The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

174 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.likely to occur so long as the Pope remains the subject of any earthly potentate. 1But we are told that the Roman people, by aplebiscitum, or popular vote, expressed their desireto be annexed to the Piedraontese Government. Tothis I answer, in the first place, that we ought toknow what importance to attach to elections heldunder the shadow of the bayonet. And it iswell known that the Roman plebiscitum was undertaken by the authority, and guided by the inspiration, of the Italian troops. It is equally notorious that the numerous stragglers who accompanied the Italian army to Rome, legalized thegigantic fraud of their master, as well as their ownpetty thefts, by voting in favor of annexation.In the second place, the Roman people, even had1Some of the evils that were predicted to follow from theoccupation of Rome by a foreign power have been toospeedily realized. Already several convents and otherecclesiastical institutions have been seized and sold, aadtheir inmates sent adrift. A number of colleges foundedand endowed by the piety of foreign Catholics have beenconfiscated.Public religious processions through the streetsof Rome have been prohibited ;and these and other outrages are perpetrated by a government which solemnlypledged itself to maintain inviolate the sovereign rights ofthe Holy Father when it took forcible possession of his cityin 1870. From the events that have already transpired, wewill not be surprised to see the Pope still more seriouslyhampered by a monarch who has unscrupulously violatedbis former guarantees.