THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1903. THE POPE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 28, 9 July 1903, Page 17

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1903. THE POPE

S these lines are passing under the cylinders of the printing press Leo XIII. is in the arena wrestling with Death. The world, by proxy, is looking on, with a keen and sympathetic interest for the great and good Old Man who bears upon his infirm and weary shoulders the weight of ninety and three years, who in his day has done wonderful things for the Church of which he is the Visible Head, who is the friend of humanity and one of the most remarkable of the long line of Pontiffs that have sat in the Chair of St. Petbr. He feels that his journey into eternity is near at hand. But his loving Catholic children all over the world cling prayerfully to the hope that his almost incredible vitality, coupled with the noted longevity of his family, may yet see him the victor in this wrestling bout with Death and stave off, for yet a time, the day when the ' good grey head whom all men know ' mu9t rise from the pillow no more. * It is better, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, to be ninety years young than forty years old. Leo's four-score-and-ten and more were, so far as the mmd — the better part — was concerned, a hale, green middle age. tie has thus far dividtd with Pius IX. fifty five years of the nineteenth century — the two longest consecutive reigns in all the hibtory of the Roman See. Six pontificates covered the nineteenth century. There were eight in the eighteenth, and in the seventeenth twelve. They were dark and evil days for the Church when Leo XIII. came io the papal throne in 1878. He was like his predecessor, a prisoner in his own palace ; the Eternal City was lost to the Papacy through force and fraud ; the usurper lorded it occupied its streets ; his soldiers stood under arms and manoeuvred before the Vatican portals ; and the voice and the hand of the world was raised against the occupant of the Apostolic See. But before many years had passed, Bismarck— the man of all others that was a synonym for iron strength in Europe — was worsted in a memorable conflict with ' Rome.' The Church, under Leo's guidance, emerged from the conflict without the scar of wounds ; and there has been no period of her history since the great religious revolution of the sixteenth century in which the Papal office has been held in such world-wide respect and honor. All this, and much more, has been the work of the good old Pontiff who now lies waiting for the end. Joiin Boyle O'Reilly says in one of his poems :—: — 1 Great men grow greater by the lapce of time : We know those least whom we have seen the latest.' In due course Leo XIII. will find his due place in the perspective of history, and will probably share with another illustrious Pontiff of his name the title of ' Great.'

In God's good time Leo's soul must ilifc. The Pppe dies. But the Papacy lives on. It knows neither decrepifctLae nor decay. Ponce de Leon sought in Florida the marvellous foundation of perpetual youth — and died there with the waters undiscovered and an Indian arrow in his heart. The Church's waters of youth come from a higher Source than that of earth. Her marvellous vitality has been the theme of many an unfriendly p*n. Maoaulay's Words have been often quoted. But the following sentej&es therefrom will, in the present circumstanceß, bear repetition : — ' The proudest royal houses,' says Macaulay, **re but, of yesterday when compared with the line of Bnpr^jne Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an uribro'Ken series from the Pope who crowned Napoleon r;in the nineteenth century to the Pope wha crowned Pepin in the eighth ; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends till it is lost 'in the twilight of fable. The Republic of Venice came next; in antiquity. But the Republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy ; and the Republic of Venice is gone> and the Papacy remains. The Papacy Tenjajns, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. . . Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all governments and of all ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain — before the Prank had passed the Rhine — when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch — when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca ; and she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Biidge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.'