The Holy Father and his devoted adherents have been fighting for the principles of truth, justice, and morality, for the welfare of society, the laws of God, the cause of religion throughout the whole world. Rome is the sanctuary where these precious jewels are treasured. Those good, brave men who have died in defence of the Holy See have died as martyrs for the faith and law of Christ. All Catholics owe them reverence and gratitude, and ought to be stirred up by their glorious example to an equal zeal and loyalty in the sacred cause of God and the Pope. {132} All Christians have sworn allegiance to Jesus Christ as their King. The Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and, therefore, no Christian can pay allegiance to Jesus Christ without paying allegiance to the Pope. This allegiance is spiritual, but, by its very nature as a spiritual allegiance, it binds every Catholic to support and assist the Pope by all possible and lawful means to defend and preserve those temporal rights, which are necessary to him and to the Church, as the condition and the guarantee of the freedom and well-being of both. It is also the interest of all Catholics, as well as their duty, to stand bravely and loyally by the Pope in his struggle against the enemies of the Church and of religion. What is there so precious to the Christian as the faith, the holy and divine religion into which he has been baptized; the Church, which is his ark of safety; the adorable Sacrament of the Altar, which is the link between heaven and earth; the Communion of Saints, through which he remains still united to the faithful departed whom he once loved on earth; the hope of future glory and blessedness in the kingdom of God? Health, wealth, pleasure, honor, science, art, home, country, the whole wide world itself, are of no value in comparison. But the treasure which each one possesses in his religion he holds only by virtue of that charity which binds him to all other members of the Catholic Church, and to its Head. {133} Our interests are in common, and if any member, but especially the Head, be wounded, the whole body and all the other members must suffer with it. Each one has an interest in the well-being of the whole Church. We have an interest in the preservation of the sacred deposit of faith and grace in all nations; in the salvation of our neighbor, in the spiritual good of our posterity; in the prosperity of Christendom; in the conversion of the world; in the triumph of Jesus Christ; in the glory of God. All these are bound up in the cause of the Holy See, the Roman Church, the Sovereign Pontiff. It is only by the Catholic Church that mankind can be saved and that God can be glorified. Peter is the Rock on which this Church is built. The successors of Peter hold the golden keys by which hell is shut and heaven opened. The See of Peter is the centre of unity, light, life, and strength, for the whole Church throughout the world. It is against the Rock