PAPAL LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF WARSAW.

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1919, Page 37

PAPAL LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF WARSAW.

Towards the close of the year just past the Holy Father sent to Mgr. Alexander Kakowski, Archbishop of Warsaw, this letter which forms a remarkable document in Polish history; In the grave crisis which is passing over Europe, we cannot resist the promptings of our affection to send to you and to the noble Polish nation a word of comfort and hope. History has recorded in letters of gold what Poland has done for Christianity and for European civilisation ; but, alas, it also has to record the evil with which Europe has repaid its merits. After having violently despoiled it of political independence, it has endeavored in certain quarters to deprive it of its Catholic faith and its very nationality but with admirable resistance, the Poles have known how to preserve both one and the other, and to-day after surviving an oppresion of more than a century PoZoniei. semper fidelis, is more active than ever. “The Holy See, which loved Poland at the height of its glory, loves it still more, if that be possible, in the depths of its misfortunes, even as a mother’s love for her children increases with their increasing unhappiness. We cannot but recall that the only one, during the dismemberment of Poland, who set himself to maintain, though in the event without success, the nationality and independence of Poland, was Pope Clement XIV., of happy memory, who wrote to all the Catholic sovereigns in the strongest of terms. It is well also to record the fact that, during the long years of Polish martyrdom, while others merely watched in silence the oppressor’s exercise of brutal force our predecessors, Gregory XVI. and Pius IX., lifted’their voices in vigorous protest in behalf of the oppressed. When the story of the Catholic Church in Poland during the eighteenth century is published, with the authentic documents in our archives, and we hope it will appear* soon, more light will be thrown on the indescribable sufferings of "the Polish people and the unceasing, truly maternal solicitude of the Holy See to render them assistance. “But, infinite thanks be to the Lord, the dawn of the resurrection of Poland is at last appearing. It is our ardent desire that it may be restored to its full independence at the earliest possible date, and that it may.take its place in the congress of nations and continue its history as a civil and Christian nation; and it is our fond hope that at the same time all the other nations, non-Catholic nations included, that have hitherto been subject to Russia, may be allowed to decide their own lot and and prosper according to their native genius and their own individual resources. “In the hope of seeing the realisation of these wishes of ours in the near future, we desire, in addition to the provision we have recently made for an enlarged and more adequate establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in that land, to give to you. Venerable Brother, and through you to the Polish people, a further and more solemn proof of our good-will and confidence; and to this end it is our purpose, at the first consistory which the Lord shall grant us to hold, to elevate you to the dignity of the cardinalate. The sacred purple, besides being an acknowledgment and a recompense of your esteemed sacerdotal. virtues and . your signal merits, both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, will be at the same time, as we hope, a still stronger bond between Poland and the Chair of Peter.” The letter closes with a prayer to our Lady of Czenstochowa to be propitious to her faithful people.