Show THE POPE RDIXAI 1BB03VS GRAPHIC POR CR AIT OP THE HOLY FATHER ITlie Man the Priest tie Pont tie Statesman the Patriot the Father of His Country From The New York World He needs no foil but > shines by his own proper light I waa with these words that as the writer sat tailing with His Eminence some days ago in Baltimore Cardinal Gibbons closed the admirable and eloquent elo-quent eulogy of Pope Leo Thirteenth 1h1 name HIS HOLINESS Pope Leo XII is the living ex ttmplincation of the grand monastic monastc maxim maXll Laborare est orare 1 At eightyfour the Holy Father is well on into his eightyfifth yearhe is an unwearying active prayerful constant con-stant worker His life is one long round of work and prayer broken in deference to his hysician fcy short pauses Cor the relaxation re-laxation of his mind and the refreshment refresh-ment of his body without which his burning ztal for the advancement of the Christian fath and for the spread of Christian influence would wear out even his enduring frame For seventeen years the Holy Father Fath-er has been guiding Christendom seventeen sev-enteen years of steady effort of marvelous mar-velous patience of dignified resstance of conquest edifying progress and of spiritual The Holy Father found the church 6U ifforing wounded and maimed The mundane influence and glory of the papacy had been lessened The moral influence of Rome seemed shaken In the seventeen memorable years of his pontificate however Leo XII has regained all that has been lost ani won new glorias for the church He converses with his guests either In Italian French or Latin in all of whh Idioms he is alike at home His Latin has been campared znd not un favorably with that of the great classos His French which is extremely ex-tremely accent pure is spoken with a slight HIS ELOQUENT VOICE His voice a the cardinal remem arM it was deep clear well modulated mod-ulated and penetrating Though not exceptionally strong it suggested vitality and health Altogether it was an Interesting voice and sui generis Long after the echoes of his words had died away the memory of them lingered in the heart He would occasionally interrupt the discussion of the matters before him to put some searching and pertnent question ques-tion invariably showing how deeply he was interested in his subject and bow closely he had thought upon the relig ious and social problems of the faraway far-away New World he love so well PONTIFFS IN CONTRAST Very marked is the contrast be twefn the rounded debonnaire twtm pat ial form of Pius IX and the slighter t singularly impressive figure of his J Kf5sor to the v4ceregency of hrls + on earth Small though his stature is too the L Holy Father has a curious and extraordinary extra-ordinary majesty as he borne through < t the halls of his palace in the wondrous won-drous pageants of the church or as he sits upon his throne closing and opening open-Ing the mouths of the newly created cardinals His valet it is said has more than once hi startled on entering his room In thf morninsr to find him still on his knees at his devotions Orarp lborarpl I the Pip3 had only penned his marvelous encyclicals he would have earned his right to claim G place among I tf very foremost writers and thinkers i i of his time i In his lighter moods the holy father 5s not averse to penning Latin odes II and Italian sonnets His poems which would fill a moderate sized volume are equally felicitous whether like the autobiographical verses < Ad Josephum FratrenC which were published last year they are written in Latin or as occasionally happens they are composed com-posed in his own native tongue One point in the holy fathers character char-acter has been too much obscured by political passion and prejudice He is an ardent and patriotic Italian Ital-ian eager for the glory of his country and yearning for the renewal of the Jinks of loyalty which till lately bound St closely to the Holy See I AHEAD OF HIS AGE I I In nothing has the wisdom and f Ihc foresight of the holy father been i iPtre plain o late years than in his increasing in-creasing disregard of the more ephemeral ephem-eral phases of politics and his increasIng increas-Ing interest in the far greater and more Shv ishty I social moral and educational I problems with which the twentieth I century may be forced to grapple In the United States this interest has found practical expression in the approval and encouragement afforded to the Catholic university at Washington Washing-ton in his broad and charitable attitude atti-tude towards the struggling wage I earner and in the extraordinary and personal part which he has taken in I th o spiritual direction of American I Catholicism i < The Washington university was iwtituted and grew to its present fmI i fp rtance under his immediate patron f cge I has been constantly in his I mind since its foundation and ere long It may be favored with fresh proofs of bis solicitude HE LOVES ART AND SCIENCE The rope loves musicmore especially espec-ially the music of Palestrina But he believes that there should be some boundsset to 1 music In the ritual of the church And he discourages the use of sensuous music The pressing cares which weigh upon his holiness have not allowed him much leisure for the culture of some other arts But he is an enlightened enlight-ened patron of architecture he keeps pace with the higher literature of his cay and is deeply interested in the Thievements of the modern scientists < At 54 the holy father still enjoys d health His intellectual force clearness are intact His activity I zeal seem unabated A GREAT POPE leo XHI will have a place In his L ri with the great popes He is a great statesman a pure moralist an admirable stylist a keen observer a deep thinker But i is as a Christian model a father of the church and an upholder of the remembered faith that he will be most lovingly He needs no foil but shines by his own proper light |