Blessed Sacrament Academy - Silva Yearbook (San Antonio, TX)

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ll O J ,.. H? 5 . 43:5 f IN MEMORIAM -,e o V Panegyric preached by Reverend S. M. Metzger, S.T.D.. I.C.D. Pro-Rector of St. Iohn's Seminary. at the Memorial Mass for THE LATE HOLY FATHER. POPE PIUS XI 'Behold. a High Priest who in his days was pleasing to God and was found just in the time of wrath he was made a reconciliation. These words from the Roman Breviary are a scriptural biography of our beloved Holy Father. Pius XI, whose passing from our midst has left the entire world in mourning. History shows that for every world crisis an ever watchful Divine Providence has moulded a figure who was qualified to save the human race from its own self-destruction. Such a figure was Pius Xl. Our Divine Master spent thirty of His thirty-three years in the hidden life: so too it was the will of the Divine Master that Achille Ratti, the humble weaver's son, who was in due time to reign over His Church as His Vicar upon earth. should spend 61 of his 81 years in comparative obscurity before he was elevated to a position in the international spiritual affairs of the Church. These sixty-one years embrace his life as a seminarian. his priestly ordination, his six years as a professor in the Seminary of Milan. his twenty-five years of service with the Ambrosian Library of Milan, his three and a half years as Prefect of the Vatican Library. No one. least of all Achilles Ratti himself. would have thought that these sixty one years devoted largely to academic pursuits were to be his preparation for the Papacy. In the course of time he was held in the highest esteem by the very limited and select group of international scholars whose sole interest in life is learning. But learning was not the only field to occupy the talents of Don Achilles Ratti. For him devoted six years of training and moulding of priestly vocations in the Seminary of Milan and at the same time was appointed the first chaplain of the newly formed convent of the Society of our Lady of the Cenacle. This Society had been established in order to foster spiritual retreats among women of the laity and as their chief instrument in carrying out this work they were to use the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatus of Loyola. For thirty years of his life in Milan Achilles Ratti was closely associated with this work of the Cenacle. From his long experience with the Spiritual Exercises he became imbued with the philosophy of spiritual combat and with the practice of soldiery bravery and discipline against all evils I ' . O O O O . sacerdotallzeal and personal santification were always of prime importance. He 1 Z which threaten our souls. He was not one of that race of scholars who are unaware of the world outside their books. But his interests were always universal. that touched man failed to interest him. From the quiet of the Seminary and library he looked out upon the world not only with the penetrating acumen of a great mind but with the compasionate heart of a saint and with the courage of a leader. Nothing The sixty-one years of preparation were now complete and it remained for Don Achilles Ratti to enter into the public stage of international affairs. The great War Pope, Benedict XV of happy memory, set the stage for Don Achilles Ratti. In 1918 the Bishops of Poland requested Benedict XV to send out an official from Rome to consult with them about the religious restoration of their country which was now in the process of the national union. To his great surprise Don Achilles Ratti himself was chosen for this delicate mission. How well he accomplished his task is evident from the fact that he him- self became the first nuncio to Warsaw and was consecrated titular Archbishop of Lepanto. During these years Poland was menaced by the Bolchevist Red hordes of Russia until the very walls of Warsaw were threatened. Archives and govern- ment offices were transferred elsewhere. The hour had come when there was no Page Twenty-Three time

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9' A Tnbute to The Holy Father The Church is ever militant: somctimes she gains' sometimes she loses: and with the latter in mind we sadly recall the death of His Holiness, Pope Pius IX which occurred on February 10 1939. This is a loss not only to the Catholic Church and its 400,000 000 communicants but to the whole world since his charity extended far beyond the great Church of which he was the head and to all mankind. His passing from this earthly life came at a time when he is so sorely needed: a time of strife and bitter tumult amidst which he stood imperturb- able and calm preaching love and fraternity to nations that were aroused through mutual hate. With rare power and eloquence he vindicated in his Encyclicals the rights of the individual man, of the family and of labor. This last he did by fearlessly opposing Atheistic Communism, Nazism and Fascism and warning the world against them though by so doing he incurred the displeasure of several European rulers. His Holiness was a tower of strength in a changing world, and his earnest efforts to promote world peace and his enthusiastic advocations of social justice made him respected by men of all political and religious faiths. He sought peace while all nations around him wanted war and he will be forever remembered as the greatest champion of human rights that our age has ever known for his was the first voice of international significance to be raised in behalf of a persecuted and down-trodden race and in protestation against ruthless force. In Pius XI we find the qualities of a real Saint: sanctity, nobility and indomitable courage. His whole life as a Supreme Pontiff was one of forthright courage and this fearlessness of his personality was his outstanding mark. His forward honesty of dealing with nations was based not on a policy of mere chance, but upon principle. That was the guidance in all his actions. This profound scholar, and magnificent source of spiritual light and inspiration has covered every phase of human well-being and happiness in his great encyclicals to the world. He encouraged all new things that are good. as evidenced in the honor he paid to men of science and in the use he made of the instruments of science notably the radio. History will give him the title of great, and classify him as one of the most scholarly Pontiffs of the ages. He was really, in a most literal sense, a man of God. His Holiness was not only a great ecclesiastic but a great statesman as well... The Pope was a true philosopher of peace.. .not emotional but rational. His wzas a clear. plain, fatherly voice in a frenzied and angry tumult and perhaps now that that voice is stilled in death. the world, crazed with international hatred, will stop for a moment .in its mad course, to ponder the solemn lessons of peace which he proclaimed with such power. All of us have lost a powerful champion of freedom, tolerance and humanity. -Cecelia Casso Page Twenty-Two IW O f 'U f BBQWR . . , . O O . 0 , O ' I o O . ' , , C ' I C O N

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-YP' it ,.u 'vc the representative of Benedict XV wouldn't leave but remained to pray with a stricken people. Prophetic of his future Pontificate, he stood for the first time face to face against atheistic invasion. Bravely he stood with the Christian armies in the most desperate hour, until the tide turned and the Polish military leaders finally emerged victorious. Achilles Ratti had been tried in a dangerous crisis and was not found wanting. He was pleasing to God and was found just. 1921 his mission to Poland was successfully completed and within the next twelve months the designs of Divine Providence worked in great haste. Benedict XV appointed Achilles Ratti to the vacant Archbishopric of Milan and made him a member of the Sacred College. Then suddenly and unexpectedly came the end for the Holy Father, Benedict XV, the strain of the World War had broken his physical frame and after a very short illness the news of his death on January 22 1922. shocked a war-torn world. But the throne of Peter cannot remain vacant. What happened is now .matter of history. The Sacred College assembled in Conclave elected Achilles Cardinal Ratti as the 26lst successor of St. Peter. He accepted the election and than said There is something else. I protest before the members of the Sacred College that I have at heart the safeguarding and the defense of the rights of the Church and all the prerogatives of the Holy See: that being said I wish that my first blessing should go out, as a pledge of that peace for which humanity is longing not only to Rome and to Italy but to the whole Church and the entire world I shall give it from the outside balcony of Saint Peter's No longer was he Achill es Ratti, but he was Pius XI by every title, divine, legal and historic the 26lst successor of Peter, the 26lst Vicar of Christ upon earth. In this new capacity as Vicar of Christ he pledged himself to peace, he offered himself as a Ureconcilia tion in the time of wrath.' On the 23rd of December 1922. less than ten months after his election Pope Pius XI issued his first Encyclical letter known as the Ubi Arcano Dei In language severly simple and clear itself. All efforts to obtain that active fruitful peace which all desire had come to naught. In the near East there were fresh threats of War: in Europe, although the weapons of war had been laid aside, the old jealousies had not died down but the victors were still at war with the vanquished and were mutually hostile among themselves. In every rank of society, the minds of men were restless. embittered and sullen. Womanhood was given way to levity and trasgressing the limits of moral decency. Everywhere apathy idleness and thirst for luxurious living were rampant. Human society seemed to be turning back to the savagery of barbarism. And whence all this evil? B - cause man has apostatized from God. God's will has no longer a place among men in public affairs and in public life of nations. God is banished from that pact which is the very foundation of all society, namely marriage, thus allowing life and civilization to be poisoned at their very source. God has no longer his due place in education which concerns itself chiefly with the matter of a successful career while religion has become secondary. And whence the remedy? In an age of shallowness when too often whatever is novel receives the Stamp of approval merely because it is novel, the Holy Father proposes nothing new but stands by the ancient truth. Touchingly he pleads that man once again faithfully accept the teaching and commandments of Christ in matters of public life no less than in private life of the individual. Or Christ reigns over the minds of individual men, over the family, over the nations and over the Church. i'We shall strive, he said, A'With every effort to seek the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ . Pax Christi in regno Christi! Thus in the first year of his Pontificate he proclaimed himself as a reconciliation in the time of wrath. During the seventeen years of his reign he strove valiantly against world- wide odds to bring to the nations this peace through the reign of Christ. He instituted the feast of Christ the King to remind the human race that all men are subject to Christ's spiritual reign. He gave new impetus to the foreign mission Page Twenty-four W 5. I 'H A ' - fi , A s Ewa 'mlm Hlliwi. hope but in God. Did Archbishop Ratti flee? No, the Archbishop of Lepanto, q O In I I I C i O 1 I ' 0 0 , , Q I ' 0 b y , A e '