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Show I I : t j A COMPOSITE AND CHARACTER STUDY OF HIS HOLINESS, POPE LEO XHI, ON THE OCCASION OF I HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY. DRAWN SPECIALLY FOR THE THE INTERMOUNTAIN CATHOLIC BY I LOVEY. ! -f LEO 2m AND THE CHURCH. i (Written Specially for the Intcrmountain I Catholic.) s Tope Leo XIII was 90 years old on March 2. "Wonderful indeed when we eontem-I eontem-I . plate the great age of the Pontiff, how j he manages to direct the great affairs j - of Church from his prison cell in the ! Vatican. j "What other man at his age could I sway and influence the world today as ! " does Hi Holiness: and yet with what I kindness and simple justice. I ljf-o XIII stands before the world to- I day as the chief and most advanced of thinkers. Aged. bent, aesthetic merely I a physical shadow he dominates the I Christian world with the keenness and i strength of his mind and the God-like ! sweetness of his nature. j When Leo XIII came to the Chair of Peter in the long line of Apostolic j . succession, it was said that the old Church was at her knees. It was written by some thoughtless persons that the hour had come when f he should perish. These writers pointed point-ed out that the hand of Europe was against her. That may be true. Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, was her great enemy. He drove the Jesuits out of Germany and was generally antagonistic to the Church, but the day came in his own lifetime when the situation was changed and he was among the first of European statesmen to acknowledge the genius of Leo. It is always interesting to Catholic writers and it must be equally interesting inter-esting to Catholic as well as non-Catholic non-Catholic readers to dwell upon the life of the Pope, unquestionably the greatest intellectuality and the most perfect man of his time especially in view of the fact that he has just entered en-tered upon his 51st year. Leo XIII comes of the distinguished Pecci family. He was born at Car- j pineto, Italy, on March 2. 1810. His father was Colonel Count Ludovico Pecci, and his mother, Anna Prosperi Busi. He was baptized March 4, 1810, end his name was Joachim Vincent Raphael Luis. He had four brothers and two sisters. His family on both idr-s were anc ient and noble, and on his mother's side he is related to Li'.nzi. the great orator and agitator. He and his brother, who was afterward after-ward a Cardinal, were educated at the Jesuit College of Viterbo. where he spent about five years. Afterward lie studied seven years at the Roman College. Col-lege. He was noted throughout his college course for his application and talents, gaining many prizes. Joachim Pc-eci was admitted in the College of Nobles in 1S35. He had already received re-ceived minor orders the year previous. He was made a sub-deacon and deacon in December, and, on the last day of the year 1K37. was ordained a nriest by Cardinal Car-dinal "fis.a.lc.hl. By the advice of Cardinal Sala, his protector and friend, the young priest and prelate, Mgr. Pecci, resolved to devote de-vote himself to the service of the Church in the civil or diplomatic department, de-partment, and soon after he was appointed ap-pointed as delegate to the Province of Benevento. This province was the refuge of brigands and criminals from the neighboring States and was in a deplorable condition, but the energy, wisdom ad firmness of the young delegate, dele-gate, as well as his fearlessness, defeated de-feated the brigands and some of the nobles who were no better, made the laws respected and gave all protection to their persons and property. Pope Gregory praised the young delegate dele-gate for the reforms he had carried out and the good results he had obtained, and King Ferdinand of Naples invited him to visit his court and receive public proof of the royal esteem. Mgr. Pecci spent three years in Benevento and was appointed delegate to Spoleto, but was changed immediately to a more important import-ant appointment at Perugia. After eighteen months he was appointed Nuncio to Brussels, and on Jan. 28. 1843, he was consecrated Bishop( having the title of Archbishop of Damietta. The same fearlessness and sense of justice which made him so successful in Benevento was displayed as Nuncio at Brussels, and gave strength to the Bishops and people against the attempts at-tempts of the government, controlled and influenced by the enemies of religion. re-ligion. He remained in Belgium three years and was then appointed Archbishop Arch-bishop of Perugia. The Cardinal Archbishop Arch-bishop of Mechlin expressed his eternal gratitude to him in a letter full of love and praise, and King Leopold conferred con-ferred on him the grand cordon of the Order of Leopold and wrote a letter full of praipe and recommending Mgr. Pecci in the "highest terms to Pope Gregory XVI Mgr. Pecci did not return immediately immediate-ly to Italy, but made a tour of Germany, Ger-many, Austria and England, making the acquaintance of Cardinal Wiseman in London and being presented to Queen Victoria, He spent three weeks in Paris and returned to Rome to find Gregory XVI. dead and the members of the Sacred College assembled for the I election of his successor, who took the name of Pious IX. Mgr. Pecci was cre-I cre-I ated Cardinal in Petto on the 19th of January. 1846, but did not receive the Robe until Dec. 10, 1S53. Mgr. Pecci's term of office was very stormy because he was brought face to face with revolution revo-lution in 1S49 and again in 1SG0. His whole career at Terugia was that of a holy Bishop, full of zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Many reforms were made and many improvements were carried out. He remained at Perugia thirty-two years and was then appointed by Pious IX. as Camerlengo on the 21st of September. Septem-ber. 1877. The duties of the Camerlengo axe to j I manage the property of the church, to keep watch over the doings of the city magistrates, to provide for the safety of the state, to keep up the military forces of the Holy See, to be ready for war and maintain peace, to have special regard re-gard to finances, which is the sinew of all public affairs. He is appointed for life. On the 7th of February, 1878, Pius IX died and the Camerlengo went to verify the death. Touching the forehead of the dead Pope he called three times, "John! John! John!" then, turning to those present, made the formal announcement, an-nouncement, "The Pope is dead." The J fisherman's ring was removed from the finger of Pius and given, to Cardinal Pecci, who then was in control of every department in the church until the conclave on the 20th of February, when he was chosen to be the Vicar of j Christ on earth and head of the church. He chose the title of Leo XIII, because he venerated the memory of Leo XII. The Pontificate of Leo XIII is not only one of the longest in the history of the Papacy, but also one of the most glorious. Of the 262 Pontiffs who preceded pre-ceded Leo XIII only seven have occupied occu-pied the Chair of Peter for twenty-one years. They are: St. Peter (29-67), who reigned 38 years; St .Leo the Great (440-461), 21 years; Adrian I (771-795), 23 years: Alexander III (1159-11S1), 22 years; Pius VI (1775-1799), 24 years; Pius VII (1SO0-1S23), 23 years, and Pius IX (1S46-1S78),-31 years. During his reign His Holiness Leo XIII created 117 Cardinals and established estab-lished or re-established the hierarchy of Scotland, Japan, the East Indies, Bosnia, Erzegovina and in Egypt for the Copts. Other notable facts showing show-ing the marvelous growth of the church during the past twenty-two years are: The erection of 2 Patriarchal sees, the creation of 13 Archiepiscopal sees, the raising of 17 Episcopal to Archiepiscopal sees, the erection of 100 Episcopal sees, the establishment of 2 Apostolic Delegations, 49 Vicarates Apostoiic and 30 Prefectures Apostolic and the making of 11 Vicariates Apostolic Apos-tolic from Prefectures already estab lished. At the close of the nineteenth century i the Catholic population of the world j is nearly 300,000,000. This wonderful progress of the Catholic church, as everybody knows, has been made in the face of the most insuperable difficulties. difficul-ties. While every "sect," "creed" and "religion" has been torn to pieces by intestinal wrangles and divisions, the church established by Christ has been going quietly on with her work and accomplishing ac-complishing the most wonderful things in spite of the oft-repeated assaults of the most powerful enemies and on the eve of the tw entieth century, as a Protestant Pro-testant writer recently put it, "she is still the most wonderful fact in the world." LEO'S WONDERFUL VITALITY. His Holiness Seems to Be Actually Growing Younger In Better Health Than Ever. (Special Correspondence Freeman's Journal.) Jour-nal.) Rome, Feb. 7. I never thought that my German friend was of an enthusiastic enthusi-astic disposition. He is one of the heads of a great religious congregation, congrega-tion, with a hundred things to attend to every day, and very little time to go into ecstasies about anything, but when he called on me last Thursday he was literally brimful of enthusiasm. He had been to see His Holiness on Can-dlemans Can-dlemans day. It had struck him that the ought to avail himself of the occasion when all the heads of religious houses assemble in the Vatican and present the Pope with richly decorated candles in honor of the Purification of Our Lady. A whole year had passed since he last saw the Holy Father; the ill nesa that threw the whole world into anxiety had intervened: another twelve month had been added to the eigteen lustres that lay upon the shoulders of i the Head of Christendom, and on the whole my friend thought that he might as well pay what would probably be his last official visit to the Pope who had broken so many records of all THE POPE LOOKS BETTER THAN HE DID A TEAR AGO. When he arrived at the Vatican he had to wait his turn with the. other celebrities, cel-ebrities, but little by little the long file outside the Papal antechamber grew smaller, and he found himself at last close to the door. He was thinking what a painful ordeal it must be for the poor old pontiff, who had seemed barely alive when he saw him a year ago, to receive those crowds of distinguished dis-tinguished Churchmen for a couple of mortal hours, and resolved that he would be more merciful than the others by simply presenting his candle, kissing the Pope's slipper, and making his exit when all on a sudden ho heard a merry burst of laughter from within. The next moment he was in Pope Leo's presence. He tells me he was amazed at the sight of His Holiness, whose face was still lit up with amusement for no ,one else would have ventured to laugh in there. Pope Leo looked positively posi-tively five years younger (perhaps less old would be the way to p'lt t) than he hada year before, with n" re fire in his eye and more animation in his manner. man-ner. When, my friend approached the throne one of the monsignori in attendance at-tendance whispered something in the Holy Father's ear. ANOTHER ENCYCLICAL ON LABOR PROMISED. "Ah. I remember." he said; "your congregation is devoted to the interests of workingmen. Well, I have something some-thing very interenting to tell you. I am preparing another encyclical on the workinsrmars nuestion. At present -the materials are being collected (Cardinal Vannutelli is helping me in this) -and before long it will be published." , THE WORKS OF MIGHTY ARTISTS. Your correspondent was so impressed by his friend's account of the vitality displayed by His Holiness that he resolved re-solved to seize the first opportunity that presented itself to see him. The opportunity op-portunity came this morning with the Solemn Requiem celebrated "coram Summo Pontiflce" in the Sistine on the twenty-second anniversary of the death of Pius IX. The few hundreds of us who were fortunate enough to secure tickets of admission to the function func-tion were huddled closely together in the enclosures reserved for the public. While waiting we had plenty of time to study the great picture of the Last Judgment with which Michael Angelo has adorned the wall of the sanctuary, the stupendous roof whereon the same mighty artist has depicted the Creation of the World and the Fall of Man, the marvelous frescoes painted on the lateral lat-eral walls by Botticelli. Ghirlandaio and other giants of art. Later on, when the hour for the commencement of the function approached, we could identify for our unsophisticated neighbors neigh-bors the different princes of the Church as they passed by in their scarlet robes, the better known among the prelates, the generals of religious orders, or-ders, Prince Colonna, Prince Massimo, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, and the other celebrities who have places set apart for them in the solemn functions in the Vatican. POPE LEO'S GREAT AFFECTION FOR PIUS IX. Tom a coigne ot vantage i was able to see into the choir, and, to my surprise, sur-prise, recognized the famous old Papal choirmaster, Mustafa, at the post he was supposed to have definitely aban-I aban-I c-oned more than a year ago. It ap- pears, however, that his affection for ; the memory of Pius IX will always ! bring him forth from his retirement j until he himself goes over to the ma- jority. While I was looking at Mus-i Mus-i tafa, the choir began the singing of the I Mass, and. turning round, I saw His j Holiness advance with firm step from i the center of the altar, where he had been kneeling, to the throne erected on the gospel side of the altar. My friend was perfectly right. Pope I Leo seems to be actually growing I young. It may be that I have become the victim of my own enthusiasm, but I really thought he looked better this morning than he did nearly fifteen years ago, when I saw him for the first time, and he was a young man of 75. DEATH OF THE CARDINAL VICAR. Having said so much about the Holy Father, it would perhaps be well to speak about the immense sorrow that has afflicted him and all Rome in the death of the Cardinal Vicar he appointed appoint-ed only a couple of months ago, and whose funeral last Sunday was one of the most impressive sights seen in the Eternal City for many years; but we have become so accustomed to Cardi- j nals' deaths (nine have passed away in the last twelvemonth the heaviest mortality in the Sacred College for many years) that even Cardinal Jaco-bini, Jaco-bini, the organizer of the Solemn Homage, Hom-age, celebrated all over the world this year, and the life and soul of the Catholic Cath-olic social movement in Rome, is already al-ready beginning to be forgotten. THE ITALIAN "GOVERNMENT" AND THE HOLY YEAR PIL- ' GRIMAGES. , Then, again, much might be said on an extraordinary incident which oc- curred yesterday, and which throws somewhat lurid light on the promise made by the Italian government a few months ago in respect to the pilgrim, ages to liome during the Holy Year What happened was this: A pilgrimage numbering some 500 persons arrivec from Marseilles yesterday at the Italiar frontier arrived to be told that those of the pilgrims who did not show or their arms- the marks of recent vaccination vacci-nation would not be permitted to proceed pro-ceed further on their journey, unless they consented to be vaccinated there and then at the railway station. Considering Con-sidering that no previous notice of any such condition had been given them, their astonishment and indignation may be more easily imagined than described. describ-ed. The pilgrimage, consisting of Bishops, Bish-ops, Priests and laity of all ranks, protested pro-tested in the most effective way possible pos-sible against this outrageous condition, by turning back to Mareeilles. The last word has yet to be said about this wanton wan-ton attempt to keep pilgrims from coming com-ing to Rome, but it is surely time the last word had been said about the benevolence be-nevolence of the Italian government toward to-ward the Holy Year. Finally, a Roman correspondent might legitimately devote half a column col-umn this week to a bill that has just been introduced into the Italian senate. This bill declares all religious marriages illegal which are not preceded by the civil function in other words, it prac-tiea. prac-tiea. abolishes the Christian sacrament sacra-ment of matrimony. INTERESTING FACTS REGARDING ltikj POPES AND PAPACY. But, after all, such items of Roman information, however important, are not so interesting ao facts concerning the Popes and the Papacy. Having said ao much about the florid condition of the Holy Father's health, your correspondent corre-spondent may say just a word about the report that recently went the rounds as to his nomination of his successor. suc-cessor. It will be remembered that a few months ago the news was cabled everywhere that Leo XIII had practically practi-cally appointed his own successor in the pereon of Cardinal-Gotti. Of course the rumor was utterly absurd, but it had just this much basis of fact, that His Eminence, Cardinal Gotti, is one of three Cardinals (the other two ar Cardinal Svampa, Archbishop of Bologna, Bo-logna, and Cardinal Serafino Vannutelli, Vannu-telli, Archbishop of Frascati mentioned mention-ed higher up in this letter) whose gifts and virtues lead some (speculative) to regard as being among those most likely to sit sooner or later in the Chair of Peter. Be this as it may, the fact that Cardinal Gotti is a Carmelite naturally nat-urally suggests the question: How many of the Popes have come out of the cloister? I have consulted Mgr. Ba-tandier's Ba-tandier's invaluable "Annuaire Pontifical" Ponti-fical" for 1900, and find that the religious relig-ious orders have given at least thirty-nine thirty-nine Pontiffs to the Church at least because the list cannot be regarded as exhaustive. Of these twentv-seven were Benedictines, four Franciscians, four Dominicans, three Canons Regular, Regu-lar, two Hermits and 6ne regular Clerc. Seventeen of these Pontiffs have been raised to the altars. Of the 263 Popes, 106 have been natives na-tives of Rome, fifteen have been Frenchmen, thirteen Greeks, 6ix Germans Ger-mans and six Syrians, three Africans and three Spaniards; there has been one Pope each from Galilee, Dalmatia, Holland, Lorraine, Portugal and Thrace. All the others have been natives na-tives of different parts of Italy. The three centuries with the longest Pontificates Pon-tificates have been the first, with four Popes, the XIX., with six, and the XVIII. with eight; the centuries with the shortest reigns have been the X, with twenty-six Popes, the IX, with twenty-one, and the VII. with twenty. VOX URBIS. |