POPE LEO XIII.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 269, 28 June 1878, Page 19

POPE LEO XIII.

(Cimcluded.)

Finally, Cardinal- Archbishop Pecci has six times accomplished the sacred visitation of his diocese, and had begun the seventh when Jrius IX. created him Camerlengo of Holy Church.

During his episcopate thirty-six churches have been built from the foundation ; six are at present in the way of construction ; many others have been restored and amplified. Besides, to his munificence the Cathedral of Perugia owes decorations and precious vestments ; as the Episcopal Seminary owes to his generosity, it may be said, its existence, especially after the laws of spoliation, which destroyed its patrimony. This list of deeds, it appears to us, suffices to lead everyone to form a conception of the zeal and largeness of heart and mind of the man whom God has selected to succeed Pius IX. in the government of the Universal Church. We will add that he was found involved in the tumult of three revolutions ; that of 1848-49, which lasted nearly a year ; that passing one of 1859, which ended by the taking of Perugia by the Pontifical armies, afterwards so calumniated by the raging sect ; and in lhat which was accomplished in the autumu of 1860 by the invasion of the Piedmontese forces. In all of these he had much to suffer ; bnt in them all he always proved equal to himself, firm, charitable, cautious and prudent, and he knew how to inspire sentiments of reverence for himself and for his higher dignity in the rainds of the very enemies of the priesthood and of the Roman purple.

God, who had predestined and prcoared Cardinal Pecci for the Pontificate, disposed that he should not abandon his beloved diocese until a few mouths before the death of Pius IX., who, by Divine inspiration, called him near himself to exercise in Rome the office of Camerlengo of the Church, by Consistorial Act of 21st September of the past year, 1877. He had afterwards the very difficult task of preparing in great part the Conclave of February, 1878. In him the Sacred College, the Apostolic See having become vacant, soon discovered all the qualities which are demanded in a Pope who should succeed to the great and most afflicted Pontificate of Pius IX. And, therefore, in him, Italian by birth ; in him, native of the States of the Church ; in him, practised in the treating of the diplomatic and administrative affairs of the Holy See ; in him, resident Bishop for thirty-two years in the same diocese ; in him, learned in theology, in law, in philosophy, in classic literature ; in him, rich in so maay gifts and virtues of grace and of nature, so guarded, so pious, so zealous for the cause of the kingdom of Christ Jesus in the world, there soon united the suffrages of the princes electors. And on the 20th February, after only thirty-six hours of Conclave, at the third scrutiny, it happened that the Sovereign Pontiff was elected, amidst the joy of all Christendom. The latler, with heart and with voice prayed to the Lord God that He would preserve him for many years to His Church, prosper him, render him happy, and concede to him to see here on earth that triumph of truth and of justice which may still be delayed, but cannot fail.