ROME LETTER

New Zealand Tablet, 10 June 1915, Page 55

ROME LETTER

I' (From our own correspondent.) •:- -.-' - . \ - • April 16. ' THE- HOLY FATHER'S MESSAGE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. For nearly a week the press of three continents have been busy discussing what Mr. C. Wiegand has been pleased to call his ' interview ' with the Pope. Very likely the best explanation that can be given of it and of the columns written on it is that which appeared this morning in the Catholic daily of Rome, the Gorriere d'ltalia: 'We have already said,' remarks the Gorriere apropos of the audience, 'that it was not properly speaking an audience, as it has been described by a greater part of the press. From further information that we have been able to gather, we know to-day with certainty that Benedict XV., in receiving Mr. Wiegand, spoke exclusively of peace for that is well known to be the subject of his thoughts and the object of his constant efforts — and that his affirmations about the possibility of an initiative on the pari of the United States were expressed, as. is plain from the very text of .the conversation as given in the newspapers, in tin- sense that where that nation might make a move in favor of peace, it would receive the approval, and (he help of the Holy Sec. All the rest represents what the correspondent of the -Ynr Tori; World thought of giving to the mind of the Pope, without there being on this account any possibility of attributing to him responsibility for each and every part or affirmation. 'So true is this that Mr. Wiegand himself recognises it, and at a certain point in his report he says expressly: "If I rightly understand the words of his Holiness." We conclude, therefore as we affirmed yesterday, that it is vain to build iu> the results of others' fancies around the lofty words of lUmedkl XV.. ami that this new manifestation of the generous mind of the Pontiff must only confirm the more that sense of admiration which already prevails throughout the world for his paternal work HOW ROME HONORS HER AGED PRIESTS. No city pays more honor to her aged priests than does Rome. The Vicar of Christ comes down for the occasion from bis throne, and he joins cardinals and the rank and file of the clergy in wishing long life and more work to the clergymen lull of. years, if not of honors. This was the case yesterday in St. Peter's, as it was fifty years ago that young Father De Bisogno, Marquis of Casaluce, said his first Mass. When Mgr. De Bisogno, Dean of the Chapter of St. Peter's, stood at the altar, beneath the chair of tinPrince of the Apostles, to oiler up the Holy Sacrifice in thanksgiving for his fifty years of priesthood, a prelate stood by with an autograph letter of iris Holiness the P«pe congratulating him on his golden jubilee. And the archpriest of the Basilica, his Eminence Cardinal Merry del Val, with the archbishops, bishops, and mousignors, who are Canons of St. Peter's, assisted at the Mass to do honor, to felicitate, and to oiler gifts to the venerable Dean. Nor was the practical side forgotten. The great chalice used at the Mass, richly chased, and adorned with precious stones and ornamented by bas-reliefs, etc., representing scenes in the lives of the saints, had been consecrated by the Holy Father, and used once in offering the Holy Sacrifice by his Holiness. This chalice Mgr. De Bisogno presented to St, Peter's after Mass, as a testimony of his gratitude for these fifty golden years, to be kept in its treasury among its priceless store. NOTES. / With all her old generosity, Catholic Spain has "" begun a movement to do her best to make up for the deficit in Peter's Pence which the war has occasioned. Among -those who were recently received in private audience by the Holy Father were the Very Rev. Fathers Monza, Cormier, and Murray, Generals of the Orders of Friars Minor, Dominicans; and Redemptorists . respectively.