POPE LEO XIII. ON. MODERN CULTURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 284, 11 October 1878, Page 16

POPE LEO XIII. ON. MODERN CULTURE.

In reply to a deputation from the Arcadian Academy of Rome, cons'* 5 j\w? ol , lne ?? an f l ddress announcing his election as sovereign pastor of that body, Pope Leo XIII. delivered an address on modern culture which has just been officially published. His Holiness said, in the course of his reply :-« The war which is waged now-a-days against the Church and Roman Pontiff is made, as you know in the name of science and progress, of which some persons would lead you to believe the Church and tbe Roman Pontiff are the unrelenting enemies. Reason and the history of centuries emphatically contradict these calumnious statements. If the diffusion of science of literature, and of the arts throughout the nations be a sign and proof of the culture of the people, no institution that we know of has better merited of civilisation and culture than the Catholic Church. It is a fact that the Roman Pontiffs have always sheltered the arts and sciences under their protection. Under the protection of the Church they have developed their power and their vigour. For the sublime thoughts of faith and religion with which all m?n of great genius are inspired, they are indebted to that divine impress which is vainly sought for in the ranks of infidelity and mere naturalism. All the literary and artistic institutions of which this city of the Pontiffs has ever been the revered asylum, and even your own academy, which is seated between the two hills sanctified by the martyrdom and the tomb of the first Pope, and which counts among its pastors a long series of Popes, are to-day a proof of the favour accorded by the Sovereign Pontiffs to science and to literature, and of the benciits which religion has lavished upon them Follow then your noble labours and keep in higli reverence the honour of human literature, treading carefully in the steps of the great masters of the classical school. We are reminded of that expedient which Julian the Apostate adopted when he desired to degrade tbe Christians of his name and make them contemptible in the eyes of Pa°-an society : he forbade them to study or cultivate literature. Do not permit this weapon to remain in the hands of our enemies- but rather, by the persevering study of the- sciences and letters, train 'yourselves to use it dexterously, that by it you may attain victory "