THE SHEPHERD OF ALL CHRISTENDOM

New Zealand Tablet, 10 July 1913, Page 15

THE SHEPHERD OF ALL CHRISTENDOM

Mr. Joseph Francis Wickham contributes to the April number of the Catholic World an interesting and thoughtful article on a visit to the Holy Father at Rome Jhe title -of the article is The Shepherd of Ad Christendom.’ After a graphic description of the visit to the Vatican and the reception by Pius X Mr to'tSToridf- tllus of what the * Papacy has me ant un-n And as I "was losing , myself in these thoughts within the peaceful Vatican walls, suddenly in imagination I heard the clashing of arms and the tramp of soldiers and the notes of the trumpet call ; I saw the tossing of countless war pennons and far-flung lines of battle ; and as the whole panorama of nineteen centuries opened wide in . clearest of . vision I beheld the histone figure of the Papacy. I saw the first Pope ciucified, head downward, on-the very Vatican Hdl where rises now the great Cathedral. I saw the reddening of the white sands, of the Flavian Amphitheatre as, mm y one, the Pontiffs passed into martyrdom, faithful unto death. Thirty of the first thirty-one Popes wear the martyrs’ palm because of their believmg of the Word of the Nazarene. I could see in fancy ie terrified flock gathered in the secret recesses of the catacombs, and the shepherd standing on guard encouraging and strengthening and keeping alive the sacied fire of their faith. The Imperial City might fethemigh of ten persecutions against the infant Church but the sleepless sentinels, on duty for the King, showed no faltering. I saw the measured lances of those long centuries when Europe was semi-barbaric and the Popes fought with, doughtiest vigor against barons and emperors for the rights of God and the weal 0 the individual I beheld the Papacy, with splendid audacity , casting defiance into the chancellories of many a State forecasting well the temporal loss of possible defeat but willing to endure any pain rather than be unfaithful to doctrine that she held was-Gospel

Passing Down the Centuries, I saw a Hildebrand crossing, swords with a Henry the fourth of Germany; a Gregory the Ninth with a Kirm f redenck; an Innocent the Third with a Philip Augus°us ; a Pius the Seventh with a mighty Napoleon. ; And looking into the face of the Pope that had just passed by, 1 had seen the unmistakable consciousness that election to the Papal place had commissioned hiip with a divinely-spoken obligation to defend Christ. France attempting to blot out the Light in Heaven, found in that white-haired Pontiff a foeman worthy of her steel ’ Concordats, might be broken, convents closed, nuns exiled: there would be no capitulation. Better that every cathedral in France—Chartres, Rheims, Orleans even mighty Notre Dame of Paris-be beaten flat to the ground, with not a stone left upon a stone, than adandon truth. The City of God will never seek, peace by selling her .birthright. A Papal audience is not merely the physical act pf, being admitted to the presence of his Holiness and receiving his blessing, though it might well step there. Since Peter first took resi-

dence in Rome there have " been" pilgrimages to the Eternal City. Once a year the Mussulman, yearns toward Mecca: never has morning sun during the nineteen Christian centuries failed to discover some faithful Christians journeying toward the City of the Popes. 'So to have become a member of that great uncounted army;of pilgrims who have constantly worn smooth the Roman roads to have been admitted to that noble company that includes kings and queens and knights and scholars, tender maids/and gentle saints and sinless children, is no unwelcome distinction. But an audience with Pius the Tenth is vastly more than that. It is a coming into direct communication with the Roman Papacy, The Great Agency of Culture that has preserved the continuity of the civilisation of Augustus with the civilisation of the present day. If the Papacy had not existed, it were an impossible task to dream a European history for the last fifteen centuries. When the legions crumbled, and the Goths and Huns and Vandals poured like a swollen torrent into the fair plains of Italy, the Papacy was the only power that could save civilisation and the -lost arts and sciences. The Popes gathered up the broken fragments of civic institutions and literature, and treasured them for generations yet unborn. During the long centuries of transition that began with Alaric's entrance into Rome, the only unshaken rock in the tempest was the Papacy. Every condition was chaotic; old standards had been swept away; Europe was one great battlefield. Commerce was prostrate; letters were despised ; brigands were on thrones; lawlessness was law. As time went on, nation after nation accepted the Saviour. Men who once had hoped to be chosen of the Valkyries for the golden halls of Valhalla, were becoming allied in allegiance with those whose forebears had sworn by Mars and Juno, Odin and Thor were abandoned; Balder was dead with Pan. The Rhine-gods crept farther and farther back into the deepening twilight; Pirate Viking became peer of Prance. But through all this seething sea of confusion the Canon Law of the Church was being disseminated from one end of Christendom to another, and men were obeying this body of law which the Papacy had built upon Roman legislation and

•The Gospel of Christ. And obedience to the law is the essence of civilisation. Rude peasant and rude lord alike heard the message of the Gospel, bidding them to chasten their passions and forget the strain that was calling in their blood. The great monasteries looking down from the beauteous hillsides of Prussia, and everywhere from the fjords of Norway to the sunny Mediterranean shores, fostered in the heart the spirit of prayer, and taught the hand the art of cultivating the soil. And these monastic foundations breathed their life and claimed their being from the Roman Papacy. Finally the consolidation of the monarchies was effected, and rest from war gave leisure for higher things. Then the Papacy looked about her to see the fruits of her labor. The literature of Cicero and Horace was safe, to be linked to that of. Dante; the old , hard conditions of slavery had been ameliorated the exigencies of poverty had been met and the battle for the: high estate of .womanhood and the inviolability of the marriage bond had been fought and won on a hundred different fields. A new Rome had been built, a new Italy, a new Europe. In the Matter of Education the story of culture in its relation to the Papacy is as fascinating as romance. The schools attached to the cathedrals, and the schools of monasteries, .taught the principles of all the sciences. Men 'fike Bed© and Alcuin made thousands of young hearts grow warm in zeal for the refinements of letters, and developed thousands of minds in the training that was to guide them in the varied experience of daily life. Education was ever, indeed, tenderly nurtured, but the full blossoming of its flower came with the establishment of nigh two score universities under the confirmation of Papal charter. The Papacy has always been the patron of the arts, and no more convincing' proof 1 of this may be

adduced than a study of the Vatican, the most wondrous palace on earth. The vast collection of buildings embraced under the name of the Vatican Palace was begun by Pope Symmachus in the early sixth century, and completed in the erection of the Scala Pia by Pius the Ninth of present memory. Its chapels, museums, library, and, archives, from the artistic and scientific viewpoint, are priceless in the value of their content.

The most famous of the chapels, and that in which all the Papal ceremonies and functions are held, is the one familiarly known as the Sistine. Built between 1473 and 1481, it is a gem of architecture. The side walls from high altar to entrance, door were decorated by Perugino, Botticelli, Pinturicchio, Salviati, and Ghirlandajo, among others. Mino da Fiesole and his assistants carved the tracery on the marble barriers and balustrade of the choir box. But Michelangelo overshadows them all with his ceilings and his ' Last Judgment ' that sweeps across the rear wall. Any of , The Treasures of the Sistine Chapel would glorify a gallery into enduring worth. But the museums proper are no less the delight of art lover's. It is no extravagance to say that were all the other collections of Europe destroyed, the Papal museums would suffice for an understanding of the genius of the ages. The Popes were the first to establish museums, and their work in the perpetuation of masterpieces gave incentive to all the governments of the continent to like endeavor. The Museo Pio-Clementino, with the ' Laocoon,' the Torso of Heracles,' the ' Barberina Hera,' the 'Hermes,' the ' Belvedere Apollo/ and the finest ' Bust of Zeus/ in existence ; the Galleria Chiaramonti, with the sitting figure of ..Tiberius and the 'Head of Neptune' ; the Braccio Nuovo, with the majestic statue of Augustus and the colossal reclining figure of The Nile the Egyptian Museum, with its ten halls of statues, sarcophagi and reliques, and its cases of papyrus manuscripts; the Etruscan .Museum, with its mosaics, lamps and red-figured vases; all these are known to every visitor to the Vatican.'