POPE LEO TO TEIE ITALIAN PREACHERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 325, 11 July 1879, Page 15

POPE LEO TO TEIE ITALIAN PREACHERS.

On the 24th of April the Holy Father received in solemn audience a deputation of two hundred Italian piiests, who presented to his Holiness the Peter's Pence collected by them during the Lenten seabon. Through the Archbishop of Nyssa they asked the Pepe to instruct them on the special matters requisite to make their instruction most fruitful to the people of Italy. He replied as follows :—: — " We feel much consolation to-day in seeing you, chosen ministers of the Gospel, gathered about Us in such great numbers. We are consoled by the sentiments of respect and affection which your address just read so nobly expresses. We are consoled by the homage of your piety and of your filial devotion to the person and counsels of of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. But we are doubly consoled by the sight of such a brilliant army of evangelical labourers, all consecrated to the ministry of the Divine Lord, of that woid which in the order of the creation as well as of redemption has ever worked such wondrous things in the world. It was this Word of God which in the beginning brought forth the .world out of nothing and adorned it with varied and supreme beauty, and although men, by the weakness and malice of their will had estranged themselves f ro-n their God and attempted to precipitate the ruin of the whole human family, it was the Word of God which snatched them from error and corruption and brought the entire world into submission to Christ. ' Go," said the j Incarnate Word to the Apostles, 'into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." And confident in the uission confided to them, in the name of the Nazarene and with fortitude from above they scattered over the wl ole world, the tones of their voice reached the extremities of the globe and the world became Christian. And to-day, you well know, my dear children, the world seeks to remove itself from Jesus Christ and His Church and threatens, through its own malice, a return to paganism. Already, almost universally, I governments are constituted without recognising God ; already much has been done to efface the Christian character from the family in profaning marriage and in taking from the education and instruction of youth the beneficent influence of the Church. This, apostasy, which is rapidly being accomplished, prepares for society the most deplorable ruin. What, indeed, can be more lamentable for the world than that it should ignore Jesus Christ, who ia the way, the truth, and the life 1 Therefore, there is no better means of supplying the true needs of the present age than by applying ourselves to reclaim the world to Jesus Christ, and it is in this, well-beloved sons, that your work is most holy and most noble. To the word of God, as ever, belongs the glory of converting the world to the faith, according to the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles : ' Faith, then, cometh by hearing and hearing by the woid of Christ.' Continue, then, dtear sons, to preach to the world Christ crucified. Dissipate the darkness of ignorance which envelopes a large poition of mankind, and show, above all, the necessity the reasonableness aud the excellence of the faith : make men know and love the Divine Redeemer ; reveal to them His hidden beauties and tho c of the Chmch, His immaculate spouse ; make known the inestimable ticasures which the Church possesses ; teach men to appreciate the world- wide and benign influence which she exercises on all classes of the human family ; refute the outrageous calumnies of the impious, by which they seek to render her odious to kings aud peoples. May the world know, through you, how joyous and prosperous the people would be if the religion of Jesus Christ were held in honour and were practised amongst them ; how happy and tranquil the family circle would be if religion, which consecrates the bond of conjugal union, and which renders the parental authority sweet and respected, held its sway in their midst. And in this beautiful country, privileged of God, to which you are called to preach the Gospel, the political situation would be much less trying if a disloyal and unjust war weie not carried on against the Church and the Roman Pontificate ; for, as you hive ju&tly observed, our Italy above all other countries was prosperous and happy when the Church enjoyed the freedow of her peaceful sway. Billing your hearts and souls with these thoughts, continue the apostolic minittry of the Word, and seek, even by the attractive qualities of your discourse, by the grace of a style at the same time simple and dignified, to draw the multitudes to listen to you. The seeds deposited in their hearts, fructified by the action of Divine grace, will develope and produce the fruit of salvation. Oh I may the God of all mercy, who has committed to the hands of His ministers means so powerful and so salutary, may He deign to bless your labours ; may He give to your voice that efficacy and that supernatural strength without which all huiaan genius and the greatest aptitude would be vain and useless. At the same time, as a pledge of the favour of heaven, and as a testimony of Our paternal affection, We grant to you, and to all the faithful who hare united with you in this demonstration of filial love, the Apostolic Benediction."