News
HMS Is Facing a Deficit. Under Trump, Some Fear It May Get Worse.
News
Cambridge Police Respond to Three Armed Robberies Over Holiday Weekend
News
What’s Next for Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Initiative?
News
MassDOT Adds Unpopular Train Layover to Allston I-90 Project in Sudden Reversal
News
Denied Winter Campus Housing, International Students Scramble to Find Alternative Options
The Dudleian lecture was given by Professor Toy last evening in the Fogg Lecture Room on the subject "Pope Leo XIII." He said in part:
"The present pope was born in 1810, and received his early education in a Jesuit school. During the few years following his admission to the priesthood in 1837, he showed great ability as an administrator in several churches where trouble had occurred, and was rewarded by being made a bishop. In 1853 he was made cardinal, and in 1878 was elected pope by his fellow cardinals. Leo XIII is a man of wide learning and has great executive ability as well.
In his beliefs he holds strictly to the Romish principles of Purgatory and the Immaculate Conception, as well as to confession and absolution. His strongest belief is in the absolute power which is vested in the Church, represented by the Pope. In his Encyclics many of the evils of the times are attributed to placing State power above that of the Church. These writings maintain that teaching should be restricted, and that no philosophy or science should be taught which goes against the Church. The most important of these Encyclics, entitled "Libertas," appeared in 1888. In this letter the Pope protests against the worship of liberty, saying that the Church must govern all worship, and defining liberty of speech and of teaching, as freedom to say or teach anything which the Church considers right. He considers liberty of conscience, not as freedom to worship God or not to worship Him, but as freedom to worship Him in different ways.
In 1890 Pope Leo gave his opinions on the relations of Church and State. He said first, that Church patriotism is a higher thing than national patriotism, and that in any disagreement between a man's government and his Church, he should in all cases stand by the former. The letter of 1890 goes on to say that the Church should have supervision over the government, and should have direct control of all matters of intellectual or moral interest to mankind.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.