Pope Pius IX | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 6, 1871

Pope Pius IX.

MRS. LAURA CURTIS BULLARD, writing from Rome to the Golden Age, gives the following interesting sketch of the present condition of the papacy:

The pope has constituted himself a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican. He has ordered the omission of all the customary ceremonies of the church. He allows no one to visit the galleries and museums of the Vatican without a permit; and in fact, he is taking great pains to make himself generally and thoroughly disagreeable. For an infallible man, he exhibits a degree of ill temper at the loss of his temporal power that is rather surprising. He has not a good word for any one. The journal which is his organ, L’Unita Cattolica, calls Napoleon III. “a rascal”—a poor compliment to the man who, more than any other monarch of this century, has tried to sustain the temporal power. But popes, it seems, are not free from the general weakness of humanity, which is to kick a man when he is, or is supposed to be, down. There is a tradition in Rome that if a pope occupies the chair of St. Peter for twenty-five years, he will be the last of the long line of the apostolic princes; and if Pius IX. lives till next June, that tradition will have a chance to be tested. He has been a most unfortunate monarch, and his ill luck is not confined to himself. It is a singular fact that every royal house which has received his blessing has been remarkably unfortunate. He blessed Maximilian and poor Carlotta just before the ill-starred Mexican expedition. He blessed Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria, just before his conflict with Prussia, and his defeat at Sadowa. He blessed Isabella, queen of Spain, and sent to her the golden rose; and she lost her throne almost immediately after. He blessed Louis Napoleon and Eugenie; and they are exiles and wanderers on the face of the earth. He cursed Victor Emanuel, and excommunicated him; and he is king of Italy, beloved of his people, victorious over his nation’s enemies. His son Amadeus is the newly elected king of Spain; one of his daughters, the queen of Portugal.