Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/581



REVIEW OF HIS PONTIFICATE. 675

must not be astonished that the most beloved children are struck when the father himself, that is to say the head of Cathohcity, the Roman Pontiff, is no better treated. The facts are known to all. Stripped of the temporal sovereignty and consequently of that independence which is necessary to accomplish his universal and divine mission; forced in Rome itself to shut himself up in his own dwell- ing because the enemy has laid siege to him on every side, he has been compelled in spite of the derisive assurances of respect and of the precarious promises of liberty to an abnormal condition of existence which is unjust and un- worth}'- of his exalted ministry. We know only too well the difficulties that are each instant created to thwart his intentions and to outrage his dignity. It only goes to prove what is every day more and more evident that it is the spiritual power of the head of the Church which little by little they aim at destroying when they attack the temporal power of the papacy. Those who are the real authors of this spoliation have not hesitated to con- fess it.

Judging by the consequences which have followed, this action was not only impolitic, but was an attack on society itself; for the assaults that are made upon religion are so many blows struck at the very heart of society.

In making man a being destined to live in society, God in His providence has also founded the Church, which as the holy text expresses it, He has established on Mount Zion in order that it might be a hght which, with its life- giving rays, would cause the principle of life to penetrate into the various degrees of hiunan society by giving it dixnnely inspired laws, by means of which society might establish itself in that order which would be most con- ducive to its welfare. Hence in proportion as society separates itself from the Church, which is an important element in its strength, by so much does it decline, or its woes are multiplied for the reason that they are sepa- rated whom God wished to bind together.