Card. Hlond in Rome and about Rome

“Walking the streets of Rome, carrying the burden, imposed by new lords, for 27 years, it is always a pleasure to see churches, chapels and many ancient palaces with papal coats of arms from various centuries. They testify who has been, and still is, the righteous monarch of the old Rome. The papal coat of arms is engraved on the Quirinal Palace, the summer residence of the popes before 1870, and now the palace of Italian kings. The Italian government did not dare to take the coat of arms of its righteous lords off it yet, with which it attests the plunder.

Here and there protrude ancient obelisks, remnants of ancient Egyptians, various fountains spout water high, numerous monuments of pagan and, above all, Christian world appear and densely engraved writings from various centuries overtly announce that, despite being conquered by triumphant revolution, boasting about this outrage, the city is the city of Popes, not the capital of Italy but the capital of the Catholic Church, that everything artistically beautiful was done by the Popes; on the contrary, all that spoils and gives the grey look of a modern city, that blurs the charm which stems from the historical landmarks is the work of revolutionary government and rampant Masonic sect.

A true Catholic has a strange impression when, having crossed the Tiber and having passed Castel Sant’Angelo, he suddenly sees in front of him the church of St. Peter and the Apostolic Palace adjoining it. The heart in chest starts beating harder and most tender feelings overwhelm the soul. It is here where the Father of Christendom resides, it is His see, here centres/focuses everything what is the most precious and what always will be the most sacred for every righteous Catholic sincerely loving God and the Church.”

The excerpt from a letter of seminarian August Hlond [the source: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa].