ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 12 November 1914, Page 59

ROME LETTER

v j. 7 "" ' .. 111 % (From our own'correspondent.) J/“ •: THE ROMAN QUESTION, f ’ i (Concluded from last -week.) ■|. . • MU I; *1 The Restless King. . ; | We are in the Quirinal Palace on the evening of the 9th of January, 1878, to be present at the last hours, -of the .great, rude soldier whom his followers called il Re galantuomo ’ (‘ the honest King’), but whom Catholics know as the despoiler of the patrimony of Sfci Peter, the immoral man, the uneasy spirit whose life has been a burden since the invasion of Rome. .'I v A Phophecy Fulfilled. When the Italian invaders, 70,000 strong, crossed the breach at the Porta Pia, the Quirinal Palace, which had heretofore served as a summer residence for the Pope, was Made the palace of their king. But how hollow were,to be the king’s joys, how.; uneasy his life ! The old Papal Palace might be his official residence, but never' could he be persuaded to sleep there for one night; for he seems to have been cowed by a prophecy which told him as a boy that the Quirinal would bring him misfortune if it ever should come into his hands. What a wild, roving life Victor Emmanuel led during the eight years he * enjoyed ’ the crown of young Italy ! His days were passed for the most part hunting and riding in the country around Rome. He slept in a villa which w he 'purchased outside the Aurelian walls on the Via Nomentana; he could not bear to sleep in the palace stolen from the Vicar of Christ. For the transaction of State affairs, to preside at banquets, balls, levees he would willingly come there, but to rest — never. * -The’ end was not to be long- delayed. Nemesis arrived soon. ‘ If God does not pay on Saturday, He will surely settle accounts on Monday morning,’ is a saying among the Romans. On the evening of January, 7, 1878, ; . the siting presided ; at a grand ball , in the Quirinal palace at which the Diplomatic Corps, the members of the Government, the ‘ Whites ’ of the Roman aristocracy and -patricians were present. Rank, wealth, youth, 'and beauty were gathered around the * Re Galantuomo ’ in the stolen palace. Suddenly a cry; of terror rang out. ■ The huge body of the king lay on the floor in its last illness. You won’t enjoy long that which you have,’ Pius the Ninth, is reported to have said after Victor Emmanuel had taken Rome, How true the forecast proved to be! , Seven short years, and the King of Italy lay staring into .the gulf of . Eternity with all his sins, sacrileges, and r 'excommunication f.upon his mind. ' Did Victor Emmanuel die - reconciled -■ to : God ’ and*■ His Church Yes, he did. The king confessed and communicated, thoroughly penitent of his whole life. But, unfortunately for* the confessor, he omitted exacting from®the public sinner something equivalent to a public recantation as he ought to have done, and for which omission he had afterwards to submit to a penalty from ecclesiastical authority. , _ :U One month later Pius IX. died. f His body lies in a church, as he ordered, out among .the poor in S. 'Lorenzo, in a tomb that should not cost more than 500 Roman scudi,’ bearing the. laconic epitaph written by the Pope himself;‘The bones,and ashes of Pius IX., Sovereign Pontiff, He : lived 85 years. In, the. Pontificate 31 years, 6 'month’s; ! 21 days. Pray for him.’ ■fWifeok--. * V The■ Statu' Quo, ''Pp During the last eight years of - his reign Pius IX. never crossed - the threshold the .Vatican j neither did Leo XIII. during his : Pontificate of 25, years; nor did Pius X. v Who knows if -Benedict ever will either & ' ■ How long are Popes to live like this ? Is the successor to Pius X. to die in the Vatican'a prisoner just im ; r m

like his three predecessors? v At present the Holy See and the Italian Government stand towards each other in this manner; 5 The Pope claims full and complete independence of any earthly power. But the Government would regard the Pontiff as an Italian subject in every sense of the word in which connection it had the event of the death of Leo XIII. registered on the municipal records just .as if he had been any . other • ordinarycitizen. Ponder a moment on the authority and absurdity of this preposterous claim. Just fancy the Vicar of Christ, the Head and Guide of 400,000,000 Catholics' throughout the wide world, the subject of the Italian Government But you may say: does not the Law of Guarantees provide the Pontiff with all his needs ? Does; this law not promise him all the honors -of' a sovereign and declare both his person, his palaces, his offices inviolate? ■ Does it not allow him (if he will only accept it) a grant of 3,500,000 francs a year for the support of his household and the administration of the Holy See ? Yes, indeed all those promises are made. But what do they involve? They would reduce the Sovereign Pontiff, the man with . the halo of twenty centuries encircling his head and the responsibility -of , Christendom upon his' shoulders, to the position of a paid chaplain to the Italian king, the usurper whom a revolution may drive homeless from Rome any week at all. The men who made those promises were enemies of the Catholic Church; they rule to-day in Italy in the persons of the Freemasons, and their wish is to enslave the Papacy, to have Byzantium- all over again. What Basis for a Settlement ? | Then what basis can be found, for a settlement? Many propositions have been made by well-meaning friends of both sides, but not one has met with success! An American layman proposed that a strip of land from the Vatican down to the sea be purchased from the Italian Government. This did not meet the situation for several reasons. It has been stated that the Powers of the world should guarantee an agreement . between the Holy See and the Italian Government; but nothing has come of it. To this proposition there is the object tion that several countries, such as France and Portugal, would, at . present at least, not come into it. Another objection to it is the fact that any Power that should wish to withdraw from the guarantee could throw all into an embarrassing position at any time. Moreover, the more powerful among them, such as the United States, England, and Germany, might easily feel tempted, if it suited their private ends, to interfere in the affairs of the Holy See. What, then, might meet the exigencies of the case? A treaty between the Holy See and the Italian Government as two high contracting parties in which each treats with the other on an independent footing, not as if one considered the other as a temporal subject. c ... - . I^There is no doubt that in this year, 1914, evidences of good will between the Vatican and the Government of Italy are more apparent than at the any other ' time since 1870. And therefore a solution may. come; sooner •than we expect. v - .