The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1917. LEPANTO

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1917, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1917. LEPANTO

OPE PIUS IV. will "bo always remembered in history as the Pope who brought to i a mMksit> success f conclusion the great Council of Trent which swept away whatever abuses were in the Church and" made future mis- ■ understanding of Catholic dextrine imposes* sible, Under his guidance there arose within the fold/a- band of devoted men, some of them learned theologians, others strict diar ciplinarians; and yet : others, like ' Philip Neri, simple priests whose piety and charity reacted miraculously on

all with whom they came in contact, but all of them working together, under God, for the real reformation of religion which followed the false reformation led by Luther. Pius laid the foundations of that wonderful victory of Catholicism which defeated all the machinations and confounded all the expectations of the socalled Reformers. As Macaulay says, humanly speaking everything, including the power of kings and the passions of man, was ranged on the side of the innovators, but Rome was in the end victorious all along the line, and the new religion was shivered and sundered into a thousand warring sects, having no common ground save hatred of the old Church. Another foe threatened Christendom, but another Pope was to overcome it. Cardinal Ghisleri, a scholarly Dominican monk, succeeded Pius IV. in 1566, taking the name of Pius V. His predecessor" had done a great work for the spiritual interests of the Church; it was his part to continue that work and also to promote the temporal prosperity of his people. He began in Rome, where, aided by St. Charles Borromeo, he transformed the city from what it had been since the Renaissance into what it ought to be as the See of Christ's Vicar on earth. * But an undertaking of vaster proportions awaited him. Owing to the distracted state of Christian Europe, to the want of unity among rulers, and the eagerness of some princes to ally themselves with the Sultan the power of the Mahomedans had grown to alarming and menacing proportions; and it was well known that they entertained the design of overcoming Western Europe and planting the standard of the Crescent in Rome itself. Pius V. now appealed to the European rulers to close up their ranks and make common cause against the hereditary foes of the Church. Chesterton's vigorous verses give us in a few words a picture of the state of affairs then: " White fountains falling in the Courts of the Sun, And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run; There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared, It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard, It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy, They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea, And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and los3, And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross." While the Soldan smiled the Pope was organising. He subsidised the Knights of Malta and the rulers of Venice and Hungary, and finally succeeded in bringing about a Christian confederation composed of Spain, Venice, and the Papal States, with Don John of Austria as Generalissimo of the Catholic forces. And in the meantime in every church and chapel throughout Europe the people were praying without intermission, in public and private, reciting Rosary after Rosary from dawn to dusk, for the success of the enterprise. And in the mountain passes of Italy, of Spain, of Austria, men came together, moved as they had never before been moved to do battle for the Cross of Christ. The "dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard" told of the passing of the little bands which were pouring down to swell the Christian army. On winding roads there was marching as the ' Crusade spread; and by converging paths men thronged into the ports where N the ships were waiting, with their red v sails ready ? for hoisting, and their crews ; impatient to be away and at grips with the hated Turk. It did not" matter that "The.cold queen of England was looking in the glass, And, the shadow of the Valois was yawning at the .-."'•-"■.«■?-■•■,■■ 5» ■. i~iy .y'.v-.A'./-.,i. C>; - cJ'A,A-_.':..<" , J co.},. ) hA _ t"_, - *>'■>■- :■,-':■.<■_•. *• .-■'*;■:.."■■ -r '"•

for the manhood of Europe was on its mettle, going with Don John of Austria to the war. * Nor did it seem to matter to Don John or to any of his captains that they were numerically weak in comparison with the Mahomedans. They were going to fight for the Cross; they put their trust in God's Mother, Mary, the Help of Christians; and they knew that all the faithful in Europe were praying for them. So they followed Don John over the seas until they came upon the Turkish forces in the Bay of Lepanto, near Corinth, and there, on Sunday, October 7, 1571, they gained a decisive victory as a result of which the Turkish fleet was annihilated and the power of the Mahomedan smashed definitely. In memory of this great victory the Pope ordained the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary, to be celebrated for ever on the first Sunday of October, in thanksgiving to the Mother of God, by whose powerful intercession the Christian armies were victorious. We, Catholics of New Zealand, need no reminding that Mary is now as she was then the Help of Christians. We want her aid in our day even more than our forefathers- wanted it three hundred and forty-six years ago. The pagan forces, the irreligious forces, which have their manifestation in the present war are more powerful than the armies of the Soldan. It is an anti-Christian war, a war that is possible only because of the decay of Christian spirit among the nations engaged in it. We know that only too well; and we know that hitherto every Christian effort to stop the carnage has been unavailing. But we will pray to Our Lady, especially in this month of October, uniting our voices with those of our brethren all over . the world, in supplication that by her aid God may speedily bring about peace on earth again. This much is all that many of us can do; but in doing it we will be doing more than any who, leaving God and religion altogether out of their reckoning, are working for peace on the very principles which begot the war itself. Help of Christians, pray for vs. Queen of Peace, pray for 'its.