely noticed, and their utterances, as a rule, held in small account ; but a word from the Pope is flashed to the ends of the eaith ; it decides the fate of dynasties, dissipates l.he doubts of thousands, and fixes the faith of the great body of believers. How potent he must be when all oonspire against him ! There is no combination against imbeciles. Europe, in our epoch, allied itself against one man ; but he was the genius of warfare, the greatest captain and strategist since the days of Alexander. We have no fear, then, for the Pope. The last moment of darkness expires 'midst the first rays of light. Humiliatiou is often the harbinger of triumph ; and. so, as the Lord liveth, He will soon scatter the enemies of our Holy Father, even as the wind scatters the sand on the sea shore. And proud am I, brethren — I, who for some years past have been a waif and a wandereron the great waste of waters, living as a missionary Bishop on a lone island at the Antipodes— proud am I, when I return once more to the old land in which I was born, to find the attachment of the Irish people to the Pope and to the faith of their fathers more intense, if possible, more active, and conspicuous, than at any past period of her history. Yet, for these great and truly exceptional favors which you have received from on High ; for Ireland's unalterable attachment to the faith ; for her unbroken hierarchy, happily crowned in our days by an Irish Cardinal, whose fame for wisdom and sanctity is over all ttie Churches; for the unpurchasable priesthood, and the unswerving fidelity of her noble-hearted people, humanly speaking, you could havehad no good grounds to hope. Ours, you know, was not amongst the Churches that were most tavored in their origin. There were Churches founded by the Apostles themselves, protected by theEmperors of Christian Rome, and presided over for a lon^ series of years by the most pious and enlightened pastors. The Church of Ephesuß, founded by St, John, his long 6ince fallen tv decay. The Church of Alexandria exists no longer, though St. Mark labored muclx to give it strength and stability : and even the Church of Jerusalem itself, governed, as it had been, for a number of years by St. James the Apostle, formed no exception to the decline of other Apostolic Churches. What has become of the illustrious Churchee cf Asia and Northern Africa, of the Churches in which Chrysostom preached, for which Cyprian suffered, and Augustine wrote ? Weeds are now growing over the ruins of Carthage ; and in the capital of the Eastern Empire, built as it was by the first Christum JSrnperor, and adorned by the piety or^patriotism of his successors for above a thousand years, the Crescent has long since displaced the cross, and the fanatical followers of the Arab Prophet prefer Mahomed to Christ — the licentious teaching of the one to the sublime morality of the other. Buc here, here in this remote island, now so undistinguished, but once the fairest iv the sea, the lamp of Faith once lighted has never yet suffered the dimness of au hour. Like the sacrod fire guarded By the Vestals of another age and clime, we have preserved our faith pure, and in all things unchauged, during ihe loug, long period offourteeu hundred years. True, indeed, that in some respects our Church's first glory has gone down ; that the saint and the scholar journeying from afar have long since ceased to seek shelter on our once hospitable short ; true that our religious houses of European fame, the abodes of piety, oi peace, aud learning, and which formed the chief glory and g« catness of this ancient islaud, teach now no lesson except by their ruins ; true that our sceptre is broken aud our name is without honor in the councils ot the great, still may we' boast with pride and truth that we have preserved our faith untarnished, undiminiuhed, unalloyed, 'midst the revolution of empires, aud the utter ruin of seemingly more favored Churches. Furthermore, brethren, look around you everywhere on the scattered children of your creed and race, and what di> behold ? Abroad you see our Irian missionaries laboring for (Jjd's Church in every laud that the sun shines upon, and carryiug the glad tidings of redemption to the people of every o!iiu<j and color. At homa you see the sublime spectacle of a poor and but recently emvuoip iteJ. people building up and beautifying the fallen temples of tlitf Alosc Jligb, auppo.-tin^ the miuistcrs o£ their Church iv. mjre tlna o&iuie/

comfort and respectability, erecting colleges, schools, hospitals, houses ol refuge, and without Government aid or countenance from the great walking, I may say, in the van of Christian civilisation, and sustaining the great cause of Christian progress and enlightenment in this island. And oh ! brethren, ia it not sweet, is it not passing sweet, to see thr, liomes of our forefathers thus built up, their memories vindicated, ana the faith for which they fought and bled rising from olf the ground on which it was trodden down— ay, and rising with renewed vigor and endowed with marvellous fecundity? Catholicity, you see, cannot «ie. The long lists of saints who professnd and practised it ; the million martyrs who died in its defence; the host of scholars who sprang up under its auspices and did battle in it* cause; the virtue that it fostorc, as well as the civilisation that it has scattered, even to Uie ends of the earth, attest beyond dispute the divinity of its origin. Jtrror, brethren, is not lusting— fiction fades away, even arts, most glorious monuments, must perish ; but, truth is not subject to diminution or decay, and what is built on it is enduring as the heavens. Cleave closely, then, brethren, to this fine old faith of yours. Be proud of it ; profess it fearlessly ; practice it ; live in it j and as the last and most precious remnant of your mutilated inh en twice, forfeit it not even in death. It is no new fangled faith framed and fabricated but a while ago. It is the faith which Christ taught upon earth and wherewith he enriched his Church. It is the faith of his Apoatles and of the elect even from the beginning. It is the faith forwhich ttie martyrs suffered, and the just were persecuted in every age. It is a iaith which the proud philosophy of Borne vainly sought to overthrow—a faith, therefore, at once pure, consoling, and apostolical ; a laitli unaltered by time, untainted by error, indestructible by sword, or sage, or sophist; a faith, in short, which, as it preceded, so shall it survive, every modern innovation, and yet resume that empire over the world which truth h«s never forfeited but for a while. Such, brethren, is the fmth of our fat here, the faith of which his Holiness the Pope is the fearless and infallible expounder. May it be to you an active faith, »s it wm be a lasting and cherished one, influencing your thoughts *nd deeds, and words, and giving value to them.alL And, as you do now praise, and bleas, and pray for those who in bright days built up, and m evil days defended, the thne-honored edifice of your native Church, so may generations yet to come praise you and bless you, telling to theii- children, and to th* children of them again, that you of the present age were well worthy of the saints that preceded you, that jou were zealous for the law, an<? prepared to give your lives for the covenants of your fathers ; that you called to remembrance the works of jour fathers which they had done in their generations, and that you deserved great glory and an everlasting name."— l. Mac, c. ii., 50, 51. i a j Was J C0 I nßltJel> ably after two o'clock when the ceremony con<rtuded and the congregation separated, after having assisted at a ttemornble act. At the termination of the High Mass the Cardinal celebrant bestowed the Pontifical blessing.