HABD-WOEKED POPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18224, 18 October 1922, Page 12

HABD-WOEKED POPE.

NO HOLIDAYS TAKEN.

INCESSANT NIGHT WORK.

The only person in the Vatican who takes no summer holiday is tVTe Pope, says the Giornale di Roma. The cardinals and other high dignitaries are all having a test, one at the Lomhard Lakes, another in Switzerland, another again in the fine Papal Palace at Castelgandolfo, but Pius XL remains, perforce, at his post, and continues to work harder than anybody else. Lika his predecessor, Benedict XV., the present Pope takes a keen personal interest in all the business that comes before him, and ho brings to bear on the great questions of Vatican policy the trained mind of a scholar and a writer. He prepares himself the rough notes of all ' important documents, and spends much time in correcting and revising them, for His Holiness is hard to please, and weighs well his words before they go out to the world. The first thing Pins XI. did on taking possession of his private apartments in the Vatican was to order a huge table in the library to be completely cleared. Un its ample surface he keeps his papers, arranged in groups according to subject matter, and here he works., going from one task to the other with extraordinary clearness of mind, and keeping everything in the most meticulous order. The Pope works chiefly at night, tor it is the onlv time, he says, when he is jett in peace. * At one or two in the morning, when all the rest of the Vatican is wrapped in darkness, the lights may be seen still burning in the Pope's study, ot which the three trreat, windows look out on Uio Piazza of St. Peter. And often when ,Ins work is done Piux XI. calls up his faithful camericre and celebrates Mass before finally retiring to rest. _ This incessant night-work u not without its effect on tho Pope's hualth. as is aruciouslv noted by his court. In the daytime* he is often very tired, and although he declines to fall in with hie Roman habit of an afternoon siesta, nature will have its way, and he sometimes dozes off for a few moments. With this exception. Pius XI. is well, notwithstanding reoent reports to the contrary. He has undoubtedly felt the great heat and the want of change, all the more so a?, when Cardinal Katti, he was of active habits, and enjoyed travel aud the atmosphero of high mountains. The beautiful motor-car given to him by the ladies of Milan will now enable the Pope to enjoy the sensation of rapid motion in the Vatican gardens, which are of vast extent. Pius XI. is an _innovator in more ways than one. He is the first Pope to own a motor-car, and he is the first Pope to hold the Pontificate for over seven months without publishing an encyclical. When this was pointed out to him he answered that the proper time for -in encyclical to appear wail when it was moss needed. Those near him say that the Pope'u message to the world is nearly ready now, and will most likely be issued next month. It wilt certainly be no formal utterance, but a document dealing with the pressing problems of modern life, in all or which Pius XL takes the greatest interest, both as the bead of the Church and as a man of high culture and wide outlook.