The War Upon Religion / Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-Christianism in Europe

by Francis A. Cunningham

The new Pope, Leo XIII., a native of Carpinetti, of the family of the Pecci, was one fitted to guide the bark of Peter in the trying circumstances in which he found it. The law of guarantees apparently in force could be said to shield the person of the Holy Father only because he gave no opportunity for its infringement. As a prisoner in the Vatican he could not easily come into conflict with the radical elements of the City who would show him scant courtesy did he choose to appear in the public streets, notwithstanding the law of guarantees.

In fact the temper of the mob has betrayed itself on more than one occasion. On the night of July 12, 1881, as the remains of the late Pope Pius IX were being borne to their last resting place in the cemetery of San Lorenzo. The event was made the occasion of rowdyism unimpeded by any surveillance on the part of the government authorities. As the funeral cortege moved along, the chorus of mockery and insult was raised on all sides. The police did nothing to silence the disturbers. Encouraged by this tolerance the mob went still farther. Insults were succeeded by threats. Then followed violence; stones were hurled and blows rained upon the members of the cortege. The faithful followed piously chanting the Miserere or reciting the Rosary, while the enemy howled the Garibaldian song. In the Piazza dei Termi the crowd hurled showers of stones. The attending prelates were insulted, threatened with death, and struck upon the face. The faithful gathered around the funeral car determined to resent the profanations of the savage mob. It was only when the Church of San Lorenzo was reached that the police at length thought fit to intervene. The danger was then over, and the funeral obsequies proceeded in comparative peace.

LEO XIII. AND LABOR.

The true genius of the prisoner of the Vatican began first to manifest itself in his attitude towards the Knights of Labor in the States of America and Canada. Cardinal Taschereau of Quebec, and the Canadian prelates, as well as some prelates of the extreme party in the United States had almost secured the condemnation of this great labor organization by the Sacred Congregation at Rome. This body, it was claimed, was constituted somewhat after the model of Freemasonry; it had its secrets hidden from the outside world, and it had likewise a code of signs and passwords known only to the initiated. Catholics numbered largely among its members, and for this reason it was considered that the characteristics of this organization were those of a secret society which brought it under the ban of the Church.

POPE LEO XIII.

But for the Pope the condemnation of the Knights of Labor by the Sacred Congregation would no doubt have been pronounced. Freemasonry, with its stupendous oaths and its invocations of dire and dreadful penalties in case of the violation of such oaths, with its liturgical services and elaborate ceremonial—not to mention Continental Freemasonry with its factional political policy and aims—was an altogether different thing from the constitution and workings of the society known as the Knights of Labor. The avowed object of the Knights of Labor was the right of the laborer to a voice in determining the price at which he should part with his labor. It had no suggestion of anything revolutionary or anti-Christian. To have condemned this particular organization would have meant the condemnation of labor unionism everywhere.

Leo had already shown his sympathy for the workingman in many an expression of marked significance. His unconcealed admiration for much of what was characteristically American made him glad of the opportunity to pronounce officially in favor of this great organization of American workingmen.

The Encyclical which followed in 1891 made glad the sons of Labor throughout the world, and gave satisfaction to all democratic communities. Some of the sentences may well be quoted here: "The customs of working by contract, and the concentration of so many branches of trade in the hands of a few individuals, have brought about a condition of things by means of which a very small number of rich men have been able to lay upon the masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.... Is it that the fruit of a man's own sweat and labor should be possessed by someone else?... If the workman has to accept harder conditions because the employer will not grant him better, he is the victim of force and injustice." Sentiments like these had been expressed by other writers and other teachers, but coming from such a quarter and at such a time, they powerfully influenced the minds of the working classes, and won a regard for the Pope which has not died with his death. Even so great an aristocrat as Dr. Moorehouse, the Protestant Bishop of Melbourne, later of Manchester, in speaking of the Pope's Encyclical, said: "He shows a spirit very vast, a great depth of knowledge and a foresight most sagacious." Barres, the celebrated French Socialist, said: "Let the Pope go on, and democracy will no longer see an enemy in the priest."

President Cleveland recognized the Pope's spirit by sending him a bound copy of the American Constitution, to which his Holiness graciously replied, and added these words: "In your country men enjoy liberty in the true sense of the word, guaranteed by that Constitution of which you have sent me a copy. The character of the President rouses my most genuine admiration." The Pope's recognition of the French Republic was part of his policy of conciliation, and gained for the Church many practical benefits in France.