The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1903. POPE LEO XIII.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 172, 21 July 1903, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1903. POPE LEO XIII.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrung that needs resistance, For the future in t'ne distance, And the good that we can do.

The death of Leo XIII. has been so long expected that it will not have much eilect upon the politics of nations or upon the organisation of the church which, for the last quarter of a century, has acknowledged him as its supreme head. But the dead Pontiff had made for himself a place among the rulers of the earth that it will be hard for any successor to fill; and the election to the throne of St. Peter has now, through the many virtues and eminent abilities of Leo XIII., become once more a matter ol international interest and importance. When Leo was chosen Pope in 1878 at the mature age of 07 years, few expected that hie life would be prolonged into the twentieth century, and none would have ventured to prophecy that the recognised good qualities and amiable character of Cardinal Pecca would have gone so far to re-establish the inlluence and authority of the Papacy in the eyes of the world. His predecessor, a pioiis and wellmeaning ecclesiastic, was too little a man of the world to trouble about mundane ambitions. But Leo XIII. has always

been a stateman as well as a churchman, and the world-wide respect and admiration which he evoked were due most hugely to the fact that, while taking an active part in the public life around him, he never sacrificed the duties and responsibilities of his high office to self-interest or ambition. Regarded simply as a diplomatist, Leo XIII. has been classed by competent critics with Gladstone and Bismarck, as one of the few truly great statesmen of the 10th centitry. In the conflict which Bismarck roused by his arbitrary efforts to coerce the conscience of the German people, the Pope took an active and courageous share; and the victory in the "Kulturkampf," rested with the gentle and refined and courteous ecclesiastic of the Vatican rather than with "the man of blood and iron." Leo could be bold and unyielding enough Avhen necessity demanded it, but he was too wise and experienced a student of human nature to ignore the certainty of progress and of change. Early in his reign he refused to be bound by the traditional limitations of his office, which had for so long kept the Pope a prisoner among the Seven Hills. Leo visited London, and was received by Queen Victoria. He visited Paris, and saw enough of the temper of the people and the signs of the times to understand how "the old order changeth, giving place to new." It was because he saw clearly what a bigot or a tyrant would always fail to see, that he succeeded so far beyond his own hopes or the expectation of his followers, m restoring ; o the Papacy a large measure of its lost dignity and prestige. One of his greatest achievements was his success in persuading the Church of France to accommodate itself to the Republic that took the place of the old monarchy. .Leo understood thoroughly the fundamental axiom of social development, that all true progress is based on compromise ; and the secret of his triumph over adversity was the skill with which ha

adapted the functions of his office to the requirements of modern civilisation., without ever forgetting the essentials of as dignity, or forfeiting the personal esteem of friends or foeg.

But it would be a serious injustice to the memory of the dead Pope to regard Mm as a mere diplomatist. Leo was, above all things, a sincere and earnest man; and he succeeded, as enthusiasts always must succeed, through the singleminded zeal with which he pursued Ilia purposes. Entirely apart from his cccle siastical convictions, he was inspired throughout his life by a deep and genuine enthusiasm in the cause of humanity. When the Tsar issued the PeaceRescript, from which so much was ex pected, the Pope was the lirst of all European statesmen or rulers to raise his voice in its support. Leo was an eao-or advocate of Arbitration, and, on several important occasions, he lent l"iis influence to conciliate rival nations, and to save the world from the countless evils that follow in the train of needless or unjustifiable war. Opposed both by personal temperament and by the traditions of the Papacy to the excesses of that Anarchism with which Continental Europe is everywhere menaced, Leo XIII. yet constantly kept before his eyes the just claims and the natural rights of men, and the urgent need for redressing the evils which the rigid social organisation of the Old World inflicts upon the subject masses. But, whether as philanthropist or statesman, churchman or apostle of peace, he so conducted himself as never to lose the respect of the world around him, and always to maintain its confidence in the perfect honesty and integrity of his purpose.

It was inevitable that the great ambition of Leo' 3 life should be the restoration of the Papacy to some degree of its former authority. And it was by forgoing the more obvious and less creditable methods of modern diplomacy, and by exercising his unquestioned talents in a legitimate sphere, that he succeeded so far. The visit of Edward VII. to the Vatican was possibly not without political significance; and the advances since made by the Kaiser to Leo may not have been altogether disinterested. But it is fair to say that these marks of honour and respect were due most directly to the personal qualities of the Pope: and the fact that the Papacy is once more becoming a factor in "world politics" is a proof that Leo has accomplished through his virtues the task of reviving and restoring the authority that was so largely sacrificed by the faults and failings of Iris predecessors. It will be indeed a difficult task to fill his place, and the best wish that we can offer to his successor, and to. the great Church that now mourns his loss, is the hope that the new Pontiff may display in his high office no less wisdom and discretion and Christian charity than the world has seen illustrated in the life of Leo XIII.