CONSULS OF GOD
the moral maturity needed to begin a life of a higher kind. He cre- ated culture as and because he sought more than culture. He was a herald of social justice, the saviour and liberator of Italy, and a man of genius in the administration of the patrimony of Peter which only later, under other Pontiffs, became the "temporal power" of the Church. The prophet of a federation of peoples led by Rome in which the Church "unites what is separate, gives order to what is in disorder, harmonizes dissonance, perfects the imperfect, not for its own sake but for the sake of human society," he was the model of all Popes of goodwill who followed him and the first great pattern of a shepherd of peoples. So illustriously did he represent the greatness of the Papacy through service that despite all that time has changed in countless hearts he can still enkindle a desire for divine authority on the earth. Yes, Gregory was really and truly what is written on his tomb a "Consul of God."
THE
