EMPIRE OF THE POPE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 40, Issue 40, 1 October 1903, Page 3

EMPIRE OF THE POPE

In his work, ' Pope Leo X 111.,' Mr. Justin McCarthy, the well-known historian, writes as follows with regard to the Empire of the Pope :—: — ' I should like to ask ray readers to consider for a few moments what is really the Empire of the Pope. I wish them to consider this question in an impartial mmd, and altogether aloof from any argument as to what the Empire of the Pope ought to be. Let us look at hard and undeniable facts. There are those, perhaps, who still regard the Poipe as anti-Christ. I do not in Ihe least care to stickle about phrases. Let us assume for the moment that the Pope is anti-Christ— and let us go on to consider what the Empire oE anti-Christ is. The importance of the study will be all the same, whether it be Pope or anti-Christ— or, indeed, more properly speaking, the study will have all the greater importance and portentousness if we placidly assume that the Pope is anti-Christ. 'We 'talk of great Empires— of England, with her drumtaps following each other round the orb of the earth. We talk of Russia ; of Germany, of France. May I point out tio my readers that The Empire of the Papacy is much greater than any of these ? What hold has the English Sovereign over Russia or Germany ? "What hold has the German Emperor over England ? What hold has the Czar, except for occasional political alliance and fantasias, over France ? What hold has any of these Powers— what hold have all of them combined— over the great republic of America ? Except as a matter of news in the daily papers, the people of the United States do not care, and have no need to care, three straws about what England and France and Germany and Russia are doitng. But the Papacy is an influence everywhere, and

it has to look after everything. Its dominion is seated in the consciences of men— of its followers to be sure, but then, its followers are everywhere. Vvith many others, I was myself invited the other, day to appeal to the influence of the Papacy, in favor of certain Protestant denominations who believed themselves oppressed by the system of marriage laws existing in one or two of the South American republics. The answer from the Papal Court was that the South American republics could, of course, make their own laws, and that nobody could prevent them ; but that so far as the influence of the Pope could go it should be exerted in favor of absolute religious equality in all nations. I mention this fact merely as a matter af illustration. No one would think of appealing to the German Emperor to interfere with his influence on behalf of certain populations, not German, in some of the republics of South America. The influence of the German Emperor is exerted merely on behalf of his own emigrant subjects, or his own fellowcountrymen in some foreign and distant State. It would be regarded as sheer impertinence and folly, if he were to interfere between the rulers of a South American republic and any native body or section of the subjects of such a republic. But nothing could possibly seem more natural than to appeal in such conditions for The Intervention and Influence of the Pope. 4 The Pope is understood to have an influence and a right of intervention, so far as advice goes, in every country in the world. There is not a parish priest appointed in Ireland without the knowledge and authority of the Pope. There is not a Catholic bishop named in any country in the world, civilised or uncivilised, without his authority and his approval. He nominates thie men who are to risk their lives in preaching the Gospel in China, and the men who are, as missionaries, to brave the terrors of death in spreading the light of Christianity over countries still less civilised, and far more barbarous, than China. The Vatican is compelled to have its eye and its intellect and its heart fixed on every nook and corner in the world. There is no administrative system on earth which has anything like the same widespread and watchful and necessary soiperinten* dence. The network of the Papal authority has a mesh wherever men are living. The Vatican Is, in this sense, the centre of the earth. I am well aware that a great many of my readers may think this a deplorable fact. I am not concerned to argue the question. My present purpose is fully satisfied if I can persuade them to admit that, whether deplorable or not, it is still the fact. Civilisation has to reckon with that vast all-pervading influence. The innermost glooms of uncivilisation cannot withdraw themselves from some gleam of its light. ' The Empire of the ( Pope is not merely greater tb,an any other empire. It folds in all the empires and all the monarchs and all the republics of the world. From this point of view, even if we were to regard it from none other, it will be seen what a vast jurisdiction is that which falls to the lot of the Pope to administer. The Pope must take account of every movement in modern thought and modern society. He must compare the conflicting^ forces ;he must have a keen eye fox the new struggles which are breaking out every day in the civilised world.'