"After she had signed the denunciation a warrant for his arrest was made

out and given to the Carabineers."

"It mentioned everything?"

"Everything."

"Who he is and all about him?"

"Yes, your Holiness."

The Pope fingered his crucifix again, and said, "Who is he, Father

Pifferi?"

The Capuchin did not reply.

"Father Pifferi, I ask you who he is?"

Still the Capuchin did not reply, and the Pope smiled a pitiful smile,

touched the friar's arm with a caressing gesture, and said, "Don't be

afraid for the Holy Father, carissimo. If that poor child, who would

have died rather than sacrifice her husband, could be so calm and

strong...."

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, "when you asked the lady to denounce

David Rossi you thought of him only as an enemy of the Church and of its

head, trying to pull down both and destroy civil society--isn't that

so?"

The Pope bent his head.

"Holy Father, if ... if you had known that he was something more than

that ... something nearer ... if, for example, you had been told

that ... that he was the relative of a priest, would you have asked for his

denunciation just the same?"

The old Capuchin had stammered, but the Pope answered in a firm voice,

"That would have made no difference, my son. The blessed Scriptures do

not conceal the sin of Judas, and shall we conceal the offences of those

who come within the circle of our own families?"

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, "if you had been told that he was

related to a prelate of your domestic household...."

He stopped, and the Pope answered in a voice that trembled slightly,

"Still it would have made no difference. The enemies of the Almighty are

watching day and night, and shall His holy Church be imperilled and

abased by the weakness of His servant?"

"Holy Father, if ... if you had been told that ... that he was the

kinsman of a Cardinal?"

The Pope was struggling to control himself. "Even then it would have

made no difference. I am old and weak, but God would have supported me,

and though I had been called upon to cut off my right hand, or give my

body to be burned, still...."

His voice quivered and died in his throat, and there was a moment's

pause.

"Holy Father," said the Capuchin, turning his eyes away, "if you had

been told that he was the nearest of kin to the Pope himself...."




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