HE STOOD FIRM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 13

HE STOOD FIRM.

LATE PONTIFF.

YEARS OF TURMOIL.

BISHOP LISTON'S TRIBUTE.

SOUGHt " PEACE OF CHRJSX."

The great responsibilities borne, by the late Pope Pius XI. are referred to by the Rt. Rev. Dr. James Liston, Catholic Bishop of Auckland, in- an appreciation of the life and work of the Pontiff. In a time of the gravest problems of peace, war and justice, he said, lie had remained calm and unafraid.

"Most Popes are over 60 \fhen they are elected by the College of Cardinals, men themselves mature or old in years, and Pius XI. was 65 when he assumed office in 1922, eight months before the Fascists marched on Rome," said Bishop Liston. "A Pope in his own soul is thus prepared by a lifetime of priestly experience before he becomes the Chief Pastor of a world-wide people; officially, he is one in a large and ever-lengthening chain. Time of Unrest. "Pius was the 260 th of. his line, and this in itself would lead" him to lean upon the past and to look further ahead than other rulers. The authority and responsibility inherent in the office he assumes make a Pope speak and act with an accent and purpose that regard the eternal years and the highest interests of men.

"The war was over, and, s?emingly, the worst of its evils, when Pius XI. was elected, and he took for his motto, 'The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ.' Yet the years of his pontificate have covered a period of social, economic and spiritual turbulence that threatens to overwhelm us all in ruin.

"Change, unrest, disorder, revolution; the collapse of the established Church and . the persecution of the Catholic Church ir. Russia, the significance of the

Soviet experiment, with its denial of God and its onslaught on human dignity and freedom, as chieCy a religious movement; the ferocious persecution of the Church iii Mexico since 1926; and the swift, relentless attack upon sacred things in Germany and Austria—all these have engaged the Pope in a manysided struggle. "Calm and Unafraid." "He makes peace in 1929 with the head of the Italian Government, but he is the last to think of it as a form of perfect reconciliation, and on several occasions, the latest only a few weeks ago, lie has stood firm against the extreme»claims of the State in matters of education, freedom and race. The attack on sacred things varies from age to age, but no more dangerous attack has ever, perhaps, arisen than the arrogant assumption of the totalitarian State, whether it is with God, without God, or against God, to control the lives and destinies of men.

"Through these 17 years of immense responsibilities in face of the gravest problems of peace, and war and justice, when the heart of even the bravest might well fear, for the things that are to pass upon the earth, Pope Pius has remained calm and unafraid, living in the spirit of his own words: *What of to-morrow? We do not know! But we do know that the future is in the hands of God, and, therefore,, in good hands! Whatever the future brings comes to us by the disposition of Divine Providence: jand fio we ehall faithfully follow in whatever direction we may be ledIn Best Tradition. "And his attitude is equally revealed in the words spoken in 1938 to Cardina. Verdier, of Paris: 'My son, the crisis in which we are living is unique in history. It .is a world that is in a crucible, where, at the moment, so many contradictory energies are seething. For our part, we thank God for letting M live at the present juncture, which is infinitely more interesting than hundred years or even centuries ago.' "It is in Encyclicals that Popes best express to the world their teaching, ideals, policies and views on the problems that confront the Church and mapkind," said Bishop Listor. "Those of Pius XI. reflect and perpetuate the best traditions of Papal documents, both as to the doctrines they preach and the lofty language in wluch, they are written. They have covered %wide range of subjects: The Kingship of Chr:at, Education, Christian Marriage, the Peace of Christ, Catholic Missions, the Church in Germany, the Reconstruction of Society. The last-named, issued In J 93 !', 4 ™ B comprehensively and boldly with tne most urgent problem of our day, Social Justice, and is very probably the most widely-riead document rf the twentieth century.* >