MGR. SATOLLI ON THE POPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 3, 17 May 1895, Page 20

MGR. SATOLLI ON THE POPE.

The Pontificate of Pope Leo most now be cumbered among the longest in the hiatory of the Church, and has been marked each year by some luminous act of profound wisdom and untiring solicitude for the good, not only of Catholicity, but of mankind at large. No one in modern times has understood better than Pope Leo the needs of society in all branches of knowledge and fields of action. It would seem as if, from the time when he succeeded Pope Pius, he had formed a grand plan, in which he took cognizance of all the needs of humanity and determined on the provisions he would make for those needs during the whole course of his Pontificate. We can best distinguish this design of the Pope in three particular directions : — Firstly, in the Holy Father's ardent zeal for the development of studies. BecDodly, in the continued interest which he his shown in social science. And thirdly, in his untiring efforts to bring peace into the Christian countries by the spread of civilisation, the teaching of religion and the promotion of concord between Church and State. With regard to studies, Pope Leo has already reared a monument of imperishable fame by the successive acts of his Pontificate. Early in his reign he turned bis attention to the encouragement of the Btudy of classical literature, of philosophy and the natural sciences, of theology and the various branches of sacred sciences, such as Biblical knowledge and ecclesiastical history, and of judicial sciences, especially of Roman law and comparative civil law. To accomplish his aim be founded new chairs and new institutions in Rome for th.pe various departments of literary and encyclopaedic knowledge, and called to his assistance some of the most eminent and learned professors. With regard to sociology, it is another of the Holy Father's glories tha^ ;>t this latter end of the nineteenth century his ency chc ila are regarded as so many admirable parts of a grand doctrinal system, comprehensive and universal, embracing all social sciences! beginning with the fundamen'al theorems of natural law hnd going on to the consideration of the politick constitutun of States and of every economic question. The whole world knows how well the Pope's encyclicals have carried out his plan, and how, for this reason, they have their own peculiar character by which they are distinguishe i from the pontifical utterances of other Popes, even those of his immediate predecessor, Pius IX. Turning again to his policy of pacification, tho ecclesiastical history of his pontificite, the civil hi tory of Europe, the universal history of the human race will in the future have to give up pages of the highest praise to Leo XIII. Germany, Belgium, France and Spain profess their boundless graituie for the peace-giving interventions of Leo XIII. in many grave and critical emergencies, and for acts which h ivj been of the greatest moment to those nations. Asia, too, and Alrica will bo fouad j jiniag in the chorus and lauding Leo, who so often and so reselutely lab )urud to reawaken those old and fossilized portions of the earth to a new lif<« of OhrU ian civilisation. Nor will America throughout its lpngth and brea th withhold its trihu c of lojal and generou9 ejtpem, veneration and gratitude to Pope Leo for those >.cts of his p mtificate which have at v rioua times been promulga'ed, and by which he has shown bis confiience and hope in the graod future of this mighty nation. During tbe memorable seventeen years of bis pontifical rule nothing has been more remarkable or plain than the incessant growth of bis benignant moral influence. To-day the Holy Father's words are listened to with deference by every court, by every government, by every people. On every question touching universal human interest his counsel is sought eagerly and welc 'mci gratefully. Deapite, then, all the adverse trend of mundat c circumstance?, despite tie loss of the external eymb>ld of it& high authority, the Papacy hi? gained in power a-.d splendour sioce trie accession of the piesent g!ono..s Pontiff. As Macaulay says in one of his most noble essays : "The Pupi^y remains, not in deciy. not a mere antiqnr, but full of life and youthf jI vigour." FR. ARCH P. SATOLLI, Ddleg. Apost. Washington, March 2, 1895.