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Show "Having referred so often to the Pope, let me conclude with a few words about the Holy Father himself. I have been privileged to see his Holiness a great many times, and have come close to those who have been very close to the Pontiff. His habits, his daily conversations, con-versations, his casual remarks, and his deeper interests, have not been altogether alto-gether unknown to mo during the past four years, coming through the medium of one or other member of his devoted household. During that time I have heard many rumors among non-Catholics Of the outside influences brought to bear upon the Pontiff of this cardinal, car-dinal, or that religious order, ruling the Pontiff, who rules the Church. My own knowledge, as an outsider, such as it is, has t;ontradicted all such rumors. I have been conscious that the Pope is I actually as well as apparently the haad j j of your Church, and that no more powerful pow-erful ntellect or more resolute will, no tenderer heart for the cry of human suffering, or more catholic spirit in relation re-lation to the troubles of the world, has yet been found in the long line of illustrious il-lustrious men who have occupied the throne of the Sovereign Pontiff. I think it is a great thing that your great Church should be governed by a great Christian, who, according o ycur belief, rules you, his children, by the authority of the Almighty, . as ' Moses ruled, the children of Israel. And I wijh you to believe that whatever I have said elsewhere of this belief in th,5- absolutism and infallibility of the Pope has not been from want of a due sense of the grandeur, the magnificence and th-1 sublimity of the conception of a Church that is governed by a great and g od man in the name and voice of God. |