OCR Text |
Show THE POPE ON IRELAND. J. Dillon, M. P., and Mrs. Dillon have been staying at Rome, and had a private pri-vate audience with' the pope. His holiness holi-ness received the distinguished Irish visitors with warmth and cordiality. His holiness' references to Ireland I were . especially significant. He first spoke of his particular affection for the Irish people, and added, in an emphatic emphat-ic manner: "The Irish leaders are the best judges of what is right and good for their people." This is as much as to say that the pope disassociates himself from foreign for-eign rule in Ireland, which, as every one knows, is anything but "broad-based "broad-based upon the people's wllh" It is well known that the pope is a democrat demo-crat and a subscriber to the doctrine that the voice of the people is the supreme su-preme law. The. pope's significant words to the Dillons are especially notable not-able in view of the recent exposure of the English intrigue at the Vatican, connected with the Persico episode. The present pope evidently wishes it to be known that such intriguing will never-again be tolerated by the Vatican authorities, but that in Irish affairs they will be guided by the voice of the Irish bishops and the people. The Persico Per-sico correspondence is being widely commented upon in the continental press. |