p. 102 | Twenty-fifth Year of Pius IX

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1874

Twenty-fifth Year of Pius IX.

By John Norton Loughborough

I MUST here tell you something about a Catholic display I witnessed in San Francisco, on Sunday, July 2, 1871, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the pontificate of Pius IX. The Catholic church have long claimed that “St. Peter was pope for twenty-five years, and that no other pope would reign so long but the last one, and that before his death Christ will come.” It is true no pope ever has attained to a reign of twenty-five years until Pius IX. So, of course, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate was an important event, celebrated with great pomp and display in various parts of the world. Perhaps the display in San Francisco was as great as anywhere.

The expense of this display, was stated to be some $50,000, and over fifty thousand Catholics were in the great procession. Some idea may be formed of the vast procession when we tell you that it required two and one-fourth hours for it to pass any given point. There were thirteen bands of music accompanying the procession, at different intervals, and the procession was arranged in twelve different divisions as follows:—

In the first division were nineteen cars trimmed with yellow and white, each drawn by two horses, representing the nineteen centuries. On an elevated central portion of each car were the names of the popes claimed for each century. On the first car were the names, Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement, the popes claimed for the first century. In this car there were twelve young ladies dressed in white, representing the twelve apostles, and it had also represented upon it a large painting of Christ delivering the keys to St. Peter. In the nineteen cars were represented, by young ladies dressed in white, two hundred and fifty-nine popes, a list of which, with the time of the reign of each, we will publish soon.

The second division of the procession was composed of soldiers and protective associations.

The third division consisted of several hundred Hibernian soldiers in full uniform of green, &c. This division was arranged in six subdivisions.

The fourth division was composed of parishioners and school children of St. Mary’s Cathedral. In this division was a triumphal car drawn by six white horses. This car consisted of a large platform with four short pillars, each crowned with a bouquet of flowers. From the center sprang four pillars supporting a dome, the exterior of which was deep blue, spangled with stars of silver. Around the outer rim of the top were the signs of the zodiac. Beneath, on a tastefully decorated pedestal, was a gilded bust of Pio Nono. At the base of the car was the motto, “One fold, and one Shepherd.” Beneath this was, “Christ our Lord is king, and the pope is the vicar of the King.”

The fifth division was made up of Catholic Sunday-school children and convent girls. In this division was a car with twenty-five girls dressed in white, representing the twenty-five years of the pope.

Sixth division, many decorated cars, footmen, &c.

The seventh division contained the boys of the sanctuary, Society of St. Ignatius, dressed as they are when they serve at the altar, in scarlet skirts and caps, lace skirts over the scarlet, scarlet skull caps, twenty-four of them in all; also a car of twenty-five young ladies dressed in white, representing the years of the pontificate of Pius IX.

In the eighth division was a car with a picture of a rock surrounded with water, and on it the name, Peter. From the base of the rock and rising to its top were the names of eighteen of the most distinguished popes, one from each century. In this division was also a car filled with children, and on the car was the inscription in German:—

“The first of all the popes was Peter, For five and twenty years he reigned: No pope of all that followed have, Save Pius IX., this length attained.”

The ninth was the visitors’ division, in which were large representations from Oakland, Vallejo, San Rafael, and other cities.

The tenth division contained many decorated cars; in one of the cars were twenty-five young ladies as before.

Eleventh division, soldiers, and a car with twenty-five young ladies, each bearing a white cross.

The twelfth and last division comprised two hundred and thirty-three teams.

In one division there was a car in which were men and boys of all colors and nationalities, and this motto inscribed upon the car: “The church of Rome claims all nations as her children.” Throughout the procession there was a profuse display of yellow ribbon, and many thousands of white flags, stamped in yellow, with the pope’s tiara, and the crossed keys of St. Peter, resting upon an altar.

The sight of the procession was imposing and well calculated to effect that for which it was gotten up—to move the people through their senses instead of their judgment. But, like the displays at St. Peter’s, Rome, it ill comports with the saying of Christ that the kingdom of God “cometh not with outward show.”

A speech was made on this occasion by the Hon. Zach. Montgomery, of Oakland, Cal., from which I shall make some extracts, as I wish to contrast it with one made by Aug. D. Splivalo at a celebration of Italy’s Union, held in San Francisco, Aug. 6, 1871. Both of these men are Catholics in religion, but differing in their ideas of the temporal power of the pope; therefore they give us in their speeches both sides of that question.

Zach. Montgomery says: “John Maria Mastai Ferretti was appointed as pope under the title of Pius IX., June 16, 1846.” He was born May 13, 1792, hence he was eighty-one years of age in May, 1873. “There are one thousand archbishops and bishops under his jurisdiction, and Pius IX. lies enthroned in the hearts of two hundred millions of his children throughout the world.” What is this temporal power of the pope, which he is called upon to surrender? Whence was it derived? What are its objects?

ROME BELONGS TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

“More than a thousand years ago, after the downfall of the Roman Empire had left Italy for centuries a prey to the successful incursions of the Huns, the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards, and the other savage tribes, the Catholic powers of Europe, foremost among which was France, drove off the barbarian hordes, and with the consent and even to the great joy of the Italian people, they set apart a small spot of Italian territory as the property of the universal church, and then they clothed the head of that church with temporal sovereignty over that territory, for the purpose of securing and perpetuating to him and his successors, for all coming time, entire spiritual independence in their dealings with all the different nations and people of Christendom. It was upon the faith of that act which clothed the pope with temporal sovereignty over the pontifical States, and with the full understanding that it should remain as a guarantee and a shield for the free exercise of his spiritual functions throughout the nations, that Catholic charity all over the world has, from that time to the present, poured its choicest gifts into the lap of Rome.

“It was upon the faith of this act that St. Peter’s, the grandest Roman structure that ever rose to honor God, or attest the genius of man, was built, at a cost of more than $80,000,000, gathered, in great part, from the private purses of tens of millions of Catholics who never set foot on the soil of Italy. . . . As some eloquent writer has well expressed: ‘Rome is not the property of the Romans, but of the Roman Catholics.’ The pope holds his temporal power not alone for himself, nor for the people of the pontifical States, but he holds it in trust for the universal church. It belongs to that church.”

He next proceeded to claim that the position of the popes’ temporal dominion to the rest of the world is like the relation of the District of Columbia to the rest of the United States, not the property of the States, but of the general government, and “the Constitution declares that Congress shall exercise exclusive legislation over this in all cases whatsoever.”

Again he says: “But if God Almighty, for the good of mankind, has granted infallibility to the popes’ decisions in matters of faith, he never intended that mankind should leave it optional with ambitious tyrants to say whether these decisions, when made, should be published to the world, for its guidance, or whether they should be committed to the flames or lost in the rubbish of a prison, unseen by other eyes than those of their author.”

“This same Almighty, as every Catholic believer, has placed upon the rock, Peter, the beacon light of faith for the spiritual illumination of the world; but it is for us to see to it that this sacred light be allowed to penetrate the hearts of ourselves and our children, and that no impious usurping hand dares to cast its black shadows between.”

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.