IMPERIAL AND PAPAL ROME.—MODERN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC PRESS AND PARTIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 52, 25 April 1874, Page 8

IMPERIAL AND PAPAL ROME.— MODERN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC PRESS AND PARTIES.

Thb citizens of Imperial Borne must often hare felt their hearts swell with patriotic pride when they thought of the vast extent of her dominions. To be " a Roman citizen" was a distinction coveted by the people of every land, because it gave them a claim to civil rights of the most valuable kind. The power of Imperial Rome has long passed away. It has been " blotted from the things that be," having served the purpose for which, in the economy of God's providence, it was ordained. But Rome is still the seat of a great power. The power which rules Rome now extends far more widely than that wielded by the- Roman Emperors. It rests upon a very different foundation, and its commands are more explicitly obeyed. It is often proudly boasted by Englishmen that the sun never sets on the Empire over which their sovereign reigns. But will they tell us when the sun ever sets on the far more widely extended Empire o\er which Pope Pius IX. holds spiritual s* ay ? If it were a source of pride to the citizens of Pagan Rome to sing " Civis Romanus Sum" — I am a Roman citizen —in whatever part of the Empire he might reside ; and if a British subject in our time experienced a similar sentiment when he lays claim to the rights of British citizenship in any part of the world, a spiritual subject of Pio Kino may be excused if he feel even a higher satisfaction at the thought of the privilege he enjoys under his spiritual sovereign. The spiritual subjects of Pius IX. form a brotherhood of a very peculiar kind. If they were only true to their principles and each other, they could rule the world — not by physical force, nor by fraud or cunning, and sordid sell-interest, as it is now ruled, but by weapons of a very different kind — by religious and moral forces, but by the sheer power of divine authority, or " goodness," as Mr Froude expresses it. It can never be too often impressed on all Catholics that they will be politically powerful just in proportion to their- spiritual loyalty to their Church and to its Temporal Head in Rome. The chair of St. Peter, in which the Pope now sits, haß come in the place of the throne of the Imperial Caesar long since " dead and turned to clay." When Pius IX. sends out his " Syllabuses," " Bulls," and " Encyclicles" to the Catholic hierarchy in all lands, he exercises a greater power than ever the greatest of the Caesars could pretend to. How dwarfish an* 1 puny does the power of Victor Emmanuel on his usurped throne in Rome appear in presence of that which the Pope wields in the Vatican ; even though His Holiness be virtually Victor Emrranuel's prisoner at the present moment. The Pope makes the Emperor William and his Minister Bismarck tremble, and look round them with prudent care lest some Popish Bishop, or Jesuit, or Nun catch them. He makes even Ben Disraeli's hair " stand on end like the fretful porcupine," and causes him to spout bombastical measures to Scotch students in the University of Glasgow about Popery as " a Simoom of 6acredotal nsurpation " Nay, the Jupiter Tonans, the thunderer of the London prees, the ( Times,' quakes, or pretends to quake, at the idea of what the Pope could do if he only liked, and broadly hints he is engaged, or shortly may be engaged, in an infernal plot or conspiracy along with the " priests" to " dismember" the British Empire, as he has been occupied in attempting to dismember united Germany ! Think of that ye New Zealand spiritual subjects of Pio Nono 1 Talk of power after tbat ! But the probability is that neither Benjamine, nor the " tall bully" of Printing House Square, actually feel any of the alarm which they counterfeit. It is a mere ruse or trick on their part to get up a No-Popery Cry, and a popular terror of " Papal aggression," as an excuse to persecute us or deny us fair play. But that game is now played out. It has been tried too often already. If they really do feel the alarm they pretend to feel, we may be proud at the idea of such power being imputed to our spiritual leader. It is amusing to see i ow indignant the English and Colonial press are at the thought of Catholics having a press of their own, and being organized into a political party, ready for action— constitutional action. They are " insolent" and presumptious, we are told. Even to use " moral and loyal " means to obtain justice by political action is imputed to us as a crime, by our " liberal friends" in the Press.