DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0068
36 WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE
made to him are perpetuated in that successor. Pius X is the
reigning monarch of a dynasty that counts the empires of
Europe as children of a day. On that throne have sat in
unbroken line 257 men, nearly one-third of them Saints, and
all of them for over 300 years, martyrs. Their history has been
and is the history of civilization, the constant struggle of mind
against materialism ; of order against anarchy ; of truth against
scepticism ; of principle against voluptuousness. It is a
chronicle of the success of freedom over slavery, of kindness
over cruelty, of noble ideas over human depravity.
“ Of all the Popes not one has failed to brave the troubled
waters of a hostile world. Many of them were supposed at the
time to have been hopelessly shipwrecked, but the barque of
Peter did not sink. Wave after wave, generation after genera-
tion, century after century has come with its threat and peril
and shock, but the centuries have passed and Peter remains.
Men overwhelmed him by force or buffeted him with insult, but
men came and passed, while Peter remained.”1
Cardinal Vaughan, in an address delivered in 1895, speaks
thus of the Papacy : “ Thirty Popes have been martyred, and
one-fifth of the whole line has been exiled or imprisoned, but
the Popes have always regained their liberty. The life of the
Papacy is like that of Christ Himself, chequered by sufferings
and peaceful times ; to-day hosannas, to-morrow the passion
and crucifixion ; but these followed by the resurrection. The
Vicar of Christ and His Church are necessarily in conflict with
the false maxims of the world ; and sufferings and persecutions
are the inevitable consequence.”
26.—WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE FOR ROME, ITALY,
AND EUROPE.
1. They destroyed the colossal monster of Greek and
Roman paganism, with all its unspeakable and sickening
abominations.
2. They changed the whole face of Europe, rescuing the
degraded slave from bondage, protecting the rights of the poor
and defenceless, putting down infanticide, exalting the position
of woman, teaching the nations to be pure and chaste, shedding
everywhere the blessing of holy charity and peace.
3. They founded Christian Rome and made it a centre of
enlightenment and salutary influence to all the rest of the
world.
1 Front Peter to Leo. Lenten Lectures preached by Father Robert
Kane, S.J., in Gardiner Street, Dublin, and published by the Irish
Catholic Truth Society.
made to him are perpetuated in that successor. Pius X is the
reigning monarch of a dynasty that counts the empires of
Europe as children of a day. On that throne have sat in
unbroken line 257 men, nearly one-third of them Saints, and
all of them for over 300 years, martyrs. Their history has been
and is the history of civilization, the constant struggle of mind
against materialism ; of order against anarchy ; of truth against
scepticism ; of principle against voluptuousness. It is a
chronicle of the success of freedom over slavery, of kindness
over cruelty, of noble ideas over human depravity.
“ Of all the Popes not one has failed to brave the troubled
waters of a hostile world. Many of them were supposed at the
time to have been hopelessly shipwrecked, but the barque of
Peter did not sink. Wave after wave, generation after genera-
tion, century after century has come with its threat and peril
and shock, but the centuries have passed and Peter remains.
Men overwhelmed him by force or buffeted him with insult, but
men came and passed, while Peter remained.”1
Cardinal Vaughan, in an address delivered in 1895, speaks
thus of the Papacy : “ Thirty Popes have been martyred, and
one-fifth of the whole line has been exiled or imprisoned, but
the Popes have always regained their liberty. The life of the
Papacy is like that of Christ Himself, chequered by sufferings
and peaceful times ; to-day hosannas, to-morrow the passion
and crucifixion ; but these followed by the resurrection. The
Vicar of Christ and His Church are necessarily in conflict with
the false maxims of the world ; and sufferings and persecutions
are the inevitable consequence.”
26.—WHAT THE POPES HAVE DONE FOR ROME, ITALY,
AND EUROPE.
1. They destroyed the colossal monster of Greek and
Roman paganism, with all its unspeakable and sickening
abominations.
2. They changed the whole face of Europe, rescuing the
degraded slave from bondage, protecting the rights of the poor
and defenceless, putting down infanticide, exalting the position
of woman, teaching the nations to be pure and chaste, shedding
everywhere the blessing of holy charity and peace.
3. They founded Christian Rome and made it a centre of
enlightenment and salutary influence to all the rest of the
world.
1 Front Peter to Leo. Lenten Lectures preached by Father Robert
Kane, S.J., in Gardiner Street, Dublin, and published by the Irish
Catholic Truth Society.