OCR Text |
Show FROM PREACHING Of all tho many strange restrictions which hedge about the pope, one of the strangest is that he should not be allowed to preach. Only once in three hundred years has a "pope delivered de-livered a sermon, and that was in most exceptional circumstances. On the Octave of the Epiphany, 1S4G a celebrated preacher, Padre Ventura, was to have occupied tho pulpit in St Peter's, but was suddenly taken ill. To proent disappointment to the vast crowd which had assembled assembl-ed Plus IX broke through the custom of ages, ascended the pulpit, and delivered de-livered a simple, homely sermon which perhaps impressed its hearers more than the finest eloquence might have done because of its uniqueness |