Written in that masonic, progressive bastion called the New York Times, within a month of the death of Pius X and right after Benedict XV was elected. Who is their hero? That "great statesman" - Rampolla. NEW POPE WILL BRING NEW ERA
By: A Veteran Diplomat
The New York Times
September 6, 1914
WITH the accession of Benedict XV to the Chair of St. Peter there commences a new era for the Papacy. Those who regard him as imbued with the views of Pius X, of Cardinal Merry del Val and of Cardinal de Lai will find themselves mistaken.
While the new Pope will defer in a measure to those traditions which require that he should, at any rate for a time, he will refrain from making any too ʀɛʋօʟutιօnary changes of a nature to impair the prestige and authority of the Church at home and abroad, changes which would indicate a public disapproval by the new Pontiff of the acts of his predecessor on the throne, there is no doubt whatsoever that his policies will become in due course radically different to those of the late reign. In one word, the sway of Benedict XV over 200,000,00 Christians who accord him their spiritual allegiance will be marked not immediately, but within the next year or so, by a reversal to the policies of Leo XIII and of that great statesman who was his Prime Minister, the late Cardinal Rampolla.
In the comments printed in the American newspapers on Friday on the subject of his ɛƖɛctıon, Benedict XV was described as a particular favorite of Pius X and as the most trusted collaborator of Cardinal Merry del Val. But the new Pontiff as Mgr. Giacomo della Chiesa, was removed by the late Pope from the position of Under Secretary of State, which he held during the closing years of Leo XIII, because he was unable to work in harmony with Cardinal Merry del Val after the latter’s appointment to the Pontifical Premiership in succession to Rampolla.
Both Pius X and Merry del Val felt that Mgr. della Chiesa was altogether out of sympathy with their views – views diametrically opposed to those of Rampolla, and, moreover, were imbued with the belief that della Chiesa was in the habit of discussing their policies with Rampolla in a critical fashion. It was for this reason that he was appointed Archbishop of Bologna, in succession to the late Cardinal Svampa, the main object of Merry del Val being to get him away from the Eternal City, where he enjoyed great influence and prestige in ecclesiastical circles, by reason of his remarkable knowledge of the wheels and workings of the administration of the Church, and also because of his mastery of all the network of relations of the Vatican with foreign powers.
It is perfectly true that Pius X paid him the somewhat unusual compliment of consecrating him himself in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. But this may be construed as having been intended to gild the pill of what was regarded at the time as exile and also to make amends for not bestowing upon him the red hat, to which he was entitled by custom and precedent. For Pius X was a very kind hearted, benevolent man, and realized that Mgr. della Chiesa, whose piety he admired, but those of whose political leanings he disapproved, was not being treated according either to his merits or his deserts.
An attempt had been made sometime previously to eliminate Mgr. della Chiesa from the Department of State and from his membership of the Curia, by appointing him Nuncio to the Court of Madrid. But he declined to accept the office. For with the Radical Cabinet then in power at Madrid, which was committed to all sorts of legislation opposed to the interests of the Church, he realized that his position at Madrid would become untenable, and that his mission there would inevitably result in failure, in one word, that it would discredit him – which perhaps was intended.
Archbishop della Chiesa had to wait, indeed, for seven long years until his tardy elevation to the Sacred College of the Consistory held last Spring. And like Leo XIII, he comes to the Papal throne with the reputation of having been somewhat harshly treated not to say neglected during the reign of his immediate predecessor.
Pope Benedict, unlike the saintly Pius X, who was a village priest – and who retained the endearing and attractive qualities as well as the limitations of the latter until the hour of his death – is a man of the world, in the very best sense of the term – a man of the world blended with the man of God. Reared at the wonderful Ecclesiastic Academy of Nobles at Rome, from which so many great diplomats and famous statesman in the world – he spent the earlier portion of his career as Secretary of the Papal Embassy at Madrid when Cardinal Rampolla was Nuncio there.
That was a very interesting time. It coincided with the death of Alfonso XII, the succession of Infanta Mercedes, and her relinquishment of the throne six months later on the posthumous birth of her brother, the present King. The late Don Carlos, Pretender to the throne of Spain, and his adherents took advantage of the situation to become exceedingly active, appealing to the well known hostility of the untraveled Spaniards toward everything foreign, against the notion of having the country ruled by the Austrian widow of Alfonso XII as Regent throughout the long minority of her children.
The situation of Queen Regent Christina, indeed, with the people and most of the lower clergy against her, was critical in the extreme, so much so, indeed, that the Conservative Premier, Canovas, voluntarily abandoned his office to the Radical leader Sagasta, and accorded him his support in order to avert a downfall not only of the foreign born Queen Regent, but of her children’s throne. The proclamation of Don Carlos as King, or of another Republic, seemed inevitable to all impartial students of the affairs of the Peninsula.
If Queen Christina was able to retain her place at the helm of the Spanish ship of State and if she was successful in preserving the Crown for her boy until he attained his majority at the age of sixteen, it was largely, if not mainly, due to the powerful assistance which she received from the Papal Nuncio, Cardinal Rampolla, and in a minor degree from is secretary, confidant, and chief lieutenant, Mgr. della Chiesa. The parish clergy exercise an immense influence over the masses of rural Spain, and the Nuncio, by preventing the priests of the small towns and villages from giving free rein to their Carlist sympathies and by compelling them to remain loyal to the monarch to whom they had sworn allegiance, may be said to have effectually prevented any Carlist revolution against the young King.
Cardinal Rampolla proved one of the wisest and most sagacious counselors of the Queen Regent, who, when she assumed the reins of government had no administrative experience and but little knowledge of the affairs of State. It is largely to his credit that instead of taking advantage of her Habsburg devotion toward the Church to push her toward an ultra clerical policy he should on the contrary, have encouraged her to pursue the path of liberalism, thereby consolidating the foundations of her boy’s throne.
Later on, when Cardinal Rampolla became Secretary of State at Rome, he selected his former secretary at Madrid to become his principal Adlatus and substitute in his absence. In fact, Mgr. della Chiesa became completely identified with is chief’s policies.
These, as everyone is aware, were characterized by a considerable amount of liberalism. They were marked by a suspension of the hostilities which had existed between the Papacy and the French Republic. In fact, so amicable was the intercourse between the two that the French clergy and people were given to understand by the Vatican that there was no inconsistency between devout Catholicism and good Republicanism and that it was preferable in the eyes of the Church to render obedience to the duly constituted authorities of the land, even if Republican, than to take part in monarchical movements and plots to overthrow the Government of the day.
During much of this time, Cardinal Ferrata was Nuncio at Paris, carrying out the policies of Leo XIII and of Rampolla, and thus Mgr. della Chiesa was thrown much into contact with him and established an intimacy and a close friendship and sympathy of ideas, which have resulted in the appointment of Cardinal Ferrata to the office of Secretary of State, which was vacated by Cardinal Merry del Val through the death of Pius X.
If I lay stress on the association of Pope Benedict with Cardinal Rampolla at Madrid and at Rome and also with Cardinal Ferrata, it is in order to point out that he leans rather toward liberalism than reaction in matters political, and also ecclesiastical. That he will reverse the anti modernist decrees of the late Pontiff is improbable, at any rate for some time to come. But it may safely be assumed that he will materially soften what is severe and uncompromising in their nature and favor a more liberal interpretation thereof than has been tolerated until now.
As I have endeavored to point out, he is not only an ecclesiastic, but also a statesman, who, with his knowledge of diplomacy and with his experience of foreign Governments, is able to appreciate that the welfare of the Church, especially in these present times, demands more charity than rigor, and more Christian indulgence than Christian severity. His policy will so far as can be judged by his past, be one of conciliation, rather than of aggression and he may be expected to seek to attract into the Church those who, like St. Thomas are inclined to doubt, rather than to repel them, because of the difficulty which they may experience in reconciling logic with faith.
Like Rampolla, the new Pope belongs to a very ancient family, having inherited the title of Marquis della Chiesa from a long line of ancestors. Whereas Rampolla belonged to the aristocracy of Sicily, the new Pontiff is a member of the patriclate of Genoa, where the name of his family has figured for many centuries in the Golden Book of what was once the Republic of Genoa.
Like Rampolla, too, he is disposed to silence rather than to speech, and conveys the impression of never speaking without having duly considered beforehand just what he wants to say. He is very self contained and unemotional, more so perhaps than any prelate now living belonging to a Church the discretion and reserve of the members of which have achieved a worldwide fame. He may safely he relied upon to exercise the same wonderful care and patient consideration that Leo XIII was wont to give to his decrees before issuing them and there will be no necessity in his case of having to explain away the terms of an encyclical, as Cardinal Merry del Val was obliged to do on one occasion during the reign of Pius X, in the case of Germany.
Then, too, Benedict XV, having been so long a Prelate of the Curia, may be counted upon to restore to the Sacred College its attributes as Senate of the Church. Pius X especially during the latter part of his reign rarely consulted its members and they were afforded no opportunity to fulfill their functions as Senators of the Papacy. The powers and the authority that should have belonged to them were gradually centred in the hands of Cardinal de Lai, a Venetian like Pius X and Cardinal Merry del Val. The result of this was to unite the other Italian members of the Sacred College into a very strong and powerful opposition to the policies of the late Pontiff, which included even those members who were indebted to him for their red hats.
It is this opposition which may be said to have elected the Marquis Giacomo della Chiesa, Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna, as successor to Pius X and as he is known to have been in sympathy with the members of this opposition, it may safely be assumed that he will personify to a very great extent their views, now that they have raised him to the Chair of St. Peter.
What his attitude toward the Quirnale is likely to be may be inferred from the fact that one of his brothers is an Admiral and another a Captain of the Royal Navy, and that the blessings which he bestowed upon the troops who left for the war in Tripoli and who returned at is close were characterized by the most ringing patriotism. His relations, too, with the Italian authorities at Bologna have been signalized by a considerable amount of friendliness and it is improbably, therefore, that there will be any change in the Modus Vivendi between Church and State that has existed, to the advantage of both, for some past.
The question is asked as to what the meaning is of the new Pope’s selection of the title of Benedict XV and whether there are any political inferences to be drawn therefrom. The only reason that I can imagine why Cardinal della Chiesa should have chosen this title is that the last Cardinal
Archbishop of Bologna was Benedict XIV, who died in1758. Like Benedict XV, he was remarkable for his incisive intellect, for his profound knowledge of foreign politics and for his experience of the work of the Roman Curia, in several important capacities. He was also famous for his cheerfulness, and his wit, and his reign was so efficient, so popular and so successful in every way that it constitutes an excellent augury for that of Benedict XV.
Topic: Cardinal Rampolla (Read 7084 times)