PORTUGAL'S RETURN TO VATICAN

New Zealand Tablet, 12 December 1918, Page 39

PORTUGAL'S RETURN TO VATICAN

INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF RELATIONS. "The solemn proclamation ■ of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Portugal and the Holy See," says an American contemporary, "was made by the President of the Republic when Parliament opened on July 22; and was ratified by members. Mgr. Locatilli, Titular Archbishop of Thessalonica, previously Nuncio at Brussels and Internuncio to Luxemburg, has been nominated by the Vatican to preside over the new Nunciature at Lisbon. Don Jose Feliciano da Costa, the Portuguese Ambassador at the Vatican, a fervent Catholic, was the military organiser of the recent Catholic action in Portugal, and was one of the three chiefs of the contra-revolution. The Etudes of Paris gives some interesting details of the new regime. After the coup do force which brought about the fall of the anti-Christian Government on December G and 7, 1917, a Provisional Government was set up consisting of a triumvirate, viz., Feliciano da Costa, Machado-Santos, and Sidonio Paes, who at once permitted the exiled bishops and religious to return to the possession of their churches, and to resume their former work. The next step of the Provisional Government was to do away on February 22, 1918, with the tyrannical articles of the law of 1911, and to substitute for them decrees based on equity and good sense, which completed the national conciliation of Portugal with the Church, and finally restored religious peace. Elections were held on April 28, 1918. Sidonio Paes, to whom had been accorded the first place, both in honor and in authority, in the Provisional Government, was elected almost unanimously. Although not a professed Catholic, he is openly in favor of complete religious liberty. The Senate is composed almost exclusively of his partisans. The Chamber of Deputies is also made up, with few exceptions, of his supporters, of whom fifteen belong to the Catholic Party, 39 to the Royalist group, and 105 to the Moderate Republicans. The Opposition counts only six RepublicanDemocrats and Freemasons. The present form of government is thought likely by some to be permanent, others regard it as an intermediate step in a movement back to monarchical institutions, but all are agreed that it is extremely conservative and hostile to anti-religious tendencies. The first notice of the negotiations which resulted in the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See was given to the Portuguese in an official note published by the Government on June 30, 1918, announcing that the President had given an audience to Mgr. Francisco Ragonesi, Titular Archbishop of Myra and Apostolic Nuncio at Madrid, who had been sent to Lisbon by the Pope on a special mission. During the interview both sides expressed a strong desire for a complete reconciliation between Portugal and the Vatican, as a result of which steps were taken to effect that end. The Pope, in turn, announced in an official note, dated July 7, 1918, the resumption of diplomatic relations, and the accomplished fact was ratified by acclamation by the Portuguese Parliament at its first session. All things considered, the return of Portugal to the Holy See is a striking proof of how a nation, once Catholic, cannot afford to ignore the Pope.