But can these, who are the best, call themselves faithful servants of Truth?
You believe in God, and perhaps on your death-bed you will believe you have offended God most seriously, as statesmen, by your acts of violence against the Church, in the name of the State.

No, these will not be your greatest sins.

If men go into Parliament, and through Parliament into the Government, who profess, as philosophers, not to know God, but who rise up in the name of Truth against this arbitrary tyranny of Untruth, they are serving God better than you and will be more pleasing to God than you, who believe in Him as an idol and not as the Spirit of Truth, than you who dare to talk of the putrefaction of Catholicism, you who stink of falsity.

Yes, who stink of it! You make the air of the heights so impure, so contrary to what it should be, that it is difficult to breathe it.

You have a devout heart, _Signor Ministro_; do not tell me that in this palace one cannot serve God." "Do you know--" the Minister exclaimed angrily, crossing his arms upon his breast, while the Under-Secretary of State extended his hand graciously towards him to check the indignant words.
"Gently, gently, gently!" said he.