Take Heed to the Sure Word of Prophecy.
“I BEHELD then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” Dan. 7:11. “And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2:8. The following statements from Connellan in the Pilot—a strictly Catholic organ, printed in Boston, we think are wonderful concessions to the verification of the above prophecies. Indeed, it seems not a little singular that such statements should come from such a source. We give the italics:— The year that has just been gathered to the past, while it has not been distinguished by those greater events which strike men with wonder and horror, has yet been filled with many grievous incidents, and has been marked by the development of principles which have produced, and will continue to produce, sad results to Europe. From west to east, from north to south, from France (where, indeed, the opposition to Catholicity is less, perhaps, than anywhere else) to Turkey, from Italy to Russia, the rulers of Europe are in arms against the Catholic church. In some fashion or other the Catholics of every country are suffering. Here, education is the channel through which persecution is inflicted; there, sequestration of church property is the grievance, and, in other parts, banishment of the clergy inflicts the gravest wrong on Catholics. A rapid glance at the various countries of Europe, and a review of the salient points in their history during the past year, will show what spirit is at work, and will enable us to connect the events of the twelve months that are gone with the events that may occur during the year that is beginning. To Catholics, Rome must be the beginning and the end of every question touching religion or foreign politics. The conditions made around the Pope, his continued imprisonment, his words and his acts, possess at the present time a more powerful interest than any other series of questions occupying the nations of the world. The latter days of 1871 beheld Pius IX. forsaken by the governments of the world, with the solitary exception of the Republic of Ecuador, and the year 1872 opened and concluded, leaving the Pope in a similar, probably in a worse, condition with governments. The nations of Europe are thus, for the most part, in open warfare with the Sovereign Pontiff. In person, surrounded by enemies, slandered in the press, insulted by caricatures, his guards slain, his mandates disregarded, his words perverted to basest uses—behold the condition of His Holiness Pope Pius IX. in the 81st year of his age, in his holy city of Rome!