G88 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



with King Humbert, notwithstanding the great 

 pressure brought to bear upon him by partisans of 

 compromise between the Vatican and the (juirinal. 

 In July he said of himself : 



" I a*m here in imprisonment, a noble imprison- 

 ment, if you like, but still a real imprisonment. 

 For eighteen years I have not been able to get a 

 glimpse of the streets of Koine or of its holy basilicas. 

 1 have had a new apse constructed in St. John Lat- 

 eran's, and yet it has been impossible for me to see 

 it. If I wish to name bishops. I have the difficul- 

 ties and delays that the formality of the placet and 

 the exequatur imposes. Bishops in their own dio- 

 ceses can not appoint their own parish priests with- 

 out submitting to the visto and to the exigencies of 

 the fiscal authorities. ... On the slope of the very 

 Vatican Hill, quite close to my abode, they have 

 raised a statue to Garibaldi, to him who called the 

 papacy ' the cancer of Italy.' " 



The United States. The year 1896 opened with 

 the elevation of Mgr. Satolli, the first American 

 apostolic delegate, to the rank of cardinal, and 

 this investiture of distinction was followed by a re- 

 call of the delegate to Koine, there, in a higher capa- 

 city, to serve the Church ; and in due time his place 

 in the United States was filled by the appointment 

 as apostolic delegate of Archbishop Sebastian Mar- 

 tinelli, who arrived on Oct. :!. 



The work of Cardinal Satolli as delegate having 

 been completed, it became a subject of review by 

 many eminent minds, and especially by Catholics 

 solicitous for the advancement of their Church in 

 America. The consensus of Catholic opinion is that 

 the work accomplished by the first apostolic dele- 

 gate vastly exceeds in importance all that the most 

 hopeful expected. In the more than three years of 

 his service here he fully justified the Pope's judg- 

 ment that such a delegation would do much to rem- 

 edy the evils that existed, and to cause the Catholic 

 Church in America to make a distinct advance. It 

 is admitted that time and again he has lifted op- 

 pressive burdens from clergy and people, righted 

 wrongs, compelled the tempering of justice with 

 mercy, made judicial hearings accessible and easy. 

 and, by the interposition of his authority and by 

 his tact and good offices, brought about reconcilia- 

 tions and compromises extra-judicially. " The mere 

 presence in the country of such a man,'' says a high 

 authority, "has prevented much discord and litiga- 

 tion. It has made cautious some prelates who, in 

 their inexperience or excessive estimate of their 

 own authority, would otherwise have been more 

 ready to lay undue burdens upon clergy or people, 

 and to stretch their authority beyond due limits. 

 He has restored priests who had been condemned 

 by their bishops ; in some cases because he found 

 that they were innocent, and in others because he 

 found that they had already been too severely pun- 

 ished." The same authority here quoted from lias 

 publicly noted that until recent years the Catholic 

 Church in America was governed by " what may be 

 called, without invidiousness, a benevolent paternal 

 despotism. While the bishop was reasonably sure 

 of a fixity of life tenure, everything else depended 

 upon his will, subject only to very general laws of 

 the Church, and with little or no regard to the body 

 of jurisprudence and procedure known as the canon 

 law. There was frequent neglect of duty, remiss- 

 ii"ss in remedying evils; and for many grievances 

 there was little or no redress. Remonstrances were 

 readily construed into disrespect, and individuals 

 felt that they could complain only at their peril. 

 The only chances of redress for these evils lay in a 

 recourse to Rome ; and, in view of the distance, the 

 difference of language, the long delays, the great 

 expense and difficulty in producing witnesses and 

 documents, there was, for the great majority of the 



aggrieved, no redress at all." It is also particularly 

 noted that the Italian apostolic delegate showed 

 himself more truly in touch with American views 

 than many American priests and prelates, native 

 and foreign born, and that he has done a vast work 

 of good in dispelling prejudices against the Church 

 largely fostered by intemperate denunciation of the 

 public schools. Although Mgr. Satolli was met at 

 the outset of his mission with coldness and opposi- 

 tion in certain Church quarters, he soon conquered 

 it with patience, firmness, and tact. 



The Rev. David S. Phelan has said: "Impregna- 

 ble in the plenitude of papal appointment, and with 

 a courage born of conscious rectitude, Mgr. Satolli 

 started out to bring low the mountains and to fill 

 up the valleys: to make the crooked ways straight 

 and the rough ways smooth. The shock of the first 

 encounter shook the whole American Church. When 

 the smoke of the conflict was lifted and we could 

 see the result, Satolli was found in possession of the 

 field, and his opponents fled over a thousand leagues 

 of seas. . . . The results are before us. All things 

 considered, the irresponsible bishops of 1892 became 

 the constitutional bishops of 1896, without much of 

 that stubborn resistance that precedes the loss of 

 privilege. Never was there in the history of the 

 world so powerful a class as the Catholic hierarchy 

 from its institution till the coming of the first apos- 

 tolic delegat e ; and never did class surrender dearest 

 privileges with such lofty, if reluctant, magnanimity." 



It is generally conceded that the Pope has chosen 

 as Cardinal Satolli's successor one with special fit- 

 ness for the place. Cardinal Satolli bade farewell 

 to America and sailed for Rome on Oct. 17. 



Another event that marked the year 1896 was the 

 removal of Bishop Keane from the' rectorship of the 

 Catholic University at Washington. Perhaps no 

 occurrence since Leo XIII ascended to the chair of 

 St. Peter aroused so much commotion in the Amer- 

 ican Church until the action of the Pope was clearly 

 understood. On Sept. 28 Bishop Keane received, 

 through Cardinal Gibbons, a letter from the Pope 

 inviting his resignation. This letter begins by de- 

 fining the Pope's uniform adherence to the princi- 

 ple of rotation in office. ' This custom," says the 

 Pope, " has grown up through wise reasons, and the 

 Roman pontiffs have ever been careful that it should 

 be adhered to." The letter continues : "Being so- 

 licitous for your future welfare, we leave it to your 

 own free choice either to remain in your own coun- 

 try, or, if you prefer it, to come to Rome. If you 

 choose the former, we will destine for you some 

 archiepiscopal see by vote of the bishops of the 

 United States. If you prefer the latter, we shall 

 welcome you most lovingly, and will place you 

 among the consulters of the Congregation of Stud- 

 ies and the Congregation of the Propaganda, in 

 both of which you could do much for the interests 

 of religion in the United States. In this latter case 

 we would also assign you a suitable revenue for your 

 honorable maintenance.'' 



In his reply to the Holy Father, Bishop Keane 

 expressed gratitude for his release from the office of 

 rector of the university, saying that the labors of 

 the position had grown to be far beyond his strength 

 and abilities, and that deliverance from the burden 

 was a response to many prayers. He had served 

 nine years. A letter of tribute from Cardinal Gib- 

 bons to Bishop Keane, expressing the sentiments of 

 the Board of Directors of the university, closed by 

 saying: ''You have proved the efficiency of the 

 university to train young men to generous self-for- 

 getfulness for the welfare of others in your sublime 

 resignation to the will of the Holy Father. You 

 are the masterpiece of your own training. When 

 in future we shall have occasion to pojnt to an ex- 

 emplar for the imitation of the young men who 



