Leo XIII. died peacefully on July 20, 1903. He was succeeded by Cardinal Joseph Sarto, patriarch of Venice, a native of Riese near Padua in Northern Italy, where he was born June 2, 1835. He was ordained to the priesthood September 18, 1858; was made Bishop of Mantua November 10, 1884; Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice in June, 1893; and finally Pope, taking the name of Pius X. on August 4, 1903.
ACCESSION OF PIUS X.
Pope Pius X. came to his inheritance in a time of fearful storm and stress. The war on religion was already far advanced in France, and its mutterings were beginning to be heard in other States. But the new Pope, putting his trust in Him Whose Vicar he was, placed before himself the sublime mission of restoring all things in Christ.
His reign of seven years has already been signalized by an extraordinary virility, and a care for all in the Church. His encyclicals are marked by their timeliness and practical character. In 1906, his eyes as they surveyed the new direction of anti-Christianism, that modern refinement of error, detected its features in the movement to which he gave the name of Modernism. This system condemned by him as the synthesis of all heresies, is the destruction of the idea of Christian doctrine by the theoretical or practical subordination of Catholicism to the modern spirit. The modern world, with its ideas, its customs, its needs, Modernism tells us, is an imposing fact; no power, not even the Church, can arrest its progress; it is therefore necessary to prevent the Church, intimately allied as it is with the life of modern society, from falling into ruin; it must transform its doctrines, and make them harmonize with the needs of a new age. The ideas of the Catholic faith ought to progress like the ideas of philosophy and the profane sciences. Such is the contention of the Modernists.
MODERNISM.
They forget that the Catholic also can have modern ideas and can draw profit for himself from all that is commendable in modern progress. But at the same time the Church is actually in possession of a deposit of faith infinitely true and intangible, coming as it does from divine Truth itself, and being true it cannot undergo such changes as are signified by the word evolution. But the adaptations which this modern spirit would demand of her are nothing more than an evolution, and would mean the abandonment of her Gospel, her dogmas, her supernatural life—in a word of herself.
The condemnation of Modernism naturally aroused the anger of its votaries. It had already gained to itself many men of prominence such as Schell in Germany, Fogazzaro in Italy, Loisy in France, and Tyrrell in England, all of whom made desperate endeavors to offset the effect of the Papal condemnation. But the efforts of the Holy Father were successful; Modernism has lost its prestige as a system, and men now that they are warned of its true character are quickly abandoning its influences.
THE METHODISTS IN ROME.
An incident which created considerable excitement both in Europe and America was the visit of ex-President Roosevelt to Rome in April, 1910. While Mr. Roosevelt was yet in Egypt on his way homeward, he sent a telegram to Mr. Leishman, the American Ambassador in Rome, requesting that official to arrange for an audience with the Holy Father. It was only shortly before that Mr. Fairbanks, the former Vice-President, had been refused an audience because of his expressed determination to visit and address the Methodist establishment in the Via Venti Settembre, an institution hostile and insulting to the Papacy and the Catholic Church.
Just as the desire of Mr. Roosevelt became known to the Vatican, it was also ascertained that strenuous efforts were being made by the Methodists to secure the presence of the ex-President at a public gathering. They had enlisted the services of Mr. Leishman to this end, and as Mr. Roosevelt had not declined the invitation, it became necessary to ascertain that he would not accept it before being invited to an audience at the Vatican. The arrangements for the audience were being made through Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Kennedy, D. D., titular bishop of Indianapolis and rector of the American College, but the ex-President refused to say that he would not accept the invitation of the Methodists, and thus the audience was cancelled. The incident was a sad reflection upon the good judgment of Mr. Roosevelt, who should have known the character of the Roman Methodist concern and what it meant to the Holy See; that it was an insult to the Holy Father, and to millions of his fellow-citizens.