The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES. 179Like Him, he has his days of sorrow and his daysof joy his ; days of humiliation and death, and hisdays of exaltation and glory. Like Jesus Christ, heis one day greeted with acclamations as king, andanother day crucified by his enemies.But never does the Holy Father exhibit his titleas Vicar of Christ more strikingly than in the midstof tribulations ;for if he did not suffer, he wouldbear no resemblance to his divine Model andMaster ;and never does he more worthily deservethe filialhomage of his children than when he isheavily laden with the cross.I envy neither the heart nor the head of thosemen who are now gloating, with fiendish joy, overthe calamities of the Pope; who are heaping insultsand calumnies on his venerable head, while he isin the hands of his enemies, 1and who are confidently1Some time ago, my attention was called to a certain excommunication or "curse,"then widely circulated by thepress of North Carolina. The curse" is attributed to theHoly Father, and is fulminated against Victor Emmanuel.In this anathema, cursing and damning are heaped up in wildconfusion. When this base forgery appeared, an article exposing the falsehood of the production was published. Wefear, however, that many read the slanderous charge whodid not read its refutation.As to this "curse"against Victor Emmanuel so calumniouslyattributed to the Pope, I state here distinctly and positively that its author is not Pius IX., nor any other RomanPontiff, nor any Catholic Priest or layman. It is to theEev. Laurence Sterne, Minister of the Established Church