THE DECLINE OF PORTUGAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 313, 18 April 1879, Page 19

THE DECLINE OF PORTUGAL.

The Lido European Correspondence, after summarizing the masterly pastoral of the Archbishop of Goa, continues in the following strain : Thus far his Urace of Goa. We think there are few who will not own that he has touched a chord which is in harmony with their Christian feelings The decadence of Portugal has been so. complete, so irremediable— the contempt for all that is Portuguese is so general and so deep-rooted— that we listen with all the greater admiration to I Jfi 8 , 011 to te d rawn from fallen greatness pointed out to us with a truthfulness and simplicity which is a touching picture of dignity in misfortune. It has always been a glory of the Church when powerful nations have laid their renown and influence at her service; but it has been a still greater glory to such nations that they did so. While rosjugal^remained true to her traditions, ahe was the champion and pai*an of Christian faith, and on her was reflected the halo of glory of her many missionera and heroic soldiers of the Cross— nay, their glory was almost identified with hers. But when the wantonness of power and the canker of increasing wealth began to sully and corrode her loyalty ; when the reins of power, which had been once firmly grasped by high-minded Christian heroes, fell into the uncertain hold of Freemasons and Atheists, hei downfall was awful in its suddenness and completeness. In vain does the Portugal of Pombal and the Masonic sects invoke the memory of her saints and heroes ; in vain does she boast that she is the seed of Abraham. For God can from the very stones raise up children to Abraham. We say this in no unkind spirit, for the whole conception and tenor of his Grace's Pastoral is eminently calculated to disarm and abash so unworthy a feeling. Goa is a standing monument of fallen greatness, and this is what is pointed out clearly and with much reason, calmness, and dignity by the eminent prelate who administers that see. His Grace draws the attention of his flock to the true source of Goa's greatness — the faith and zeal of those who made it truly 1 the " Rome of the East. The sun of her earthly greatness has set, and set for evermore ; and if her spiritual greatness may yet revert to her, it will be through the patronage of the Apostle of the Indies, and by the faithful imitation of bis zeal and. virtues.