The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1939. POPE PIUS XI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1939. POPE PIUS XI.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

For seventeen years Pope Pius XI. has been the spiritual head of three hundred million Catholics scattered throughout the world. Restless, kaleidoscopic years they have been; probably no occupant of the Chair of St. Peter has had to deal with so many complex problems or to reconcile so many conflicting ambitions and warring emotions. A man of indomitable will, quiet, but strong and purposeful, Pius XI. was described by his staff in the Vatican as "a born Pope," one whose character was as papal as his office. His life was characterised by the greatest simplicity— he wore robes that were from two to ten years old, the cost of his meals was a shilling a day. This simplicity, begun in childhood, became the habit of a lifetime.

Ambrose Damien Achille Ratti was the fourth of the seven children of a silk factory manager whose ancestors had lived for five centuries on the Lombardy Plain. At ten he entered a seminary and was ordained a priest in 1579. His outstanding ability as linguist and theological student won early recognition, and after a period in the Ambrosian library in Milan lie took over the greater task of director of the Vatican library. After the war he was sent as nuncio to Warsaw, where he won such fame as an administrator and diplomat that he was appointed a Cardinal. He had worn the red hat for only seven months when his fellow Cardinals chose him as Pope, after a lifetime of priestly office, in the year that the Fascists marched on Rome. Throughout his reign his task was one of extraordinary difficulty. A great lover of peace and a great worker in the cause of humanity, he saw Europe trembling in crisis after crisis, and he strove with the greatest singleness of purpose to avert the horrors of warfare. While urging the nations to follow the paths of peace he fought with iron resolution to check the spread of Communistic dogma. In Warsaw he had seen the impact of Communism upon the people of a besieged city; he was the only envoy to remain during the whole of that conflict, and as a result of what he saw there he began a campaign against " the doctrine of the godless," as he described it in his encyclical, a campaign which continued throughout his life. He saw the menace to the Church of " Red" doctrines in Soviet Russia, in Mexico, in Spain and in South America, and he called upon his people to oppose these doctrines by every peaceful means in their power.

One of his greatest achievements was the signing of the Lateran Treaty with Italy in February, 1929. For nearly sixty years, from the time when Italian troops seized Rome to make it the capital of united Italy, the Popes had been voluntarily confined within the square mile of: Vatican territory. For four year& Pins XI. debated the question of temporal authority with Mussolini, and eventually; secured the recognition of Vatican City as an independent State, self-controlled and using its own currency, post office and police force, with the right to publish the only uncensored newspaper in Italy. After the signing of the treaty Pius XL left his palace, amid wildly cheering crowds, to attend the Church of St. John Lateran, the first Pope to pass through the gates of the Vatican for six decades. Later he visited Castel Gondolfo yearly on his short summer vacations. The Lateran Treaty has proved a great factor in the union of a divided country. Another great achievement of Pius XI. was the growth of missions during his pontificate. He was known as " the Pope of the missions," and under his zealous direction the field of the Church was immensely widened and invigorated. His fusion of lay activities into one great entity, under the title of Catholic Action, afforded proof of his organising ability and his recognition of the value of unity of effort within the body of the Church.

When the Pope was strongly appealing to the nations to preserve peace he was urged, on the outbreak of the Abyssinian War, to condemn Italy and to excommunicate her leaders. But it was obvious that as head of a worldwide institution he could go no further than the nations of the world, inside and outside the League of Nations, were prepared to go. Policies at the Vatican evolve and change, but while the contrast between secular and ecclesiastical standpoints is plain enough, especially as the Church authority has a quality of timelessness, for it looks back upon a long era and looks further ahead than do temporal rulers, it still cannot take action in the political field when unsupported by the nations leagued to check aggression. The province of the Hierarchy is, in the view of theologians, to define the moral law, but not to apply it to secular disputes. Thus while the Holy See might be blamed for non-interference in a moral issue it

would invite criticism for taking definite action in what might be defined as a political issue. The head of the Church is a teacher, an interpreter of doctrine, not a judge, when national interests conflict. Pius XI. will be remembered as a strong ruler, a man who faced difficulties with resource and courage, one who lived and 'worked ceaselessly for the peace of the world, and | who wrought mightily against forces of disintegration and disruption. The choice of a successor is entirely in the hands of the seventy Cardinals. It will be a more fully representative vote on this occasion than ever in history. It is impossible to predict the choice, especially when the old adage is called to mind, " Enter the cenclave I a Pope, come out a Cardinal." J