Our Roman Letter

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 14, 12 April 1923, Page 23

Our Roman Letter

(By "Stannous.")

The anniversaries of the election and the enthronement of Pope Pius XI. have come and gone, and wo can look hack with appraising vision on the first year of his reign. A year ago Cardinal Achille Ratti seemed to be the Pope for whom the new era was waiting. -By birth and temperament a man of action, he was by training and choice a student and a scholar. Born with the love of adventure in his blood ho had climbed the Alpine slopes of Monte Rosa. Yet he had lived laborious days in libraries, he had acquired a gift of tongues, and in priestly ministry he had learned of the sins and sorrows of men. He had been known, too, in the world of affairs and he had won the love of his flock as the ruler of a diocese. Wherefore even from beyond the frontiers of Italy the shouts of acclamation greeted his election to the Papacy. And now as we look back across the twelve months that are gone and as we recall with what paternal solicitude the Supreme Pontiff has faced each succeeding problem of the times, we cannot but hope that the joyous promise of this first year of his reign shall be fulfilled and that he shall bring back peace to a world at war. Since that day when he blessed the world from the loggia without St. Peter's, more than once in Italy and elsewhere there have been critical moments that seemed almost to demand stern words of paternal reproof. But the Holy Father has studied erring humanity in the warm light of the Incarnation and, instead of simply recalling men to their due recognition of Christ's law, he has sweetly reminded them of the claims of Christ's love. No apparent failure has made him weary of the supernatural weapon of prayer. No human heedlessness has caused him to despair of the ultimate value of the patient charity that is of Christ. His immediate ministry of peace may result in what looks for the moment like failure. But, because it is so intensely supernatural and so frankly unworldly, the Pope's redemptive policy of charity and prayer uplifts our hearts in hope for an ultimate reconciliation of the warring elements of the world. * * * I can recall no single instance where in a matter of public policy the present Holy Father has stretched forth what has been called, 'the wrathful Church's lacerating hand." He has spoken over the warring world words of pity rather than of punishment. So far as I remember, the first occasion on which I heard him speak of the world's need of the peace of Christ was that sunny afternoon in early summer when he addressed the thousands assembled in the Cortilc Belvidere at the opening of theEucharistie Congress. I am not quite sure whether or not he employed then the phrase that has since become the watchword of his pontificate, pax Christi in regno Christi, the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ; but if he did not employ that actual expression the sense of it ran through every phase of his wonderful discourse as the chain runs through the beads of a rosary. And to those who were privileged to hear the Holy Father on that afternoon, the memory must ever remain sacred of how he then and there dedicated the Congress as an offering of prayer to God for the peace of the world. Again, in the autumn of last year when this fair Italy was torn by civil strife, when incendiarism stalked through the land, when daily and nightly deeds of violence occurred between the two opposing parties and men were roughly beaten and I sometimes even 'killed for the political opinions they professed or held, the words of the Holy Father to the Bishops of Italy showed clearly that he faced the facts of that fratricidal strife; yet

he uttered no retributive sentence, speaking in terms of charity rather than terms of impatient blame. Nor did he falter when his smooth words .brought no respite to the turabulence; but at the end of October when the victorious cohorts were mobilising for the march on Rome, he sent forth, another appeal for peace in his beloved country. One little clause in that appeal will be long remembered here, the clause in which he cried out to his fellow-country-men those words of St. Stephen, Men , ye are brothers, why hurt ye one another? I recall very vividly the impression made by that appeal here in Rome; how in the cafes and in the meeting-places in the city men spoke of the wonderful kindness and love displayed by the Holy Father. And there arose a story, on what foundation I do not know, to the effect that, had the black-clad cohorts marched to the Piazza di San Pietro on that famous First of November, his Holiness would have blessed them from the loggia. I accept no responsibility for the truth of that story but I heard it in more than one place and from more than one person in that exciting week. Whether it be true or false, it is an evidence of what the popular feeling was in Rome in regard to the sympathetic attitude of the Holy Father. The selfsame thought of peace is to be found in the first official Encyclical, the Übi area no Dei; even where the Pope makes his protest against the anomalous state of affairs that is called the Roman Question he does so in terms that invite efforts at reconciliation. Finally, on the very anniversary of the day on which he entered the Conclave that was to make him Pope, he publishes a letter inviting prayers for the peace of the world. Expressly and clearly the letter leaves aside all consideration of the merits of the manifold questions that agitate the disaffected peoples of the world, and in blameless impartiality seeks to initiate a campaign of prayer that God may have pity on the world. The letter is addressed to his Eminence Cardinal Pompili, the Holy Father’s Vicar as Bishop of Rome; and it runs as follows:

“My Lord Cardinal,When, on the eve of the joyous feast of Christmas, like an echo of the angels’ message of the peace promised to men of goodwill, We addressed to society all Our fatherly admonition and all the affectionate good-wishes of the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ, We could not but manifest at the same time the feelings of sadness and trepidation caused in Our heart by sorrow for the present evils of the world and by fear of the evils that yet may come, each set of evils being a baneful inheritance from the war. But We were very far from foreseeing that within such a short space of time Our words were to receive so terrible a confirmation.

“You, my Lord Cardinal, must needs fell with Us the sorrow and the gravity of the present hour. Far from Us the thought of entering into the merits of the manifold questions which are disturbing the different peoples; but We cannot, without profound anguish, look unmoved upon the reappearance of the fearful spectre of new conflagrations, with their promises of losses and sorrows for individuals and for families as well as for cities and for provinces. But if this sad spectacle fills all men with feelings of lively anxiety, much more is it true of Us because, by reason of that spiritual paternity which is the property of Our apostolic ministry, We feel Ourself equally the father of all.

"Therefore in default of any human means of avoiding the many great evils that threaten humanity, We repeat the prayerful invocation. 0 our God, as we know not what to do, we can only turn our eyes to Thee. . . Bens nosier, cum ignoramus quid agere dcbcamus, hoc solum habemus residui ut ocuhs nostros dirigamus ad Te. (II Par., 20, 12). "And We entrust to you, my Lord Cardinal, the duty of inviting the faithful of Our city of Rome to join with Us in prayer that the Lord (auctor pads et amaior) may save our harassed humankind from new sources of anxiety and that He may lead back peoples and governments to that sense of brotherhood, of justice, of equity and of love which inspires them with frienldy designs. To you, my Lord Cardinal, to the clergy, and to the faithful committed to your care, We impart with all Our heart the Apostolic Blessing.' \ ' - %,''-.. SftiSi •'•>>.'..■*' .-/. "Pius P.P., xi.; C ' \''/The Vatican, January 31, 1923.". , ~ ~

The reply of the Cardinal, Vicar was prompt. Two days later, on the Feast of the Purification, a diocesan letter was published ordering the parochial clergy to make known to the faithful the scope of the Holy Father’s appeal. This was done in all the churches here on Sunday, February 4. The three succeeding days were set apart for special prayers and devotions in every church and oratory in Rome, and the holy season of Lent was dedicated to the prayerful intention of the Supreme Pontiff. During the three days of special intercession the response of the faithful was very remarkable.

Apart from its spiritual appeal, the portion of this fatherly letter which has given rise to most comment here in the Eternal City is that wherein the Supreme Pontiff disclaims all desire of entering into the merits of national or political questions at present under debate {lungi da noi il yen si era di entrare ncl merito delle molteplici question! elm agitano i popoli). This striking phrase has been hailed as a re-affirmation of the principle of Papal impartiality so emphatically laid down by Pope Benedict XV. in the Consistorial Allocution of January, 1915. It may not be out of place here to recall what the Pope of the war years said on that occasion.

“If it is not given to Us to hasten the end of so heavy a scourge, would that We could at least mitigate its sorrowful effects. With this aim We have, as you well know', hitherto done everything possible to Us Nor shall We cease in the future while the need lasts. To do more than this to-day is not committed to Us by the Apostolic office, lo proclaim that for nobody is it lawful on any plea whatsoever to offend against justice belongs chiefly, beyond all question, to the Roman Pontiff as to him who is appointed by God as the supreme interpreter and defender of the eternal law; and We do proclaim it without phrases, condemning openly every injustice, by whatever side it may have been committed. But to involve the Pontifical authority in the very contests of the belligerents would surely be neither appropriate nor useful. Certainly anyone who judges carefully cannot fail to see that in this enormous struggle the Apostolic See, though filled with the greatest anxiety, must remain perfectly impartial. The Roman 1 ontiff, as the Vicar of Jesus Christ Who died for men one and all, must embrace all the combatants in one sentiment of charity; and as the Father of all Catholics he has among the belligerents a great number of children, for whose salvation he must be equally and without distinction solicitous. Wherefore it is - necessary that in them he must consider, not the special interests which divide them, but the common bond of faith which makes them brothers. If he were to do otherwise, not only would he fail to help at all the cause of peace but, what is worse, he would create aversions and enmities to religion, and would expos© to grave disturbances the very tranquility and concord of the Church.”

Thus spoke Benedict when confronted with the s difficulties of the war, and in terms that are a faithful echo of the words of the dead Pontiff, his successor, Pope Pius XI., addresses the Eternal City to-day. . Confronted with the spectre of another war of devastation, the Holy Father, seeing not only the futility but even the danger of human attempts at intervention, bids his own people of Rome join with himjn prayer to the Lord God of Hosts that He may deign to intercede where the efforts of - men must fail. Mindful also of what is happening in my own dear country, with all my heart I join in the prayer of the Supreme Pontiff and I ask my readers throughout the world to remember the Pope’s appeal.

A Just Opinion Well Worth Noting "The man (says the Mercury Herald, San Jose, U.S.A.) whose life is spent in stirring up religious prejudice, when the toils overtake him, can expect no sympathy from anyone. The day is long gone , when intolerance can stalk from town, to town in false guise without meeting the protest of peaceful commuities pursuing their own religious ways in peace and satisfaction. . . ." , , rV;