ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1903. POPE LEO THE THIRTEENTH.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 170, 21 July 1903, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1903. POPE LEO THE THIRTEENTH.

By the death of Pope Leo the Thirteenth the Roman Church has lost a justly venerated head, and deserves and will receive the most sincere sympathy in its bereavement from all true followers of the Christian religion. The venerable pontiff had reached the extremely advanced age of 93, and in the natural order of things the hands of King Death, which spare not crowned monarch nor anointed pontiff any more than they do the most humble peasant, were bound to be in threatening proximity. In their fell grasp Pope Leo has now been held, and a truly great and good man has passed away into the presence of the Divine Master he served so faithfully on earth, and into a region where Death no longer has terrors. Pope Leo, who was the 257 th of the Roman pontiffs, was born at Oarpineto in 1810, his family name being Pecci. Educated at the Jesuit College at Viterbo he entered the Collegio Romano in 1824 and after greatly distinguishing himself at that seat of learning proceeded to the College of Noble Ecclesiastics. Having become a Doctor of Law, he was appointed in 1837 the Referendary of the Segnatura. Next he took holy orders, and was ordained priest. After service as Apostolic Delegate in various parts' of Italy he was despatched to Brussels as Papal Nuncio at the Belgian Court. Other honors followed. He was successively Archbishop of Damietta, and Bishop of Perugia. In 185JT he was created a Cardinal, and on the death of his predecessor in the Papal chair, In 1878, he was elected to the supreme honors, which the Roman Church has the power to confer. With a natural gift for diplomacy and what the French call la haute politique, Pope Leo !<oon distinguished himself by the fervour and shrewdness which he exhibited in dealing with questions affecting the prosperity of his church in various European countries. Amongnt the chief events of His Holiness's reign may be mentioned the restoration of the Roman hierarchy in Scotland, the content with Germany, the now famous Falk laws, and the remarkab c success he achieved in inducing the great German Chancellor, Prince Bismarck, to relinquish the attitude of opposition to Roman Catholic institutions and interests in Germany. Of late y ears he has been yet more successful, in the same direction, with the Kaiser, and the Roman Church now enjoys in Germany more special rights and privileges than, it does in any other European State. In 1888 he celebrated the 50th year of his priesthood amid great rejoicings at Rome, pilgrims from all parts of the world flocking to the " Eternal City" to witness the splendid fetes by which the great event was celebrated. Three years later came the famous Encyclical on Labour, in which the Pope, while reproving the extra Socialist element for its antagonism to the Church, emphasised very plainly his views that capitalists and employers had serious responsibilities towards the working class. The Encyclical was the subject of discussion for many months. In 1893 came the celebration of the Pope's Episcopal jubilee, when, as in 1888, a huge conoourse ot pilgrims from all parta of the civilised world assembled at Rome. In 1895 the Pope addressed a letter to the Eng.ish people urging them to return to the Roman Church, and expressing his gratification at the enormous increase of converts from Protestantism which his cbuich had secured of late years in Great Britain. The year 1900 was kept with great solemnity at Rome as a Holy Year or year of Universal Jubilee, the Pope inaugurating it by solemnly opening the "Holy door" at St. Peter's on December 24th 1899. Pope Leo was in private life a most genial and, indeed, lovable person. His courtesy, even for an Italian, was remarked by all who were privileged to be received by him, and to English and Americans who visited Some he was always specially gracious. He /jved the life of an ascetic, the small quantity of food he took being a subject of constant wonder to bis physicians. It was to this simplicity of life that the Pope always declared he owed his good health, and although of late years he had grown exceedingly frail, his brain suffered no diminution of its capacity for work, and he often spent ten hours at a stretch at his writing table. Great curiosity and interest will be evinced as to upon whom will fall the choice of the Electoral College. In the interests of religion and humanity, it is sincerely to be hoped that Pope Leo's successor will prove a pontiff, possessing as much true piety and ability as were so strik ingly evinced by him who has passed away.