Papacy Negotiations with England
THE following dispatch from Rome under date of November 14 is significant:— "According to the Vatican correspondent of the Political Correspondence, the real object of the extraordinary mission of Sir John L. Simmons to Rome is to offer to the Holy See the re-establishment of an ecclesiastical court in Malta as it existed at the time of the Grand Masters of the Maltese order. In return the British will ask that the Catholic bishop of Malta should be raised to the rank of a metropolitan, and made primate of all the Catholic apostolic missions and vicarates in the English possessions in Africa. If this question is satisfactorily solved the negotiations may be extended so as to enhance the position of the Catholic hierarchy in India. In Vatican circles it is hoped that the negotiations will end with the establishment of regular diplomatic relations between the holy see and the court of St. James." The crafty Leo will no doubt know how to take every advantage which this negotiation may afford, and which England may offer. The rapidity with which the Papacy is regaining its lost prestige would be startling were it not for the sure word of prophecy, which prepares those who heed its warnings for these things. The world will worship the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live, but God will be the hope and defense of his people.