AN HONOR TO ITALY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 18, 30 August 1873, Page 12

AN HONOR TO ITALY.

The ' Perseveranza ' of Milan, a sort of Italian ' Times,' speaks in a moment of distraction of a " profoundly learned man, whose reuown does honor to Italy." This man is a priest and a Jesuit— the illustrious P. Secchi. He has lately delivered two lectures in Rome On the solar phenomena, of which he has perhaps a more exact knowledge than any living astronomer. His appearance, says the ' Perseveranza,' was a " scientific fete." P. Secchi is evidently ignorant of the fact, announced every day by our so-called philosophers, that religion and science arc divorced. This is one of the discoveries of modern scientists, upon which they appear to pride themselves. Yet P. Secchi was able to excite the enthusiasm of his audience by stating the fact, which they heard without surprise, that he had received ao more cordial encouragement in his scientific pursuits than that with which he had been honored by Pius IX., and that it was to the munificence of this great Pontiff that the observatory of the Roman College was chiefly indebted for its rich apparatus. Our philosophers tell the Church every day that she is opposed to science, as our Liberals tell Catholics that they are opposed to liberty. And the foolish world believes them. The object of the learned Jesuit's lectures was a charitable one ; the proceed* were given over to the Caiholic Society of Artists and Workmen. His House, his Order, is about to be suppressed, and an infamous journal suggests that it must be suppressed the sooner, because Father Secchi's lectures were no better than a common charlatan's, and that his lecturing at this time is put forward as an attempt to save his Order, but the attempt, is vain. Here, in this city of intelligence, art and seieuce, one of the most talented scientific men in the world, addressing the tliteoitK- countries, is described as ho better than a common travelling showman, and his lectures are made an additional reason why he should be baaished ! This is modern civilization as understood by the followers of the Italians in the year of our Lord 1873 !