Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1891 — MUST THE POPE LEAVE? [ARTICLE]

MUST THE POPE LEAVE?

A Serious and Threatening Condition of Affairs. The Vatican la Conrinced That the Eat* Disorders Resulted From Italian Jealousy. Ina recent Interview one of the most prominent Cardinals, known to be an intimate friend of the Pope, and one of his advisers, said that the Vatican is convinced that the late disorders at Rome precipitated by Freaeh pilgrims, were' really Instituted by the Italian government, which has become jealous of the growing influence of the Pope and the amicable relations which exist between France and the Vatican. The Dreibund is cognizant, the Cardinal continued, of Italy’s complicity in the Mennoti Garibaldi affair, and at that time the Under Home Secretary, Lucca, arranged a project for a circular letter to be sent to the mayors of the provincial towns instructing them- - to— arrange “ s manifesto. The Cardinal declared that the Italian government would prefer the assassination or expulsion of the Pope to the present situation. The Pope himself had recently said: “I am no longer a prisoner, but a hostage menaced with expulsion or assassination unless I capitulate before the enemy.” The Cardinal, continuing, said that the Pope would never accept the present situation, but nothing has as yet been de cidedupon in the matter of his leaving Rome. The conclave is abroad and many of the cardinals have hitherto been reluctant to act in this matter, but they have greatly modified their views since the French pilgrim disorders. The latter may have the gravest consequences for Italy and the Vatican and the general situation and perhaps seriously alter the relations between all the European power s and the Vatican. It is said in- ecclesiastical circles that the occupation of Rome by Italy would finish like the finish to the French commune, by the massacre of the hostages.