Prisoner of the Vatican by David I. Kertzer Page A

Garibaldi stood on two chairs and tried to get people's attention but failed. Finally, one of the meeting's less illustrious leaders, who, however, surpassed his comrades in vocal volume, cried out. He recited the rest of the proposed motion and concluded by putting the question simply: "Do you want the abolition of the guarantees and the occupation of the Apostolic palaces?" A storm of applause and whistles of approval were only partially drowned out by the efforts of the police to clear the room. A squad of police reinforcements arrived, and by noon the Politeama was empty
    The next day, the newspapers that published the rally's speeches were confiscated by the police. Among the offices raided were those of the Vatican's
Osservatore Romano,
for its edition had contained excerpts—with suitable outraged commentary—from the speeches. And so, much to his consternation, the director of the Vatican daily found himself condemned by court order for having violated article 2 of the law of guarantees: he stood charged of offending the pope. 28

15. Preparing for Exile
    T HROUGH OUT THE 1880s, Leo repeatedly turned to the cardinals of the Curia to advise him on whether the time had come for him to flee Rome. His near obsession with whether he should go and his worries about which country would take him in are not easy to explain because he was far from eager to leave the Holy City. Despite a great deal of diplomatic bluster and the defiant claims in the Catholic press, Leo had few illusions about being able to repeat his predecessor's success in rallying foreign powers to return him triumphantly to his capital. Indeed, when he sent a list of questions to the cardinals of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in early 1882, seeking their advice on flight, he prefaced them with the statement that "it can be held to be certain, without need of demonstration, that no power today would use its material force against Italy in order to restore Rome to the Pontiff in exile ... Therefore it would today be a great illusion to hope that such a restoration could be brought about through governments' armed force." 1
    The pope's preoccupation with the possibility of leaving Rome had the effect of keeping the governments of Europe in a state of permanent agitation. Not wanting to believe that the pope would actually abandon the Holy City, yet alarmed at the destabilizing effects that such a departure would have on all of Europe, they peppered the Italian government with pleas not to do anything that might make the pope decide to go. This response was no doubt intended by the diplomatically savvy Leo XIII, acting as a brake on the more anticlerical actions being contemplated by the Italian government. 2
    In August 1884, Leo XIII issued a
motu proprio,
a secret proclamation in his own hand, "with dispositions and provisions for the Holy Congregations and Ecclesiastical Tribunals, for the case in which the Holy Pontiff's access to the faithful is interrupted, or that he is taken as a hostage." He explained that given the ever-increasing dangers faced by the Holy See, he believed it necessary to make plans that would allow the Church to continue to function if such misfortunes occurred. He proclaimed that in his absence a three-member commission of cardinals would guide the Church, listing in order of priority the cardinals who were to be appointed to it. 3
    Individual letters were then prepared by the secretary of state to each of the cardinals on the list, as well as to the papal nuncio in Vienna, explaining the two envelopes, sealed with wax, that they received. One contained instructions for the next conclave; the other contained the
motu proprio.
The first envelope was to be opened only at the time of Leo's death, the second, only on receiving further instructions; should the pope die first, it was to be returned unopened to his successor. The pope also had lengthy instructions prepared for the marquis who would be