I recently read a little pamphlet, last published in 1993 by Angelus Press, entitled the Duties of the Catholic State in Regard to Religion, a lecture by Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani. The translation from Italian was done by the Rev. Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp. and first printed in 1953. Fr. Fahey explains the occasion of the lecture in the Translator’s Foreword:
On March 2, 1953, the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome celebrated the fourteenth anniversary of Pope Pius XII’s election to the Supreme Pontificate. . . . After the address of homage in Latin to His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, read by the Right Reverend Rector of the University, and the address of welcome in Italian to the distinguished gathering, delivered by the same, the Schola Cantorum of the Roman Seminary sang the Ave Maria of Da Vittoria. His Eminence, Cardinal Ottaviani, then gave his eagerly awaited lecture on “Church and State: Some Present-day Problems in the light of Pope Pius XII’s Teaching.” It is this Lecture, published later in pamplet form by the Pontifical Lateran University, which, by the kind permission of His Eminence, I now have the honor of presenting to readers of English. I am certain that in doing so I am rendering a great service to those who would otherwise be deprived of its luminous exposition of Catholic doctrine. . . .
Luminous exposition, indeed! and not, of course, the type of thing one is liable to read hot off the press of the Pontifical Lateran University today. From the opening paragraphs:
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St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,