Day of Mourning

Guéranger alerts me to the unhappy anniversary falling this day: the wicked and impious occupation of Rome by the army of the Kingdom of Italy, on the 20th of September 1870.  By what right was the lawful sovereign of the Papal States despoiled of the last of his lands (the rest having been snatched and stolen in 1860), territories oft-contested but ever kept as the temporal domain of the Supreme Pontiff from the days of the Franks in the 8th Century, and, before that, the de facto sphere of Papal government in the Duchy of Rome as Byzantine power waned in the preceding ages?  Cursed was Victor Emmanuel's dynasty for this fell deed.

On the 19th of September, Rome had been besieged; the Masonic forces glorying in their attack on Peter had even chosen the date to coincide with their own unholy 'New Year', stooping even to vulgar insults against Christ's Vicar.  To read more of all this, refer to what is online of Roberto De Mattei's excellent book on Blessed Pius IX.

Viva il Papa-Re!

While the Lateran treaties of 1929 restored peace between the affronted Papacy and unhappy Italy, and at least gave recognition to the remnants of the Pope's rule over the Vatican, and declared extraterritorial various Church properties (such as Castel Gandolfo), it is to be hoped that one day the Papal States may be reborn as the phoenix.  The ignorant secular powers may scoff; it is they who shall be cast into the abyss on Judgement Day, realizing all too late in Whose hand is the government of all the earth.

As Psalm 91(92) has it,

Though the wicked spring up like grass

and all who do evil thrive,

they are doomed to be eternally destroyed.

But you, Lord, are eternally on high.

See how your enemies perish;

all doers of evil are scattered.