In December 1927, while The Papal Annual was being readied for mailing, Father Edmund Walsh was rebuffed again by the cardinal archbishop of Chicago.[1] By telephone, before he left New York, Father Walsh had been assured by a Father Ryan in Cardinal Mundelein’s chancery that the cardinal would be pleased to see him at any time. When he arrived in Chicago, however, he was told very politely by the cardinal’s secretary that His Eminence was not available and, by implication, would not be. Humiliated and chagrined, the CNEWA president left the calling card he carried from Cardinal Hayes[2] and returned to the railroad station, probably blaming Father von Galen for the rebuff.
Cardinal Mundelein, of German descent, had befriended Father von Galen. It is hard to imagine he had not heard that Father Walsh had closed the Catholic Union office in New York and discharged Father von Galen’s employees while the latter was in California. There was another reason for Cardinal Mundelein’s behavior. In accomplishing, with the Holy See’s support, the bishops’ recognition of CNEWA as their “sole instrumentality” for “Catholic interests in Russia and the Near East,” Father Walsh, the Jesuit, had managed not to use the mission-aid formula Cardinal Mundelein and his friends had worked so hard to concoct and neatly label, viz., the foreign missions would be assisted by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith; the missions at home, by the American Board of Catholic Missions. On paper at least, the formula was simple, workable, and sufficient.
In September 1925, Cardinal Mundelein had been elected the first president of the A.B.C.M., the stated purpose of which was to provide funds for the missions “in the territory and for the inhabitants of the United States and its possessions which do not receive aid from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.” The cardinal of Chicago was still the A.B.C.M.’s president. Its secretary and treasurer were Bishops Francis Kelley and John Francis Noll, respectively; as monsignors they had tried to prevent Monsignor Barry-Doyle from speaking in Indianapolis. To prelates like these, CNEWA was an upstart Americans could do without.[3] Besides, CNEWA had arrived on the scene just a couple of years too late. In 1922, largely as a result of the American bishops’ complaints, the Holy See had internationalized the S.P.F., transferring its headquarters to Rome from France where the Society’s headquarters had functioned since the organization’s establishment a century before (est. 1822) and designating it as “the Pontifical instrument to centralize the aims of the faithful intended for the missions.”[4] The prelate who supervised the transfer under Pope Pius XI’s direction was the national director of the S.P.F. in Italy, Monsignor Angelo Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII). The move delighted William Cardinal O’Connell of Boston, by no means a Francophile, who for years had been complaining that S.P.F. funds from all over the world had become, in effect, a French monopoly even though most of the funds originated in the United States.
The American bishops had reason to be grateful to the French, however. In 1822, while still in its formative stage, the S.P.F. sent $4,882, the total amount collected, to the missions in Louisiana. Between 1822 and 1861 struggling dioceses and parishes in the United States received $7,020,974.
The American bishops had expressed their thanks as early as 1829, at the first provincial council of Baltimore. At that meeting, they stated, “The bishops and clergy of the United States make it a duty never to offer the Sacrifice on our altars without thinking of the venerable Association of the Propagation of the Faith.” In 1884 they had resolved to establish the S.P.F. as a national organization and seven years later it was legally incorporated. A national director was appointed in the person of Bishop Henry Granjon, a French Sulpician. In 1924, when Bishop Granjon’s French-born successor, Monsignor Joseph Freri, resigned as national director in favor of an American, he announced that during his 24-year term American Catholics had contributed $12,664,616, and that in 1923 alone American contributions had totaled $1,472,650, “more than twice that from France,” the “closest rival”[5] of the United States.
The bishops were gratified, of course. American Catholics not only led the world in their generosity to the Holy Father’s missions, but the S.P.F. now had an American, Monsignor William Quinn, in New York as its national director.[6] Henceforth he would channel American overseas mission-aid through the Vatican, not through Lyons or Paris. Moreover, instead of bothering the bishops by asking permission to beg from American pulpits, missionaries could stay at their posts and count on support from the S.P.F. and the A.B.C.M. The plan seemed excellent to the mission-minded prelates who conceived it, but it left no room for CNEWA as an agency for mission-aid.
CNEWA’s reason for existence, however, was not mission-aid, Father Walsh kept insisting. CNEWA was unique in the Church, something new and entirely different, a social service agency like the International Red Cross or Near East Relief, through which the pope, by improving and unifying “Catholic welfare work throughout the world,” could carry on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, not missionary work. CNEWA’s objectives were relief and rehabilitation, not reunion or evangelization, and Father Walsh must have wondered why the bishops did not seem to understand. Or did they understand?
Despite his talk about relief and rehabilitation, did the bishops suspect that Father Walsh, with Rome’s support, was conniving to establish an agency like the S.P.F. — which supported the Propaganda Fide — to assist the Oriental Congregation?
The bishops notwithstanding, the Holy See continued to give full support to Father Edmund Walsh. On 28 January 1928, “as a sign of the profound gratitude of the Holy See for the admirable work of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association,” Pope Pius XI granted a plenary indulgence to each member on the day of first enrollment, and a plenary indulgence on each of 50 different feast days throughout the calendar year.[7] Cardinal Hayes’ position as CNEWA’s protector was also recognized. On 17 March 1928, Cardinal Gasparri reminded Cardinal Hayes of the Holy Father’s personal interest in CNEWA and encouraged him strongly to continue his own interest and support. The Secretary of State declared:
From the very beginning of the work launched among Catholics of the United States by the meritorious “Catholic Near East Welfare Association on behalf of the brethren of the Near East and Russia, the Holy Father wished to give the work a Protector in the person of Your Eminence.
The Holy Father was sure that in a short time the work, with the benevolent and efficacious support of Your Eminence, would have made great progress and that its good effects would be felt right away.
Now that His Holiness follows closely and with such interest the activity of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, activity which allows Him to respond to the innumerable needs of His unfortunate sons in the Orient, He can no longer restrain His feelings of heartfelt recognition of Your Eminence for the valid support furnished up to now of this work and at the same time He expresses the trust that Your Eminence will continue to support the meritorious Association, as you have done for the past two years of its existence, thereby assuring it of even more prosperous success.[8]
Cardinal Gasparri at the same time asked Cardinal Sincero to send a similar letter to Cardinal O’Connell, the chairman of CNEWA’s board of directors,[9] and on 20 March Cardinal Gasparri suggested to Cardinal Sincero that he send congratulations also to Father Walsh.[10] On 19 April, in reply to Cardinal Gasparri’s letter, Cardinal Hayes expressed gratitude for the pope’s recognition and assured His Holiness that he would give CNEWA his full support.[11]
On 16 May 1928, Father Walsh left for Rome, where a month later he was granted an audience by Pope Pius XI. The evening before the audience, while at the Oriental Institute, where Father Michel d’Herbigny was in residence, the CNEWA president drew up an aide memoire for Cardinal Sincero, whom he was to accompany to the audience. Cardinal Sincero had asked CNEWA for a larger allotment of funds to support the congregation’s new activities in Palestine, and Father Walsh assured the cardinal in a note accompanying the aide memoire that the additional amount could be arranged. Thereupon Father Walsh made five significant recommendations, two of which referred directly to the S.P.F.:[12]
1. That the CNEWA 1928 budget be limited to $200,000.
2. That the Athens allocation be reduced from $50,000 to $30,000 (a figure which still left Bishop Calavassy the most favored beneficiary).
3. That other disbursements be similarly reduced – e.g., Beirut, Paris, Amay, etc. Granted such reductions, CNEWA could manage to underwrite the congregation’s “new burdens.”
4. That, for publicity reasons, CNEWA finance all of the Oriental Congregation’s “charitable” works, and that this point be stressed with the pope:
Given the fact that the Association has been founded for a purpose distinct from the Propagation of the Faith, it is absolutely necessary that we publicize works of this kind, and not the strictly missionary works, which pertain more to the Propagation of the Faith.[13]
The memorandum then gave “two serious reasons” for this recommendation as follows:
A) If the C.N.E.W.A. should appear as distributing its resources abroad for missionary purposes, the Propagation of the Faith could complain, as indeed it has already complained, that we are invading their domain, and the bishops will not give our Association the indispensable cooperation it needs; indeed should this cooperation not continue, Father Walsh can state with certainty that in two years the Association will cease and its sources of revenue for charitable works will be dried up.
B) From the point of view of the American public there will be confusion: well instructed by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith on missionary goals … the public gives its money for that purpose specified by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. If, however, the reports which [sic] we have to send our benefactors show that considerable sums go for these same needs in the Near East, there will be a great danger that the charge may be leveled that our Association has sought funds under false pretexts. In fact, questions of this sort are already being asked.[14]
As if to emphasize the point, Father Walsh recommended again that all “purely charitable” (i.e. non-missionary) works of the Oriental Congregation be entrusted to CNEWA. “In this way, and only in this way,” he repeated, “the Association can preserve its character and justify itself before the American public.”[15]
5. That more funds be designated for Palestine because of the increased “charitable” work being done there by other American and English agencies. The Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.), for instance, he said, had developed an immense property in Jerusalem for the purpose of proselytizing.[16]
The details of Father Walsh’s papal audience are not known, but on his return from Rome several letters awaited the CNEWA president. The first, dated 10 July 1928, was signed by the new assessor at the Oriental Congregation, Monsignor Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, who would soon play a decisive role in the history of CNEWA and eventually become the apostolic delegate to the United States. Monsignor Cicognani enclosed a copy of CNEWA’s budget, approved by the pope after Cardinal Sincero and Father Walsh had been received in audience, along with a reminder that Monsignor Philip Giobbe, Monsignor Cicognani’s predecessor, had been promised an advance of $5,000 for the congregation’s immediate expenses. [17] On 16 August Father Walsh sent Monsignor Cicognani the $5,000 and promised to send $20,000 more, one-half the balance due the congregation, on 1 October.[18]
Under date of 12 July 1928 Monsignor Cicognani informed Father Walsh that His Holiness had approved $8,300 per year for two schools in Mesopotamia (Iraq) that had not been mentioned in the budget submitted by the CNEWA president, and said he had no doubt that CNEWA’s generous benefactors would support the Holy Father in his plans for that country.[19] Father Walsh promised to adjust CNEWA’s finances so that the emergency could be met.[20] On 23 July Monsignor Cicognani requested an additional $2,000, this time for Armenian refugees in Greece.[21] In reply Father Walsh said that a check for $1,000 would be sent right away, and that the balance would be sent 1 October.[22]
Not every letter Father Walsh received, however, contained a request for money. On 10 August 1928, from Bulgaria, where he was now apostolic visitator with the rank of archbishop, Angelo Roncalli wrote to Father Walsh:
Outside of the Vatican circles I was able to gather something of certain difficulties which [sic] the Catholic Near East Welfare Association still encounters in America. You must not be afraid and you must be brave. These trials are the better guarantee that the work is good and destined to accomplish immense good. With patience, calm and charity everything will be conquered for the greater glory of the Lord and the triumph of the Church.
As for me, as long as the Holy Father destines me to this Apostolic ministry to the Orient, I shall do my utmost to make myself useful to the American association because thus I feel that I am useful to the Church. I shall do all I can to learn English.[23]
On 27 September 1928, an earthquake in Puerto Rico provided the perfect opportunity to dramatize CNEWA as a kind of Vatican Red Cross. Pope Pius XI instructed CNEWA by cable to send immediate relief. Within 48 hours the Catholic Relief Mission to Puerto Rico, with two doctors and six nurses, was dispatched with much fanfare and the public blessing of Cardinal Hayes.[24]
Yet CNEWA’s survival still hung in the balance. On 11 October Father Walsh informed the executive committee that he had asked the pope for a communication of some kind, for the benefit of the American bishops particularly, which would delineate more precisely the work of CNEWA and thus eliminate misunderstandings with other papal societies.[25] For more than three months Father Walsh was kept waiting, and then, on 12 October 1928, there arrived in New York a copy of an encyclical in which reference was made to “the pious man in the United States” who helped the Holy Father in his concern for the Oriental Church.[26] Father Walsh bristled. Straightway he cabled Cardinal Sincero that the text was useless. Not only did it fail to mention CNEWA by name, Father Walsh declared, but also the “pious man” reference jeopardized CNEWA’s entire operation. Millions of people, he charged, would now consider any support they might give superfluous, since this one anonymous benefactor had so handsomely and single-handedly, provided for all the pope’s emergencies. Father Walsh minced no words, and Cardinal Sincero almost certainly sensed a threat when he read:
Very embarrassing if letter definitely approving Association as distinct pontifical work in no way opposed to Propagation doesn’t arrive before first of November my efforts for coming year will be ruined.[27]
It was not an idle threat. On 15 October 1928, at CNEWA’s annual board of directors meeting, the president reported that revenue for 1928 was substantially less than that of the previous year; only half the bishops had permitted the roll call, or collection, in their dioceses, and the appeal by mail alone, Father Walsh warned, would render the list of members useless if unsupported by the bishops in their districts.[28]
Two of the directors, Archbishop Edward J. Hanna and Bishop Thomas Francis Lillis, reminded Father Walsh that many bishops still had the impression that CNEWA would not call upon them again after the 1927 collection. Then the board had agreed unanimously that, since annual collections or roll calls in the churches could no longer be expected, CNEWA would have to develop its mailing list and actively solicit donations by mail. Father Walsh was authorized to ask bishops individually for permission to continue the parish appeals, but the decision would be for the individual bishop to make.[29]
Meanwhile, Father Walsh’s cablegram to Cardinal Sincero must have caused some concern in Rome, for on 16 October 1928, only four days after Father Walsh had forwarded his message, Cardinal Sincero sent Father Walsh a four-page letter explaining that the Holy Father’s encyclical did not mention CNEWA because the encyclical’s main thrust was to promote Oriental studies, particularly among the clergy, and for this purpose His Holiness had purchased a new location for the Oriental Institute. The “pious man” reference in the encyclical was the pope’s way of acknowledging publicly the financial help he had received towards the purchase from one individual in the United States. Cardinal Sincero made no apologies:
From the very context of the encyclical it is obvious that the man’s donation was given for this particular purpose [italics Sincero’s], the site of the Oriental Institute, hence, no confusion can arise between this matter and the Association.[30]
Where did this leave CNEWA? Cardinal Sincero applied the velvet glove: He explained that from the “direct scope” of the encyclical one could directly infer what satisfaction His Holiness harbored for all institutions that helped promote the Church in the Orient. But to draw special attention to CNEWA, the Holy Father had selected the latter organization to be the official distributor of his encyclical among the bishops, clergy and laity in the United States. “All of which, therefore,” said Cardinal Sincero,
is the way of letting it be known that the work of the Association, directed by you, far from languishing or lessening, will never get smaller, but will be supported always by the Hierarchy and Clergy, and alms from the Clergy and people for the Oriental Church and Russia … will continue to come in year after year by means of the above mentioned Pontifical Association.[31]
The letter closed with the veiled directive that the prefect was sure Father Walsh would exercise his best efforts to see to it that the encyclical received the widest possible circulation.
Father Walsh’s worrisome warnings did some good in Rome, however. One week prior to the 1 November 1928 deadline and in advance of their 10th annual meeting, the pope sent a letter to the American bishops that dealt exclusively with the S.P.F. and CNEWA. He acknowledged with gratitude the money collected by both agencies, “two works of religion which are the object of intense, daily, and We were about to say, harrowing concern of Our Apostolic ministry.”[32] Then, endorsing both CNEWA and the S.P.F., he touched upon their individual roles:
The first of these works of religion, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is, as you also, Venerable Brothers, continually set forth in word and deed, truly the work of works, first and supreme in its importance because it is the continuing through the centuries and in the whole wide world of the work of the Divine Founder of the Church Himself and of His First Apostles; the second looks toward the East, so dear to us and so worthy of our veneration, whence first shone out on the world the light of Christianity, that East which once was a most flourishing garden of the Catholic Church and which later, separated, or rather torn, from the Catholic Church, fell into so wretched a plight, spiritual and material as well, that East which now as never before fills Us with hopes so strong and so sweet of seeing her return to the One Fold, but which for this very reason is more than ever beset and tempted by propaganda (only too well equipped with worldly resources of every kind) hostile to Christ and His Church.[33]
Father Walsh felt rebuffed again, for although the “material plight” of the East was mentioned — secondarily to the “spiritual” — the pope failed to define CNEWA as a Vatican Red Cross. Nevertheless, the pope did express approval of CNEWA, as he approved of the S.P.F., and he urged each bishop individually to become a loyal and loving interpreter of CNEWA and the S.P.F. to the laity and clergy, particularly the parish priests, “in order to make these two works more perfect, more stable and more efficient. “[34]
The pope’s letter was delivered to the bishops by the apostolic delegate at their meeting 14 November 1928, but, significantly, Cardinal Mundelein and Bishop Kelley delivered the only speeches regarding the missions. Cardinal Mundelein reported on the funds collected by the A.B.C.M., noting that Chicago had given one-fourth of the entire amount, and urging that money for the home missions be used at once to counteract the hostile elements at work in the rural districts of the country, presumably the Ku Klux Klan and the American Protective Association (APA). Bishop Kelley, emphasizing that “charity begins at home,” warned that the Church could expect to lose the southwestern part of the United States because priests there could not speak Spanish. With adequate support, however, the Church could anticipate large numbers of converts if the people were given good literature which, he said, was being published by Bishop Noll at Our Sunday Visitor, and if a follow-up to the literature were provided through proper organization. “Such is the work of the American Board of Catholic Missions,” Bishop Kelley declared.[35] He then invited the bishops from the East to come West to see for themselves the conditions under which minority populations and farm laborers were living.[36]
The bishops’ enthusiasm for the home missions, as presented by Cardinal Mundelein and Bishop Kelley, augured poorly for Father Walsh, but nevertheless he had the pope’s endorsement for CNEWA and he made the most of it. Cardinal O’Connell assured the Holy Father through the apostolic delegate that he could count on the hierarchy’s full support of both CNEWA and the S.P.F.[37] and Father Walsh cabled Cardinal Sincero to thank him for his efforts in securing the papal letter.[38]
The next day, 26 November, Father Walsh mailed to all CNEWA members an 11-page brochure, accompanied by a letter in which he linked CNEWA to a direct commission from the pope himself and described CNEWA’s work as exclusively humanitarian. He stated:
Our Holy Father Pope Pius XI moved to pity by appeals from the stricken corners of the world in times of war, famine, earthquake and hurricane, commissioned your Association to act for him in his great program of international charity.
The brochure carried photos of the hurricane wreckage in Puerto Rico, of refugees in Palestine, earthquake victims in Bulgaria and war orphans in Greece.[39] It was intended to lay the groundwork for the January 1929 appeal.
To every bishop, with a letter marked “Confidential, not for publication,” Father Walsh mailed a digest of a book entitled International Golden Rule Sunday, in which George Vickrey, General Secretary of Near Easy Relief, listed the names of church groups and public officials who supported NER’s annual appeal. “Many of them are of national or international reputation,” commented Father Walsh, using the Kelley technique, “but it is also apparent at a glance that they are allied in some cases with anti-Catholic forces.”[40]
CNEWA’s protector, Cardinal Hayes, had promised the Holy Father his full support and now, announcing himself as one of the first in the hierarchy to authorize the roll call for CNEWA, he set the date of 10 March 1929 and encouraged the priests in his archdiocese to promote it enthusiastically.[41] At the February meeting of CNEWA’s executive committee he also authorized Father Walsh to write again to the bishops who had not responded to his January letter asking that the roll call be made.[42] Apparently, some bishops simply were not interested. Financial records for 1929 are not available, but early receipts from the roll calls and the direct-mail appeal must have indicated that, with so many problems at home, the bishops were not in a mood to support unreservedly an organization which seemed to be in competition with the S.P.F., especially since Father Walsh and the Vatican appeared to hold diverging views about its purpose.
In July 1929, Father Walsh left again for Rome, this time “to make a complete report to His Holiness … on the state of our Association in aid of Russia and the Near East.”[43] By then he must have realized that his Vatican Red Cross was not to be. The pope suggested simply that Father Walsh, as CNEWA president, propose to Monsignor Quinn of the S.P.F. that his agency and CNEWA collaborate in a national collection once a year for the missions overseas. The collection’s purpose, the Holy Father emphasized, was to be “exclusively missionary.”[44]
Father von Galen had won after all. The Congregation for the Eastern Church would have a guaranteed annual income of its own, but the money would be used for reunion and religion, not relief and rehabilitation. Father Walsh reacted negatively,[45] arguing that the S.P.F. would benefit at CNEWA’s expense. The document on which the joint appeal proposal was based was the Holy Father’s letter to the American bishops of 23 October 1928, the same letter that Father Walsh had instigated to guarantee CNEWA’s independence. Despite everything, Father Walsh was determined to salvage what he could. He did not take into account, however, more critics in high places.
Notes
(Click numbers to return to text.)
[1] Father Walsh to Cardinal Hayes, 23 December 1927, Hayes Papers, U-5, 1928, N-Q.
[2] Cardinal Mundelein and Cardinal Hayes had been classmates at Manhattan College in New York, and they became cardinals in the same consistory, 24 March 1924.
[3] New Catholic Encyclopedia, I, s.v. “American Board of Catholic Missions,” p.398.
[4] Roemer, Theodore. Ten Decades of Alms. St. Louis, B. Herder, 1942. (See especially chapter XV, “The Results of the Alms,” pp. 221-241.) See also the New Catholic Encyclopedia, II, s.v., “Society for the Propagation of the Faith,” pp. 845-846.
[5] New York Catholic News, 19 April 1924.
[6] New York Catholic News, 20 January 1923. Quinn came to New York in 1917 to work as assistant to Monsignor William H. Ketcham of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. He was general secretary of the Marquette League, then national secretary of the SPF before succeeding Bishop Freri as national director. Archbishop Henry Moeller of Cincinnati recommended him for the post of national director, although it goes without saying that he also had the endorsement of Cardinal Hayes. See USCC archival holdings, “Minutes of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Hierarchy, 24 September 1924.”
[7] Reprinted by Father Walsh in his Eastertide 1930 letter to CNEWA members (ACNEWA).
[8] Cardinal Gasparri to Cardinal Hayes, 17 March 1928, prot. no. 69159, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA): “Fin dagli inizi dell’attivita svolta fra i cattolici degli Stati Uniti dalla benemerita ’Catholic Near East Welfare Association’ a favore dei fratelli del Vicino Oriente e della Russia, il Santo Padre volle dare all’Opera un Protettore nella persona di Vostra Eminenza. Vostra Eminenza avrebbe in breve temp fatto grandi progressi e se ne sarebbero risentiti presto i benefici effetti. Ora Sua Santita che seque si da vicino a con tanto interessamento l’attvilla della ’Catholic Near East Welfare Association’, attivita che Lo mette in grado di sovvenire agli innumerevoli bisogni dei Suoi infelici figli dell’Oriente, non poteva piu a lungo lacere i sensi della Suia viva riconoscenza verso l’Eminenza Vostra per il valido appoggio prestato finora all’Opera e esprime la fiducia che Vostra Eminenza continuera a sostenere la benemerita Associazione come ha fatto in questi due anni di vita, asicurandone cosi sempre piu il prospere successo.”
[9] See Cardinal Gasparri to Cardinal Sincero, 20 March 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[10] Ibid.
[11] Cardinal Hayes to Cardinal Gasparri, 19 April 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[12] Father Walsh to Cardinal Sincero (letter and aide-memoire), 20 June 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[13] Ibid., p. 2: “Vu le fait que l’Association a ete fondee dans un but distinct de la Propagation de la Foi, il est absolument necessaire que nos mettions en vue les oeuvres de ce genre, et non pas les oeuvres strictement missionnaires, qui ressortissent plutot a la Propagation de la Foi.”
[14] Ibid., pp. 2-3: “Si la C.N.E.W.A. apparaissait comme distribuant ses ressources d’abord pour des buts missionnaires, la Propagation de la Foi pourrait se plaindre, ainsi qu’elle l’a deja fait, que nos empietons sur son domaine, et les eveques ne donneraiont pas a notre Association la cooperation indispensable: or, si cette cooperation n’est pas continuee, le P. Walsh peut affirmer avec certitude que dans deux ans l’Association aura vecu et que les sources de revenue pour la bienfaisance seront taries. (B) Au point de vue du public americain, il y aura une confusion:P car, bien instruit par la Propagation de la Foi sur les buts missionnaires (entretien des pretres, construction de seminaires et d’eglises, depenses ordinaires d’un diocese) il donne son argent pour ce but precis a la Propagation de la Foi. Mais si les rapports que nos devons a nos bienfaiteurs montrent que des sommes considerables vont a ces memes besoins d-organisation ecclesiastique ordinaire, dans le Proche-Orient, il y aura grand danger qu’on dise que notre Association a quete sous de faux pretextes. On commence meme deja a mous poser des questions directement.”
[15] Ibid., p. 3: “De cette facon, – et ainsi seulement, – l’Association pourra garder son caractere et se justifier devant le public americain.”
[16] Ibid.
[17] Monsignor Cicognani to Father Walsh, 10 July 1928, prot. no. 2341/28, Vatican Documents I (CNEWA).
[18] Father Walsh to Monsignor Cicognani, 16 August 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[19] Monsignor Cicognani to Father Walsh, 12 July 1928, prot. no. 276/28, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[20] Father Walsh to Monsignor Cicognani, 16 August 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[21] Monsignor Cicognani to Father Walsh, 23 July 1928, prot. no. 849/28, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[22] Father Walsh to Monsignor Cicognani, 16 August 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA). In a final note Father Walsh informed Cicognani that he was leaving the following day for Canada in order to greet Cardinal Sincero when he landed and to “take up with His Eminence any matters which need our further attention.”
[23] Archbishop Roncalli to Father Walsh, 10 August 1928 (ACNEWA).
[24] ”Minutes of Meeting of Executive Committee of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Inc.,” 11 October 1928 (ACNEWA). The cablegram was delivered via the office of the Vatican secretary of state. Later Bishop Edwin V. Byrne of San Juan, Puerto Rico, accepted with gratitude the use of CNEWA’s New York office to ship supplies and further relief to the island. See also Father Walsh to Cardinal Hayes, 10 October 1928, Hayes Paperes, U-5, 1928, N-Q.
[25] Ibid.
[26] The encyclical in question was Pope Pius XI’s Rerum Orientalium, issued on 8 September 1928.
[27] Father Walsh (cablegram) to Cardinal Sincero, 12 October 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[28] ”Minutes of Annual Meeting of Board of Directors of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Inc.,” 15 October 1928 (ACNEWA). Statistical data further revealed that the appeal by letter alone proved the most expensive form of collecting funds, costing three times as much as a roll call.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Cardinal Sincero to Father Walsh, 16 October 1928, Prot. No. 863/28 (ACNEWA).
[31] Ibid.
[32] Pope Pius XI to United States hierarchy, 23 October 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid. As if to emphasize the spiritual purpose of the association, Cardinal Sincero at this time wrote Cardinal Hayes, suggesting that Bishop Joseph Schrembs of Cleveland be invited to join the board of directors in recognition of his successful attempts to bring several Rumanian Orthodox parishes back to the see of Peter. See Cardinal Hayes to Father Walsh, 5 January 1929. Vatican Documents II (ACNEWA).
[35] USCC archival holdings, “Minutes of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the American Hierarchy,” 14 November 1928.
[36] Ibid. Author Bishop John Gavin Nolan had noted that prior to Bishop Kelley’s invitation, Cardinal Mundelein had tendered his resignation from the A.B.C.M., “but the bishops refused to accept it.” Immediately thereafter, Bishop Kelley “withdrew his own resignation” — presumably still a pending motion at that point, since no prior reference to it is given in Bishop Nolan’s text. Nor, curiously, is any reason specified for either resignation. Filling these lacunas will necessitate reference to the above-specified minutes.
[37] Cardinal O’Connell to Archbishop Fumasoni-Biondi, 22 November 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[38] Father Walsh (cablegram) to Cardinal Sincero, 25 November 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[39] Father Walsh to CNEWA Membership, 26 November 1928, Vatican Documents I (ACNEWA).
[40] Father Walsh to United States hierarchy, n.d., (ACNEWA 1928-30). This letter was filed among the 1929 correspondence.
[41] Cardinal Hayes to the clergy of the archdiocese of New York, February 1929 (ACNEWA 1928-30).
[42] ”Minutes of Meeting of Executive Committee of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Inc.,” 1 February 1929 (ACNEWA). It was also suggested that a group of prominent laymen be invited to interest themselves “more intimately” in the association, perhaps even to serve on the executive committee. Cardinal Hayes instructed the president to prepare such a list.
[43] Father Walsh to Cardinal Hayes, 10 July 1929, Hayes Papers.
[44] ”Minutes of Meeting of Executive Committee of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Inc.,” 22 November 1929 (ACNEWA).
[45] Father Walsh to Cardinal Sincero, 24 December 1929 (AOC) 179.