The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1914. THE LATE PIUS X.

New Zealand Tablet, 27 August 1914, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1914. THE LATE PIUS X.

WILL take the name of Pius X., in memory ° f a ' ! ie lloly Po P €s who have borne that * JillA name, and who have defended the Church with strength and with gentleness,’ were \ tlle words with which the late Holy Father humbly but trustfully took up the burden of the pontificate; and no words could have * more faithfully expressed the qualities which have in point of fact characterised the rule of the great and gracious Pontiff whose death the whole world mourns. ‘ Strength and gentleness ’— a strength which surprised and confounded the Church’s enemies, and a personal gentleness that was irresistible. There may have been, in the long line of the illustrious occupants of the See of Peter, greater intellects than Pius X., and men more skilled in diplomatic art; there have been none, it is safe to say, who have so completely captured the affections of the people or who have so won their way into every heart as the great and saintly soul who has now been called to his reward. His very death was the expression of his love and solicitude for his people; and the thought of his ‘ poor children,’ setting out to slay and be slain, literally broke his heart* The love which he so freely lavished upon his people was fully returned ; and to-day Catholic hearts throughout the whole wide world are sore with grief at the Church’s almost irreparable loss. * We have dealt' so fully elsewhere with the life and’ work of the late Holy Father, and with the general aims and spirit of his pontificate, that further detailed reference is hardly necessary. Having no love for politics, Pius X. set before himself from the outset the ideal of building up the Church from within; and by restoring to her worship the services of the music and art that befit God’s House, by making the marriage laws uniform,- easy, and certain,' and by encouraging frequent Communion, the Communion of the sick, and of little children, he has effected an internal reformation and created a spirit of enthusiatic devotion to the

Church, and its laws and sacraments, the influence of which will be felt for many a year to come. Although, as we have said, he had little heart for politics, in the stirring, eventful, and stormy years of his brief pontificate he has again and again had politics and political action thrust upon him. In Italy itself he has had to combat nationalism and political socialism, which were weaning great masses of Catholics from their complete allegiance to the Holy See. He has seen the government of Catholic Spain enter definitely on an anti-clerical policy against the religious. He has had to face a complete political upheaval in Portugal, engineered and carried out in a spirit of fierce and unrelenting hostility to the Church. In Germany even the purely religious acts of the Holy See have given rise to political storms; and in England and her dependencies Pius X., merely as the outcome of his strictly ecclesiastical legislation, has been accused of endeavoring to" break up the law of the United Kingdom on marriage and the legal prosecution of clerics, and of aiming to get the future Irish Parliament under his control. Almost at the beginning of his reign France -without reason or provocation exit itself off from all official relations with the Holy See ; violated the Concordat; and passed a law disowning the Church, plundering religious property, overthrowing the authority of the hierarchy, and ignoring the very existence of the Pope. Pius X. came safely, and even triumphantly, out of each and all of these political tempests ; and in every one of the countries named the Church is stronger and more firmly established to-day than it has been for many years past. But the experience of these strenuous years goes to show how impossible it is for the Head of the Church Militant, no matter how Apostolic a Pope he may be, to avoid being concerned and involved in affairs of State. *

What has been the greatest trial of Pius X.’s pontificate ? It is hardly possible to doubt that the Holy Father himself if questioned would have replied with the one word ; Modernism, It is difficult for us now to realise how deep-rooted and widespread this heresy had become during the few years of its growth. Pius X. at first, with his wonted gentleness, tried to reclaim the leading Modernists from their error by persuasion and admonition. But these proving unavailing, he issued (September 8, 1907) the famous Encyclical Pascendi Cregis, in which the whole Modernist heresy was definitely and finally condemned. The beneficial effect produced by the Encyclical has been remarkable. Pius X.’s great doctrinal pronouncement annihilated Modernism as a public movement within the Church. One by one its most noted leaders either submitted or openly cut themselves off from the Church; the Catholic press and Catholic literature on the Con-, tinent of Europe were purged of their poisonous tendencies; professors in Catholic chairs of learning no longer taught doctrines subversive of Catholic truth ; and the faithful were disabused of the false notion that Modernist writers and thinkers had a monopoly of religious zeal and knowledge. For its defence of Revelation, of Christ, and of the Bible, it was received with cordial approbation even in many non-Catholic quarters. Catholics have even greater reason to thank God for the timely pronouncement. As a result of-the condemnation, several Modernist papers have had to cease publication: and within the fold of the Church, in the space of a very few years, this dangerous and insidious movement may be said to have been completely killed. This achievement alone is sufficient to make the pontificate of Pius memorable; and in view of the grave danger with which the faith of the people was threatened it is permissible to believe that this was the great and special work to which Providence had called him.

V .* t . • * Prom the religious point of view, the dominant note of the pontificate of Pius X. has been spirituality ; and the beautiful life of • the People’s Pope has touched the heart-strings of the public without regard of race or creed. Some of our New Zealand papers have raised the question whether. Pius X. could be called a great Pope. ‘ Greatness,’ said

Disraeli, in one of his lighter works, ‘ no longer depends on rentals, the world is too rich nor on pedigrees, the world is too knowing.’ Pius X. could not claim the spurious title to greatness, that arises from money-bags or blue blood. But he filled to the full Disraeli’s definition.of a great man —‘ one who affects his generation.’ On the occasion of the accession of Pius to the Papal Throne, Cardinal Gibbons said of him : ‘ He is a man of God and of the people, and the dominant note of his pontificate is certain to be the elevation of the moral man. He will be essentially a spiritual Pope. He will lift the standard of the cross very high, and the, world will soon recognise that his supreme purpose is to quicken Christendom, to make men more like Christ. One thing is sure: ‘A spiritual Pope reigns in the Vatican.’ Never has there been a prophecy more literally or more richly fulfilled. And now the laborer’s task is o’er, and the battle-day is past. Life’s race well run. Life’s work well done, Life’s victory won : , Now comes rest’—-

and, let us pray, rest eternal!