Mount Saint Marys College - Eagle Yearbook (Orchard Lake, MI)

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The petition was framed by a committee of five priests appointed by the first general Chapter of the American Catholic clergy held at Whitemarsh, Maryland, on November 6, 1783. The committee was composed of Fathers john Lewis, John Carroll, Bernard Diderich, Ignatius Matthews and james Walton, missionary priests residing, as they said, in the Thirteen United States of North America. This petition stated that they were placed under the recent supreme domin- ion of United America and could no longer have recourse for spiritual jurisdiction to the Bishops and Vicar-Apostolics residing in foreign states Clinglandj, not recognize any of them as their ecclesiastical superior without open offense to the American government. There- fore, they petitioned that the power of granting the necessary faculties to priests coming to America might be given to some priest who was a resident in the United States. Specifically, they asked of the Pope that Father john Lewis be formally constituted Superior of the Church in the new Republic, with certain episcopal privileges-administering the Sacrament of Confirmation, blessing chalices, and delegating priests for the missions. Acting upon this petition, Pius VI named Father john Carroll Prefect-Apostolic June 9, 1784. Thus the jurisdiction of the Vicar-Apostolic at London was brought to an end. In 1789 Father Car- roll was named first Bishop of the United States. The non-Catholic population of the United States in the eighteenth century did not share the Catholic attitude toward the Pope. So wide- spread was the antipapal sentiment that Washington in his general orders to the Army, November 15, 1775, forbade the observance of Pope's Day, a mock ceremonial like Guy Fawkes Day. An effigy of the Pope would be borne in procession and burned with riotous proceed- ings. These celebrations took place in New England, and the soldiers stationed there conceived the idea of enjoying a rough holiday by hold- ing a Pope's Day of their own. General Washington's order said: The Commander-in-Chief cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army so void of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this juncture, at a time when we are soliciting, and have really obtained, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as breth- ren embarked in the same cause, the defense of the liberty of America. At this juncture and under such circumstances, to be insulting their religion, is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused, indeed, in- stead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our brethren, as to them we are indebted for every late happy success over the common enemy in Canada. In the nineteenth century, perhaps the most significant incident in American-Papal relations was the recognition of the papacy by the United States. Even before this recognition American consuls were stationed at Rome, Civita Vecchia, Ancona and other cities of the Papal States. The chief purpose of these consular agents was a commercial one, but so little exchange existed between the United States and-the Papal States that the work involved in the office was almost negligible. In his annual message to Congress on December 7, 1847, President Polk announced that the United States Government was considering the opening of diplomatic relations with the court of Rome, and a bill was introduced to defray the necessary expenses of the office. The bill to establish the legation at Rome passed by a vote of 137 to 15 in the House of Representatives and by an equally large majority in the Senate. On April l, 1848, Jacob L. Martin was appointed by President Polk as the first American Minister to the Papal States, then ruled by Pius IX. The diplomatic relations thus begun lasted for twenty years. Martin lived scarcely a year, dying at Rome in 1848. His successor, Lewis Casa, jr., served until 1858 and was singularly fortunate in his attitude toward the unstable Republic which Mazzini had succeeded in creating at Rome in 1848. Archbishop john Hughes' discourses at this time on the flight of the Pope to Gaeta were a warning to the American gov- ernment that the sacrilegious invaders of the Eternal City did not merit recognition. Cass was succeeded in 1858 by john Porter Stockton. After the fall of Naples in 1860, Stockton asked for his recall, and Rufus King was appointed as his successor. There was much question at the time whether it would not be prudent for Pius IX to take refuge in the United States since a revolution had broken out in Rome. When the question was broached to King, the American Minister replied that the United States was the home of civil and religious liberty as well 115

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114 Leo XIII raised it to the dignity of a pontifical institute in his Bull of October 25, 1884, Ubi primum. When the assembled Bishops at the Third Plenary Council of 1884 expressed the hope that a Catholic uni- versity be founded in America, Pope Leo XIII sanctioned the under- taking and by the Apostolic Letter Magni nobir gaudii of March 7, 1889, approved the university constitution and statutes, and empowered the university to grant degrees. So came into being the Catholic Uni- versity in Washington, D. C. The flow of immigrants into the United States after the Civil War was great. Pope Leo XIII saw the need of special work among various immigrant groups. In 1879 he authorized the erection of a special college and seminary for the training of priests for the Polish Cath- olics. ln 1889 he urged Mother Cabrini to go to America and put her community at the service of the Italian immigrants. Another problem 1 solved by Leo XIII was the question of a papal representative in the United States. Hitherto the Archbishop of Baltimore acted as the Pope's representative. In 1895 the Pope appointed Archbishop Satolli as Papal Legate with residence in Washington, D. C. Pius X showed his regard for the church in the United States on several occasions. On March 11, 1906, he wrote an inspiring letter Qzmm centum ante anno: to Cardinal Gibbons in commemoration of , the centenary celebration of the erection of the mother diocese of the Church in the United States. In his lettet Sapienli Comilio of june 29, 1 1908, Pius X released the American Bishops from the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation and put to an end the mission era of the Cath- olic Church in the United States. After the first world war, Pope Pius XI gave the American Catholic Church new evidence of papal benevolence. During the Holy Year of 1925, the Pope decreed the solemn beatification of eight missionaries l of the Society of jesus, who in the middle of the seventeenth century , were put to death by the Indians in Canada and northern New York. T Five years later, on june 29, 1950, Pius Xl canonized these Northy American martyrs, one of whom, St. Isaac Jogues, met his death in the northern part of New York state. In 1936, Pope Pius XI sent his Secre- 1 tary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, to visit the United States. Pius XI once again honored the United States when he beatified Mother Cabrini in 1938. In 1939 Cardinal Pacelli ascended the throne of Peter. Five months after his election, Pope Pius XII showed a great interest in the Negro and Indian missions in the United States. In his encyclical letter to America, Sertum Laetitiue, issued on November 1, 1939, Pius XII praised the American Catholics and called on them to continue their splendid Apostolic work. When President Roosevelt appointed Myron C. Taylor as his personal representative to the Pope, Pius XII in his I Christmas Eve speech of 1939 expressed his joy at Roosevelt's step, 1 which, he said, was especially gratifying since it would bring valuable contributions not only to the efforts of peace but also to the victims of 1 war. When ten years later Taylor resigned due to ill health, Pope Pius l expressed his regret at the ending of a mission which has proven so l efficient and fruitful. Perhaps the most outspoken token of recent papal regard for the Catholics in the United States came in july, 1946. In his first canoni- zation after the second world war, Pope Pius XII raised to the altars of the church the foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, who has been called the mother of Italian emigrants in the United States, and the first American Saint. The canonization marks a fitting close to this brief outline of papal relations with the United States-a record of which American Cath- olics are justly proud in this Holy Year of 1950. Bernard J. Czechowicz y THE UTTITED STHTES HITD THE PITPES ' The two hundred and fifty-second successor of St. Peter sat on the T papal chair when the United States emerged out of the War of Inde- pendence as a free and self-overning nation. His name was Pius VI I and he ruled from 1775 to 1799. To him was addressed the first peti- tion of American Catholics in 1783.

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116 as a refuge of all who fled from political and other troubles in the Old World, and that His Holiness, should he see fit to go to the United States, would no doubt meet with a kind welcome and be left to pursue, unquestioned and unmolested, his great work as Head of the Catholic Church. It was during the incumbency of Minister King that the Holy See was approached by the Confederacy, not exactly for recognition as a separate state, but as a sign that the Southern leaders fully appreciated the value of the sympathy of so great a liberal statesman as Pius IX. The American legation at the court of Pius IX lasted through the Civil War, but came to an official end in 1867, when Congress refused to appropriate the money necessary for its upkeep. Had an American Minister been resident in Rome in 1870 when the Italian army took the Eternal City, the question of the Pope's taking refuge in the United States might have been revived and Pius IX might have come to America. In the twentieth century, the most important development in the relations between the United States and the Papacy was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's appointment of an Episcopalian, Myron C. Tay- lor, as his personal representative to Pope Pius XII. This appointment resulted from an exchange of letters between the President and the Pope. As Myron C. Taylor himself relates: The President was con- vinced that a closer association in all parts of the free world between those in government and those in religion who shared common ideals was essential . . . To His Holiness in Rome, with whom personal ex- changes of views were possible only through correspondence and a trusted intermediary, he suggested sending a personal representative. In the letter which President Roosevelt sent to Pius XII on December 23, 1959, he explained that he had named Taylor his personal envoy in order that our parallel endeavors for peace and the alleviation of suffering may be assisted. The many thousands of American Catholic pilgrims who will visit the Holy City and pay their respects to the Pope in this twenty-fifth Holy Year will carry with them the heartfelt sentiments of millions of their compatriots, mindful of the cordial relationship that has existed between the United States and the Papacy during the last 170 years. Daniel Pokornowski PULHIID Hllll THE PUPES Poland, historically speaking, is only half as old as the Papacy. It appeared on the historical stage of Europe when the Papacy had al- ready nearly one thousand years behind it. When the first historic ruler of Poland received baptism and opened the way for the introduction of Christianity among his people in 966, the Papal tiara reposed upon the head of Pope john XIII, the one hundred and thirty-third successor of Saint Peter. In the one thousand years that have -elapsed since that fateful mo- ment, Poland's contacts with the Papacy have been constant and on certain occasions especially noteworthy. There are several such instances which are particularly worth recalling. The first occurred in 966 when the Papacy was still far from exer- cising a dominant influence over the Holy Roman Empire. In 965, Mieszko, the ruler of still pagan Poland, married Dabrowka, a Chris- tian daughter of a Czech prince. A year later, Mieszko received the sacrament of baptism, and afterwards placed his territory in the hands of the Holy See, making it a part of the heritage of Saint Peter and securing for Poland papal protection for all time. The second instance of Polish-Papal relations took place when Poland supported the Papacy in its time of need. This happened dur- ing the investiture controversy between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV. When Gregory VII ascended the papal throne, he initiated important reforms for the emancipation of the church from lay control. Under pain of excommunication, Pope Gregory VII forbade princes to bestow ecclesiastical offices upon members of the clergy. He also for- bade the clergy to receive these investitures from the hands of laymen. When Henry IV ignored the Pope's orders, Gregory VII excommuni- cated him, precipitating-a bitter and long struggle between the Papacy