A GLORIOUS POSSIBILITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 44, 22 February 1889, Page 17

A GLORIOUS POSSIBILITY.

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HE departure of the. Most Rev. Dr. M©ran from Danedin for Rome, which will have taken place before these lines are in the hands of our readers, naturally attracts the thoughts to the condition of things existing at the preisent moment. Every bishop who has gone of late years to give an account of his stewardship to the Vicar of Christ, has found the august Pastor of the Church surrounded by difficulties and dangers. And this state of affairs grows worse, rather than better, as the years go by. Nothing more strange can bo witnessed, if due reflection be given to it, than the place 60 long occupied by the Holy Father. He is the acknowledged commander of a greater proportion by far of the human race than any other, even the mightiest, potentate who exists on the face of the world. His subjects embrace men of all classes and callings. There is no position so exalted as that allegiance to him is not acknowledged there. Emperors and kings own his authority no less than the basest of the people. Id places where the human intellect attains Hg highepi derelopemeat

and culture, his guidance is acknowledged as submissively at it is whee letters are unknown and minds are least cultiYated. Armies, ard hosts, and millions of the people receive hit word as that from which there is no appeal, and his person, hie privileges, and h'S guidance, are dearer to them than is life itself. And yet the Holy Father so revered, so honored, •o obeyed, is in the hands of enemies, and at every hour of his life feels the irksome, hindering grip of hostility, and Apprehends its growing tighter and more oppressive still. The situation is certainly a strange one, and one that cannot be explained by any course of reasoning that only embraces worldly things. The question is, however, when or how is this condition of things going to have its end. Its end must come sooner or later, for the triumph of the Church is as firmly assured as is the very existerce of God himself. Where are we to look, then, for the bow that will smite the enemies of the Pope, and exalt him once mure triumphant as temporal king, no less than priest of the Most High. It has not been unnatural wnder the circumstances for the faithful to look for some visible display of the a r tn of God, for some intervention that should be so openly and undeniably miraculous, that all the world should acknowledge it as being bo. But, already, miraculous events have taken place which, if they do not irresistibly arrest attention and convince, are, nevertheless, impossible to explain, by any ordinary reasoning. According as the Pope, and the Church with the Pope, have been oppressed, in proportion as wicked men have become more powerful and used their power to injure religion, religion has revived and become more warm and sincere. The Catholic Church is now in a Bounder condition in every part of Europe thin she was when the war commenced which wicked men had undertaken for her destruction. And in this, we may claim, the hand of God has been visibly displayed. As things now are, however, it is quite possible that the hour of the Holy Father's trial is drawing to a close, and that we shall ere long see the present phase of the persecution which the Church has suffered ended by means that may seem natural, and in the course of ordinary policy. Catholic bodies of late, in various parts of Europe, have boldly demanded that • restoration of the Church's rights should be made, and there is a disposition abroad even on the part of some who •re unfriendly to religion to support the claim. The alliance, for example, between Italy and Germany has shown France plainly, and brought it home to the minds ot public men in a Tery striking way, that the power which controls Italy might have a hold upon the Papacy, giving it a pre -eminence, or at least the means of obtaining a pre-eminence, which would make it additionally formidable. God has thus shown the bitterest enemies of the Church that their devices are vain, and humbled them as effectively as if the heavens had opened and His presence had been made openly manifest to them. It is, then, quite within the range of possibilities that the traveller, who to-day sets out from this distant hemisphere, may arrive in Europe to find things there on the very eve ol Such important changes — changes brought about seemingly by natural means, but, to those who reflect, by the plain finger of God, — for if the strong and still growing fervour of religion has made the Papacy so great a power over the hearts and minds of men, that even its enemies must treat it with respect and insist upon its independence, lest it should be forced, at they believe it might, to take a part opposed to their interests , who is it that has done this but God Himself? Among the good wishes, therefore, with which we follow Dr. Moran in his voyage to Rome may be that also that it may be hia consolation personally to witness the restoration of the Holy Father to his rights. Recent events make it evident that there is no extravagance in asserting this to be a possibility, — and it is one for whose fulfilment we are all bound to pray devoutly.