CHAPTER X.Europe in 1999.The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945.The relations of the United States of the Americas with Italy in 1999 were of a character that demand more than a passing notice, going far to illustrate the political eminence that had been attained in that year by the great American Republic.In the year 1927, the long standing and severe tension that had existed between the Papacy and the Italian government ever since Napoleon III in 1870 withdrew his French garrison from the Holy City, became greatly intensified and had reached an acute stage that proved beyond human endurance.The strained relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal had reached a critical stage. The fierce struggle between Church and State had attained a point of utmost tension. It became obvious, even in that year, that the break and parting of the ways could not be very distant. In 1927 the Popes of Rome had already been prisoners in the palace of the Vatican for aperiod of over fifty years. Patience in their case had ceased to be a virtue. Rome had long been a house divided against itself and its rule under two kings could not always endure. The delicate position of the Pope became a most unenviable one. The insolence of the Roman rabble even found its way under the glorious dome of St. Peter, where, on Palm Sunday, in the year 1923 Pope Pius X was insulted by a clique from the Roman slums. That the Holy Pontiff, the spiritual ruler and sovereign of 328,000,000 Catholics, should experience insult in St. Peter’s, his citadel of strength and power, proved a scandal beyond belief.Convinced that his temporal power was forever broken, Pope Leo XIV in the yearThe Pope Decides to Leave.1945 decided, after consulting a Conclave of Cardinals, to abandon the city of Romulus and Remus and to shake from his sandals the dust of ancient Rome. It was at first thought that the College of Cardinals would check their baggage and take the overland route to Avignon, in southern France, an honor which many centuries before had already fallen to the lot of that ancient municipality.But it was otherwise decreed and great was the astonishment of the world when its nerves were thoroughly startled by the startling news that Pope Leo XIV had elected to remove the Papal Seefrom Rome and to establish it in the United States of the Americas. The world’s astonishment was akin to consternation when the news of this radical change of base was first announced and it was learned that the Vatican intended to cast its lot in the new world.A proposition to transplant the Papal See from its ancient anchorage in the ItalianIt Startles One’s Nerves.peninsula into the new world would have been scouted in 1899 with scorn and derision as the wild phantasy of a babbling maniac. People living in 1899 might perhaps have seriously entertained a proposition to remove the pyramids of Egypt from their ancient foundations and transfer them to the sandlots of San Francisco, to open up a Chinese laundry in the King’s Chamber; a proposition to dispatch an army of laborers with shovels to the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to extinguish that volcano by shoveling in sand, might, in 1899, have been regarded as a plausible undertaking; the attempt of a delegation of Protestant ministers to personally convert the Sultan of Turkey from Mohamedanism and induce him to attend a camp-meeting, might have commended itself to all good citizens in 1899, but the startling proposition to remove the Papal Court from ancient Rome to South America, appeared to all minds in 1899 as the most improbable of all improbabilities,yet in 1945, (forty-six years later,) the public mind was better prepared for this great change and the removal of the Court of Rome in that year to Rio Janeiro was entertained in better grace and in a more conciliatory spirit.In 1945 the position of the Papacy in Rome was no longer endurable. TheRome Unsafe for the Pontiff.sacred person of the Pontiff became no longer safe within the precincts of the Eternal City. The Vatican had been frequently violated by mobs from the banks of the Tiber and the slums of Rome, over which the Italian government could effect no control. The revered head of the church, like his Divine Master while on earth, knew not where to lay his head.Europe in 1945 had no refuge or shelter to offer to His Holiness. Russia, the home of the Greek church, could offer him no asylum, where one of his exalted rank might dwell in peace. Austria, that steadfast and ever faithful son of the church, would gladly have sheltered the Papal Court, assuring it permanent safety and a splendor commensurate with its prestige, but, unfortunately for Austria in 1945 that country was rent in twain, a shadow of its former greatness. Hungary had long enjoyed her richly merited independence and in that year had become a leading European power.The eyes of the Papacy could not turn to Spain for succor in 1945. Spain in that year was reduced to a barren waste, having expiated her crime of 1930, that of employing powerful fulminants from air-ships to destroy two African cities. France in 1945 had no refuge to offer the Pope.As a result of two unfortunate wars, she had passed into the custody of Germany, occupying the position of a mere vassal.Realizing the serious difficulties which environed the Papal See in 1945, the Catholic states of the southern tier of the United States of the Americas, known as South America, made an urgent appeal that the Court of Rome might be removed into their midst.Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,The South to the Rescue.Paraguayand Patagonia levied contributions among the faithful and between them the munificient sum of $500,000,000 was raised, to be placed at the disposal of the Pope. Accompanying this gift offering was sent an earnest petition and prayer that the Pope would consent to abide in the new world, where a splendid reservation consisting of 17,000 square miles of choice lands had been placed at his disposal in the neighborhood of Rio Janeiro.In the petition of the South American States praying His Holiness to acquiesce inthis important project, it was pointed out that the Pope would be domiciled upon the only continent which was catholic in its entirety, with no creed to oppose, and, in removing the throne of St. Peter to Rio Janeiro, the Pope would occupy the position of a patriarch surrounded by his faithful children. The invisible, but none the less galling fetters, that had enslaved the Pope since 1870, making him virtually a prisoner in the Vatican, would be entirely removed. In the State of Brazil he might rule a principality of no mean proportions, far larger and immeasurably more wealthy than the Papal kingdom of 1870 when Pius IX was yet King of Rome. The catholic citizens of South America represented fully the many advantages of removing the Papal Court from the old into the new world.It will be recollected that in 1999 the total population of the United States of the Americas amounted to 531,000,000. Of this vast population at least 175,000,000 citizens residing in South America were adherents of the church of Rome.The liberal offer that came from the South American States received the utmostThe Pope Accepts the Offer.attention from the Papal authorities. To withdraw from that ancient city seemed like the uprooting of all traditions. The irreligious were prone to make merry over the proposition, predicting with strange irreverence,that in Rio Janeiro the Pope would feel like a cat in a strange garret. But with such innuendoes we have nothing in common. Let history proceed undisturbed in its course.It required a heroic sacrifice to give up Rome, filled with the most precious historic memories, a city in which lies enshrined the dust of St. Peter’s successors. This step meant the abandonment of that magnificent cathedral, which in 1999 still formed an aureole of glory about the Eternal City. But Rome in 1945 was no longer a safe tabernacle for the Papacy. Its mobs were unbridled in their license. The person of the Pontiff was no longer safe within the walls of the Vatican. The Italian government proved to be an abettor, if not an instigator, of these outrages.With a dark, threatening cloud hovering over the throne of St. Peter in Europe, andAll Headed for the West.on the other hand, bright skies and a most alluring and tempting prospect eagerly awaiting its transferment to Rio de Janeiro, after longhesitationand endless Conclaves, the Sacred College of Cardinals, (the Pope concurring,) gave its official sanction in 1945 to the removal of the Papal See to the Western Hemisphere, under the ægis of the great American Constitution, the noblest document ever written by the fallible pen of man, a charter which protects and defends all who are worthy and they who seek its sheltering folds.
CHAPTER X.Europe in 1999.The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945.The relations of the United States of the Americas with Italy in 1999 were of a character that demand more than a passing notice, going far to illustrate the political eminence that had been attained in that year by the great American Republic.In the year 1927, the long standing and severe tension that had existed between the Papacy and the Italian government ever since Napoleon III in 1870 withdrew his French garrison from the Holy City, became greatly intensified and had reached an acute stage that proved beyond human endurance.The strained relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal had reached a critical stage. The fierce struggle between Church and State had attained a point of utmost tension. It became obvious, even in that year, that the break and parting of the ways could not be very distant. In 1927 the Popes of Rome had already been prisoners in the palace of the Vatican for aperiod of over fifty years. Patience in their case had ceased to be a virtue. Rome had long been a house divided against itself and its rule under two kings could not always endure. The delicate position of the Pope became a most unenviable one. The insolence of the Roman rabble even found its way under the glorious dome of St. Peter, where, on Palm Sunday, in the year 1923 Pope Pius X was insulted by a clique from the Roman slums. That the Holy Pontiff, the spiritual ruler and sovereign of 328,000,000 Catholics, should experience insult in St. Peter’s, his citadel of strength and power, proved a scandal beyond belief.Convinced that his temporal power was forever broken, Pope Leo XIV in the yearThe Pope Decides to Leave.1945 decided, after consulting a Conclave of Cardinals, to abandon the city of Romulus and Remus and to shake from his sandals the dust of ancient Rome. It was at first thought that the College of Cardinals would check their baggage and take the overland route to Avignon, in southern France, an honor which many centuries before had already fallen to the lot of that ancient municipality.But it was otherwise decreed and great was the astonishment of the world when its nerves were thoroughly startled by the startling news that Pope Leo XIV had elected to remove the Papal Seefrom Rome and to establish it in the United States of the Americas. The world’s astonishment was akin to consternation when the news of this radical change of base was first announced and it was learned that the Vatican intended to cast its lot in the new world.A proposition to transplant the Papal See from its ancient anchorage in the ItalianIt Startles One’s Nerves.peninsula into the new world would have been scouted in 1899 with scorn and derision as the wild phantasy of a babbling maniac. People living in 1899 might perhaps have seriously entertained a proposition to remove the pyramids of Egypt from their ancient foundations and transfer them to the sandlots of San Francisco, to open up a Chinese laundry in the King’s Chamber; a proposition to dispatch an army of laborers with shovels to the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to extinguish that volcano by shoveling in sand, might, in 1899, have been regarded as a plausible undertaking; the attempt of a delegation of Protestant ministers to personally convert the Sultan of Turkey from Mohamedanism and induce him to attend a camp-meeting, might have commended itself to all good citizens in 1899, but the startling proposition to remove the Papal Court from ancient Rome to South America, appeared to all minds in 1899 as the most improbable of all improbabilities,yet in 1945, (forty-six years later,) the public mind was better prepared for this great change and the removal of the Court of Rome in that year to Rio Janeiro was entertained in better grace and in a more conciliatory spirit.In 1945 the position of the Papacy in Rome was no longer endurable. TheRome Unsafe for the Pontiff.sacred person of the Pontiff became no longer safe within the precincts of the Eternal City. The Vatican had been frequently violated by mobs from the banks of the Tiber and the slums of Rome, over which the Italian government could effect no control. The revered head of the church, like his Divine Master while on earth, knew not where to lay his head.Europe in 1945 had no refuge or shelter to offer to His Holiness. Russia, the home of the Greek church, could offer him no asylum, where one of his exalted rank might dwell in peace. Austria, that steadfast and ever faithful son of the church, would gladly have sheltered the Papal Court, assuring it permanent safety and a splendor commensurate with its prestige, but, unfortunately for Austria in 1945 that country was rent in twain, a shadow of its former greatness. Hungary had long enjoyed her richly merited independence and in that year had become a leading European power.The eyes of the Papacy could not turn to Spain for succor in 1945. Spain in that year was reduced to a barren waste, having expiated her crime of 1930, that of employing powerful fulminants from air-ships to destroy two African cities. France in 1945 had no refuge to offer the Pope.As a result of two unfortunate wars, she had passed into the custody of Germany, occupying the position of a mere vassal.Realizing the serious difficulties which environed the Papal See in 1945, the Catholic states of the southern tier of the United States of the Americas, known as South America, made an urgent appeal that the Court of Rome might be removed into their midst.Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,The South to the Rescue.Paraguayand Patagonia levied contributions among the faithful and between them the munificient sum of $500,000,000 was raised, to be placed at the disposal of the Pope. Accompanying this gift offering was sent an earnest petition and prayer that the Pope would consent to abide in the new world, where a splendid reservation consisting of 17,000 square miles of choice lands had been placed at his disposal in the neighborhood of Rio Janeiro.In the petition of the South American States praying His Holiness to acquiesce inthis important project, it was pointed out that the Pope would be domiciled upon the only continent which was catholic in its entirety, with no creed to oppose, and, in removing the throne of St. Peter to Rio Janeiro, the Pope would occupy the position of a patriarch surrounded by his faithful children. The invisible, but none the less galling fetters, that had enslaved the Pope since 1870, making him virtually a prisoner in the Vatican, would be entirely removed. In the State of Brazil he might rule a principality of no mean proportions, far larger and immeasurably more wealthy than the Papal kingdom of 1870 when Pius IX was yet King of Rome. The catholic citizens of South America represented fully the many advantages of removing the Papal Court from the old into the new world.It will be recollected that in 1999 the total population of the United States of the Americas amounted to 531,000,000. Of this vast population at least 175,000,000 citizens residing in South America were adherents of the church of Rome.The liberal offer that came from the South American States received the utmostThe Pope Accepts the Offer.attention from the Papal authorities. To withdraw from that ancient city seemed like the uprooting of all traditions. The irreligious were prone to make merry over the proposition, predicting with strange irreverence,that in Rio Janeiro the Pope would feel like a cat in a strange garret. But with such innuendoes we have nothing in common. Let history proceed undisturbed in its course.It required a heroic sacrifice to give up Rome, filled with the most precious historic memories, a city in which lies enshrined the dust of St. Peter’s successors. This step meant the abandonment of that magnificent cathedral, which in 1999 still formed an aureole of glory about the Eternal City. But Rome in 1945 was no longer a safe tabernacle for the Papacy. Its mobs were unbridled in their license. The person of the Pontiff was no longer safe within the walls of the Vatican. The Italian government proved to be an abettor, if not an instigator, of these outrages.With a dark, threatening cloud hovering over the throne of St. Peter in Europe, andAll Headed for the West.on the other hand, bright skies and a most alluring and tempting prospect eagerly awaiting its transferment to Rio de Janeiro, after longhesitationand endless Conclaves, the Sacred College of Cardinals, (the Pope concurring,) gave its official sanction in 1945 to the removal of the Papal See to the Western Hemisphere, under the ægis of the great American Constitution, the noblest document ever written by the fallible pen of man, a charter which protects and defends all who are worthy and they who seek its sheltering folds.
CHAPTER X.Europe in 1999.The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945.
The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945.
The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945.
The relations of the United States of the Americas with Italy in 1999 were of a character that demand more than a passing notice, going far to illustrate the political eminence that had been attained in that year by the great American Republic.In the year 1927, the long standing and severe tension that had existed between the Papacy and the Italian government ever since Napoleon III in 1870 withdrew his French garrison from the Holy City, became greatly intensified and had reached an acute stage that proved beyond human endurance.The strained relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal had reached a critical stage. The fierce struggle between Church and State had attained a point of utmost tension. It became obvious, even in that year, that the break and parting of the ways could not be very distant. In 1927 the Popes of Rome had already been prisoners in the palace of the Vatican for aperiod of over fifty years. Patience in their case had ceased to be a virtue. Rome had long been a house divided against itself and its rule under two kings could not always endure. The delicate position of the Pope became a most unenviable one. The insolence of the Roman rabble even found its way under the glorious dome of St. Peter, where, on Palm Sunday, in the year 1923 Pope Pius X was insulted by a clique from the Roman slums. That the Holy Pontiff, the spiritual ruler and sovereign of 328,000,000 Catholics, should experience insult in St. Peter’s, his citadel of strength and power, proved a scandal beyond belief.Convinced that his temporal power was forever broken, Pope Leo XIV in the yearThe Pope Decides to Leave.1945 decided, after consulting a Conclave of Cardinals, to abandon the city of Romulus and Remus and to shake from his sandals the dust of ancient Rome. It was at first thought that the College of Cardinals would check their baggage and take the overland route to Avignon, in southern France, an honor which many centuries before had already fallen to the lot of that ancient municipality.But it was otherwise decreed and great was the astonishment of the world when its nerves were thoroughly startled by the startling news that Pope Leo XIV had elected to remove the Papal Seefrom Rome and to establish it in the United States of the Americas. The world’s astonishment was akin to consternation when the news of this radical change of base was first announced and it was learned that the Vatican intended to cast its lot in the new world.A proposition to transplant the Papal See from its ancient anchorage in the ItalianIt Startles One’s Nerves.peninsula into the new world would have been scouted in 1899 with scorn and derision as the wild phantasy of a babbling maniac. People living in 1899 might perhaps have seriously entertained a proposition to remove the pyramids of Egypt from their ancient foundations and transfer them to the sandlots of San Francisco, to open up a Chinese laundry in the King’s Chamber; a proposition to dispatch an army of laborers with shovels to the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to extinguish that volcano by shoveling in sand, might, in 1899, have been regarded as a plausible undertaking; the attempt of a delegation of Protestant ministers to personally convert the Sultan of Turkey from Mohamedanism and induce him to attend a camp-meeting, might have commended itself to all good citizens in 1899, but the startling proposition to remove the Papal Court from ancient Rome to South America, appeared to all minds in 1899 as the most improbable of all improbabilities,yet in 1945, (forty-six years later,) the public mind was better prepared for this great change and the removal of the Court of Rome in that year to Rio Janeiro was entertained in better grace and in a more conciliatory spirit.In 1945 the position of the Papacy in Rome was no longer endurable. TheRome Unsafe for the Pontiff.sacred person of the Pontiff became no longer safe within the precincts of the Eternal City. The Vatican had been frequently violated by mobs from the banks of the Tiber and the slums of Rome, over which the Italian government could effect no control. The revered head of the church, like his Divine Master while on earth, knew not where to lay his head.Europe in 1945 had no refuge or shelter to offer to His Holiness. Russia, the home of the Greek church, could offer him no asylum, where one of his exalted rank might dwell in peace. Austria, that steadfast and ever faithful son of the church, would gladly have sheltered the Papal Court, assuring it permanent safety and a splendor commensurate with its prestige, but, unfortunately for Austria in 1945 that country was rent in twain, a shadow of its former greatness. Hungary had long enjoyed her richly merited independence and in that year had become a leading European power.The eyes of the Papacy could not turn to Spain for succor in 1945. Spain in that year was reduced to a barren waste, having expiated her crime of 1930, that of employing powerful fulminants from air-ships to destroy two African cities. France in 1945 had no refuge to offer the Pope.As a result of two unfortunate wars, she had passed into the custody of Germany, occupying the position of a mere vassal.Realizing the serious difficulties which environed the Papal See in 1945, the Catholic states of the southern tier of the United States of the Americas, known as South America, made an urgent appeal that the Court of Rome might be removed into their midst.Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,The South to the Rescue.Paraguayand Patagonia levied contributions among the faithful and between them the munificient sum of $500,000,000 was raised, to be placed at the disposal of the Pope. Accompanying this gift offering was sent an earnest petition and prayer that the Pope would consent to abide in the new world, where a splendid reservation consisting of 17,000 square miles of choice lands had been placed at his disposal in the neighborhood of Rio Janeiro.In the petition of the South American States praying His Holiness to acquiesce inthis important project, it was pointed out that the Pope would be domiciled upon the only continent which was catholic in its entirety, with no creed to oppose, and, in removing the throne of St. Peter to Rio Janeiro, the Pope would occupy the position of a patriarch surrounded by his faithful children. The invisible, but none the less galling fetters, that had enslaved the Pope since 1870, making him virtually a prisoner in the Vatican, would be entirely removed. In the State of Brazil he might rule a principality of no mean proportions, far larger and immeasurably more wealthy than the Papal kingdom of 1870 when Pius IX was yet King of Rome. The catholic citizens of South America represented fully the many advantages of removing the Papal Court from the old into the new world.It will be recollected that in 1999 the total population of the United States of the Americas amounted to 531,000,000. Of this vast population at least 175,000,000 citizens residing in South America were adherents of the church of Rome.The liberal offer that came from the South American States received the utmostThe Pope Accepts the Offer.attention from the Papal authorities. To withdraw from that ancient city seemed like the uprooting of all traditions. The irreligious were prone to make merry over the proposition, predicting with strange irreverence,that in Rio Janeiro the Pope would feel like a cat in a strange garret. But with such innuendoes we have nothing in common. Let history proceed undisturbed in its course.It required a heroic sacrifice to give up Rome, filled with the most precious historic memories, a city in which lies enshrined the dust of St. Peter’s successors. This step meant the abandonment of that magnificent cathedral, which in 1999 still formed an aureole of glory about the Eternal City. But Rome in 1945 was no longer a safe tabernacle for the Papacy. Its mobs were unbridled in their license. The person of the Pontiff was no longer safe within the walls of the Vatican. The Italian government proved to be an abettor, if not an instigator, of these outrages.With a dark, threatening cloud hovering over the throne of St. Peter in Europe, andAll Headed for the West.on the other hand, bright skies and a most alluring and tempting prospect eagerly awaiting its transferment to Rio de Janeiro, after longhesitationand endless Conclaves, the Sacred College of Cardinals, (the Pope concurring,) gave its official sanction in 1945 to the removal of the Papal See to the Western Hemisphere, under the ægis of the great American Constitution, the noblest document ever written by the fallible pen of man, a charter which protects and defends all who are worthy and they who seek its sheltering folds.
The relations of the United States of the Americas with Italy in 1999 were of a character that demand more than a passing notice, going far to illustrate the political eminence that had been attained in that year by the great American Republic.
In the year 1927, the long standing and severe tension that had existed between the Papacy and the Italian government ever since Napoleon III in 1870 withdrew his French garrison from the Holy City, became greatly intensified and had reached an acute stage that proved beyond human endurance.
The strained relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal had reached a critical stage. The fierce struggle between Church and State had attained a point of utmost tension. It became obvious, even in that year, that the break and parting of the ways could not be very distant. In 1927 the Popes of Rome had already been prisoners in the palace of the Vatican for aperiod of over fifty years. Patience in their case had ceased to be a virtue. Rome had long been a house divided against itself and its rule under two kings could not always endure. The delicate position of the Pope became a most unenviable one. The insolence of the Roman rabble even found its way under the glorious dome of St. Peter, where, on Palm Sunday, in the year 1923 Pope Pius X was insulted by a clique from the Roman slums. That the Holy Pontiff, the spiritual ruler and sovereign of 328,000,000 Catholics, should experience insult in St. Peter’s, his citadel of strength and power, proved a scandal beyond belief.
Convinced that his temporal power was forever broken, Pope Leo XIV in the yearThe Pope Decides to Leave.1945 decided, after consulting a Conclave of Cardinals, to abandon the city of Romulus and Remus and to shake from his sandals the dust of ancient Rome. It was at first thought that the College of Cardinals would check their baggage and take the overland route to Avignon, in southern France, an honor which many centuries before had already fallen to the lot of that ancient municipality.
But it was otherwise decreed and great was the astonishment of the world when its nerves were thoroughly startled by the startling news that Pope Leo XIV had elected to remove the Papal Seefrom Rome and to establish it in the United States of the Americas. The world’s astonishment was akin to consternation when the news of this radical change of base was first announced and it was learned that the Vatican intended to cast its lot in the new world.
A proposition to transplant the Papal See from its ancient anchorage in the ItalianIt Startles One’s Nerves.peninsula into the new world would have been scouted in 1899 with scorn and derision as the wild phantasy of a babbling maniac. People living in 1899 might perhaps have seriously entertained a proposition to remove the pyramids of Egypt from their ancient foundations and transfer them to the sandlots of San Francisco, to open up a Chinese laundry in the King’s Chamber; a proposition to dispatch an army of laborers with shovels to the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to extinguish that volcano by shoveling in sand, might, in 1899, have been regarded as a plausible undertaking; the attempt of a delegation of Protestant ministers to personally convert the Sultan of Turkey from Mohamedanism and induce him to attend a camp-meeting, might have commended itself to all good citizens in 1899, but the startling proposition to remove the Papal Court from ancient Rome to South America, appeared to all minds in 1899 as the most improbable of all improbabilities,yet in 1945, (forty-six years later,) the public mind was better prepared for this great change and the removal of the Court of Rome in that year to Rio Janeiro was entertained in better grace and in a more conciliatory spirit.
In 1945 the position of the Papacy in Rome was no longer endurable. TheRome Unsafe for the Pontiff.sacred person of the Pontiff became no longer safe within the precincts of the Eternal City. The Vatican had been frequently violated by mobs from the banks of the Tiber and the slums of Rome, over which the Italian government could effect no control. The revered head of the church, like his Divine Master while on earth, knew not where to lay his head.
Europe in 1945 had no refuge or shelter to offer to His Holiness. Russia, the home of the Greek church, could offer him no asylum, where one of his exalted rank might dwell in peace. Austria, that steadfast and ever faithful son of the church, would gladly have sheltered the Papal Court, assuring it permanent safety and a splendor commensurate with its prestige, but, unfortunately for Austria in 1945 that country was rent in twain, a shadow of its former greatness. Hungary had long enjoyed her richly merited independence and in that year had become a leading European power.
The eyes of the Papacy could not turn to Spain for succor in 1945. Spain in that year was reduced to a barren waste, having expiated her crime of 1930, that of employing powerful fulminants from air-ships to destroy two African cities. France in 1945 had no refuge to offer the Pope.As a result of two unfortunate wars, she had passed into the custody of Germany, occupying the position of a mere vassal.
Realizing the serious difficulties which environed the Papal See in 1945, the Catholic states of the southern tier of the United States of the Americas, known as South America, made an urgent appeal that the Court of Rome might be removed into their midst.
Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina,The South to the Rescue.Paraguayand Patagonia levied contributions among the faithful and between them the munificient sum of $500,000,000 was raised, to be placed at the disposal of the Pope. Accompanying this gift offering was sent an earnest petition and prayer that the Pope would consent to abide in the new world, where a splendid reservation consisting of 17,000 square miles of choice lands had been placed at his disposal in the neighborhood of Rio Janeiro.
In the petition of the South American States praying His Holiness to acquiesce inthis important project, it was pointed out that the Pope would be domiciled upon the only continent which was catholic in its entirety, with no creed to oppose, and, in removing the throne of St. Peter to Rio Janeiro, the Pope would occupy the position of a patriarch surrounded by his faithful children. The invisible, but none the less galling fetters, that had enslaved the Pope since 1870, making him virtually a prisoner in the Vatican, would be entirely removed. In the State of Brazil he might rule a principality of no mean proportions, far larger and immeasurably more wealthy than the Papal kingdom of 1870 when Pius IX was yet King of Rome. The catholic citizens of South America represented fully the many advantages of removing the Papal Court from the old into the new world.
It will be recollected that in 1999 the total population of the United States of the Americas amounted to 531,000,000. Of this vast population at least 175,000,000 citizens residing in South America were adherents of the church of Rome.
The liberal offer that came from the South American States received the utmostThe Pope Accepts the Offer.attention from the Papal authorities. To withdraw from that ancient city seemed like the uprooting of all traditions. The irreligious were prone to make merry over the proposition, predicting with strange irreverence,that in Rio Janeiro the Pope would feel like a cat in a strange garret. But with such innuendoes we have nothing in common. Let history proceed undisturbed in its course.
It required a heroic sacrifice to give up Rome, filled with the most precious historic memories, a city in which lies enshrined the dust of St. Peter’s successors. This step meant the abandonment of that magnificent cathedral, which in 1999 still formed an aureole of glory about the Eternal City. But Rome in 1945 was no longer a safe tabernacle for the Papacy. Its mobs were unbridled in their license. The person of the Pontiff was no longer safe within the walls of the Vatican. The Italian government proved to be an abettor, if not an instigator, of these outrages.
With a dark, threatening cloud hovering over the throne of St. Peter in Europe, andAll Headed for the West.on the other hand, bright skies and a most alluring and tempting prospect eagerly awaiting its transferment to Rio de Janeiro, after longhesitationand endless Conclaves, the Sacred College of Cardinals, (the Pope concurring,) gave its official sanction in 1945 to the removal of the Papal See to the Western Hemisphere, under the ægis of the great American Constitution, the noblest document ever written by the fallible pen of man, a charter which protects and defends all who are worthy and they who seek its sheltering folds.