Death Of The Pope

Southland Times, Issue 23740, 11 February 1939, Page 6

Death Of The Pope

The death of his Holiness Pope Pius XI will be profoundly mourned by adherents of the Roman Catholic faith throughout the world, and there will be widespread regret among persons of other faiths whose admiration he has won by a great example of devotion to duty and stern maintenance of the long established principles of his faith. Pius XI reigned in a period scarcely less difficult than that of his predecessor, Benedict XV, who found his people in Europe embroiled against each other in the most bitter war of history. Pius had his early experiences in church diplomacy and statesmanship in that very conflict. Though for a time he remained aloof from it in the calm seclusion of the Vatican library, he had an association, growing ever closer, with Benedict and he was steeped in the tradition of the papacy. His appointment as Apostolic Visitor to Poland in 1918, when not yet a bishop, was a striking indication of papal confidence in his ability, and there is little question that an earlier award of a mitre might have been made but for the desire to retain him for special missions. Then came the triumphal success of his work in Eastern Europe which he found in an almost unbelievable state of chaos. It was characteristic of the man that he was not content merely to revive religious fervour in nations sick with war, plagues and poverty, and’ ripe for new religious experiences, but he grappled with the difficult problems of restoring peace and order to the troubled countries.

His great destiny was foreseen when Benedict summoned him from Silesia, where his work was still unfinished, to become Cardinal of Milan, the Pope later remarking: “We have given the red: soon, they will be giving him the white.” Cardinal Ratti’s gratification at being allowed to devote his “last efforts” to his fellow countrymen was short-lived, for the conclave of cardinals only too soon elected him to the greatest office of the church and he entered into what was to be his life work at the age of 65. This was the culmination of a great career in the early part of which his predilection for learning and culture had scarcely marked him out for important administrative office. Born in a family of small farmers, Achille Ratti’s unusual capacity led him into special studies, and had his career not progressed along priestly lines as well he would at least have left his mark on historical scholarship. It was the tremendous background of historical knowledge gained in research in the great libraries of the European capitals which made his services so valuable to his predecessor in the papal office, for popes more than any other constitutional rulers must preserve a continuity with their predecessors and adhere to the principles laid down in the accepted encyclicals of the past. From Pius XI there came as great a series of encyclicals as the memorable utterances of Leo XIII and he performed as valuable a service as any of his predecessors in bringing up to date the views of the church on all social matters.

Early in his reign he sought an opportunity for the opening of negotiations with the Italian State for the recognition of the temporal independence of the Vatican. The difficulties at times seemed insurmountable, but by 1929 the details had been so satisfactorily settled that the Lateran Treaty and the Concordat could be completed, signifying a recognition by the Government of Italy of the principle that the church is the servant of no government save its own. The Vatican thus became a sovereign state and the territorial rights granted to it are a monument to its first ruler. Pope Pius had other great claims to distinction. As Pontiff he was firm in the execution of his duty as it was revealed to him, but he was ever conscious of his dependence on Divine guidance and he was ever kind and tolerant to the individual. His refusal to relax his duty in the face of failing health gave his advisers much cause for alarm in the last two years. He met sternly the tendency in the dictator nations to make the church subservient to the state and he constantly asserted the church’s firm attitude towards states interfering with the religious rights of Catholic subjects. Developments in his own country during the Abyssinian War and later in Spain and in Germany imposed a great strain on the waning physical powers of the Pontiff, but he resolutely pursued his denunciation of anti-religious activities, counselling his people to resist the evil social temptations of (he day. He repeatedly rallied from the attacks of the illness that was to prove fatal, and to the end his utterances showed no weakness or divergence from the inflexible course he had set himself. Of Pius it can be said that he maintained the high traditions of the papacy and worthily upheld the dignity of his holy office.