Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/12

6 to preserve peace and concord not only among Catholics but between them and their fellow-citizens, whether believers in Christianity or not, and an unfailing spirit of hope, are the chief characteristics of Leo in these Encyclicals. The great Pontiff was no pessimist. If he never lost sight of the evils afflicting humanity, neither did he ever fail to provide a remedy, nor on occasion to take comfort in what was good, and to praise most generously all who had labored to accomplish it; in this he was really the Vicar of Christ, from his tribulations learning patience, from patience trial, and from trial hope—the hope that confoundeth not, because it shared in the supreme confidence of Christ in humanity, who, as Leo loved to remind men, was willing “when we were yet weak, according to the time, to die even for the ungodly.”

For translations of Encyclicals not specially made for this book we are indebted to The Tablet, The American Catholic Quarterly Review, The Catholic World, The Messenger, The Catholic Mind, “The Pope and the People,” and various pamphlets published by Benziger Brothers.