PIUS X.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 32, 6 August 1903, Page 18

PIUS X.

CARDINAL SARTO ELECTED

Shortly before going to press with this week's issue, we learned that Cardinal Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, had been chosen to fill the place so long and honorably occupied by the late Pope Leo XIII. The new Pope has taken the name of Pius X. Cardinal Sarto is of humble birth, and has risen to his present exalted position by the sheer force of his commanding talent. He is now in his sixty-eighth year, having been born at Riese, in the diocese of Treviso, Italy, on June 2, 1835. He was raised to the cardinalate on June 12, 1893, and has for many years filled the minor patriarchate of Venice with great distinction and to the great benefit of his flock. His active and zealous charity has made him the idol of the poor of Venice, to whose needs he has daily ministered with his own hands, while his toil and courage in times of serious epidemics were beyond all praise. He is a great friend of the worker, and takes a keen and active interest in the various Catholic agrarian movementspopular banks, etc—which have done so much to improve the condition and elevate the religious tone of the rural population in the provinces of Lombardy and Venice. The new Pope, like his illustrious predecessor, is a man of great learning, and, though he is not widelyknown to the world at large, few, if any of the' members of the Sacred College are gifted with greater parts than he. He is a gifted, eloquent, and brilliant preacher and the author of several valuable works on dogmatic and moral subjects. He is also an administrator of exceptional ability, and, so far as human foresight can judge, will rule the Church of God in a manner that will make him indeed a worthy successor to the great and good Old Man who has gone to his rest. The news of his election was received in Dunedin by the ringing of a joy-peal at St. Joseph's Cathedral. With our next issue we will publish a four-page supplement containing a lull-page portrait of his Holiness. We join with the whole Catholic world in wishing him a long, happy, and useful reign. LONG LIVE PIUS X !