These changes are bound to occur but it is hard to set a correct time.
It may be to-morrow; it certainly will not be more than a decade
hence. The death of the Emperor Francis Joseph will precipitate it at
once--and he is old and feeble.
Secondly, the Church. The mainstay of the Catholic Church rests with
the Austrian monarchy and with the death of the old Emperor, it
would--in fact have to--look to some other country and ruler for
protection. There is no Catholic ruler in a Catholic country to-day
able to support and protect the dignity of the Church. The German
Emperor is a Protestant monarch, but he is first and last a Christian,
and thanks to his usual keen and far-sighted policy, backed up by
strong spiritual convictions, religious dissensions are almost unknown
in his empire. The Catholic religion enjoys in no country, save the
United States, more real freedom from persecution than it does in
Germany. And the Emperor's personal standing with the Vatican is
excellent. I need only remind the reader of his perennial visits to
the King of Italy when he never fails to visit the Vatican, paying his
respects as the ruler of twenty-seven millions of Catholics, if you
please, to the keeper of Peter's keys.
In my work, I have met eminent dignitaries and princes of the Catholic
Church who voiced pretty freely--that is for churchmen--their
confidences, willingness of their support to the Emperor's general
policies.
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