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 MOST REVEREND GEORGE W. MUNDELEIN, D. D. 
 ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO
 
 Two Crowded Years 
 
 Being Selected Addresses, Pastorals, and Letters 
 
 Issued During the First Twenty-four 
 
 Months of the Episcopate 
 
 of the 
 
 ,IHast J\ctt. (laconic William .Jttimbeleitt, P. P., 
 
 as Archbishop of Chicago 
 
 Foreword by the Right Rev. Francis C. Kelley, D. D. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 EXTENSION PRESS 
 1918
 
 M 
 
 Archbishop Mundelein 
 
 A Foreword by 
 Monsignor Kelley 
 
 There is never a lack of work to do 
 in a great archdiocese, but very often 
 there is a lack of the things with which 
 to do it. I should not have said "work", 
 but "works", for it is the multiplicity 
 of calls to labor that is the chief est of 
 difficulties facing the responsible high 
 priest and pastor of souls. No one can 
 build a house without materials. No 
 one can respond to the call to do great 
 things for God without supplies, far 
 harder to get than brick and mortar. 
 One of these necessities is the good 
 will of others, a sure forerunner of 
 generosity. 
 
 Two years is not a long period of rule, 
 but two years well prepared for may 
 be made to stand, in actual achievement, 
 as equal to ten or even twenty. To pre- 
 pare well for two intensive years of 
 many labors is to have labored all one's
 
 previous life, to have been made fit by 
 smaller tasks for the greater ones ; but, 
 above all, to have formed one's qual- 
 ities of heart, mind and soul so strongly 
 that character makes easy the gaining 
 of good will. The rest follows. 
 
 Never did bishop come to his flock 
 more of a complete stranger than did 
 Archbishop Mundelein to the million 
 and a quarter Catholics of the Arch- 
 diocese of Chicago, and the people of 
 the Central West. He had never seen 
 the vast West. He had never set foot 
 on the pavements of its greatest city. 
 He was practically unknown to his en- 
 tire clergy except by name. That name 
 had never been even vaguely hinted at 
 in connection with the choice of a suc- 
 cessor to the late lamented Archbishop 
 Quigley. By the choice of the Holy 
 Father, and the Holy Father alone, 
 Archbishop Mundelein came to his life's 
 great labors but he was ready for 
 them. Already a consecrated bishop, 
 he had experience as a pastor, as a 
 college director, as a chancellor, as a 
 builder, as an organizer, even as a 
 newspaper man; and out of this expe- 
 rience he had learned the great lesson 
 how to gain good will, the first necessity 
 
 iv
 
 if one is to find the things with which 
 works are to be done. 
 
 Archbishop Mundelein did not find it 
 hard to secure his materials. No one 
 who could help him failed to see that 
 his devotion was for the cause and not 
 for himself. That sort of devotion 
 always wins friends and helpers. He 
 was never afraid to ask, because he 
 was never asking selfishly. When he 
 spoke it was always for the cause he 
 had to champion, for the country, for 
 the state, for the city. People under- 
 stand this kind of devotion and respond 
 to it. So the materials came and the 
 works went on. 
 
 But Archbishop Mundelein was never 
 over-confident, for he neglected noth- 
 ing. Even this book has its task. The 
 Archbishop consented to its publication 
 on one condition: that it should produce 
 materials for one of the works. So he 
 selected a poor parish in the Archdio- 
 cese that needed outside help and to 
 that parish he gave the royalties from 
 the sale of the book. Everything has to 
 be turned into a help. Thus a poor 
 school will absorb all the royalties the 
 Archbishop might justly claim for him- 
 self.
 
 The above may well make those who 
 wonder at the success of the Arch- 
 bishop's first two years in Chicago 
 understand that there is really nothing 
 to be wondered at after all. Even 
 though his appointment to Chicago was 
 a surprise, the biggest of all to himself, 
 he was ready for it when it came. He 
 had built up the character of a captain, 
 and had nothing to do but assume the 
 uniform and step onto the bridge. He 
 was out on the great lake before he 
 knew of the change; and was at home 
 there as much as he had been at home 
 on the peaceful river. The green shores 
 of the river had long been for him a 
 glad content as he sailed along; but, 
 now that they were far off, he did not 
 miss them after the first parting. The 
 indigo mountains behind them were his 
 friends of old ; but even on the lake they 
 loomed up in the distance, turned to 
 grey, and were still inspiration to great 
 deeds. Peaceful ripples changed to 
 rocking waves; but there is nothing to 
 fear when the Captain has learned 
 wisely and well. There is a new crew; 
 but crews often change, and it is not the 
 crew that counts, but the successful end 
 of the voyage.
 
 Every ship carries her log, which is 
 the story of the ship's voyages and ac- 
 complishments. This book, containing 
 appeals, counsels, prayers and exhorta- 
 tions to labor, is a copious extract from 
 the log of Archbishop Mundelein's com- 
 mand for two years. Like a ship's log, 
 it tells the story better than any indi- 
 vidual could tell it; for the captain 
 wrote the log not to praise himself, 
 never dreaming that it would be pub- 
 lished, and thus unconsciously wrote it 
 in the very best way. 
 
 This "log" gives the sympathetic 
 reader an idea of the many duties and 
 responsibilities incident to the govern- 
 ing of a great diocese. It begins with 
 farewells that have "heart" in them. 
 The- Archbishop had but one parish in 
 all his priestly life. For that parish he 
 worked in the intervals between his 
 calls to duty as Auxiliary-Bishop and 
 Chancellor of the Diocese of Brooklyn, 
 head of the Preparatory Seminary, 
 founder of a seaside parish, and Chair- 
 man of the Board of Directors of the 
 diocesan paper. There were minor 
 duties, too, claiming time and atten- 
 tion. The immediate work for souls in 
 the Cathedral Chapel parish was his 
 
 vil
 
 pride and joy. There he built a monu- 
 ment to the glory of God, the devotion 
 of his people, and his own zeal and ar- 
 tistic taste. The people of the parish 
 wanted a church building; the pastor 
 wanted a school, but knew how to com- 
 promise with two great necessities, and 
 satisfy both the demands of his flock 
 and the wishes of his own heart. He 
 built both church and school, and even 
 a rectory all in one. Such buildings 
 are usually anything but attractive. 
 Archbishop Mundelein's building is an 
 artistic triumph. Its wonderful French- 
 Gothic lines attract students of archi- 
 tecture from far and wide. They come 
 to admire and to study. The building is 
 the purest specimen of its kind in 
 Brooklyn, which is known as "The City 
 of Churches." The Archbishop became 
 Captain in his own right; he had to say 
 his word of farewell to the faithful 
 crew who manned his parish ship. That 
 farewell is a model of touching kindness 
 and affection ; but it was not entirely a 
 farewell, since, in the beautiful build- 
 ing, he was leaving a monument that 
 would always speak of his constant in- 
 terest in his first parish. The monument 
 was a part of himself, left behind. 
 
 viU
 
 To the clergy of Brooklyn Archbish- 
 op Mundelein had never been a superior 
 in the full sense of the word; but had 
 always been a friend and counsellor. 
 As the "first officer" stands between 
 captain and crew, he stood a friend to 
 bishop and clergy. He had never been 
 looked upon by the priests as one who 
 had left their ranks to go higher; but 
 as one who had gone higher without 
 leaving their ranks, and now exerted 
 a sort of pref ectship. Such an intimate 
 relation could not be broken without 
 pain. Its presence is felt in the Arch- 
 bishop's farewell to the priests; but 
 there is something else besides. There 
 is a note of genuine loyalty to his for- 
 mer superior in it, and an expression of 
 affection for the captain and the ship 
 from which he was stepping to higher 
 command, which explain a great deal 
 in the Archbishop's successful career. 
 
 Just as striking were the new Arch- 
 bishop's words in Chicago, especially 
 to his priests. The crew of a ship never 
 take any part in the selection of their 
 captain. Even the officers may claim 
 no right to fill this commanding posi- 
 tion when it becomes vacant. The own- 
 ers, their representatives, or the admi-
 
 ral of the fleet, have that duty and re- 
 sponsibility. But the very fact that 
 officers and crew have nothing to do 
 with the selection of a new captain 
 makes them the more anxious to see 
 and hear the one selected for them by 
 higher authority. So much depends, 
 for wholehearted co-operation, on the 
 impression made by wise words and 
 actions at the beginning that superiors 
 have been known to blast all their 
 chances of success for want of them. 
 The initial words of a superior are not 
 spoken only for a day: they are words 
 that live during the whole period of his 
 rule. The Church charges the Supreme 
 Pontiff with the duty and responsibility 
 of selecting her bishops. She gives au- 
 thority generously into their hands, for 
 she trusts them. Every care is taken 
 in making selections'- for, once made, 
 rarely are they recalled. In sickness 
 and in health, in sorrow and in joy, in 
 darkness and in sunshine, the bishop 
 remains with his flock. His part of the 
 Church Universal is to him a spouse: 
 and he must cleave to her, as she must 
 cleave to him, until death. Ships' cap- 
 tains frequently change, but the change- 
 less Church, even in the tenure of of-
 
 fice of her captains, gives plain indica- 
 tions of her character. Because of these 
 things, the first words of a bishop to 
 his flock are words of singular fateful- 
 ness to himself, to his ministry, to his 
 clergy, to his people. 
 
 The promise of Archbishop Munde- 
 lein's administration is clearly outlined 
 in his first address, delivered in the Holy 
 Name Cathedral: loyalty to his own 
 superiors, fidelity to his charge, appre- 
 ciation of meritorious service, respect 
 and admiration for his predecessors, 
 humility before his great tasks, deter- 
 mination to do his best, confidence that 
 God's grace will not fail him, anxiety 
 to deserve and win co-operation from 
 his clergy, and a full knowledge of the 
 value, above all else, of the prayers of 
 his people. These things shine out in 
 his first address like white jewels 
 against a background of dark velvet. 
 The task of a ruler of such a great dio- 
 cese as Chicago is soft only to the care- 
 less touch; beneath is the hard-fibred 
 cloth that holds the silken pile, and 
 there is no cheerfulness in its texture. 
 
 There is an intimate relation between 
 the passengers, the officers and the cap- 
 tain of every ship ; for while the former
 
 have no duties of management and nav- 
 igation, yet in times of danger much 
 depends on their self-discipline, their 
 co-operation, their loyalty. Captain 
 and officers are charged with guarding 
 the safety of the passengers, and in 
 fidelity to this task lies their own and 
 the crew's safety. The unwritten law 
 of the sea says that when the ship is in 
 grave danger the officers shall be the 
 last body to leave, and, of that body, the 
 captain the last of all. So it must be 
 in the Church. By the happy simile of 
 Christ Himself is the law laid down: 
 "The good shepherd giveth his life for 
 his sheep." Archbishop Mundelein's 
 first direct message to the clergy of his 
 diocese was a message to inspire a fine 
 morale. 
 
 It is the vogue amongst those outside 
 of the pale of the Catholic Church to 
 admire her wonderful organization, and 
 salute her as the greatest of human in- 
 stitutions. It never occurs to them 
 that, on the side of faith and morals, 
 the wonder of the Church is explained 
 by the fact that she is not human, but 
 divine. She is built upon the authority 
 of God Himself, Who gave to His Son, 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, the mission of 
 
 xii
 
 bringing her into existence, and to the 
 Holy Ghost the work of teaching her 
 "all things" and remaining with her 
 "forever." 
 
 It was Christ Himself Who chose St. 
 Peter to rule over her and, "being con- 
 verted," to confirm "his brethren." It 
 was Peter who first, after Christ, gov- 
 erned the Church which he had found- 
 ed. It was through the successors of 
 Peter that the authority to teach was 
 preserved; but the Power that pre- 
 served it was that of the Most High. 
 The long and venerable succession of 
 Eoman Pontiffs challenges the admira- 
 tion of the world; but that admiration- 
 is less for the men who successively 
 grasped the keys than for the provi- 
 dence and love of God by Whom they 
 were directed. Loyalty, affection and 
 obedience are due the successor of St. 
 Peter, the Vicar of Christ. The Arch- 
 bishop sounded these notes admirably 
 in all his utterances on the Holy Father. 
 
 The subsequent utterances of the 
 Archbishop show his wide sympathies, 
 his genuine pariotism, and his practi- 
 cal leadership. They show the man, and 
 explain his two years of marvelous suc- 
 
 xiil
 
 cess in one of the greatest sees of the 
 Christian world. He has won his way 
 just as surely as his way has won him. 
 Coming a stranger to the West, he is a 
 stranger no longer. He loves his new 
 home as strongly as he loved his old 
 one more strongly if that be possible. 
 In the West he has had his opportunity, 
 and has not hesitated about grasping it. 
 The West gave him a chance to realize 
 his dreams of work for God. He found 
 its priests and people as anxious to co- 
 operate as he was to work and lead. 
 "They do not wait to be asked," he said 
 of them, "but come to know what they 
 can do." Out of the spirit of the West 
 the Archbishop has already builded his 
 new monuments, is building them to- 
 day, and will keep on building them in 
 the future. Already the Preparatory 
 Seminary rivals in beauty the magnifi- 
 cent Cathedral Chapel of Brooklyn. 
 The land is ready for the Grand Sem- 
 inary. The diocesan charities are or- 
 ganized. The Archdiocese has, through 
 him, its proper place first in the 
 world's offerings to the Vicar of Christ. 
 The poor and the orphan are housed. 
 New schools are built; Catholic educa- 
 
 siv
 
 tion is properly directed; and every 
 worthy work flourishes. 
 
 Someone, when welcoming Arch- 
 bishop Mundelein two years ago, quoted 
 one stanza from the poems of Douglas 
 Mallock, which seemed particularly 
 appropriate then, and which all Chi- 
 cago hoped would prove prophetic. I 
 quote it now to show that the hope has 
 already been realized: 
 "There in the East; we dreamed the 
 dreams 
 
 Of the things we hoped to do ; 
 But here in the West, the crimson West, 
 
 The dreams of the East come true."
 
 Part I 
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS
 
 Farewell Address to the People of the Cathedral 
 
 Chapel Parish, Brooklyn, New York, 
 
 January 31st, 1916 
 
 Have you ever heard a fond parent 
 speak of a dutiful child when it came 
 to the time of parting: "I never raised 
 a hand to him. I never had to scold 
 him"? That is precisely the tribute I 
 must pay to the chapel people, now that 
 I am about to leave them. The Chapel 
 has been like a splendid, generous, well- 
 behaved and loving child that responded 
 to every call, that was always obedient, 
 unselfish and kind, that was never re- 
 proved or scolded once during the six 
 and a half years it was under my pa- 
 rental care. And now when I go away 
 from you, I go away with not a single 
 unpleasant recollection, without the 
 memory of a single bitter moment, with 
 only the remembrance of six splendid 
 years of friendship, of satisfaction, of 
 success. You have been an inspiration 
 to me in my happiest years; you have 
 strengthened my faith in the great
 
 18 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 worth of our laity; you have been evi- 
 dence that the spirit of our crusader 
 ancestors has not withered away with 
 the passing of time; you have made a 
 new record for generous faith which 
 will not soon be surpassed; you have 
 given to the Lord and to His house with 
 such a measure of liberality as has ex- 
 cited wonder and admiration. I do not 
 think I shall ever again see such liberal 
 response to priests' or bishops' appeal 
 as was yours. So, going away, I leave 
 two things with you, the knowledge 
 that your name and fame have gone 
 abroad over the land for what you have 
 done; and secondly, the belief that in 
 this country of ours there is no church 
 or chapel as pretty, as devotional, as 
 artistic as yours. Just think for a 
 moment what we have done in six years. 
 Six years ago we had the little old 
 chapel and no school ; we had practically 
 nothing in the treasury. Today, besides 
 our beautiful church, we have a com- 
 plete parish-school with a splendid 
 teaching-staff of Brothers and Sisters 
 second to no other teachers in the coun- 
 try. We have an auditorium of which 
 we are proud, well-equipped for every 
 purpose of education or entertainment.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 19 
 
 Our teaching Brothers have a well- 
 furnished monastery of their own ; and 
 finally, we have, on the way to comple- 
 tion, a rectory that will accommodate 
 six priests, if necessary, with every 
 comfort and convenience. Our building 
 operations have cost more than half a 
 million dollars, and of this amount over 
 three hundred thousand dollars has 
 been raised and paid out during this 
 time. Sixty thousand dollars of this 
 sum were contributed by a gentleman 
 formerly connected with the parish, 
 who wishes to remain unnamed andi 
 unknown to all but myself. 
 
 The result, moreover, has been 
 progress all along the line. We 
 have our various societies and par- 
 ish activities; all are well attended. 
 I know but two families whose chil- 
 dren are not in our schools or in 
 some Catholic private school. Our pew- 
 list is the second largest in the city. 
 Our children well-behaved, respectful, 
 edifying. Our priests, brothers and 
 sisters are harmonious, zealous, oblig- 
 ing. Nobody wants to leave us. Our 
 various parochial services are attrac- 
 tive, because the church is clean and 
 commodious. Our music is devotional
 
 20 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 and inspiring. Our priests are willing 
 and conscientious. Just when I was 
 getting everything to that satisfactory 
 stage that I desired, suddenly the Holy 
 See calls me and sends me far away. I 
 have received the official documents; 
 the Sacred Pallium has arrived; and 
 within a week I go to the new field of 
 labor assigned to me. Before I do go, 
 however, I have two things to say to 
 you a double duty to perform here. 
 In the first place, during all these 
 years, I have ever insisted that the 
 great work here was yours, the credit 
 yours, not mine, I was only part of 
 you that the progress was due to 
 your splendid parochial spirit. I 
 still insist that this is true. I want 
 you to bear me out. I do not know 
 who is going to be your pastor; 
 but whoever he is, his path will not 
 be too easy for a while. He will be 
 different from me. He may have his 
 own methods. Perhaps these methods 
 in the end will be better than mine. 
 Now, I would ask you to be kind to him, 
 considerate of him. There is a heavy 
 debt here. For me it would not have 
 amounted to much, for I knew you and 
 knew what you could do. I started out
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 21 
 
 with the idea, too, that one generation 
 should not pay for everything. But it 
 will not be so easy for him, for every- 
 thing is built now, and it is harder to 
 pay off debts than to get money while 
 building. I never thought I was ever 
 to be taken away from Brooklyn except 
 by death ; otherwise I might have gone 
 slower. So for my sake, to show the 
 city and the diocese that you are the 
 great parish I said you were, stand by 
 him and support him. When he appeals 
 to you, help him all you can. Just look 
 around you and see what you have, and, 
 if he asks you to do more than your 
 neighbors, bear in mind you have more 
 than your neighbors. In the second 
 place, I want to thank you for what 
 you have done during these years, and 
 to assure you that I can never forget 
 you. The Chapel will always be first 
 in my affection, because I shall never 
 be as close to a people as I have been to 
 you. You are my first and my only 
 parish. Nor I repeat it will a people 
 again do what you have done. I will 
 think of you as proudly and as fondly 
 as a parent of an absent, dutiful child. 
 I want to thank you for what you 
 have given to me personally, the respect
 
 22 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 you have shown, the consideration you 
 have had, the gifts you have made to 
 me. Generous you were as individuals, 
 generous as a parish. I am glad to re- 
 ceive from you the archbishop's ring: it 
 will always remind me of you : it is the 
 principal outward sign of my high 
 office: it is always in sight: it will ever 
 make me remember could I forget? 
 the people who were my people, the 
 children who were my children, the 
 parish that was mine. I will not say 
 good-bye, for I am coming back from 
 time to time, and I hope I shall never 
 be a stranger to you, a stranger to your 
 thoughts, a stranger to your prayers. 
 And I will not forget that my duty to 
 pray for you does not cease because I 
 leave you; but, should I forget, your 
 ring will remind me. I will ask the 
 Lord to stay with you, to bless you and 
 your children, and so make this parish 
 one of the happiest spots in His vine- 
 yard.
 
 Farewell Address to the Clergy of the Diocese 
 of Brooklyn, New York, February 2nd, 1916 
 
 Tonight forms the fitting climax of 
 the past twenty years. They have been 
 years replete with favors, with kind- 
 ness, with consideration. I have passed 
 them all in closest touch with the clergy 
 of this diocese. I have known them, the 
 priests of Brooklyn, better than any one 
 else could know them, better perhaps 
 than their own bishop could know them, 
 because I was closer to them and they 
 were more frank, more open with me. 
 The older priests have been my friends 
 who often came to me for advice. Many 
 of those of my own age were my class- 
 mates.. Others had come to me with 
 their troubles. The younger men re- 
 member me as the guardian of the 
 portals of the Seminary; and the young- 
 est recall the day when they received 
 from my hands their Minor and their 
 Sacred Orders. With all of them there 
 was some bond to link me to them, some 
 event in their lives in which I had played 
 a part. All my own priestly life was 
 spent here, and I can assure you with- 
 out any reserve, that life has been most 
 happy, its days full of consolation, its
 
 24 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 relations with all the most pleasant. So 
 when, on the last day of last November, 
 the summons came that takes me away 
 from this clergy here, I knew I was not 
 the only one who felt sad at the pros- 
 pect of parting. I know that the bishop 
 who was my superior and friend felt 
 sad ; the priests who had been brothers, 
 comrades, friends, felt sad, because I 
 was not to stay with them longer. 
 
 As for myself, but a few months ago I 
 never dreamt I was to leave Brooklyn ; 
 but once I learned the Holy Father 
 himself had called me, I put aside every 
 personal sentiment, all feelings of re- 
 gret; and I go to my new field of labor 
 just as cheerfully as I attempted every 
 other venture. The lessons I have 
 learned here in Brooklyn will stand me 
 in good stead. The problems I am to 
 meet in Chicago will be pretty much the 
 same problems that I have met here in 
 my years in the Chancery Office, at my 
 sessions about the Consultors' table, in 
 my dealings with you. I go away with 
 the pleasantest recollections of you; 
 and I know you will keep the kindest 
 memories of me in your hearts. For 
 many of you I have been in a position 
 to make the way easier. Others of you
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 25 
 
 have entrusted to me confidences that 
 have ever been kept inviolate. With 
 all I have preserved friendly relations. 
 Going away from you, I have the satis- 
 faction of knowing that I tried to act 
 fairly, and that I have not injured any 
 of my fellow-priests for personal or 
 selfish reasons. But one thing must be 
 remembered: The responsibility dur- 
 ing all this time was not mine ; it rested 
 on other shoulders. The honors were 
 mine, the dignity was mine, even the 
 work might be mine, but the burden 
 was on others. That was why I could 
 afford to be happy and have, as I really 
 did have, a good time. Nor was I look- 
 ing for any change. You know as well 
 as I dp that I was satisfied as I was. 
 Now all that is changed. Suddenly, 
 without warning, a million souls are 
 handed over to me. I am sent to the 
 place on which the searchlight is ever 
 trained, to the diocese which is growing 
 perhaps faster than any other in the 
 country, to a stronghold of the faith, 
 to a post of the greatest responsibility, 
 to a city that has many problems to be 
 solved, many works to be inaugurated, 
 many structures to be built. It is a 
 prospect that might cause the stoutest
 
 26 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 heart to flinch, the bravest man to 
 falter, for, in Chicago above all, so 
 much depends upon the man, their 
 archbishop means so much to the West ! 
 And yet let me say to you, my friends 
 and fellow-priests, I go there with a 
 full realization of what it means, but 
 without any fear for the outcome. I 
 am going there full of courage, full of 
 hope, full of confidence. I am not 
 going to fail, for this is a case where 
 the position was not sought. I did not 
 ask to go, I was not asked whether I 
 would go. It is simply "vos non elegis- 
 tis me, sed ego elegi vos". I am just 
 old-fashioned enough to believe that 
 God can do what He wants to, as He 
 wants to, and through whom He wants 
 to ; and I am just an instrument in His 
 hands now to do what He wants to do. 
 I say this to explain to you why it is 
 that I do not feel gloomy or sad or sor- 
 rowful in leaving you. I believe in 
 practising what we all preach. In the 
 past six years I told eighty thousand 
 children that their first duty as Chris- 
 tian soldiers was to be obedient to their 
 superiors; and now my turn has come 
 to show myself as good a soldier as any 
 of them. You know me well enough to
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 27 
 
 know that the honor of the place does 
 not appeal to me. The one thing that 
 does appeal to me, is that an oppor- 
 tunity to do big things, such as has 
 rarely been given to any man, is given 
 to me. One thing I would recommend 
 to you: since your bishop is mine no 
 longer (and he is going to miss me in 
 many ways), I would ask you, his 
 clergy, to supply my place by making 
 things easy for him until he has some 
 one to take my place. He is no longer a 
 young man ; he is not quite a well man. 
 He requires more kindness from his 
 clergy now than ever: that is the one 
 favor I would ask of you. I will not 
 say good-bye to you. Come to Chicago 
 and say good-bye to me there. But 
 count 'me part of you still. My happiest 
 years were spent with you. I could not 
 forget you if I would. For twenty 
 years I have received nothing but 
 favors, nothing but kindness from you 
 all. Tonight is but the culmination, the 
 climax of it. I had hoped to end my 
 days with you, after years of useful- 
 ness in your midst, but the Lord has 
 willed otherwise Fiat voluntas tua!
 
 Installation Allocution in the Cathedral of The 
 Holy Name, Chicago, in the Presence of His 
 Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate, the 
 Bishops of the Province, and Vis- 
 iting Prelates, February 
 9th, 1916 
 
 Your Excellency: Let my first act, 
 after taking possession of this Met- 
 ropolitan Church of Chicago, be to 
 welcome among us the representative 
 of our Holy Father. To him, our Sov- 
 ereign Pontiff, I pledge for myself, for 
 my clergy, and for my people, absolute, 
 unswerving loyalty, obedience, and de- 
 votion. His word is our law, his wish 
 our command, his welfare our personal 
 concern. In him we recognize Christ's 
 Vicar on earth, the infallible teacher 
 of divine truth, the keeper of the keys 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven. To him 
 and to his predecessors in the chair of 
 Peter, I am bound by the closest ties of 
 gratitude. The great Leo blessed me 
 as a young priest and sent me forth on 
 my mission ; the lovable Pius raised me 
 to the episcopate, and now the gentle, 
 peace-seeking Benedict gives me the 
 greatest proof of his confidence when 
 he entrusts to my guidance one of the 
 most important dioceses in the world.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 29 
 
 To him I do now pledge loyalty and 
 devotion until death. Thou art the 
 chief shepherd of His flock, thou prince 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 But there is another, a more in- 
 timate reason why I welcome you 
 here today. You and I were friends 
 when we were simple, unknown priests. 
 Nothing has ever marred that friend- 
 ship, nor lessened the warm regard and 
 kindly feeling we have had for each 
 other. I was the first to greet you 
 when you came to these shores, and 
 you were the first to wish me well as 
 the pastor selected for a great diocese. 
 There is no one I know from whose 
 hands I would rather receive the arch- 
 bishop's Pallium than from you. In the 
 difficult years that lie before me, I will 
 ever have your good wishes, your fra- 
 ternal advice, your unselfish assistance, 
 as in the past I have had your prayers. 
 
 And to my brethren of the episcopate, 
 the Most Reverend Archbishops and 
 the Right Reverend Bishops who have 
 come, many from a distance, all at 
 great sacrifice, I am deeply grateful, 
 for, by their presence here, they have 
 honored the Church of Chicago, its 
 clergy, its people, its city.
 
 30 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 And to you, priests of the archdiocese 
 of Chicago, to you I come today as the 
 man selected by God to be your bishop, 
 your leader, your spiritual father. By 
 the inscrutable design of Providence 
 and because of no merit of my own, I 
 have been chosen as the one "quern 
 Spiritus Sanctus posuit regere hanc ec- 
 cUsiam Dei." The task is one I did not 
 seek, one from which I would gladly 
 shrink, not only because of the vastness 
 of the work and the difficulties in the 
 way, not only because of my own youth, 
 inexperience and unworthiness, but 
 also because I follow in the footsteps of 
 an archbishop whose life was a sacri- 
 fice, whose example was an incentive, 
 whose memory is a benediction. When 
 in that, to me, memorable night the 
 message came from him who represents 
 in our midst Christ's Vicar on earth, 
 that the Pallium of Chicago was to rest 
 on my shoulders, from my very soul I 
 cried out, as I knelt before the Master, 
 "How can I follow after the great 
 Quigley, the prelate who has written 
 his name large across the history of 
 this wonderful diocese of the middle 
 west; how can my weak hands take up 
 the guiding reins where his palsied
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 31 
 
 fingers have laid them down?" And 
 then almost like an inspiration came 
 to me the thought of how quietly but 
 how well he had done his work, how he 
 had prepared the ground for the one 
 that would come after him, how he had 
 finished what he had begun and how 
 richly God had blessed his work. 
 
 Fathers, have you ever realized how 
 good God has been to the Church in 
 Chicago ; how it has become one of the 
 choice spots in His vineyard? When I 
 count the hundreds of churches scat- 
 tered throughout our city; when I 
 review the great army of children in 
 our schools; when I consider the 
 splendid equipment to care for the 
 sick, the, orphaned and the destitute; 
 when I number the homes of the 
 religious orders so many nurseries 
 of the more perfect life when I 
 see you, my priests, the captains of a 
 mighty host, almost too numerous to 
 count, gathered together from many 
 countries and many climes and speak- 
 ing many tongues, then do my eyes see 
 the vision of the Epiphany and to my 
 lips rise the words of the prophet: 
 "Arise, be enlightened, for thy light is 
 come and the glory of God is risen upon
 
 32 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 thee. Lift up thy eyes round about 
 and see all these are gathered together; 
 they are come to thee; thy sons shall 
 come from afar and thy daughters 
 shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt 
 thou see and abound and thy heart shall 
 wonder and be enlarged." 
 
 Fathers, this is more than a vision, 
 this is a picture of our glorious here- 
 spread of God's kingdom; never was 
 greater opportunity given for the 
 spread of God's kingdom; never was 
 there better chance to work for His 
 glory; never was there a brighter out- 
 look for a harvest of souls than you 
 and I have here in Chicago. What fools 
 we would be to let sordid ambition, to 
 let a lack of unity, to let a spirit of 
 neglect and indifference blight the won- 
 derful harvest that is preparing before 
 our eyes. My life and yours count for 
 little where God's glory is concerned. 
 Were I to spend my strength and en- 
 ergy in a few years what a small price 
 it would be to pay for the fruits I can 
 gather! So I come to you, even as 
 came my predecessor, to give the best 
 that is in me, my strength, my youth, 
 my energy, my life to lay them all on 
 God's altar this morning for the Church
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMOXS 33 
 
 of Chicago; ad sacrificandum Domino 
 veni. But without you I am powerless, 
 my work would be sterile, my efforts 
 lifeless. I need you. I need all of you, 
 and I need you so much. I want you to 
 stand behind me, to hold up my hands, 
 to cover with the mantle of your char- 
 ity my faults and my shortcomings. 
 When you render to me your obedience, 
 let it be with the promise exacted from 
 you in your ordination. To you has 
 been given a people than whom there is 
 none more loyal, none more generous, 
 none more willing. Whether they have 
 come from the green hills of Ireland, 
 from the clean little towns of Germany 
 or France, from the now war-scarred 
 plains of Poland, or whether they first 
 opened their eyes in this land of the 
 free, they form here this great city, 
 the obedient sons and daughters of 
 Mother Church, and the best element of 
 our citizenship. You, the 800 priests of 
 this diocese, are their guardians. Keep 
 them, do not lose them. Fathers, do 
 not let them become estranged because 
 of any fault of your own, because of 
 neglect in teaching or default in good 
 example. If we do, God will surely ask
 
 34 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 their souls at our hands at the judg- 
 ment seat. 
 
 And you, my people, who today be- 
 come my sons and daughters, children 
 of the great family committed to my 
 care ! The Divine Spirit sent me to you 
 to be the pastor of your souls. The 
 Lord has placed a heavy cross on will- 
 ing but weak shoulders. Some day, 
 perhaps not far distant, this city will 
 be in mourning, these churches dark- 
 ened, and before this altar will rest all 
 that is mortal of the third Archbishop 
 of Chicago. Then will his spirit have 
 passed before the scrutinizing eye of 
 the Almighty and the accounting he 
 must then give will be for a million and 
 a quarter souls. From the moment 
 that the word came to me that I must 
 go to you, this picture has never been 
 far distant from my mind. It is the 
 last thought to leave me at night, the 
 first to greet me in the morning. Oh, 
 if you only knew what a crushing 
 weight this awful responsibility is, how 
 unbearable it would be for a poor, weak 
 man, were it not for the consciousness 
 that your prayers never cease to lighten 
 the burden! It is the supplications of 
 hundreds of consecrated virgins that
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 35 
 
 move the Sacred Heart of the Master 
 to pity his humble servant. It is the 
 pleadings of the poor, the sick, the 
 orphaned, the penitent, that cry to the 
 Great Good Shepherd that He may 
 comfort their protector. It is the lisp- 
 ing prayers of more than one hundred 
 thousand little children that pierce the 
 clouds and reach the very throne of 
 God, that He may strengthen their 
 archbishop. And so, in the knowledge 
 that, like the Apostle, I can do all things 
 in Him that strengthens me, I will not 
 falter, but with God's grace and your 
 help, will bear without murmur the 
 burden placed on my shoulders until 
 the end. 
 
 With one voice your priests have told 
 me that I come to the most generous 
 people in the world. Show yourselves 
 that to me always, generous in your 
 sympathy, generous in your support 
 and then stay with me always. In good 
 times or in bad, in certainty or in doubt, 
 stand loyally by your bishop; let no- 
 body, let nothing part you from him. 
 Christ's words come ringing down 
 through the ages, for they were meant 
 as much for the successors of the 
 Apostles as for the Apostles them-
 
 36 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 selves: "He that heareth you heareth 
 Me: He that despiseth you despiseth 
 Me." A little while ago, in the hushed 
 silence that followed the moment of 
 Consecration in the Mass, I could al- 
 most hear the whispered voice of our 
 Sacramental Saviour as He breathed 
 over us the prayer He uttered over His 
 Apostles just before He began His 
 passion: "Father, I pray for them, I 
 pray not for the world, but for them 
 whom Thou hast given Me because they 
 are Thine. As Thou has sent Me into 
 the world I have also sent them into 
 the world. And not for them only do 
 I pray, but for them also who through 
 their word shall believe in Me, that they 
 all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me 
 and I in Thee, that they also may be 
 one in Us, that the world may believe 
 that Thou hast sent Me." That we may 
 be one, one in all things, one at all 
 times, that as we are one in faith and 
 doctrine, so we may be one in work, one 
 in charity bishop, priests and people, 
 one here and there. You remember 
 that one splendid sentence in the Epis- 
 tle of All Saints' Day: "And then I 
 saw a great crowd that no man could 
 count, of all nations and tribes and
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 37 
 
 peoples and tongues, standing before 
 the throne in sight of the Lamb, clothed 
 in white robes and palms in their 
 hands." The great Church of Chicago, 
 gathered from the nations of the earth 
 that it may be there, bishops, priests 
 and people that we may all be one 
 there, when you and I pass from the 
 Church Militant God grant that it be 
 to the Church Triumphant, to the great 
 white throne of Heaven, to chant God's 
 praises forever and forever!
 
 Address at Noon Reception of the Clergy, Feb- 
 ruary 9th, 1916 
 
 I would hardly be human were I to 
 remain unmoved by the warmth of 
 your welcome, and I would be ungrate- 
 ful did I not give some expression of 
 my deep appreciation of your kindly 
 feelings. It would be unwise and use- 
 less to make extravagant promises now, 
 but one thing I can assure you, in the 
 moments of loneliness that sometimes 
 come to all of us and especially to those 
 in high places, the memory of the 
 warmth of your reception and the 
 heartiness of the welcome of your peo- 
 ples to me will cheer and comfort me 
 for many years to come. But yesterday 
 I left home and kindred and the dearest 
 friends man ever had, and abandoned 
 the fruits of many years of labor, but 
 I did so without regrets, for today the 
 Lord has united me to the spouse He 
 had selected for me for eternity, to the 
 wonderful Church of Chicago, to her 
 and to her children. I will, with God's 
 help, remain faithful until death do us 
 part. 
 
 And now let me say one thing to 
 comfort you, priests of the archdiocese,
 
 39 
 
 and I say it here in the presence of His 
 Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate. 
 For a great, proud diocese like ours, 
 practically the first in the country, it 
 is a test of loyalty and obedience to 
 receive as its head an obscure bishop 
 from a distance. I know of no diocese 
 in the east that could have stood the 
 test so nobly as did Chicago. Gentle- 
 men, I am proud of you. Although a 
 stranger to almost every one of you, 
 the diocese, almost to a man, prepared 
 to welcome the new archbishop warmly, 
 saying, "Whom the Lord sends us will 
 be welcome." Let me tell you that 
 examples of this kind do much to con- 
 vince our non-Catholic brethren, as 
 well as our own people, that our pro- 
 fession of loyalty to the Holy See is 
 not lip-service, but comes from the 
 depths of our being, with the entire 
 power of our will and all the warmth 
 of our hearts. 
 
 And now from the clergy of this 
 archdiocese I am going to ask a favor 
 today. I am going to take advan- 
 tage of the warmth of your welcome 
 to ask you to be patient with me 
 and to have consideration for me. 
 Remember this is the first day I have
 
 40 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 spent in your city. It will take me time 
 to study the diocese and its circum- 
 stances. Rome was not built in a day, 
 and I don't expect to accomplish much 
 for awhile. I must first study men and 
 study conditions. Secondly, I am dif- 
 ferent from the late archbishop the 
 Lord cast me in a different mould. 
 Perhaps I am quicker in grasping a 
 thing, and am likely to act more 
 quickly, so don't judge at once that I 
 have not attached enough weight to 
 your case. And if I seem to hurry you 
 a little when you call, it is not that I 
 am not interested in you, but perhaps 
 because others may be waiting and 
 waiting impatiently. Finally, remem- 
 ber I have a bad memory for names and 
 faces, so if I a second or a third time 
 ask your name, lay the blame to a leaky 
 memory rather than to a cold heart. 
 Secondly, be considerate with me. 
 You will find me very human and it is 
 human to err. I am going to make mis- 
 takes. But I am your archbishop and I 
 look to my priests to cover up my mis- 
 takes, not to expose, to discuss, or to 
 criticize them. To whom else can I 
 look for such consideration? Your 
 archbishop is the one man in this town
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 41 
 
 who is constantly in the spotlight. 
 Shield him as much as you can. Have 
 consideration for him and he is likely 
 to be considerate with you. I come 
 here to you because I have been sent 
 to you by the same power that sent 
 Patrick to Ireland, Boniface to Ger- 
 many, Augustine to England. And, 
 like them, I came here to labor for you 
 and with you. I have been told by 
 many of the Bishops that I come to the 
 most difficult and most thorny portion 
 of the Lord's vineyard. But let me 
 assure you that my sincere, my honest 
 conviction is that I am coming to the 
 most fertile portion, to the part prom- 
 ising the greatest, the richest, the most 
 golden, harvest of souls. And so, I come 
 not here to obtain a reputation, for a 
 reputation is only a gossamer web 
 which a sudden gust blows away. I 
 came not here for popular favor, for 
 popular favor today is and tomorrow 
 has vanished. I come not here to look 
 for honors, for the highest honor in the 
 gift of the Holy See is to be Archbishop 
 of Chicago. I repeat, I come to labor 
 with you. We are both sowers of the 
 seed, you and I, and all that we hope 
 for, our whole ambition, is wrapped up
 
 42 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 and contained in that one Biblical 
 sentence, "And some fell on good 
 ground, and having taken root, brought 
 forth fruit in abundance."
 
 Address in Reply to the Welcome of the Laity 
 of the Archdiocese, Delivered in the Audi- 
 torium, Chicago, February 13th, 1916 
 
 To recall to memory a scene similar 
 to this you must go back far in the 
 history of the Church, yes, back to the 
 days of the Apostles themselves. Then 
 it was that the Prince of the Apostles, 
 Peter, and his companions appeared in 
 the streets of Jerusalem, just after the 
 Holy Ghost had confirmed them in 
 the mission Christ had given them. 
 There these first Bishops of the Church 
 spoke the message of salvation to 
 thousands who had come from other 
 lands, and who spoke in divers tongues. 
 Though the spokesman of the Apostles, 
 our Lord addressed Himself to them 
 in his native tongue; yet all of them 
 understood His message. 
 
 But a few days ago the eighth bishop 
 of this See since its erection, and its 
 third Archbishop, presented himself in 
 your Cathedral church and caused to 
 be read to the gathered priests and 
 people the commission that had been 
 given to him by Christ's Vicar on earth, 
 a commission to be the pastor of 
 more than a million souls, and the
 
 44 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 bishop of one of the greatest churches 
 in Christendom. Tonight, as one of the 
 true successors of those first Apostles, I 
 that pastor and bishop come before 
 this great crowd of people, who repre- 
 sent more nations and tongues than 
 were gathered in Jerusalem's streets 
 on Pentecostal day; and behold the 
 same event is again repeated. For, 
 while you may speak to me and to each 
 other in many tongues, yet my greeting 
 to you, spoken in the language of my 
 motherland, reaches every one of you, 
 and the import of its every word sinks 
 deep down into all your hearts, for you 
 know it is the voice of your bishop, the 
 words of him whose flock you are. 
 Now you know his voice, you have seen 
 his face, and you have given him your 
 loyal pledge. No words can tell my 
 gratitude for this wonderful demon- 
 stration. It is the one thing I desired, 
 the sole thing I longed for, the only 
 request I made that I might see as 
 many of my people as I could and that 
 I might see them before all others. 
 
 All my priestly life has been spent in 
 close touch with the people. I had 
 thought up to a few weeks ago of each 
 act of these twenty years, of the men
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 45 
 
 and women I had helped, of the children 
 I had instructed and confirmed, as a 
 matter of course, as just a part of duty, 
 as simply an incident of the daily rou- 
 tine. But for days, lately, the police 
 have halted traffic just to shake hands 
 and say good-bye, the clerks in the 
 stores have expressed their sorrow at 
 my going, millionaires have called to 
 pay their final respects, the editors of 
 every Brooklyn paper have written me 
 their regrets, bank presidents have sent 
 messages of farewell, and scores of 
 childish scrawls have told me that I had 
 the children's prayers. It has been just 
 one long cry of God-speed, good-bye. 
 It has been the farewell of many 
 friends gathered by twenty years of 
 work for a people, a loving group, wait- 
 ing by the wayside to watch grow 
 smaller and finally disappear in the 
 distance the lonely figure of a depart- 
 ing friend. 
 
 But do not think that I felt sor- 
 rowful! I was coming to a people 
 of my own, a people who belong 
 to me, because God has given them to 
 me, a people gathered from the nations 
 of the earth; speaking many tongues, 
 but united in their faith to God, in their
 
 46 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 allegiance to our Holy Father, in their 
 loyalty to their bishop. He has given 
 them to me, a young man, that I might 
 mould them, that I might lead them, 
 that I might teach them, that I might 
 labor for them and with them. He has 
 prepared me for this work. He has 
 trained me in the parts of His service. 
 He has been with me as simple priest, 
 as diocesan official, as parish pastor, as 
 assistant bishop, that I might prove 
 a fit instrument for His work. All 
 through my life have I seen, as with 
 my opened eyes, His guiding hand. And 
 now I know why. God has raised me 
 from an obscure, unknown Bishop from 
 far away, to what is probably the most 
 important position in the Church of 
 this country. And now I assure you 
 most solemnly, should I ever fail to do 
 His work, to accomplish great things 
 for Him, then it is entirely my own 
 fault. 
 
 Why is it then that I come so gladly 
 to Chicago? Not for the honor of the 
 position, for that does not attract me; 
 not for the power of the place, for 
 power means responsibility, and that I 
 would shun, if I could; not for the dif- 
 ficulties in the way, for they do not
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 47 
 
 frighten me. But the one thing that 
 appeals to me and yet causes me to 
 fear, is that to the Archbishop of 
 Chicago is now given such wonderful 
 opportunity, such tremendous possibili- 
 ties of doing great and good things for 
 God and fellowman, as is rarely given 
 to a human being. Do you know what 
 that means? It means that I am like 
 the servant in the gospel, to whom five 
 talents have been given, and when the 
 hour strikes, and the time has come 
 that I may no longer work, the Master 
 will expect me to bring back another 
 five talents in addition, the fruits of my 
 labors, otherwise I shall be adjudged 
 an unprofitable servant. Never, in our 
 country at least, was a heavier burden 
 placed on one man's shoulders. 
 
 Were I to attempt to carry it alone, 
 I should soon stagger and fall under its 
 weight, as did my Master on the climb 
 to Calvary's height. Last Wednesday 
 I appealed to my priests to help me 
 carry it. Tonight I appeal to my chil- 
 dren, young and old, to lighten its 
 burden. First, pray for me, pray for 
 me always. No one needs it more. I 
 know you will, for otherwise you would
 
 48 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 not be the dutiful children I think you 
 are. 
 
 Then, if I can read the signs of the 
 times, it won't be all clear sailing. And 
 if I see aright, no bishop of Chicago 
 ever needed the help, the backing, 
 the support of the laity more than I. 
 Plans are maturing, schemes are devel- 
 oping, and attacks are preparing to pull 
 down the work of years. I don't want 
 to be a pessimist. I do not know 
 whether there be any such danger 
 threatening us in this city or this state. 
 But did it ever come, I would rest 
 neither day nor night until I had roused 
 every Catholic man with the spark of 
 faith in his soul. And let me add that, 
 among the foremost to help us, would 
 be the decent people of our city who 
 are not of our faith, for they would 
 recognize that the great conservative 
 force for law and order, the great 
 bulwark against anarchy, the great 
 preventative agency against crime in 
 our cities, is the old Catholic Church. 
 Pull it down, destroy it tomorrow, close 
 its schools and its charitable institu- 
 tions, and you might just as well get 
 ready to meet the cyclone of crime, the 
 reign of terror that would sweep our
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 49 
 
 city, raze its walls, blot out its people. 
 This is no exaggeration, every thinking 
 man knows it; and so every well- 
 meaning Chicago citizen would stand 
 by us if danger threatened, and if such 
 danger were made known to him. 
 
 No citizen has entered your city who 
 was so kindly received as your arch- 
 bishop. No ruler, temporal or spirit- 
 ual, was ever more enthusiastically 
 greeted. No one has ever come from 
 whom the city has hoped more, 
 from whom the press has awaited 
 more, in whom the people have trusted 
 more than your archbishop. Will you, 
 my people, help me to show myself 
 appreciative by supporting my efforts 
 to make our city better spiritually, 
 hence safer materially; to make 
 Chicago more beautiful in its religious 
 edifices; to make our city, our homes, 
 our people, more attractive by giving 
 the young instruction, by giving the 
 poor assistance, by giving the sick 
 relief, by giving us all a deeper faith, 
 a broader charity, a stronger bond with 
 God, with the home, with the family, 
 with our neighbor? 
 
 I would be ungrateful and dis- 
 courteous did I not pause in reverent
 
 50 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 silence at the name of my late lamented 
 predecessor, Archibishop Quigley. But 
 I will not tarry, for the time 
 approaches when I will bring his name 
 permanently and prominently before 
 every man, woman and child in the 
 diocese. 
 
 And now from the depths of my 
 heart I pray Almighty God to bless 
 you, your homes and your families, 
 that His blessing may be fruitful of 
 every good for you now, and in the 
 future. May the blessing of Almighty 
 God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, de- 
 scend upon you all and abide with you 
 forever.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the Church-School 
 
 of Our Lady of Solace, Chicago, 
 
 October 21st, 1917 
 
 On the lava-scarred slopes of ML 
 Vesuvius there cling a cluster of tiny 
 villages, where the rumble of the un- 
 derground thunder is often heard, and 
 where sometimes the red-hot ashes 
 from the volcano's mouth come rolling 
 down almost to the very thresholds. A 
 generation ago a number of inhabitants 
 of one of these villages came to this 
 country, and with a clannishness 
 peculiar to these people, kept together 
 and settled down on a strip of sand at 
 the ocean's edge. When they asked for 
 a priest, a companion of mine, a boy of 
 Irish name and descent, but who spoke 
 their language, one of the most de- 
 voted and saintly men I have ever 
 known, was assigned to them. They 
 had one request: they wanted the mis- 
 sion named after the shrine of their 
 village, and so this became, I believe, 
 the first church of Our Lady of Solace 
 in this country. 
 
 About a dozen years ago, in com- 
 pany with this priest, I visited San 
 Valentino Torio, their native village.
 
 52 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 As soon as we left the railroad car, we 
 found ourselves back in the Middle 
 Ages. The houses, the food, the people, 
 their customs, their very clothes were 
 medieval. We seemed to have turned 
 back time. Only we two were modern. 
 Everything else seemed to be as before 
 the days of electricity, of steam power, 
 of printing presses. Time seemed to be 
 of no value to these people, everybody 
 appeared care-free, notwithstanding 
 the fact that right there above them 
 hung the menace, a veritable pillar of 
 smoke by day, and a sheet of flame by 
 night, that had buried thousands of 
 men in the past, and would probably 
 some day bury thousands of others. 
 
 With almost the entire population of 
 the place at our heels, we visited the 
 shrine, and there said a prayer before 
 the ancient picture of the Madonna of 
 the Consolazione, Our Lady of Solace. 
 She is represented as seated on a throne, 
 with the Infant Saviour on her knee, 
 and the angels bringing to her the 
 souls freshly liberated from the fires of 
 purgatory. 
 
 The memory of that visit has always 
 remained vividly with me, and it seem- 
 ed to me, after coming to this
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 53 
 
 thoroughly up-to-date city, to this giant 
 human bee-hive, where the workers are 
 ever toiling, this place which is never 
 quiet, where the good and the bad, the 
 virtuous and the sinful are found in 
 every quarter, on almost every street, 
 that here, too, there should be a little 
 shrine of Our Lady of Solace. For, 
 even if it accomplishes nothing else, it 
 would at least serve to remind us of 
 the dear ones who have gone before and 
 who are perhaps cleansing their 
 wedding garments from the mud-spots 
 of their journey on the road of life, in 
 the purging fires of purgatory. It would 
 remind us of the Church Suffering 
 that we may help, and that will cheer- 
 fully and surely reciprocate by praying 
 for us. But more than all, it honors Our 
 Blessed Mother under one of her most 
 beautiful and most merciful of titles. It 
 shows her to us, as the almoner of her 
 Divine Son, as the giver of graces, as 
 the dispenser of His pardons. It makes 
 her dearer and more important to us, 
 for it reminds us of her power, of her 
 favor, of her influence with her be- 
 loved Son. 
 
 This is the history and the signifi- 
 cance of the title-name of your church.
 
 54 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 How pleased and how proud you people 
 should be to have as your special 
 patroness Our Blessed Mother, not as 
 the Queen of the Angels and the Saints, 
 but as the simple, the sympathetic, the 
 trustful Lady of Solace ! I congratulate 
 your pastor, Father O'Shea, for to-day 
 one of his dearest hopes is realized, in 
 his own little church, of which he is the 
 founder and builder. I congratulate you, 
 his people, because you have so cheer- 
 fully and so harmoniously co-operated 
 with him, and have made this crowning 
 achievement possible. You are not 
 wealthy people, nor are you many in 
 number, but you have worked together, 
 and you have tried to do your best, and 
 in this way you have succeeded. 
 
 And to be candid with you, I con- 
 gratulate you even more heartily on 
 your little School than on your Church. 
 A school in a parish like this is like an 
 anchor that steadies and holds the 
 boat. A school will insure the con- 
 tinuation of a parish more than any- 
 thing else can. More than that, it is the 
 junior church, for the ministry of 
 Christ, as contained in His teachings, is 
 continued there on week-days even as 
 on Sundays here. Moreover, it is the
 
 55 
 
 place where the parent is relieved of 
 part of the burden of responsibility, 
 where it is taken up by the priests and 
 the sisters. Finally, here too will your 
 children be under the special pro- 
 tection of Our Divine Lord and His 
 Blessed Mother, for here Christ Him- 
 self dwells in their midst in the 
 Sacrament of His love, and here is the 
 house that is named in His Mother's 
 honor. Cherish and love, then, this 
 your little church and school. Look 
 upon it as your own, your Father's 
 house. Help to keep it neat. Come of ten 
 and visit here. Pour out your heart 
 here in your trouble. Ask for counsel 
 here when in doubt. Beg pardon here 
 when you have erred. Then will this 
 place be for you a treasury of consola- 
 tion, then will Our Lady give you 
 solace, strength and grace on your 
 journey here and keep you ready for 
 the joy and glory of the eternal here- 
 after in Heaven.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the Church-School 
 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury, Chicago, 
 
 June 24th, 1917 
 
 I take a special pleasure to-day in 
 dedicating this church building to the 
 service of God. The first parish I 
 formed after coming into the diocese 
 was this parish of St. Thomas of Can- 
 terbury. In giving it this name, I looked 
 through the calendar of the Saints. I 
 found that your St. Thomas was the 
 only one who had been a chancellor, 
 had then become an archbishop and 
 afterwards a Saint. I had been a 
 chancellor for 14 years, I am now an 
 archbishop, and I trust I may not be too 
 presumptuous in hoping that I may be 
 permitted to complete the journey with 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury. But you will 
 object that he obtained the crown of 
 martyrdom. My only answer can be 
 that there are two kinds of martyr- 
 dom the martyrdom of blood and the 
 martyrdom of patience. The first may 
 be out of my grasp, but everyone will 
 surely admit that Chicago is rather a 
 good field for the second. You can 
 readily see that motives not entirely un-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 57 
 
 selfish entered into the selection of 
 your patronal Saint. 
 
 Aside from this, however, there are 
 few Saints whom we can so admire for 
 courage and championship of God's 
 cause, in the face of tremendous 
 obstacles. He might have curried favor 
 and gained honors, if he had tolerated 
 abuses on the part of the King and his 
 minions, but no, he was the good 
 shepherd, not a hireling, and the 
 shepherd who was willing and ready to 
 lay down his life for his flock. And so 
 he became a model and an inspiration 
 to bishop and clergy. He is also a model 
 for you, the people who are placed 
 under his patronage and entrusted to 
 his intercession, teaching you that no 
 matter what may be the odds against 
 you, you must never prove recreant in 
 your loyalty to your Church, but that in 
 word and deed you must ever stand up 
 for its doctrines and carry out its com- 
 mands. It seems fitting, too, that we 
 should dedicate this church to the honor 
 of the martyred Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury on the feast day of the Baptist, 
 for both of them suffered the penalty of 
 death at the hands of a King whom
 
 58 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 they fearlessly reproved for his sinful 
 life and deeds. 
 
 I congratulate this parish on its 
 unique and distinctive church building. 
 Its architecture is pure colonial, which 
 is the only distinctive American archi- 
 tecture. There are many beautiful 
 Yankee meeting-houses of the colonial 
 type, but this is the only Catholic 
 church, in this diocese at least, built in 
 this style. Coming at this time, when 
 our country calls for every particle of 
 our loyalty, it is almost symbolical of 
 the twin devotions of your heart, love 
 of God and love of country. 
 
 This parish has been in existence for 
 just about a year. I doubt if there be 
 any other in this city that has so 
 splendid a record for what has been 
 accomplished in a financial sense as this 
 new parish. I really did not think it 
 possible for you to do as well as you 
 actually have done. And this, I feel, is 
 due to two causes. First of all, the 
 splendid parish spirit you have shown. 
 You have been ready to co-operate with 
 every good movement that came, so 
 long as it was to help St. Thomas*. As 
 some one remarked, "They never rest in 
 that parish, they are always working,
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 59 
 
 there is always something doing." But 
 the last cause, and by no means the 
 least, as you all will admit, is because 
 you have a pastor who does not spare 
 himself. He may not be quite as plain- 
 spoken as your patron Saint, but he 
 does manage, in his own quiet way, to 
 get splendid results. When I was send- 
 ing Father O'Brien here, I said to my- 
 self, "There is one part of the city I 
 need not worry about, for the pastor 
 will be at his post and his people will 
 have no trouble in finding him, in fact 
 their real trouble will be in evading 
 him." 
 
 In closing, the one blessing that I 
 would ask for you to-day, and in- 
 cidentally for me too, is that you may 
 for many years work together as har- 
 moniously and as successfully as you 
 have for the past year; then will this 
 new church be a source of pride and a 
 fountain of blessing for you, for yours 
 and for the diocese.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the New Church 
 
 of Our Lady of Lourdes, Chicago, 
 
 May 21st, 1916 
 
 In a way we say that here in Chicago 
 we are only of yesterday. The Church 
 is only in the beginning of its second 
 half-century, and the diocese is still 
 wearing garments of childhood. But it 
 has been a lusty childhood, I can assure 
 you, and we are rapidly outgrowing, 
 almost bursting through, our childish 
 clothes. We may not have many 
 beautiful churches here in this city, 
 for we have been too busy looking after 
 the more necessary things which else- 
 where may have been neglected; but 
 they are coming, and within the next 
 ten years, with God's help, we will 
 have enough to show and be proud of. 
 The other day I was very glad to hear 
 a prelate, who comes from the site of 
 the first Spanish mission churches, say 
 that he had seen this new church of Our 
 Lady of Lourdes, and that he found 
 it a very good specimen of mission 
 architecture. It will form one of the 
 interesting sights of the city, it will be 
 a relief from the ordinary church-build- 
 ing we have, and, after all, it is in
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 61 
 
 thoroughly Catholic style, for the old 
 Fathers of the Pacific coast were its 
 originators. I am glad to have it here. 
 I am glad to have it dedicated, too, to 
 Our Lady of Lourdes, that title of Our 
 Blessed Mother which she herself made 
 glorious, under which she has obtained 
 so many heavenly favors. I con- 
 gratulate your pastor, Father Scanlan, 
 on what he has accomplished, and I con- 
 gratulate you, his people, on the loyal 
 co-operation you have given him, and 
 on the beautiful church you have for 
 your own. 
 
 And now just a word, neither foreign 
 to the subject nor alien to the occasion. 
 You know as well as I do that it costs 
 something nowadays to get nice things, 
 and to keep nice things when you have 
 them. You people have a nice parish 
 church, but it carries, too, a good-sized 
 parish debt. That means that it will 
 cost to keep it. Don't let your pastor do 
 all the worrying. If all do their duty, 
 there will be no need for anyone to 
 worry. 
 
 Further, I trust that the beauty of 
 the church will be only an outward 
 manifestation of the beauty of the 
 people's lives. The grace of God is here,
 
 62 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 but I pray it may not stay here, but go 
 out from here into every home and 
 every heart in the parish. This is your 
 father's house, your mother's property, 
 you have signed it over to her name this 
 morning. Therefore, it is your house, 
 too. Come here often, and in very truth 
 make yourselves at home.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the New St. Je- 
 rome's Church, Chicago, Octo- 
 ber 15th, 1916 
 
 It is for me a source of joy and grati- 
 fication to come here this morning and 
 dedicate this new parish church of St. 
 Jerome, and that for many reasons. 
 First of all, because we are promoting 
 God's honor and glory and helping the 
 spread of His Kingdom on earth. 
 Second, because we are offering to God 
 a sanctuary that is worthy of Him, 
 a temple where His Sacramental 
 Presence is enthroned and where you, 
 His children, may come to Him, and in 
 joy and in sorrow make known to Him 
 your wants, and be grateful to Him for 
 His gifts. Then, because we are adding 
 further and brighter lustre to the name 
 of one to whom we owe so much, that 
 ardent student and inspired translator 
 of Holy Scriptures, your patron, St. 
 Jerome. It has always seemed logical to 
 me that the same divine fire of inspira- 
 tion that guided the hand of the four 
 evangelists, touched the pen of this 
 student saint, for even among human 
 masterpieces of literature, in every 
 tongue since the world began, his
 
 64 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 vulgate version of the Scriptures stands 
 supreme as a literary gem. With the 
 fewest and simplest words, with just a 
 few broad strokes of his pen, he has left 
 us pictures that will never die, sen- 
 tences one never forgets, imprints of 
 the heart's emotions that will not be 
 surpassed. I am glad indeed to place 
 his name over the altar of this church 
 in my diocese. 
 
 Then, too, because today brings joy 
 to you, the people of this parish. For 
 many of you, today brings the fulfill- 
 ment of your hopes. The longing of 
 years is satisfied, the sacrifices of the 
 past are rewarded. Today the little 
 frame church that did such valiant 
 service for more than twenty years, 
 which echoed so many fervent prayers, 
 which witnessed so many administra- 
 tions of the Sacraments, which was the 
 scene of so many of the great events 
 in life, is formally sent into deserved 
 retirement, and as you point with pride 
 to your new church, which takes its 
 place among the handsome edifices of 
 the city, your hearts are filled with joy, 
 because you know that you have helped 
 to raise its walls that your gifts, large
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 65 
 
 and small, have helped to bring it into 
 being. 
 
 Finally, not only I, but every priest 
 in the sanctuary and every man, woman 
 and child in the pews rejoice today with 
 the pastor of this church, who on this 
 joyful day looks with a glow of grati- 
 fied pride on this beautiful church, of 
 which he is so proud, which bears the 
 imprint of his personality.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the Church-School 
 at Highland Park, Illinois, No- 
 vember 19th, 1916 
 
 One of the first happenings after my 
 coming to this diocese was the destruc- 
 tion by fire of the parochial school at 
 Highland Park. Today, after a lapse 
 of hardly eight months, it has risen 
 again phoenix-like, from its ashes, bet- 
 ter than before. It also houses your 
 temporary church, and close by there 
 has arisen a new rectory, commodious, 
 comfortable, complete, and all of this 
 without adding to the parish debt. I 
 congratulate you people on the spirit 
 you have shown, and I congratulate 
 your pastor on the work that has been 
 accomplished. It would be ungenerous 
 on my part did I withhold approval and 
 appreciation of what your united ef- 
 forts have produced. You have here a 
 quiet, modest, but devotional chapel 
 that will suit your needs for sometime 
 to come, where the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass will be offered up for you, where 
 the Sacramental Presence will be kept 
 for you, where you may come and pour 
 out your soul in prayer. And this, I 
 know, will not be for long: for even 
 now you look forward to the day not
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 67 
 
 far distant, when you will worship God 
 in a temple worthy of Him, which will 
 be a gift of your hands and your hearts. 
 
 I congratulate you even more on the 
 deep religious spirit that prompted, 
 first of all, the erection of this school, 
 as it shows how much you value the 
 need of religious instruction. This 
 building is the most important building 
 in the village. There is none other that 
 does so much good. In saying this, I 
 am by no means exaggerating, for I am 
 speaking from my own experience. I 
 was sent to a parish which for many 
 years had been without a parochial 
 school. The school was built, and in 
 the seven years of its existence it 
 changed the face of the parish. 
 
 We Catholics occupy a unique posi- 
 tion with regard to our schools. We 
 do not criticise and decry the public 
 school system as all wrong. We simply 
 say it is not enough for us. The State 
 school system educates the mind, the 
 intellect, but it neglects the heart, the 
 moral, the religious, the spiritual part 
 of man, and that means the principal, 
 the most necessary part of him. We 
 maintain that to educate the mind and 
 neglect the soul is an experiment that
 
 68 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 is fraught with danger to the indi- 
 vidual and to the state as well. But as 
 we do not seek to force our views on 
 others, we build and maintain our own 
 schools, at our own expense, while 
 bearing our burden of the State schools 
 as well. And as we are people of very 
 moderate means, we feel that we are 
 indeed giving a splendid example of 
 devotion to our religion and love of our 
 country, too. In a word, while we are 
 rendering to God the things that are 
 God's, we are giving to Caesar just a 
 little more than belongs to Caesar! 
 Surely every Catholic here has good 
 reason to be proud today, for your 
 school is an ornament, one of the show- 
 places of your village. You will become 
 prouder still, however, for it will be a 
 center of religious activity, it will be 
 the boast of the parish, it will be the 
 church of the children. 
 
 This is my first visit to you. May 
 each succeeding visit show greater 
 progress not only in the material, but 
 even more in the spiritual condition of 
 the parish, so that your fellow-citizens, 
 regardless of creed, will be proud, not 
 only of your buildings, but of the lives 
 of their Catholic neighbors.
 
 Address at the Wedding of Miss Mildred Mur- 
 phy, Daughter of the Late Sir John B. 
 Murphy, K.S.G., M.D. 
 
 Had your ears been attuned to the 
 sounds of heaven, just a moment ago, 
 you would have heard the angel turn 
 over a leaf in the book of life, and on 
 a new page thereof inscribe both your 
 names, for indeed you are beginning a 
 new chapter in your life's history. You 
 sever the bonds that have held you 
 until now: you leave the home of your 
 childhood and your youth, to begin one 
 of your own: you give up father and 
 mother, because you now prepare for 
 a like responsibility: you belong no 
 longer -to yourselves but to each other: 
 you become, according to Christ's own 
 words, "two in one flesh." Surely, after 
 the words pronounced by the priest in 
 absolution and in the Mass at the mo- 
 ment of consecration, there are no more 
 important words that come from hu- 
 man lips than the simple words of 
 consent you have just spoken, for they 
 create a bond which can be severed by 
 death alone. But, if this step is im- 
 portant, you have the consolation of 
 knowing that you have not taken it
 
 70 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 without reflection. You have both come 
 from good homes and have had the 
 advantages of splendid parentage and 
 careful training. You have known 
 each other for years and understand 
 each other's ways and customs. And 
 best of all, you come here before God's 
 altar and in His presence, to begin this 
 new, wedded life. Just like the couple 
 at Cana of Galilee, you have invited 
 Jesus and His Mother as the first and 
 principal guests at your marriage feast. 
 You ask Him to bless you, to bless your 
 home, to bless those whom He may send 
 to you. You come here like two little 
 children, with all simplicity and all con- 
 fidence, you stretch out your hands to 
 Him and draw Him to you and press 
 Him to enter into your hearts. And 
 He does come to you today, just as He 
 came then to the little bride in Cana. 
 He will bless you and He will stay with 
 you, just as long as you let Him. And 
 if you would keep Him, just listen to 
 the directions His blessed Mother gave : 
 "Whatever He tells you, do you." And 
 if you will obey this little suggestion of 
 His Mother and ours, then He will stay 
 with you, and you will be happy. 
 Just one word more: you clasped
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 71 
 
 hands at my command : that means you 
 are to go through life together. Don't 
 ever let anyone, don't let anything, am- 
 bition, wealth, pleasure, anything, ever 
 come between you. Keep close to- 
 gether, depend upon each other, help 
 each other carry the burden, yield to 
 each other quickly, gladly, willingly: 
 then, no matter how rough the path is, 
 you will walk it easily, for you will 
 walk it side by side: no matter how 
 heavy the burden is, you will carry it 
 lightly, for you will carry it together: 
 no matter how gloomy the day is, the 
 sunshine from your hearts will brighten 
 it; and even when the evening of life 
 is drawing nigh, it will be made a bril- 
 liant sunset by the light of the love 
 that glorifies. And when at the end 
 the Master calls one of you, the sepa- 
 ration will be only for a while, for at 
 the door of heaven you will meet again, 
 there to part no more.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the New School for 
 
 St. Edmund's Parish, Oak Park, HI- 
 
 inois, October 14th, 1917 
 
 It is always one of the year's solemn 
 days and a time of rejoicing for the 
 people of a parish when their bishop 
 comes to visit them and to bring them 
 his blessing. It is an even greater 
 cause for joy, when, as today, the arch- 
 bishop comes into your midst for the 
 first time, and when by an extraor- 
 dinary privilege he brings you the 
 blessing of the Head of the universal 
 Church, and gives you the Papal 
 blessing. 
 
 There is an added solemnity on this 
 occasion, for he comes as your repre- 
 sentative, your leader, the head of this 
 family, to bless and to off er up to the 
 service of Almighty God, the beautiful 
 parish School you have just completed. 
 I purposely said "to the service of 
 Almighty God," for our school is the 
 children's church. It is the place where 
 certainly an oblation of clean hearts is 
 constantly being offered up, it is the 
 house of prayer for the little ones, it 
 is the pulpit whence the little ones are 
 instructed in the divine truths by
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 73 
 
 Christ through His chosen spouses, 
 even as He taught the multitudes from 
 the hill-top in the sermon on the mount; 
 it is the workshop where the souls of 
 your little ones will be moulded and 
 fashioned according to the living model, 
 which is Christ Jesus ; it is the lecture- 
 hall, where not only the necessary 
 knowledge to equip them to take their 
 place in the world is taught them, but 
 also where the divine truths and a 
 knowledge of God's commandments, 
 which is necessary for their souls' 
 salvation, is given them. 
 
 It is for all of these reasons that we 
 Catholics prize our schools so highly, 
 that we are ready to make such sacri- 
 fices 'for them, that we consider a 
 parish incomplete without its school, 
 and the Sisters to teach our children 
 therein. We do not hesitate to say that 
 we have learned from the mistakes 
 made by Catholics in some European 
 countries, who, lulled into a false se- 
 curity by the fact that the population 
 was nearly all Catholic, at least in 
 name, neglected to provide their own 
 primary and secondary schools, until 
 they had discovered too late that re- 
 ligion among them was only too often
 
 74 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 like a seed fallen on a rock, which, 
 because it had no roots, soon withered 
 away. Daily and hourly, we learn from 
 the experience of those about us that if 
 you want a child to grow into a moral, 
 conscientious man or woman, you are 
 building on sand unless you begin to 
 instill religion into the baby soul as 
 soon as you commence to teach it the 
 alphabet and the rudiments of its 
 three R's. 
 
 In this connection, a piece of infor- 
 mation that has come to me recently, 
 as a result of an investigation made by 
 the two chaplains of the largest prisons 
 in the country (the penal institutions 
 of the states of New York and Illinois), 
 is of interest. It developed on inquiry 
 that among the nearly five thousand 
 prisoners, less than two, little more 
 than one-percent, had been trained in 
 parochial schools, though there are be- 
 tween three and four hundred thousand 
 children in the parish schools of these 
 two states at the present time. Proofs 
 of this kind, constantly presenting 
 themselves, are the best kind of evi- 
 dence of the splendid work we Catholics 
 are quietly doing in our schools to 
 safeguard law and order, to make of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 75 
 
 our children not only God-fearing Cath- 
 olics, but law-abiding, peace-loving, 
 loyal citizens. I am particularly pleased 
 to find among our people in this diocese 
 a devotion to their schools. They do 
 not need to be convinced of the value 
 of a religious education, they do not 
 shrink from making sacrifices for it, 
 nor do they waste time and effort in 
 denouncing a non-religious and secular 
 system of education. They simply 
 cherish the former, and they silently 
 pass over the defects of the latter. That 
 is precisely what I intend to do, and ex- 
 hort my priests to do. It is simply a case 
 of pointing to results. "By their fruits 
 you shall know them." We do not 
 claim the credit, that belongs, first of 
 all, to Almighty God. "Unless the Lord 
 build the house, in vain do those labor 
 who have built it." And after God, 
 the credit belongs to the Sisters, who 
 in! this respect are more than God's 
 handmaidens; they are His ministers, 
 for they are faithfully carrying out 
 His mission of teaching the nations. 
 Finally, some of the credit must go to 
 our good Catholic people who so loyally 
 support our Catholic Schools. In this 
 they show a parents' real love for their
 
 76 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 children, they show that they love their 
 souls more than their bodies, their 
 eternal salvation rather than their 
 worldly advancement. 
 
 I congratulate the pastor, Father 
 Code, and his people on this day, for 
 today this parish arrives at its ma- 
 jority. It is no longer an infant in 
 its swaddling clothes, it has attained 
 its full growth. It is a parish thor- 
 oughly equipped, and the one thing I 
 can assure the people of Oak Park, 
 irrespective of creed, race or position, 
 is that there is no building in the con- 
 fines of the village that will work 
 harder or more effectually for the com- 
 mon welfare than the school we have 
 blessed today.
 
 Address at the Dedication of the New Corpus 
 
 Christ! Church, Chicago, 
 
 June 28th, 1916 
 
 We have come here today to dedicate 
 a beautiful church that bears a beauti- 
 ful name, on a day when all the world 
 stands before the altar, not only in the 
 church, but also in the gardens and in 
 the fields, and the Mass that is every- 
 where chanted by the priest is the Mass 
 of Corpus Christi. When the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, Urban IV, wanted to honor this 
 solemnity by a proper office and Mass, 
 he called in not an ordinary poet, priest 
 or prelate, but he summoned an in- 
 spired writer, whose eloquent pen 
 clothed the wisdom of a saint in the 
 language of an angel: and when the 
 choir chants the office of this feast, it 
 needs but little help of the imagination 
 to see the glory of the heavenly court 
 march by in a long procession in honor 
 of the Sacramental Saviour. Any priest 
 will tell you that in all the liturgy of 
 the Church there is no hymn more 
 solemn, more beautiful, more sublime 
 than the "Lauda Sion Salvatorem" 
 "Praise, Zion, thy Redeemer" which 
 is read in the Mass today.
 
 78 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 This beautiful name has been given 
 as the title of your church, and this 
 feast has been made the family-feast 
 of this parish and its people. My, how 
 proud you should be, how it ought to 
 inspire you to prove worthy of it, to 
 spur you on to come here oftener to 
 honor Him for whom this temple was 
 built, who dwells here in the Sacrament 
 of His love ! Let it be the devotion that 
 you will cultivate in the hearts of your 
 children at home a real love of their 
 Lord and their God, a real craving of 
 their souls to see Him often and receive 
 Him frequently in this Eucharistic 
 food. It is for this we have built this 
 church. That is why nothing is too 
 good for God's house, why we will 
 bring from afar marble and gold and 
 precious stones to build its altar and 
 fashion its tabernacle: steal the colors 
 of the rainbow to imprison them in 
 the glass of its windows and the pic- 
 tures of its walls, because a Catholic 
 Church is not a mere meeting house, 
 not an assembly hall, not even a home 
 of prayer, but it is the treasure-house 
 in which we preserve the most costly, 
 the most wonderful, the most precious 
 part of our inheritance, the real Pres-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 79 
 
 ence of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
 Christ I congratulate your good pas- 
 tor on the work he has accomplished 
 here, and I congratulate you, his people, 
 on the loyal support you have given to 
 him. I trust that your cooperation may 
 be given to him even more generously 
 in the future, so that the cloud of debt 
 which now somewhat obscures the 
 beauty of this temple may soon be 
 lifted and rolled away. 
 
 There was a boy named Paschal, and 
 the devotion that hallowed his life was 
 his love for the Blessed Sacrament. 
 Those who surrounded his corpse when 
 it rested before the altar-rail on the 
 morning when the funeral Mass was 
 being chanted for him, tell us that 
 twice did his eyelids lift, his eyes open 
 and gaze at the time of the elevation, 
 once at the Sacred Host, again at the 
 Sacred Cup, as if his now lifeless body 
 still responded to the promptings of his 
 now distant soul. Do you, too, people 
 of Corpus Christi parish, make your 
 own this devotion that raised him to 
 the honors of the altar, and when the 
 time comes that your body and soul go 
 for the final judgment, it will merit for
 
 80 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 you, as it did for him, that your eyes 
 will open to gaze and gaze forever on 
 the now glorified Corpus Christi.
 
 Address at the Graduation Exercises of the De 
 
 La Salle Institute, Chicago, 
 
 May 31st, 1917 
 
 In the year 1885 there was a World's 
 Fair somewhere in the South, I be- 
 lieve in New Orleans. The present 
 Archbishop of Chicago was then a pupil 
 in De La Salle Institute, New York. 
 All the pupils of the School were kept 
 busy for some days and even weeks, 
 making special preparations, as there 
 was to be an exhibition of classwork at 
 this World's Fair. Together with the 
 albums containing the work of the 
 pupils, the photographs of the various 
 classes were taken and likewise sent, 
 to be shown in the same exhibit. For 
 more than twenty years I had not seen 
 a copy of that photograph in which I 
 was an exceedingly young and tender 
 undergraduate, but some weeks ago, 
 an old Brother who had taught me, 
 going over some old books and papers, 
 found the photographs, had copies 
 made of them and sent them to me. In 
 his letter he says, "as I look over the 
 old boys, one thing strikes me: all of 
 them have turned out well. What a 
 consolation !"
 
 82 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 This is the year 1917 and tonight 
 another class leaves De La Salle but 
 this time it is De La Salle Institute of 
 Chicago. I trust that when thirty years 
 have passed by, one of the old Brothers 
 may be able to say of you boys who 
 stand here to day, "all of the boys have 
 turned out well." And if such should 
 not be the case, if one or the other of 
 you are among the missing from the 
 list of those who turned out well, then 
 the fault will all be yours, for the con- 
 ditions are pretty much the same, your 
 homes are much the same as ours were. 
 We were not millionaires' sons either. 
 You had about the same sort of train- 
 ing that we did, and the Brothers 
 who taught you don't differ from the 
 Brothers who taught us. 
 
 So you see I have good reason for my 
 confidence in sending you forth into the 
 world this evening with the belief that 
 you will turn out to be, perhaps not 
 captains of industry, not masters of 
 finance ; but men who, in their dealings 
 with others as well as in their private 
 lives, will be a credit to the School 
 from which you have come and to the 
 Brothers who taught you, and a source 
 of consolation to your Archbishop.
 
 Address at the Graduation Exercises of the 
 
 Academy of Our Lady, Longwood, 
 
 Chicago, 1917 
 
 We have come here this afternoon 
 for a three-fold purpose. First, for 
 our own amusement. Longwood has 
 always had a reputation for the excel- 
 lence of its music, and all will agree 
 with me that today it has lived up to 
 its reputation of former years. We 
 have come here, secondly, for the sake 
 of the young lady graduates of 1917. 
 The author of the line, "what is as rare 
 as a day in June," might have been a 
 lady, who had in mind that June is the 
 month for brides and girl graduates. 
 And it is a great day for these grad- 
 uates,' for it is a day that they have 
 looked forward to throughout the 
 months and years that they have been 
 in this convent home; it is an event 
 they have been working and planning 
 for, the day when they stand before 
 their parents and friends with their 
 work completed, with their schooldays 
 over, with the stamp of approval of 
 their teachers and superiors upon their 
 efforts. And so we are glad to form 
 part of the crowd which today showers
 
 84 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 you with plaudits, with flowers and 
 with good wishes. 
 
 Finally, we came here for the sake of 
 the Sisters of Notre Dame. In every 
 great city there is an annual exhibition 
 day when the artists exhibit their 
 paintings and sculpture. This is their 
 exhibition day, and you young ladies 
 are their works of art that are today 
 placed on exhibition. By you and the 
 judgment evoked by you, will they be 
 judged. Today we form part of the 
 critical public, and it is not by beauty 
 of form or features that we will judge 
 you, but rather by the scriptural rule 
 that: "Favor is deceitful and beauty is 
 vain ; the woman that f eareth the Lord, 
 she shall be praised." So would you add 
 to their renown as teachers, to their 
 pleasure as friends, to their satisfaction 
 as Religious, then be like the woman 
 of the Gospel devout, exemplary, re-, 
 fined, and you will be a joy not only to 
 them but to all who know you.
 
 Address at the Commencement of the De La 
 
 Salle Institute, Chicago, 
 
 June 2nd, 1916 
 
 On a night in June, twenty-nine years 
 ago, I received my first diploma and 
 became a graduate of De La Salle Insti- 
 tute. When I look around me tonight 
 that seems almost yesterday: I can 
 scarcely believe that it happened so 
 long ago and in a city so far away. The 
 Brothers look to be the same Brothers, 
 the same friendly audience is before 
 me, and I hear even the same songs. 
 The boys seem almost the same boys, 
 except perhaps that they may be more 
 in number and handsomer in looks. In 
 my day, a goodly proportion of them 
 were preparing for the priesthood, but 
 since then the Latin has been taken 
 from the Brothers' high-schools and 
 colleges. With other graduates I felt 
 sorry when this happened, for we knew 
 the good work the Brothers had been 
 doing in preparing candidates for the 
 Holy Priesthood. But in later years I 
 have come to another conclusion. It is 
 the old story, "God's ways are not our 
 ways." This change has forced us, first 
 of all to open our preparatory sem-
 
 86 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 inaries for the priesthood. Then, the 
 Brothers are doing better work. It has 
 put them at the kind of work for which 
 they are perhaps best adapted, and in 
 which they produce the best results. 
 Here in Chicago they are now training, 
 preparing and educating the future 
 business men of the city, the coming 
 fathers of families, the supporting pil- 
 lars of our churches. All of these 
 young men are going out into the offices 
 and workshops of this great city and 
 they will get results. They know what 
 work means, for the Brothers have 
 made them work, and so it will be noth- 
 ing new to them. They may not all 
 become rich and prominent, but they 
 will succeed we know that. 
 
 Then, they will give a good account 
 of themselves spiritually. It does not 
 pay to make any comparisons with 
 other Catholic schools they are all 
 doing splendid work, but every pastor 
 knows that in almost every case, a De 
 La Salle graduate is a loyal parishioner, 
 generous according to his means, exem- 
 plary in his habits ; then, too, he will be 
 respectful to the clergy, the Brothers 
 have taught him that. 
 
 Now, young men, I will not add to
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 87 
 
 the advice you have received. I will 
 simply voice a wish breathe a prayer. 
 In an ecclesiastical procession you will 
 notice the most prominent persons 
 come last. You are the last of a long 
 procession of graduates from this 
 school. The others have been worthy 
 sons of De La Salle. May you, the last, 
 like the wine at the marriage-feast of 
 Cana, prove to be the best of all!
 
 Address at the Banquet of the Irish Fellowship 
 Club, Chicago, March 17th, 1916 
 
 When it was announced that I was to 
 leave the east and come to the middle 
 west, one of the metropolitan dailies 
 very kindly headed a rather appre- 
 ciative editorial with the caption: 
 "Brooklyn's loss, Chicago's gain." Fol- 
 lowing that, I received several hundred 
 letters, congratulatory, condoling and 
 otherwise in tone, and somewhere in 
 the contents of nearly all of them, I 
 ran across the same words: "Brook- 
 lyn's loss, Chicago's gain." Now when 
 I read through the pages of our coun- 
 try's history, when I look over the 
 names of our public men and, more 
 than all, when I view the past, 
 the present, and the prospects of the 
 future of the Church in this country, I 
 wonder whether I cannot say, with far 
 more truth, with much deeper feeling, 
 even with selfish gratification: "Ire- 
 land's loss, America's gain." The older 
 I become, the firmer is by belief 
 in the wondrous, though to us often 
 inscrutable guidance of Providence, 
 and sometimes I wonder whether God
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 89 
 
 has not kept Ireland from being a 
 nation in order that she might con- 
 tribute the larger share to the growth, 
 to the greatness, to the glory of the 
 newer lands and newer peoples who 
 today form the foremost countries in 
 the world. After all, the one saint 
 whose feast-day is celebrated the world 
 over, in the cities of Europe, Africa, 
 Australia, as well as in America, is the 
 one whose birthday we commemorate 
 today. 
 
 Go through the city's streets and 
 you will find men and women who have 
 come here from many lands and who 
 are found in every walk of life, wear- 
 ing a bit of green ribbon to celebrate 
 the day. Wander into the trenches of 
 Europe's battlefields, and you will not 
 be able to count the little sprigs of 
 shamrock that adorn the uniforms of 
 soldiers who are not at all Celtic, either 
 by birth or by descent. On this very 
 night a year ago, in the very heart of 
 Germany, where were gathered the 
 remnants of what had been the flower 
 of Britain's army when war's alarm 
 first sounded, a German soldier di- 
 rected, German musicians accompanied, 
 while the little band of prisoners of war,
 
 90 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 in broken tones and with tear-dimmed 
 eyes, sang: "Come back to Erin, Ma- 
 vourneen, Come back again to the land 
 of thy birth." And tonight, in this 
 great city of Chicago, the city of our 
 country's destiny, we find here in this 
 gathering, one who has come from a 
 distance, who, whether in victory or in 
 defeat, remains the best beloved of our 
 Presidents in two generations past 
 William Howard Taft. All these are 
 but so many proofs that in honoring 
 Ireland's saint, the world is honoring 
 the Irish people, the people who have 
 perhaps contributed more to the bone 
 and sinew of this country than any 
 other: the people who have given more 
 than their share of their sons to the 
 country's defence in the hour of peril, 
 and their share, too, of law-abiding 
 citizens in the tranquil time of peace; 
 the people who, because they were de- 
 voted to the faith of their fathers, were 
 none the less loyal to the country of 
 their adoption. Long has the little 
 emerald Island waited for its freedom : 
 longingly have the Irish people looked 
 for the day when Emmet's epitaph 
 might be written. But God had other 
 work for them to do. Their mission
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 91 
 
 was not in their own land: their work 
 awaited them elsewhere than at home. 
 Ireland was to be the green-house 
 whence the tiny shoots were to come, 
 which, transplanted, would make the 
 rest of the world a flower-garden. 
 The warm-hearted enthusiasm of the 
 Irish people, their attachment to their 
 Church, their courage in danger and 
 their sympathy in suffering, and last 
 but not least their delicious sense of 
 humor, have helped to bring a warmth 
 of color, a harmony of emotions, and a 
 poetry of living in what would without 
 them be a rather drab-colored exist- 
 ence in our English-speaking countries. 
 
 And so we, my fellow-guests and I, 
 in whose veins, much to our regret, 
 flows no Celtic blood, feel, that in hon- 
 oring their patron-saint, we are paying 
 the Irish people the most delicate of 
 compliments. For, after all, St. Patrick, 
 even from a secular standpoint, was 
 Ireland's greatest man. He was the 
 moulder of the Irish character, he was 
 the inspiring spirit of Ireland's mis- 
 sion, he is today and will be until the 
 end of time the idol of every Irishman's 
 heart's devotion. 
 
 In celebrating this day, I am honor-
 
 92 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 ing one of the best known saints in the 
 calendar of our church. In coming 
 here this evening, I am paying my 
 tribute of appreciation of the loyalty 
 and affection of the largest portion of 
 my people, whose superior, whose 
 father, whose friend I am. And finally, 
 I trust you will not count it empty 
 flattery when I say that I am showing 
 a courtesy to one of the greatest of our 
 living citizens, for even to an arch- 
 bishop of Chicago, it is a privilege to 
 sit at a table that is graced by the 
 presence of former President Taf t.
 
 Address at the Celebration of the One Hundred 
 and Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Proc- 
 lamation of the Polish Constitution, 
 Delivered in the Auditorium, Chi- 
 cago, May 3rd, 1916 
 
 When I was a boy there lived near 
 me a couple in the evening of life. 
 Rarely did either of them smile. Every- 
 body in the neighborhood knew their 
 story: they had six fine, manly-looking, 
 well-behaved sons and one beautiful 
 daughter. Every one of these children 
 grew up, apparently in splendid health : 
 but as soon as they reached the age of 
 twenty or twenty-one, each in turn fell 
 a victim to tuberculosis, withered away 
 and died. When I knew them, the last 
 of the sons and finally the daughter, 
 the best-beloved of them all, were fol- 
 lowing their brothers to an early grave, 
 and the two, father and mother, were 
 left alone in the deserted home, to look 
 forward to a comfortless old age. 
 
 Somehow, today, poor deserted, child- 
 less Poland reminds me of that humble, 
 grief-stricken home. In history, where 
 centuries are like years, we can look 
 back at her golden age, when, glorious 
 in her independence, strong in her faith
 
 94 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 and virtue, prominent in her intelli- 
 gence, her children were gathered by 
 their country's fireside, and around her 
 flag and behind her king. Then came 
 the years of persecution, of suffering 
 and death, and there began the exodus 
 of her people from their homes into 
 foreign lands. Year after year, the 
 home became more deserted and lonely ; 
 for, as soon as the sons and daughters 
 grew to manhood and womanhood, 
 they wandered away from the mother's 
 side into lands, where, not riches per- 
 haps, but labor awaited them: where, 
 if glory did not come to them, advance- 
 ment was not denied them: where 
 bread for themselves, education for 
 their children, the free exercise of their 
 ancestors' religion, might be theirs 
 without restraint. And now the day 
 has come when the best-beloved of her 
 children, and it seems almost as if the 
 last of them too, were to be torn from 
 her. 
 
 The little children kneel in the 
 street and beg for bread from the 
 passer-by; the baby grows thinner; 
 stiffens and dies because there is no 
 milk to feed it; the men are driven 
 away from home, if not into the armies,
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 95 
 
 into the munition-factories ; the women 
 are left at home alone, hungry and 
 defenceless : the country is seared as if 
 by a conflagration ; the cities and fields 
 are one armed camp; almost an entire 
 people constitute one long bread-line, 
 young and old, ignorant and learned, 
 poor and once-rich, standing for blocks, 
 waiting for a piece of bread and a dish 
 of carrot soup, their shoeless feet freez- 
 ing in the falling snow and slush : this 
 is the picture today of the once proud 
 and prosperous Polish people. And 
 mind you, this is not exaggerated. 
 From three different sources have I 
 heard the same tale, each time from 
 one who was there and saw these things 
 with his own eyes, each time from one 
 who said that half had not been told 
 of what this poor people had suffered. 
 So has calamity come to a land and a 
 nation that has harmed no one, that 
 has sought no war, that has not even 
 risen to demand its freedom. And this 
 savagery has taken place, not in the 
 wilds of Africa, not in the so-called 
 dark ages, but in this enlightened 
 twentieth century, in a civilized Eu- 
 rope, between so-called Christian na- 
 tions, in the cruelest war, perhaps, that
 
 96 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 the world has ever seen ; a war between 
 two nations, not for patriotism, but for 
 the commercial supremacy. And while 
 you, the exiled children of Poland, have 
 cause to weep in this darkest hour in 
 the history of the Polish nation, the 
 rest of the world has good reason to 
 hang its head in shame at the picture 
 of what our boasted civilization is ac- 
 complishing today. Today you have 
 been formally celebrating the one hun- 
 dred and twenty-fifth anniversary of 
 the proclamation of the Polish Consti- 
 tution, and yet your mother-country's 
 independence seems farther away than 
 ever. 
 
 Yet who will deny that perhaps it 
 may be for the best? God's ways are 
 not our ways. Little more than a gen- 
 eration has passed and see what your 
 people have here accomplished ! I verily 
 believe that God has sent you here, that 
 He has driven you from your own 
 country, so that your faith, which has 
 withstood the storms of seven centuries 
 of persecution, might be transplanted 
 like a hardy sapling in this soil of a 
 newer land; that your virtue, your 
 patience, your loyalty, might be infused 
 into the Church in these United States
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 97 
 
 and add to its strength and its virility; 
 that your flesh and your blood, un- 
 spoiled by vices or excesses, might add 
 to the bone and sinew of this nation, 
 and especially of this city. The Lord 
 has made your people a missionary race, 
 for wherever they have gone they have 
 brought as their most precious posses- 
 sion the faith of their fathers, the 
 Church, to which they have proved 
 loyal through centuries of hunger, of 
 persecution, of suffering, of death itself. 
 When I came to Chicago, I was grate- 
 ful to God that He had sent me to the 
 second largest Polish city in the world. 
 I was proud of you, because here your 
 children were gaining advancement, 
 education, comfort, success, denied to 
 them in their native land. And on this 
 celebration of your country's anniver- 
 sary, my prayer is that the Lord may 
 comfort your stricken people at home, 
 and soon bring about an end of this 
 dreadful nightmare of war that hangs 
 over them, and vampire-like is sucking 
 away their very life-blood: and then, 
 that the Lord may grant that you in 
 this newer land, whether it be your 
 adopted or your native land, may never
 
 98 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 by any act of yours, prove unfaithful 
 to that most precious heritage of your 
 people, the dearly-loved Catholic faith, 
 to which they have ever been so true.
 
 Address to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 Chicago, March 17th, 1917 
 
 Before I came to this city I received a 
 pressing invitation to attend a banquet 
 on St. Patrick's night this year and re- 
 spond to one of the toasts. I delayed 
 my acceptance, as it was my firm de- 
 termination to attend but one function 
 of this kind; then, having learned of 
 the high standing of the Irish Fellow- 
 ship Club of Chicago, I accepted their 
 invitation and promised to come. Then 
 came another invitation from the An- 
 cient Order of Hibernians, and in 
 conformity with the rule I had made, 
 I was about to decline. But then my 
 memory went back to the time when I 
 was a boy and I remembered how no 
 cornerstone-laying was complete and 
 no dedication of a new church valid, 
 unless this Ancient Order was present 
 in full regalia. And I remembered, too, 
 they had a bit of green tied into 
 the button-holes of their coats, but 
 they had a bit of green pressed tight in 
 the fist of their right hands too, which 
 would disappear into the basket when
 
 100 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 the collection was being taken up, and 
 as a result well, you see I have come. 
 Today, for a very large portion of my 
 people, is one of the great feast-days 
 of the year, for on this day we com- 
 memorate one of God's greatest saints, 
 the Apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick. 
 When we carefully read the life of this 
 Saint, we are amazed at how much one 
 man could accomplish in a lifetime. 
 On* sentence is sufficient to describe 
 his apostolic work. He found Ireland 
 pagan and he left it Christian. Born 
 at the close of the fourth century of 
 noble parentage, probably in Scotland 
 (though this is not certain), he was at 
 an early age taken captive by roving 
 bands and brought to Ireland. At the 
 age of twenty-three, he was set free 
 and came to France, and there, under 
 the guidance of his uncle, St. Martin of 
 Tours, for nearly twenty years he pre- 
 pared himself for the great work of 
 evangelizing the Irish race. Having 
 been consecrated bishop by Pope St. 
 Celestine, he began his mission in Ire- 
 land where he labored for more than 
 half a century, when God called him to 
 the place prepared for him in heaven. 
 It is almost incredible how much he ac-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 101 
 
 complished. His work seems a constant 
 repetition of the miracle performed on 
 that first Pentecost Sunday. His con- 
 verts numbered not thousands, but tens 
 and almost hundreds of thousands. He 
 established more than three hundred 
 churches, ordained more than two thou- 
 sand priests: he baptized the warrior 
 chiefs and kings with all their subjects : 
 many youths and maidens embraced 
 the religious life; and all over Ireland 
 schools, convents and monasteries arose 
 during his lifetime. Yet during those 
 years of strenuous activity, he led a life 
 of constant prayer, spending the best 
 part of every night in meditation and 
 prayer and seeking rest on the stone 
 floor for but an hour or two. And full 
 of years, this, one of the greatest men 
 in history, was called by his loving 
 Master in the year 492. 
 
 What shall we say of his work? We 
 estimate a man's work by the fruits 
 and results of the same. How can we 
 really estimate the great work of St. 
 Patrick? The country which he evan- 
 gelized and for which he prayed has 
 remained more faithful to the Church 
 than any other nation upon earth. 
 France has had her goddess of reason
 
 102 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 and exiled her clergy. Italy persecuted 
 her Popes: Germany revolted as a na- 
 tion: England chose a King for her 
 spiritual head in preference to the 
 Vice-gerent of the King of Kings. Ire- 
 land alone remained faithful as a na- 
 tion, and never even for an hour, denied 
 the Faith taught her by St. Patrick.. 
 "And under God," says an Irish author, 
 "to what can we attribute this but to 
 the prayers of St. Patrick? The Irish 
 race was confided to his keeping until 
 the day of Doom, and well has he 
 guarded his charge." 
 
 But the work of St. Patrick through 
 the Irish race was not confined to Ire- 
 land alone. There was a time when the 
 little green isle jutting out into the 
 broad Atlantic was the place of pil- 
 grimage for the learned and holy the 
 world over, when it was the isle of the 
 teachers and the saints. But that day 
 has long since passed and the cheerful 
 little island has become sad, like a 
 lonely mother whose children have gone 
 from her side forever. Yet even in her 
 affliction God had great things in store 
 for the land sanctified by the labors of 
 St. Patrick, consecrated by the lives of 
 countless holy men and women, for God
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 103 
 
 has made her children an apostolic 
 race : He has scattered them to the four 
 winds of heaven, and wherever they 
 have gone they have retained as their 
 precious possession the heritage they 
 received from St. Patrick. Their men 
 warm-hearted and generous, their 
 women loving and virtuous, all of them 
 proud of their Church, they have made 
 the Faith respected wherever they have 
 gone, and though poor perhaps as the 
 proverbial church-mouse, yet it is their 
 pennies almost their last sometimes 
 that have built the grand monuments to 
 their God and in honor of His saints. 
 
 And you, the sons and daughters of 
 Erin, and you, too, who, though born in 
 a newer land, have Irish blood coursing 
 through your veins, thank God that in 
 His great mercy and goodness He has 
 given you and your race so watchful a 
 father, so powerful a protector as St. 
 Patrick. And it is my one prayer, as 
 your bishop and your leader, that the 
 great Apostle may obtain for you that 
 one grace to remain ever steadfast in 
 the Faith and true to his teachings and 
 that none of yours in the generations to 
 come may ever prove unworthy of the 
 heritage he has given his people, and
 
 104 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 which, notwithstanding poverty and 
 want, cold and hunger, persecution and 
 even death itself, they have preserved, 
 ever faithful, ever true, through six- 
 teen centuries.
 
 Address to the Catholics of German Descent, 
 Chicago, September 24th, 1916 
 
 During the time I have been in this 
 great cosmopolitan diocese, I have 
 spoken to people of many nationalities. 
 On St. Patrick's Day I addressed the 
 children of the little Green' Isle beyond 
 the seas. Again later, on the anniver- 
 sary of the proclamation of their coun- 
 try's Constitution, I spoke to the United 
 Polish Societies of Chicago. Later 
 again to a small gathering of the de- 
 scendants of those who came from 
 France and French Canada and more 
 than two generations ago made their 
 home 'in this diocese. Today for the 
 first time I appear before the German 
 Catholics of Chicago, and as I speak to 
 them, it is with a particular feeling of 
 gratification, for I now remember that 
 nearly one hundred years ago, my great 
 grandfather's father was one of the 
 little band who helped old Father Raff- 
 einer to build the first German Catholic 
 Church in the United States. Two or 
 more years ago it was a distinction to 
 be known as a German-American. To- 
 day one almost mentions it under his
 
 106 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 breath. Why? It seems to me that it 
 is rather late in the day to ask the 
 German- American to prove his patriot- 
 ism. He did that more than a half 
 century ago. I dislike to bring in the 
 personal element, but in 1860, at Lin- 
 coln's first call for volunteers, my 
 grandfather left his wife and little chil- 
 dren to fight for the flag and the union, 
 and one thousand Germans went with 
 him in the same regiment and less than 
 one-third of the number lived to return 
 to their homes and families. In this 
 way did the German-Americans show 
 their love for this country in 1860, and 
 now in 1916 you will find among them 
 the same brand of patriotism as in 1860. 
 That does not mean that now, when 
 the race from which they sprang is 
 fighting for its national life and their 
 brothers and relatives are shedding 
 their blood and losing their lives in this 
 awful struggle, they do not sympathize 
 with their motherland. You might as 
 well expect a man to deny his own 
 mother. But this is the land of their 
 adoption; the land where their chil- 
 dren were born; the land for which 
 they have left father, mother, sister 
 and brother, where they have lived
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 107 
 
 their lives and where their bones will 
 rest, and they love it even as a man 
 loves his Christian spouse. But, they 
 say, where will the German-American 
 stand, if this country goes to war with 
 Germany? Why worry? We will cross 
 that bridge when we come to it, and 
 such a war will hardly come in your life 
 or mine. Everybody will be sick of war 
 when this one is once over, for a good 
 long time. And if it should come? 
 Listen. In my time nearly 14,000 mar- 
 riages have come to my attention. Of 
 many of them I knew the circumstances 
 that preceded the marriage and often 
 the events that followed. Accidents 
 will happen in the best regulated fami- 
 lies, .and sometimes a disturbance would 
 occur between a young wife and her 
 mother-in-law. My experience has been 
 that almost invariably the wife won 
 out, and I suppose yours is the same. 
 That is the answer. Now to the matter 
 at issue. 
 
 If there is one characteristic that 
 stands out in the German people, it is 
 their faculty for organization. Where- 
 ever they have gone they have formed 
 societies for men and for women and 
 schools for the children. Especially is
 
 108 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 this true with the German Catholics. 
 Not only have there been the many 
 parish societies, but those societies 
 later on have united and there has been 
 a union of the Catholic Societies in a 
 city and then later in the state and 
 finally in the nation. So today you 
 have the Distrikts-Verband, in the east 
 called Lokal-Verband, the Staats-Ver- 
 band and the Central Verein. And in 
 these various federations you can find 
 people of every position and standing, 
 priests and laymen. One of the last 
 receptions given me at Brooklyn was 
 by the Lokal-Verband, of which I was a 
 member until the time of my departure. 
 
 Now there is an element of strength 
 in union of this kind, and the great pity 
 is to see that strength, not exactly 
 wasted, but unused. It is like seeing a 
 swiftly flowing river, a beautiful fall of 
 water. The poet, the artist, the idealist 
 when he sees those waters would ex- 
 claim "my what a beautiful river, what 
 a splendid water fall, what an exquisite 
 picture!" The practical man coming 
 along would say, "there is enough 
 power in those falls to generate elec- 
 tricity to light our whole town." 
 
 I have been at conventions and have
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 109 
 
 seen a great gathering of men and 
 have heard them learnedly discuss so- 
 cial questions. But when the convention 
 was over nothing came of it I have 
 heard Bishops say "the best organized 
 bodies in my diocese are the German 
 societies," but you would not hear of 
 much that the societies had done. Now 
 you know it is my wish that every large 
 organization in this big city be given 
 some particular problem to look after 
 as its own, in addition to the first object 
 for which it was instituted. Thus I 
 have given the care of delinquent boys 
 to the Knights of Columbus; the care 
 of working girls to the Women Forest- 
 ers, and within the next few weeks I 
 shall assign to other large bodies of 
 men and women similar works for the 
 common good. I expect them not only 
 to take up this work, but that they will 
 feel honored to be singled out for spe- 
 cial work and make that work their 
 own in very earnest and carry it to a 
 successful end. Should they fail my 
 expectations in this matter, I might not 
 say much, but I will leave them severely 
 alone in the future and forget all about 
 them. I don't anticipate any danger of 
 that kind, however. Now I have some-
 
 110 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 thing for the Distrikts-Verband to do, 
 too some special work, for here is all 
 of this stored-up, unspent strength 
 gathered by your union, like hidden 
 power, and I want to make use of it. 
 I want to harness it and have it run a 
 machine, a machine that will do good. 
 And the particular work is one that is 
 not entirely new to you; in fact, we 
 may call it your own child, as part of it, 
 at least, came from you. It is a new line 
 of activity. I don't know whether they 
 have it anywhere else. It has been 
 favorably commented upon by people 
 outside. It is called the Catholic Em- 
 ployment Bureau. It was begun by 
 the German Catholic Societies; it has 
 grown by the hard work of a few men. 
 Now I am going to leave it in the care 
 of the German Societies. If it turns 
 out a success and there is no reason 
 why it should not let them have the 
 credit. And because I give it into your 
 care, I want everyone of you to take 
 an interest in it. It is a work for the 
 common good, it is an endeavor to 
 help our neighbor, it is an outlet for 
 our charity. I have given it my ap- 
 proval, but I have given it more than 
 that, I have given it a home, I have
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 111 
 
 attached it to a work with which it is 
 prominently and necessarily connected, 
 the Holy Cross Mission in the lodging 
 house section of the city. That, too, I 
 would commend to your care and so- 
 licitude. That is filling a real need in 
 a big city like ours, that is a genuine 
 work of charity. We are making this 
 mission something worth while, some- 
 thing we can be proud of. I should like 
 you to associate in some way with this 
 work, to help it along, to contribute 
 even a little to its success. After all, it 
 is one of the corporal works of mercy 
 to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, 
 to shelter the homeless and it is sure to 
 bring its reward, a reward not only in 
 the life to come, but even here. It will 
 bring God's blessing and the comfort 
 of having helped another, into your 
 own heart, into your home, to those you 
 love best,
 
 Prayer at the Great Bally Under the Auspices 
 of the State Council of Defense, Chicago 
 
 Almighty, Eternal God, Who dost 
 guide our destiny and hold the universe 
 in Thy hand, do Thou look down on us 
 this day and hear our prayer: bless and 
 protect our beloved country which has 
 been for countless thousands a haven 
 of refuge and a shelter in adversity: 
 keep it ever the land of the brave, even 
 as it is now the home of the free : bless 
 this our nation which Thou hast formed 
 from the flesh and blood of many na- 
 tions and tribes and peoples: make us 
 ever worthy of the blessings Thou hast 
 showered upon us : keep us united as a 
 people, loyal to our flag, devoted to our 
 country and our country's cause, mind- 
 ful of those ideals of freedom and 
 democracy on which our fathers have 
 built this Republic and which have 
 made this nation great, and in this, the 
 hour of our country's trial, from a 
 spirit of bitterness and the traitorous 
 tongue, deliver us, Lord. Bless and 
 guide our President in these troublous 
 days when his burden has become so 
 heavy: give him the light to see the 
 right and the courage to do it: bless
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 113 
 
 these Thy children who stand here 
 bowed before Thee, for they have 
 placed on the altar of their country 
 their nearest and dearest, not gold or 
 treasures, but bone of their bone and 
 flesh of their flesh, their sons, who wear 
 their country's uniform and are en- 
 rolled in her army and navy: heal the 
 wounds that the parting has caused, 
 repay them the sacrifices they have 
 made, have their children ever in Thy 
 keeping here and hereafter: bless our 
 army and our navy, give victory to our 
 arms, and make that peace that will 
 crown our efforts be lasting, glorious 
 and forever pleasing in Thy sight, 
 through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
 
 Address at the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the 
 
 First Slavonian Catholic Church, Joliet, 
 
 Illinois, October 22nd, 1916 
 
 I feel that this Jubilee Day would be 
 incomplete for you without a word of 
 appreciation from your Archbishop, 
 who has come to share in your joy and 
 gladness. This day is indeed a feast of 
 congratulations and thanksgiving 
 first of all for you, the people of this 
 mother-church of the Slavonians in this 
 country. For a quarter century this 
 parish has been here to welcome you as 
 you came from your fatherland beyond 
 the seas. Here the gospel was preached 
 to you, the Sacraments were adminis- 
 tered to you, the faith of your fathers 
 taught to your children in your mother- 
 tongue as well as the language of their 
 adopted country. Here you found 
 peace and comfort and strength amidst 
 the hard labor, the many trials, the 
 constant privations of your life. 
 
 Then, too, this should be a day of 
 rejoicing for this Pentecostal city of 
 Joliet, where the gospel is preached in 
 ten languages. For twenty-five years 
 this church has stood here as a citadel 
 of law and order, a bulwark against
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 115 
 
 anarchy and rebellion, a place of educa- 
 tion and religion. How long will it take 
 our cities and our country to recognize 
 the great good our churches do in pro- 
 moting the peace and contentment we 
 do now enjoy? What would happen 
 here and elsewhere were there no Cath- 
 olic churches to guide the newcomer to 
 our shores, to censor his conduct, to 
 instruct his children? 
 
 Finally, it is a day of gratitude 
 for me, too. I thank Almighty God 
 this morning for the zealous, faithful 
 priests who have ministered to you 
 during those twenty-five years, particu- 
 larly the founder and first pastor, 
 whose parish first extended from the 
 Atlantic almost to the Pacific, who 
 covered so many thousands of miles, 
 baptizing, ministering, comforting his 
 scattered people, and who finally, a few 
 short years ago, broken by his apostolic 
 labors, went into retirement to prepare 
 for his death. I thank Almighty God, 
 because He has sent you to this diocese, 
 you people of strong physique and 
 stronger faith, who, with your blood 
 unspoiled by vices and excesses and 
 your minds unsullied by immoral doc- 
 trines, will add to the strength, to the
 
 116 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 bone and sinew, of this people in the 
 years to come. I congratulate you on 
 what you have accomplished during 
 these twenty-five years, but I trust that 
 this day will mark the beginning of 
 even greater effort for the material 
 well-being of your parish and the spir- 
 itual advancement of its people. And 
 I unite my prayers with yours, for the 
 one thought is uppermost in all our 
 minds this morning even in the midst 
 of our rejoicing that the Lord may 
 soon end this awful war that has ha- 
 rassed and laid waste your unfortunate 
 and distressed country, and bring peace 
 and contentment again to your broth- 
 ers, friends and relatives, who are daily 
 and hourly facing the danger of death. 
 Now to complete our joy, I bring you 
 the blessing of the common father of 
 us all, the Sovereign Pontiff, that his 
 name may ever be linked with this day 
 in your memories!
 
 Address at the Golden Jubilee Celebration of 
 
 the Rev. William Netstraeter, Wilmette, 
 
 Illinois, September 30th, 1917 
 
 Today I come here as the head of the 
 diocese to take part in the joy and fes- 
 tivity that is felt in this parish from 
 end to end, among young and old, rich 
 and poor, Catholic and non-Catholic, 
 because the pastor here has completed 
 the golden circle of his priestly years, 
 because Father Netstraeter has served 
 God and ministered to man for a half 
 century, and because nearly all of that 
 time was spent in this place. It is 
 rather in the capacity of spokesman 
 that I am here this morning to ex- 
 press" your appreciation of the many 
 kindnesses he has shown you during 
 the years he has been in your midst; 
 the affection that is in your hearts for 
 one who has been your spiritual father 
 for so long; the gratitude you feel to 
 the priest of the Most High who has 
 ministered to three generations of the 
 people of this town. 
 
 We of a younger generation are apt 
 to forget how arduous were the labors, 
 how many were the sacrifices, how 
 great was the toil of those early mis-
 
 118 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 sionaries of this diocese. The distances 
 were great, the conveniences were few, 
 the faithful were scattered in those 
 days. The jubilarian of today is one 
 of the links that bind us of the present 
 to the missionaries of that early day. 
 He suffered privations with them and 
 God has granted him to help reap the 
 fruits of their labors with us. He 
 helped to sow the seed of God's word 
 with them, but few, pitifully few, have 
 survived to gather in the great har- 
 vest with us, although the crowded 
 churches, the well-filled schools, the 
 flourishing institutions are largely the 
 results of their worL 
 
 And so this morning his younger 
 brethren of the clergy have come here 
 together with his people, that kneel- 
 ing with him at this altar, where he has 
 so long ministered, they might thank 
 Almighty God for having given Father 
 Netstraeter the gift to serve Him as 
 His priest for a half century, for hav- 
 ing left him here in this place for more 
 than two score years, to benefit them 
 with his priestly work and edify them 
 with his priestly life. Usually a Golden 
 Jubilee has a tinge of sadness. It seems 
 like a golden sunset, the end of a per-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 119 
 
 feet day, almost like a solemn farewell, 
 when everybody is outwardly smiling 
 but inwardly hiding his tears. But not 
 so today. No one can look at the clear 
 skin and the quick bright eye of our 
 youthful septuagenarian and not recog- 
 nize that after all there is a great deal 
 of truth in the saying that a man is 
 only as old as he looks and surely not a 
 day older than he feels. So, confidently 
 I offer my good wishes to Father Net- 
 straeter this morning, praying that the 
 Lord may spare him for many years; 
 that each year may treat him more 
 kindly than its predecessor, make him 
 more acceptable to his Master and 
 dearer to his people, make him more 
 revered among the clergy and beloved 
 by the laity; that the years may pass 
 for him quickly and happily until an- 
 other jubilee day twenty-five years 
 hence, when the golden leaves of his 
 priestly crown of today will have be- 
 come diamond-studded with the passage 
 of time.
 
 Address at the Conferring of the Knighthood of 
 
 St. Gregory the Great on Sir John B. 
 
 Murphy, M.D., Mercy Hospital, 
 
 Chicago, June 15th, 1916 
 
 When a few months ago I came to 
 this great city, I was particularly 
 moved by the demonstration of loyalty 
 that came from the laity of the diocese. 
 I was desirous of showing my appre- 
 ciation of this, but I was at a loss as to 
 what form that recognition should 
 take. Then I remembered that long 
 before I had come here, I had heard of 
 this "Mercy Hospital," which had taken 
 its place in the front rank of the hos- 
 pitals of this country, classed with but 
 few of them, surpassed by none; and 
 that the greatness of this hospital was 
 largely due to the activities of one man 
 therein. Long before I had come here 
 had I heard of Dr. John B. Murphy, of 
 his wonderful skill in surgery, of his 
 success in operations, of his discoveries 
 in science, of his untiring energy in 
 humanity's cause: years before I had 
 come here I had heard of Dr. Murphy's 
 skill as a surgeon: as soon as I had 
 come here I learned of his prominence 
 as a Catholic, of his charity to priests
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 121 
 
 and religious, of his devotion to his 
 faith and his church. I learned how for 
 years he had been a model and an in- 
 spiration to young men in the parish 
 in which he lived by his frequent and 
 devout reception of the Sacraments. 
 And I decided then that I could find no 
 way more fitting to honor the laity of 
 Chicago, than by honoring this man 
 who had brought honor and distinction 
 to his Church. All this I wrote to the 
 Holy Father, asking him to bestow 
 some signal proof of his paternal and 
 sovereign favor upon our Dr. Murphy, 
 of whom we feel so proud. The hos- 
 pital is proud of him, for what he has 
 done for it: his profession is proud of 
 him, for he is one of its most illustrious 
 members: Chicago and its citizens, 
 Catholic and non-Catholic, are proud of 
 him, for he is one its most distinguish- 
 ed citizens, one who has made its name 
 known throughout the length and 
 breadth of the land: his Archbishop is 
 proud of him, because he has been, and 
 is, one of the Church's most devoted 
 children. In response the Sovereign 
 Pontiff has conferred on him the 
 highest honor the Holy See grants to a 
 layman.
 
 122 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 The honor is so much the greater, 
 because it is bestowed at the Arch- 
 bishop's request, without the solici- 
 tation, or even the knowledge, of 
 any of the Doctor's friends, priest or 
 layman, and what is more, it is the 
 first favor requested by me from the 
 Holy See, and is the first time an Arch- 
 bishop of Chicago has personally asked 
 for any honor for a layman. It will 
 make this day doubly memorable in 
 the annals of this institution, for in the 
 Papal document mention is made of 
 "Mercy Hospital." It will be good news 
 to all Chicago, for it is an honor done to 
 this city and its citizens. Moreover, it 
 is the fulfillment of a pleasant duty for 
 me, for usually we churchmen leave our 
 recognition of a good man to be ex- 
 pressed over his cold clay. But this even- 
 ing I can voice my appreciation of, and 
 my gratitude for Dr. Murphy's past 
 services, who becomes a Knight Com- 
 mander of the Order of St. Gregory the 
 Great, and express my fondest hope 
 that he may honor this honor for many 
 years to come. Dr. Murphy, men and 
 women may have overwhelmed you 
 with gifts of gratitude, because you 
 have restored them to health. Univer-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 123 
 
 sities and homes of learning may have 
 heaped honors and titles on you for 
 your work in the cause of science. But 
 this is the best of all, for it is the 
 recognition on the part of Holy Mother 
 Church of the loyalty of a dutiful son, 
 of whose progress she is justly proud.
 
 A Tribute to a Departed Friend Funeral Dis- 
 course 
 
 On the rare occasion when, to the 
 burial service, we add a sermon, the 
 purpose of our words is generally 
 threefold: first, to remind those 
 who are present of the certainty 
 that death will come to each one 
 even as it came to the one whose 
 earthly remains await the last blessing 
 of Holy Church, and of the uncertainty 
 of the time and place of the summons. 
 Secondly, to record the esteem in which 
 those who knew well the deceased held 
 him and as a last earthly tribute to him 
 and a remembrance for those near and 
 dear who mourn him. Finally, to ask 
 those who listen, of their charity to 
 pray for the departing soul's eternal 
 rest and peace. 
 
 A week ago little did any of us think 
 that to-day we should assist at the 
 requiem of our dear departed friend; 
 little did he himself expect it. Death 
 came to him, as it is going to come to 
 many of us here, in a hurry, with but 
 scant warning, -came not at the end of 
 many years, but right at the noontime 
 of life. Such a death is a lesson ; but a
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 125 
 
 lesson that, no matter how often re- 
 peated, so many of us never learn. 
 
 But in the midst of all of our sorrow, 
 there is a ray of sunshine, for he had 
 learned that lesson. When death came 
 to him, he met it unafraid. The word 
 that reached me on the morning of his 
 death was that he edified all by the 
 faith and devotion he manifested when 
 receiving the last Sacraments. After all 
 that was only what we would have ex- 
 pected of him, for he really lived for 
 that moment. He had seen it come to 
 others, he had known it must come to 
 him, and so he lived that it might not 
 find him unprepared. After all, the 
 Master Himself laid down the require- 
 ments for obtaining eternal life after 
 death, "Love God with thy whole heart 
 and thy whole mind and love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself." 
 
 Very few men have loved their neigh- 
 bor according to the Gospel command 
 as did the one whose lifeless body lies 
 here. He was one of the most dutiful 
 and considerate sons a parent ever had, 
 and his love for them warmed the de- 
 clining years of the father and mother 
 who had done so much to make him 
 the good man that he was by their
 
 126 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 example of a truly Christian life. I will 
 not speak of his love for his home and 
 his family, for that was known to us all. 
 But you who were his friends, just 
 search your memory and see whether 
 you ever found anyone who loved his 
 neighbor so unselfishly as he. 
 
 There are many who mourn him to- 
 day whom you won't find among the 
 great and wealthy, but rather among 
 the poor and lowly. Only the recording 
 angel knows how many a poor fellow 
 he helped to his feet, to how many a 
 family he gave food and lodging, for 
 how many an acquaintance in trouble 
 he obtained another chance. 
 
 There are friends to whom he clung 
 for years, for whom he labored day 
 and night, for whom no effort, no sac- 
 rifice was too much, for whom he spent 
 time and money lavishly, and in re- 
 turn he received nothing, he asked noth- 
 ing. There is not one among you who 
 can ever remember him to have done a 
 mean act He would scorn to do a cruel 
 or dishonest thing to another so as to 
 himself profit thereby. He was one of 
 the kindest men I have ever known, 
 one of the most unselfish friends I have 
 ever had, one of the truest gentlemen I
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 127 
 
 have ever met. Did it profit him? 
 Maybe not in a worldly sense. But he 
 has left his children something that 
 money and position can never buy, the 
 memory of a father who was an ideal 
 Christian gentleman, who never hurt 
 anyone weaker or poorer than himself, 
 for none of whose actions they need 
 ever apologize. 
 
 And as he loved his neighbor so, too, 
 did he love his God. He was always a 
 faithful son of Mother Church, with a 
 simple childlike faith, with a practical 
 devotion to his religious duties. He 
 never tried or even thought of disguis- 
 ing his religion, and those outside the 
 Church thought so much the more of 
 him for it. The result was that the 
 Lord was with him to the end and gave 
 him the fitting end of a good life, a 
 happy death. 
 
 And now that he has passed the 
 portals of eternity, would we call him 
 back to life if we could? Maybe for 
 those who still need him, yes; but for 
 himself, no, for he has completed the 
 journey we all must make, he has 
 crossed into the great hereafter whither 
 we all must go, he has gone to meet 
 God whom he has tried to serve, and
 
 128 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 fortunate are we, if we be as well pre- 
 pared as was he. But we can help him 
 still, our prayers can follow him on his 
 journey and by them we may wipe 
 away any speck of earthly weakness on 
 his soul. For the kindness he has shown 
 us, for the favors he has done us, for 
 the affections he had for us, we can re- 
 pay him by praying for him that the 
 Lord may grant him rest. 
 
 "Let perpetual light shine upon him 
 and his soul rest in eternal peace."
 
 Funeral Oration Over the Body of the Most 
 
 Rev, Archbishop John Lancaster Spalding, 
 
 Former Bishop of Peoria, Illinois, 
 
 in the Cathedral, Peoria, 
 
 August 29th, 1916 
 
 "And all the people of Israel bewailed 
 him with great lamentation, and they 
 mourned him for many days." 1 Mac. 
 90. 200. 
 
 On last Friday evening, just as the 
 sun was sinking, just as the day was 
 dying, John Lancaster Spalding, First 
 Bishop of Peoria, closed his eyes; the 
 angel of death snapped off his thread 
 of life and his immortal soul went be- 
 fore its Maker to render the account 
 of a stewardship of seventy-six years 
 of life, of half a century in the priest- 
 hood, and of an episcopate of two score 
 years. Today you have come to say a 
 last farewell, to whisper a prayer for 
 him whose voice from this pulpit so 
 often thrilled you and fanned to 
 brighter flame your love for God and 
 for country; and I have come here this 
 morning, the Metropolitan of this 
 Province, to bury a Bishop of Illinois, 
 to bury him, hardly to praise him. For
 
 130 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 I will not preach his panegyric. There 
 is no need. In your souls, memory itself 
 is chanting the epic of this noble prel- 
 ate's life. I will just help you gather a 
 few flowers in the garden of his life, 
 that we may lay them as an humble 
 tribute in the still, purple-gloved hands, 
 before the coffin lid shuts out forever 
 the face and form of one who for so 
 long a time was a beloved figure in your 
 midst. Nor will I tarry long, for again, 
 this is not a eulogy, just a simple little 
 tribute to him who was a militant 
 churchman, a patriotic citizen, a 
 famous educator, a powerful preacher, 
 and one of the greatest essayists our 
 country has produced. 
 
 I will not speak of the simple facts 
 in his history the time and place of his 
 birth, his ordination, his consecration; 
 nor will I mention the positions that he 
 filled, the missions he attended, the 
 books he wrote; neither will I dwell 
 upon the honors that came to him in 
 the Church, from his country, from his 
 priests and people. After all, you who 
 are here today have known him well. 
 Some of you were his spiritual children, 
 some his devoted, loyal priests, all his 
 steadfast, loving friends. To you, all
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 131 
 
 these things are well known. It may be 
 that some gifted pen, inspired by a 
 loving soul, may some day leave to 
 posterity the history of this wonder- 
 ful life, so rich with material for 
 thought, for sermon and for edification, 
 that I wander bewildered in trying to 
 choose what I can crowd into so short 
 a review of an interesting career. 
 
 There seem to stand out in his public 
 life three brilliant characteristics in 
 which Bishop Spalding was almost 
 without a peer among the prelates of his 
 time. First and above all, as a writer 
 he stood and he stands foremost among 
 the Bishops of this country: in fact, to 
 find his superior we must go back to 
 the men of old, like St. Augustin, St. 
 Athanasus, St. Thomas of Aquin, St. 
 Bede. I do not think that even the 
 great English Catholic writers, New- 
 man and Manning, can equal him in 
 beauty of diction clothing brilliancy of 
 thought, while it is acknowledged on 
 all sides that as an essayist the Catholic 
 Church in the United States has not 
 produced his equal, neither among the 
 clergy nor among her people. So, too, 
 as an orator. We have had great 
 preachers in the Church in the years
 
 132 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 that are gone, and some of them still 
 live, like a Keane of Dubuque, and an 
 Ireland of St. Paul; but they them- 
 selves would be the first to admit that 
 the highest place belongs by right to 
 Bishop Spalding. Perhaps some of you 
 now recall, how, when engrossed in 
 some favorite subject, a sermon on the 
 necessity of religious education or an 
 oration on the love of country he 
 would soar to lofty heights of oratory, 
 carrying you breathless with him and 
 leaving your soul deeply moved and 
 long inspired by his brilliant appeal. 
 Yet he did not build the power of his 
 plea simply on his mastery of the 
 language: he was gifted with an ex- 
 traordinarily keen judgment and an 
 analytical mind that lent an edge like a 
 scimitar-blade to the arguments he 
 would muster, all of them faultlessly 
 arrayed in virile language. And as a 
 result, the argument he put forward in 
 defense of his subject, whether it was 
 the doctrines of the Church against the 
 taunts of an atheist, the rights of the 
 laboring man fighting for an honest 
 wage, or the very life of the Republican 
 government against the assaults of 
 anarchistic teachings, become irre-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 133 
 
 sistibly convincing. It must not be for- 
 gotten that the results he achieved 
 were due even more to his hard work, 
 his constant study, his unremitting ap- 
 plication to his task, than to his 
 natural talents. Take almost any one 
 of the sentences in his writings, take 
 any period in his fervent appeals, and 
 you will not find an ounce of useless 
 matter, not an unnecessary word. 
 Every sentence is pared down and 
 polished like a finished statuette which 
 has just left the chisel of a careful 
 sculptor. I have heard a critic who 
 appreciated his writings sum up the 
 merits of his works in these words: 
 "At all times and in all his writings, he 
 was interesting, he was instructive, he 
 was timely, he was true." 
 
 And now we come to one of the two 
 subjects dearest to his heart. We can 
 say without exaggeration that he was 
 the peerless champion of religious 
 education, as he was its fearless de- 
 fender. Again and again, kindly, 
 patiently, yet forcefully, he took up 
 weapons in its defense, never in his 
 contest forgetting the qualifications of 
 a Christian gentleman. He never made 
 the mistake of decrying or denying the
 
 134 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 good points of a secular education, but 
 with strong, logical arguments he in- 
 dicated its shortcomings and in- 
 adequacies. He believed that the train- 
 ing given in the state schools and 
 secular universities did, by its very 
 superiority, if you will, and the erudi- 
 tion of its teachers bring the intellect to 
 a high order of excellence, while it left 
 untouched the will, the very controlling 
 power of every action; the heart, the 
 seat of all emotion; the soul, the su- 
 perior part of our being, and that it 
 was thus more likely to leave disaster 
 and misfortune in its wake. With even 
 greater zeal he labored for higher 
 Catholic education. Those who heard 
 his masterly effort at the Third Council 
 of Baltimore, nearly thirty years ago, 
 have never forgotten his eloquent plea 
 for a national Catholic University. In- 
 deed, the establishment at Washington 
 of that institution of learning, of which 
 we are so proud today, is due in a great 
 extent to his efforts; for, he did not 
 content himself with mere words, but 
 it was due to him that the funds were 
 procured with which the first of its 
 buildings was erected. 
 And the other it is rather refresh-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 135 
 
 ing in these days, when we are so often 
 accused by the vicious and the ignorant 
 of lack of patriotism and of a divided 
 allegiance, to point to the example of 
 this leader in thought and in action 
 with him love of country amounted to 
 a passion. Descended from the cavaliers 
 who came to these shores with Lord 
 Baltimore and who first gave to this 
 country freedom of conscience, he loved 
 his native land with an ardor that was 
 surpassed only by his love of God. 
 "Love of God and devotion to country" 
 was the maxim he set for his life. And 
 if the scriptural adage ''out of the 
 abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh" is true, then we must judge 
 that rarely did a statesman who made 
 her laws or a soldier who defended her 
 flag love our country as much as did 
 Bishop Spalding. 
 
 When I come to his personal 
 character and his private life, I need 
 only leave its description to you. You, 
 his priests, will not soon forget him. 
 You had labored with him for many 
 years. You were proud of him, your 
 bishop, for you knew it gave you a dis- 
 tinction to be known as his priests. And 
 yet, notwithstanding the fact that he
 
 136 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 held so high a place in the world's 
 esteem, to you he was always approach- 
 able. You may have been only a humble 
 country pastor in a little Illinois village, 
 yet this courtly gentleman, this famous 
 orator, this well-known writer, was to 
 you always a father, always your 
 bishop, always your friend. Some of 
 you, now grown gray in the service, re- 
 member how kind he was when, as 
 young priests, you first called to see 
 him, and how much at home he made 
 you feel. And when there came an hour 
 of worry, a time of depression, the 
 moment when you needed counsel, such 
 as comes to nearly every priest, and 
 you went to him, you went away with a 
 lighter heart, feeling that to the 
 obedience and reverence you had given 
 to him in your ordination, you now 
 added a full measure of filial love, of 
 sacerdotal affection, of implicit con- 
 fidence. 
 
 He was ever generous to his people 
 and their needs in his charities. There 
 are in this city institutions of learning 
 and charity that are largely his own 
 personal gifts. These are the things 
 we may see with our eyes and 
 grasp with our hands. And those
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 137 
 
 who knew him well know that 
 there were other instances, num- 
 erous, but unknown to all but God and 
 His recording angel, in which he helped 
 works of religion and charity or re- 
 lieved the distress of individuals. Per- 
 sonally, you remember him always as 
 a gentleman, polished, cultured, kind. 
 After all, blood will tell, and he was 
 sprung from generations of gentle- 
 men, and had inherited the best of their 
 traditions. While he could be equally at 
 home with rich and poor, great and 
 lowly, learned and ignorant, yet he 
 could ever meet the best of them all on 
 an absolutely equal basis. 
 
 I shall not dwell further on his many 
 other lovable qualities, on his sense of 
 fairness in dealing with his priests and 
 people, on his unswerving loyalty to his 
 friends, on his conscientious adherence 
 to duty. Let me pass to the evening 
 hours of his life. It was ten years ago 
 that illness crippled him and the palsy 
 numbed his faculties. Deep down in his 
 heart he realized that the end of a use- 
 ful career as a public man had come. 
 
 He made his preparations to lay down 
 the heavy cross of the episcopate, and 
 within three years he transferred the
 
 138 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 burden to younger and stronger 
 shoulders than his own. But eternity 
 was approaching he did not know how 
 soon the final summons might come, 
 and for that he wanted to prepare. And 
 so he withdrew from public life, where 
 for so long he had been an active 
 figure : he gave up the guidance of the 
 church of which he had been so fond: 
 he went into retirement to pray and to 
 prepare. It took courage to do that. It 
 is difficult for any of us to admit that 
 we are no longer able or fitted for the 
 task of a great office, that disease or de- 
 cay have impaired our usefulness, 
 that we are becoming less a help and 
 more a hindrance. It took humility to 
 do that. It must have been a shock to a 
 man so proud, so able, so prominent, to 
 see himself like the giant oak felled by 
 the lightning, and realize that the day 
 of his power, of his labor, of his activity 
 was ending. It took piety to do that. 
 Realizing the weight of the re- 
 sponsibility he had borne so long, and 
 not minimizing the shortcomings of his 
 life, he knew that the time that re- 
 mained was all too short to prepare for 
 the judgment that took place on last 
 Friday afternoon.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 139 
 
 We have come from far and from 
 near, and we are gathered, John Lan- 
 caster Spalding, about the lifeless 
 clay that once housed your great spirit. 
 We have come to take a last look at 
 you whom we had known, revered and 
 loved in life. Now we lay you to rest 
 like the great bishops of old, clothed in 
 the vestments of your high office, with 
 your mitre on your brow and your 
 crozier by your side. We mourn you, 
 even as the children of Israel mourned 
 the Maccabee, for you too were a leader 
 in Israel. Your people mourn you to- 
 day, for they loved you, their first 
 Bishop, who labored so zealously for 
 them, who was ever so good to them, 
 whom they treasured, whom they 
 revered, of whom they were so 
 proud. Your clergy are here to-day with 
 heavy hearts and tear-dimmed eyes, 
 for they loved you, they revered you, 
 they were grateful to you for many 
 things. 
 
 The older priests present, who had 
 labored with you, remember today how 
 kind you were to them: the younger 
 ones, the newly-commissioned captains 
 in Christ's army, hold your image en- 
 shrined, for you were the idol of their
 
 140 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 boyhood days. Your successor in the 
 high office asked only that he might 
 offer up this last sacrifice of propitia- 
 tion for your eternal repose, in grate- 
 ful appreciation of the many courtesies, 
 the unfailing kindness, the loyal co- 
 operation, which, like an elder brother, 
 you have given him in the seven years 
 of his episcopal office. This city, and its 
 people, irrespective of creed or position, 
 mourns today the loss of its first citizen, 
 the courtly, cultured, southern gentle- 
 man, who helped to promote its welfare, 
 add to its renown, contribute to the 
 happiness of its inhabitants. If it seems 
 strange that this last tribute should be 
 paid to you by one who but a few 
 months ago came to you, a stranger 
 from the distant east, is it not really 
 fitting that this should be so? For it 
 but shows that you belonged not to this 
 city, this diocese, this state alone : all of 
 us throughout the length and breadth 
 of the land claimed you as our own: 
 millions of us in the faith were proud 
 of you, and when the preacher of to- 
 day was only a tiny boy, it was impress- 
 ed on his memory that one of the 
 greatest prelates of America's Church 
 was Bishop Spalding of Peoria.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 141 
 
 You need no monument at our hands, 
 for your monument, the work of your 
 fingers and the children of your brain, 
 more lasting than granite or bronze, 
 rest on the bookshelves of every priest 
 of the land, and find a welcome place 
 in every library of the country. You 
 need no eulogy from our lips. Deep 
 in the hearts of all of your priests 
 is written the record of many kindly 
 deeds, of countless fatherly words, 
 of unnumbered generous acts of as- 
 sistance in time of stress, in hours 
 of worry, in moments of trial. But 
 you do perhaps need our prayers, 
 and that is the offering we place 
 upon your coffin today, the promise 
 of a - constant remembrance in our 
 prayers, at Mass, in the reception 
 of the Sacraments, so that, if after the 
 battle is over, some of the dust of the 
 conflict still dims the brightness of 
 your soul in the keen vision of the Al- 
 mighty Judge, our prayers may wipe it 
 away and make you acceptable to the 
 Master whom you served, and assure 
 you that welcome in our Father's 
 mansion for which you have sighed and 
 waited and prayed.
 
 Address on the Occasion When the Associated 
 
 Catholic Charities of Chicago Was 
 
 Formed, April 10th, 1917 
 
 It is said of the Church that like 
 truth she is ever ancient, ever new. It 
 is one of the signs of her eternal youth, 
 that while charity is as old as Chris- 
 tianity, yet it has come in many forms 
 according to the needs of the times. So, 
 too, alms-giving and the gathering and 
 distributing of alms have been known 
 in the Church throughout the 19 cen- 
 turies of her growth. The Venerable 
 Bede tells us that the Lord Himself and 
 His followers had special pockets or 
 depositories for receiving the offerings 
 of the faithful to supply His own bodily 
 wants and to relieve the needs of others, 
 and this is borne out by Scripture. 
 Many a town in France and England 
 owes its existence to an ancient mon- 
 astery around which the pensioners 
 gathered and about which they lived. 
 Then came the Mendicant Orders of the 
 Church, as their name implies, begging 
 from door to door, and with what they 
 received promoting God's glory and 
 feeding and clothing the poor and nurs- 
 ing the sick and the helpless. Later
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 143 
 
 came the many women's orders of, the 
 Church, each with its distinct purpose, 
 but most of them instituted for the pur- 
 pose of practicing corporal and spir- 
 itual works of mercy. Finally came 
 for the layman, for the father of the 
 family, the Conference of St. Vincent 
 de Paul. So much for the evolution and 
 the growth down to our own time. Now 
 let us take this place : 
 
 We are living in a city that has grown 
 up overnight. I know of no other that 
 has progressed so rapidly as Chicago. 
 You have a big city and you have all 
 the problems of a big city. You have 
 the evils that come from overcrowding, 
 from ignorance, from indolence, from 
 irreligion, from sin. On the other hand, 
 and now I speak only from a Catholic 
 standpoint, you have wonderful works 
 of charity, of mercy and of religion. I 
 know of no better orphan homes any- 
 where than you have here. You have 
 fine hospitals. You have reformatories 
 for girls. You have shelters for the 
 homeless. You have homes for the aged. 
 Each of these is supported by one of 
 two agencies, either by the diocese it- 
 self or by large and small, particularly 
 small, donations from the people of
 
 144 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 Chicago. It is not generally known, but 
 the Archbishop has given about $250,- 
 000 to $300,000 a year in works of 
 charity and Christian education. Be- 
 sides this the Catholics of Chicago 
 must have contributed considerably 
 more to make possible what has been 
 done here to relieve poverty, distress 
 and want. To do this, the diocese has 
 been not only contributing practically 
 every dollar of revenue, but has been 
 eating into its principal until now we 
 have come to the danger point and are 
 warned to break in no further. With 
 the faithful, another difficulty has 
 arisen. Many Catholics, especially well- 
 known Catholics, and business people, 
 have been bothered with a multiplicity 
 of appeals, because all of these various 
 charitable institutions and organiza- 
 tions have been conducting their own 
 finances and no attempt Has been made 
 to restrict the field or limit a district 
 for them, and so many of them have 
 been going to the same people for aid. 
 There has not been much complaint 
 about it, both because the Sisters, or 
 their friends, were always so deadly in 
 earnest and because the people to whom 
 they applied were so good-natured that
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 145 
 
 they contributed at least something to 
 all of them. But I have felt right along 
 that some remedy must be found, for 
 conditions were not growing better and 
 might soon become hardly tolerable. So 
 when I appointed a new director of the 
 St. Vincent de Paul, I called his atten- 
 tion to this point. I know full well that 
 our people do not by any means object 
 to giving in charity, in fact feel it their 
 duty to do so, and that many of them 
 would give more, if by doing so they 
 did not have to give so often and at the 
 same time were sure that it would be 
 properly applied. It was because of this 
 that I told him to see our Catholic men 
 and talk to them which proved to be 
 one of the best pieces of advice I have 
 ever given. The suggestion was 
 promptly taken up by a number of rep- 
 resentative business men, who outlined 
 the system of soliciting annual sub- 
 scriptions for the combined charities of 
 the diocese that you have just heard. 
 This system was proposed to me and 
 has received my cordial approbation. If 
 carried out as planned, and with the 
 co-operation of priests and people, it 
 will be one of the most progressive and 
 beneficial Catholic movements ever un-
 
 146 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 dertaken in Chicago. It will help our 
 charities tremendously; it will be a God- 
 send both to the givers and to the re- 
 cipients ; and it will be gratifying to all, 
 if they will only sit down and consider 
 its many advantages for themselves as 
 well as for others. Besides, this move- 
 ment comes at the proper moment. 
 
 On the afternoon of Good Friday our 
 country formally entered into war. For 
 a long time we had nourished the hope 
 and persisted in the prayer that we, as 
 a people, might be saved from taking 
 part in this world-tragedy that has cost 
 so many lives and so much human 
 blood; but God's Providence has 
 ordained differently. And now that 
 it has begun, none of us can tell 
 how long it will last, what the cost 
 in human life may be, and what sac- 
 rifices all of us must make. One thing 
 is certain, and I speak for myself, 
 for 800 priests and 1,000,000 Catholics 
 the moment the President of the 
 United States affixed his signature to 
 the resolutions of Congress, all dif- 
 ference of opinion ceased. We stand 
 seriously, solidly and loyally behind our 
 president and his congress. They may 
 have information that is hidden from
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 147 
 
 us, they may know that danger 
 threatens this nation from more than 
 the one quarter from whence we do not 
 expect it. But in any case they are the 
 elected representatives of the people. 
 This is a government of the people and 
 by the people. We have chosen them 
 and into their hands we have given the 
 reins of government and by their de- 
 cisions we must abide, otherwise we 
 would prove unworthy of the blessing^ 
 of a free democracy. 
 
 So in this hour of crisis I pledge the 
 loyalty of our Catholic people to our 
 flag, from the little drummer boy in the 
 orphan asylum to the aged veteran in 
 the old folks' home, the loyalty of every 
 priest, sister, adult and school-child, to 
 our country and to our country's flag. 
 I do not say this in a burst of en- 
 thusiasm, carried away by the excite- 
 ment of the moment, or just as an 
 empty figure of speech. By our acts we 
 will be judged, not by our words. Soon 
 many of our young men will leave 
 home to enter the ranks of the army or 
 navy. The old Church that looked after 
 them at home will follow them to the 
 battlefield. God knows that we need 
 priests sorely, but we will economize our
 
 148 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 forces here that they may go with the 
 soldier boys. Two of my younger priests 
 are practically released and ready to 
 go within an hour's notice with their 
 regiments. Others will follow as they 
 are needed. In anticipation of this step 
 I have arranged with the authorities of 
 the navy, and within 48 hours one of the 
 most promising of the younger priests 
 will take up the work already begun of 
 caring for the spiritual welfare of the 
 young recruits at the Naval Training 
 Station at Lake Bluff, so that the young 
 sailor lads in training there (of whom 
 more than one-third, or nearly a thous- 
 and, are Catholics) may go forth 
 spiritually strengthened as well as 
 physically fit to man our battleships. 
 Some of them may never have the 
 chance to receive the Sacraments again, 
 for we are now at war and our men 
 must go forth to meet death unafraid. 
 Again will our Sisters of Charity and 
 of the other communities, the angels of 
 many a battlefield, volunteer their 
 services and be ready to nurse the 
 wounded and comfort the dying. Every 
 Catholic hospital in this city will place 
 its buildings, its equipment, its services, 
 at the government's disposal. All of this,
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 149 
 
 remember, we do gladly and at our own 
 expense, nor do we expect any recom- 
 pense or even gratitude. We do it for 
 God and for country. We might, in this 
 connection, ask whether the individuals 
 or organizations, few though they may 
 be, who have harassed us in the courts 
 or maligned us in the scurrilous sheets 
 in these later years will now give some 
 evidence of the love of country so 
 loudly professed at a time when the 
 country did not need them. 
 
 But we must do even more than we 
 have done. We must not neglect those 
 at home. When the soldier goes to war, 
 he must feel that those he leaves at 
 home may not be left destitute. From 
 my own experience and the stories of 
 others, I know that it was a long time 
 before help from the government came 
 to the families of those who fell in the 
 first or second year of the Civil War, 
 the delay being due to a lack of pre- 
 paredness. That is why I want a St. 
 Vincent de Paul Conference active in 
 each parish. In this way we can bring 
 quick relief to those whose breadwinner 
 has gone to war. And to the young 
 father serving his country whose heart
 
 150 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 is heavy with anxiety for the wife and 
 children he has left at home, I want to 
 promise that, should their mother be 
 taken from them, we will take his 
 babies. We will give them a home. We 
 will fight for their souls' salvation just 
 as hard as he fights for our country's 
 flag. We will keep them for him until 
 he returns ; and if he does not come back 
 again, if, when the noise of the battle 
 is over, his lifeless form lies on the dis- 
 tant, blood-soaked plain and his sight- 
 less eyes gaze to the starry vault of 
 heaven, we will teach his little ones to 
 revere his memory and follow in his 
 footsteps and to love God and be true 
 to their country even as was the father 
 who has gone. 
 
 Gentlemen, that is the Rind of patriot- 
 ism that we preach and that we 
 practice. It does not consist of much 
 waving of the flag, and loud professions 
 of patriotism, but in the present and in 
 the future, even as in the past, when 
 our country needs us, we will be there 
 to do our share and even more. Now 
 for all of this I need my people's help, 
 for without them it would be difficult 
 indeed; but that support will be given 
 undividedly and unsparingly, I know.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 151 
 
 Even without it, however, the work 
 must go on, even were we to pledge 
 every resource of the Church. And 
 were we to face failure and bankruptcy 
 in the end, it would be in a glorious 
 cause, for it would be for God and 
 country. 
 
 The great cry and need of our country 
 to-day is preparedness. We too, as well 
 as the country, need preparedness, and 
 that is precisely what this movement, 
 this great union of charitable endeavor 
 for efficiency and greater results, will 
 bring about. You are to-day preparing 
 for the greater needs of to-morrow. 
 Put this movement solidly on its feet, 
 have it spread all over the city, have its 
 branches and workers in every parish 
 and district, then you will have an or- 
 ganization that will be prepared for any 
 demand that may be made on it. Then 
 will Chicago lead any city in the 
 country, yes, in the world, in the sup- 
 port, management and efficiency of its 
 Catholic charitable institutions and or- 
 ganizations. You will have benefited 
 both the donors and the recipients. You 
 will have given to every charitably in- 
 clined person a chance of effecting real 
 good. You will have given to every
 
 152 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 charitable organization an avenue for 
 obtaining assistance it needs without 
 sacrificing part of it in the means or 
 agents employed in getting it. You will 
 have given every Catholic a fixed rule 
 by which he can give to charity more 
 cheaply and with the satisfaction of 
 knowing that what he gives goes in its 
 entirety to the purposes for which it is 
 intended. You will have given to every 
 worthy diocesan charitable purpose the 
 opportunity of getting more help and 
 more satisfactory help. You will have 
 eliminated waste, you will have pro- 
 moted efficiency, you will have removed 
 annoyance, you will have increased the 
 gifts in size and number. You will have 
 eliminated the need for our Sisters 
 begging and have let them return to 
 the more necessary work of caring for 
 the sick and looking after the deserted, 
 the dependent, the delinquent. You will 
 have rid the business section of the city 
 of scores of fake Sisters who are plying 
 a profitable trade. You will produce 
 more pride on the part of our Catholics 
 and respect on the part of non-Catholics 
 for our religious and our charitaWe in- 
 stitutions. 
 Finally, gentlemen, you and all who
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 153 
 
 co-operate with you, can show your- 
 selves patriotic at this time. We can- 
 not all go to war, we may not all be fit 
 or able to fight for our country, but 
 we can make it easier for those 
 who do. We can help look after 
 those whom they must leave behind. 
 Those who go will be nearly all 
 young men, many of whom support 
 parents or wives and young families. 
 These dependents may suffer want. 
 Now, there is where we can step in and 
 help, either by money or personal serv- 
 ice. The latter will be given by 
 the various Conferences of the St. 
 Vincent de Paul, the former should 
 come from all, poor and well-to-do, par- 
 ticularly from the latter. It simply 
 means some personal sacrifice, and if 
 all help, nobody will feel it much and 
 we can effect a great deal of good. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, I have rarely 
 welcomed any movement as warmly as 
 I would welcome this, for if successful 
 it would be the greatest stimulus in the 
 cause of charity and therefore for the 
 glory of the Faith to which you be- 
 long. The name may be different, but 
 you are nevertheless disciples of St. 
 Vincent de Paul. Even from the stand-
 
 154 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 point of worldly business you will find 
 the help that you give to be a paying in- 
 vestment, for charity brings its reward 
 even here, and the Lord does repay, if 
 not to you here, then to your children 
 and children's children here and to you 
 a hundredfold hereafter.
 
 Christmas Salutation to the People of the Arch- 
 diocese of Chicago, 1917 
 
 The year 1917 is drawing to its close 
 like one of those rare sunsets when, 
 as a blood-red ball, the sun goes down 
 in the west, bathed in glory, but with 
 the threat that to-morrow may bring 
 the storm. The year that is ending hns 
 been an important year, an eventful 
 one. It has brought its lights and 
 shadows, its joys and sorrows, its 
 solace and its disappointment. For a 
 great part of the world it has brought 
 death, disaster, desolation. For our 
 country it has brought entry into the 
 world-war, with the lofty patriotism 
 and the tearful but proud parting from 
 our soldier sons that its early stages 
 bring. To us at home it has brought as 
 yet but little discomfort, just a volun- 
 tary abstention now and then, hardly a 
 deprivation sufficient to warn us of 
 what the future may have in store. 
 What the morrow may bring us is still 
 hidden in the lap of God. 
 
 On the other hand we have found 
 that the dying year was not without its 
 compensations. Who can deny that it
 
 156 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 has brought a marvelous outburst of 
 generosity, of neighborly love as well as 
 love of country? The nation has given 
 generously of its sons, the rich of their 
 few just as readily as the poor of their 
 many. So, likewise, each in proportion 
 to their means, have been lavish in 
 giving to every worthy cause, for the 
 relief of pain and suffering, for the 
 better care of our young men in the 
 army and the navy, for the lessening of 
 misery and destitution at home. What 
 seemed impossible a few years ago has 
 become an every day occurrence, such 
 as the people's gift to the Red Cross 
 and other charities. The year has 
 brought forth a spirit of willingness to 
 make sacrifice for our country and its 
 cause that shows a deeply-rooted 
 patriotism on the part of a united 
 people formed out of varied elements, 
 a loyalty not only on the part of the 
 native, but just as much on the part 
 of the foreign-born, that gives splendid 
 promise for the future of this republic. 
 The year has brought with it a gradual 
 but marked decline of bigotry, a growth 
 of better understanding among all of 
 our people, a truer estimate of the de-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 157 
 
 votion of our Catholic people to this 
 land of their birth or adoption. 
 
 So, if it has had its trials, the year 
 now closing had its compensations, too. 
 Were we always cradled in luxury, 
 lulled to slumber in peace, never 
 menaced by suffering, time would find 
 us deteriorating in fibre, selfish in en- 
 deavor, arrogant in action. To make us 
 a strong, virile nation, we need rain as 
 well as sunshine; sorrow as well as joy; 
 trials as well as comfort. A land of per- 
 petual sunshine does not breed a robust 
 people, neither does an untroubled 
 country mother a race of heroes. War 
 is not always an unmixed evil, not 
 simply a scourge of God. It is some- 
 times a beneficent visitation. It is often 
 a refining fire that parts the gold in 
 us from the dross; that recalls to us our 
 ideals; that trims and hardens us by 
 self-denial and sacrifice ; that makes us 
 remember God and His judgments 
 which lie so close to the battlefield ; that 
 makes us hear, above the noise of the 
 battle and the cries of the wounded, the 
 beating of the Sacred Heart of the 
 Savior which is nearer to us in sorrow 
 than in joy, in pain than in pleasure, 
 in adversity than in prosperity.
 
 158 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 Again there comes to us the day of 
 Our Savior's birth. It will not be a 
 merry Christmas, but it should be 
 a thoughtful Christmas: it may not 
 be a jolly feast day, but it should be a 
 prayerful one. In many a home there 
 will be a vacant chair at the holiday 
 meal. A million boys have gone from 
 home, from father and mother, from 
 wife or family. Nearly one-half of 
 them have crossed the great ocean, 
 ready to plunge into the seething 
 cauldron of the battlefield, just a few 
 of them sleep in a little row of graves 
 on a green hillside of France. When 
 kneeling around the crib of the Infant 
 Savior, as loving children of Holy 
 Church, as dutiful sons and daughters 
 of this dear land of ours, let us place 
 in His tiny outstretched hands the 
 offering of ourselves, the promise that 
 we will be resigned to His Holy Will 
 and resolved to help our country: that 
 we will not growl or grumble if His 
 hand should rest heavy on us, but that 
 whatever He sends us or permits to 
 visit us, we will welcome. 
 
 And let us pray to Him with the 
 earnestness of the shepherds and the 
 deep faith of the Wise Men that He
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 159 
 
 may bless us and the things that are 
 dear to us, not only our own little 
 family, but this, our city; this, our 
 diocese; this, our country; and that His 
 hand may rest in benediction on the 
 boys in khaki and the boys in blue, for 
 they are our own children: that He may 
 bring them back again to their homes 
 and to their mothers' arms, or, if they 
 fall in battle, that He may receive them 
 into His heavenly mansions and that 
 soon the roar of the guns and the war's 
 alarms may cease to drown out the 
 sound of the angels* voices and the 
 world may again hear the Christmas 
 message "Glory be to God in the highest 
 and on earth peace to men of good will."
 
 Sermon at the Diamond Jubilee of the Univer- 
 sity of Notre Dame, Indiana, 
 June llth, 1917 
 
 "Going, therefore, teach ye all na- 
 tions: baptising them in the name of 
 the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have command- 
 ed you." Math. XXVIII: 19 and 20. 
 
 Your Eminence, Most Rev. and Right 
 Rev. Prelates, Very Rev. and Rev. 
 Fathers, dearly beloved : 
 
 Just eight days ago we listened to 
 one of the shortest gospels of the year ; 
 and yet, few of them, if any, equal it in 
 importance; for, in it Christ gives His 
 farewell message to His apostles, points 
 out to them the principal work He has 
 given them to do, briefly defines the 
 mission of His Church and of those to 
 whom He had just given His divine 
 power. He made His apostles teachers 
 that was to be their most important 
 office. They were to continue His work. 
 For that purpose He had selected them 
 one by one. For that same purpose He 
 had kept them by His side for three 
 long years, that the truths He was 
 teaching, the doctrines He was preach-
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 161 
 
 ing, might sink deep into their mem- 
 ories, becoming imbedded by the very 
 weight of their repetition from His 
 lips. After all, that was the purpose 
 for which He had come from heaven, 
 man's redemption first, but necessarily 
 man's instruction too. Finally, it was 
 for precisely that same purpose that He 
 was sending them the Holy Ghost, not 
 to comfort, not even to encourage them, 
 but rather to ground them deeper and 
 firmer in the truths He himself had 
 taught them, and to make these truths 
 vivid, unforgettable, real as life itself. 
 "The Holy Ghost whom the Father will 
 send in my name, He will teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your 
 mind -whatsoever I shall have said to 
 you" (John XIV: 26). That this was 
 their own understanding, the one 
 thought uppermost in their minds, the 
 events that followed showed: for, at 
 once, after the Paraclete had come, they 
 begin to teach that multitude gathered 
 from the four winds. "We have heard 
 them," say the crowds in wonder, "we 
 have heard them speak in our own 
 tongues the wonderful works of God" 
 (Acts II: 11). And coming along the 
 early ages of Christianity, from its
 
 162 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 very infancy, when its growth could not 
 be hampered by pain, probation or per- 
 secution, to the time when the coming 
 of peace and prosperity found the 
 Church strongly intrenched in nearly 
 every known land, through her bishops 
 and priests, the successors of the Apos- 
 tles, she has proved faithful to her prin- 
 cipal mission, to "teach all nations." 
 Hidden in the houses of their follow- 
 ers, out in the open fields, down in 
 the bowels of the earth, early and 
 late, in season and out of season, 
 they taught the word of God, 
 Later on, from the monasteries and 
 the convents, where the Scriptures 
 and the Fathers were cherished and 
 transcribed and Sacred Tradition 
 jealously guarded, there came forth the 
 apostles who went into England, Ger- 
 many, Ireland and other lands, they, 
 too, simple guardians, messengers and 
 teachers of the word of God to the na- 
 tions, to whom they became accredited 
 as the ambassadors of Christ. And 
 then, coming to the middle ages of 
 history, perhaps there is no more con- 
 spicuous evidence of the constant in- 
 dwelling of the Holy Ghost than the 
 birth of the many Religious Orders of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 163 
 
 the Church, brought into being each 
 one to fit some particular time and some 
 special need : thus, the Friars Preachers 
 at a time when the heresy of Albigen- 
 sian theories threatened the very ex- 
 istence of sound doctrine: the Friars 
 Minor of St. Francis, whose mission 
 (almost as badly needed to-day) was to 
 preach by word and example that 
 Christ really meant what He said in the 
 words "Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
 for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven" 
 (Math. V: 3): the Society of Jesus, a 
 picked body of trained soldiers, called 
 into action to beat back the onrushing 
 heresy of Luther, when it threatened 
 to invade Spain and Italy. 
 
 With the invention and perfection of 
 the printing-press had come the means 
 of disseminating the knowledge, of 
 which for centuries the monasteries 
 had been almost the sole custodians. 
 Then began a new demand which day 
 by day grew stronger. Man had found 
 another avenue for his ambition, and 
 slowly but surely the pen and the press 
 became mightier than the sword. In the 
 early days, it is true, there were seats of 
 learning, about which the scholars, who 
 had come from far, would gather to
 
 164 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 listen to great Masters like Alfred and 
 Thomas of Aquin. But now it was no 
 longer the few, but the multitude that 
 would drink of the fount of knowledge, 
 and education became the demand of 
 the age. Nor was this just a mere pass- 
 ing fad, but, as generation followed 
 generation, this cry became more in- 
 sistent, more universal, so that truly 
 ours may be said to be the age of 
 education. And nowhere is this truer 
 than right here in our own country. As 
 a result, everyone, even the most re- 
 cent immigrant to our shores, wants an 
 education. To obtain it for his children, 
 he will endure any sacrifice. It is the 
 golden key that opens to them the door 
 that is closed to him, the door of oppor- 
 tunity, of success, of wealth. But from 
 sad experience the Church knows that 
 this craving is often fraught with 
 danger. We know that education must 
 not be one-sided, not of the intellect 
 alone, but also of the heart, of the soul. 
 It is for this reason that at so great a 
 sacrifice, with so much labor, at so 
 great expense, we are erecting, main- 
 taining and perfecting our schools, 
 where God and His laws have a place 
 in the curriculum, where religion is
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 165 
 
 taught, where from childhood the 
 scholars learn to know, to love and to 
 serve God and so to save their immortal 
 souls. And yet all this labor would be 
 useless, these schools would be like so 
 many empty fortresses without soldiers 
 to defend them, had we not the 
 Religious Orders to man them the 
 good Sisters and Brothers who are 
 teaching in them. These teaching 
 Orders of the Church are filling the 
 most pressing need of the present day. 
 They are fulfilling the first and the 
 most important part of the commission 
 given by Christ to His Church, and, 
 whether men or women, in sacred 
 Orders or consecrated by their vows, 
 they are the sharers of the priestly 
 work, and by the graces of their special 
 vocation are better able to perform it 
 than the priests themselves. They take 
 the little ones in their tenderest years 
 when the impressions are made that 
 are lasting, and by precept, by their 
 religious dress, by their example, they 
 model their hearts and souls according 
 to the image of Christ, while at the 
 same time they do not neglect to instill 
 secular knowledge. As a result, when 
 the children leave the school and go out
 
 166 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 into the world, it is with an enduring 
 impression, with an indelible memory, 
 with a constantly reviving remem- 
 brance of the teachings, of the counsels, 
 of the warnings of the good Sisters or 
 the faithful Brothers who were the 
 teachers and friends of their childhood 
 and youth. And then later, how many 
 a sorrowing parent, how many a pastor 
 of souls has not learnt by sad ex- 
 perience (perhaps too late) that it is in 
 the blossomtime of youth, when nature 
 has her springtime too in the human 
 creature before her, when the soul of 
 the youth and maiden are still sensitive 
 to every touch, that guidance and com- 
 panionship mean so much in the life of 
 a growing boy and girl, and that, if 
 religious teaching means so much as a 
 leaven in education for the child, it 
 means even more in the youth, so soon 
 to begin a man's work. So we have our 
 colleges, our academies, our high- 
 schools for them, and again by God's 
 wonderful Providence, (to me the con- 
 vincing evidence of the abiding of the 
 Holy Ghost in His Church, the man- 
 ifestation of the great love of the 
 Sacred Heart of the Master for us, His 
 children) the teaching Orders which
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 167 
 
 are doing such splendid work for God's 
 honor -and glory and the salvation of 
 souls in them. These Orders have but 
 little recognition from any of us, and 
 comparatively no earthly recompense; 
 in fact, sola spes vitae aeternae pro 
 praemio only the hope of the eternal life 
 as their reward." 
 
 Nearly a century ago, an humble 
 parish priest in a little village of France 
 laid the foundations of what is today 
 the Congregation of the Holy Cross. 
 His intention was thereby to benefit 
 his own beloved country and to repair 
 the ravages the Revolution had effected 
 in France. But, "man proposes and 
 God disposes." The Community, of 
 which he was the founder, was to find a 
 field of action in a newer land. He had 
 intended that his little Community 
 should help to rebuild the church at 
 home, where it was crumbling because 
 its ministers had been martyred or dis- 
 persed: but Providence decided that 
 they were to build a new edifice among 
 a people not their own. And that same 
 Providence guided the footsteps of 
 that first little band of seven Brothers 
 and their leader, until they came to 
 this place. They found here a spot al-
 
 168 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 ready consecrated to God's service, hal- 
 lowed by the lives and the labors of 
 saintly men. As early as the second 
 half of the 17th century, there had come 
 from that land that has cradled all of 
 our early missionaries the zealous Pere 
 Allouez, and his successor, the pente- 
 costal Chardron, whose labors were so 
 fruitful that when later the brutal de- 
 spoilers destroyed this mission, burnt 
 the chapel, imprisoned the missionary 
 and his helpers, scattered its people, 
 yet they failed to blot out the faith in 
 the hearts of the simple Indians. A 
 century later, the fire of faith still burn- 
 ed brightly among the descendants of 
 those Indian tribes, and in answer to 
 their fervent prayers, there came to 
 them the "primogenitus" of the Ameri- 
 can priesthood, the first one to whom 
 the Holy Ghost had come in priestly 
 ordination in the newly-formed Prov- 
 ince of the United States, Father Ste- 
 phen Badin, who came from the mis- 
 sions in Kentucky and reunited the 
 scattered flock of St. Mary of the Lake. 
 To this spot, even then hallowed by 
 the lives and labors of these and other 
 saintly men seventy-five years ago, 
 came the founders and builders of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 169 
 
 Notre Dame, Father Sorin and the 
 seven Brothers. I must not infringe 
 on the prerogative of another, who to- 
 morrow will describe to you in burning 
 words the work accomplished by these 
 pioneers, but I feel that the joy of this 
 day would be incomplete and the glory 
 of this jubilee dimmed, did I fail to 
 pay a brief tribute to their memory, to 
 lay a wreath of flowers on their tomb. 
 It is true, Spiritus ubi vult spirat 
 The Spirit breathes where He will, and 
 God can render successful any under- 
 taking which He has inspired; but 
 generally God does make use of a fit- 
 ting human instrument to do His work. 
 And if we have reason to rejoice today 
 that 'Notre Dame has accomplished 
 much in God's cause, we cannot over- 
 look the fact that Father Sorin was 
 just such an instrument in God's hands. 
 When we pass in review the events of 
 his life's history, when we read through 
 his letters (especially those of the early 
 days of this foundation), and particu- 
 larly when we look at what has been 
 done here in his time, we are forced to 
 concede all of us that he possessed 
 those principal character-traits that 
 help to make up the religious leader.
 
 170 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 First of all stands his wonderful con- 
 fidence in God. His was the spirit of 
 the crusader, crying "Deus vult," "God 
 wills it." The result was that he 
 could not be halted in his work. He 
 recognized the fact that he was God's 
 instrument, and so there was no 
 thought in his mind that his work could 
 possibly fail. Why, that first winter 
 in this place was enough to discour- 
 age any mortal man but, not Father 
 Sorin! Later on came other heavy 
 blows the plague that snatched from 
 him so many priests and Brothers, all 
 so badly needed, the conflagration that 
 razed every building to the ground. It 
 needed precisely these calamities to 
 bring out splendidly that other quality 
 of leadership, that infectious enthu- 
 siasm, which animated him and com- 
 municated itself to his brethren so as 
 to make them immune to hardship and 
 misfortune. The real leader is born in 
 adversity. It does not take much to 
 hold a following together when all goes 
 well, but the one who can inspire his 
 comrades and hold them to himself, and 
 then with them pull victory out of de- 
 feat ah ! the number of such is small 
 indeed! And when they are spiritual
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 171 
 
 leaders, we usually find them numbered 
 among the Saints. Finally, Father 
 Sorin possessed in a remarkable de- 
 gree a delightfully human characteris- 
 tic, which is perhaps best described by 
 St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians 
 (1 c. IX:20) when he says, "And I be- 
 came to the Jews, a Jew, that I might 
 gain the Jews." 
 
 It has been said of him again and 
 again that he became an American of 
 the Americans. In planning the work 
 of this University, he did not cling to 
 the old established lines; rather, he 
 absorbed some of the newness, some of 
 the freedom, some of the clarity of the 
 life of the people of this part of the 
 country; and, as a result, Notre Dame 
 progressed along new lines: so that 
 today I know of no other institution 
 which, while it is thoroughly Roman in 
 its doctrine, is so completely American 
 in its spirit. Moreover, the love of his 
 adopted country, which he nursed in 
 his own soul and instilled into his fol- 
 lowers, has become one of the most 
 cherished traditions of this monument 
 he builded, has shown forth on every 
 page of its history. 
 
 Can we wonder, then, that when the
 
 172 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 land was torn by fraternal strife, and 
 when those who were fighting and 
 dying for the Union needed spiritual 
 help and guidance, the priests of Notre 
 Dame were among the foremost of the 
 chaplains, while her novices and her 
 students were in the front ranks of 
 the soldiers who fought so bravely for 
 the flag? I can see now, even as though 
 it were yesterday, a band of grizzled 
 veterans at their reunion in my native 
 city years ago, and how, by common 
 impulse, they reverently raised their 
 caps when the name of the gallant 
 chaplain, Father Corby, was men- 
 tioned. Can we wonder, then, that 
 today, when the alarms of war have 
 again resounded, Notre Dame's stu- 
 dent-corps is decimated by the quick 
 and ready response to the country's 
 very first call for volunteers? In the 
 face of these constant and well-known 
 traditions established by this exiled 
 French priest and his simple compan- 
 ions into this, our principal seat of 
 learning in the west, I have often won- 
 dered how even the most ignorant 
 could possibly have the indecency to 
 question our loyalty to the flag in time
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 173 
 
 of peace, for no one ever had the hardi- 
 hood of doing so in time of war. 
 
 But again, lest I encroach on an- 
 other's ground, let us come down to the 
 living present. 
 
 Three-quarters of a century have 
 passed since the first members of the 
 Congregation of the Holy Cross came 
 to this spot, sacred to Our Lady of the 
 Lake. That little band of eight has 
 grown into a community of nearly 
 four hundred. The tiny mustard-seed 
 planted here by Father Sorin has grown 
 into a giant tree, whose branches have 
 spread all over the land and to all parts 
 of the compass. The schools and col- 
 leges that have been founded from this 
 parent seat of learning are found in a 
 dozen states of the Union. And amid 
 the many trials the Community has had 
 to face, amid the changes that have 
 come to it in time, in men and in place, 
 it has ever remained true to the mis- 
 sion and the purpose for which it was 
 founded, even that same ideal that 
 animated the early missionaries in this 
 place two hundred years ago to carry 
 God's holy truth as far into the land 
 and to as many of its inhabitants as 
 possible, This the priests and Brothers
 
 174 
 
 of the Holy Cross have done by the 
 three great avenues of teaching, in 
 the church, in the school-room, in the 
 columns of the press. From the pulpits 
 of many churches have the Fathers of 
 the Holy Cross preached the word of 
 God to the rich and to the poor. Into 
 crowded cities as well as lonely villages 
 have they gone, sometimes one alone, 
 sometimes in pairs or in threes, and by 
 force of argument, by the fire of elo- 
 quence, by the reminder of man's 
 death and judgment, have they brought 
 strayed sinners back to the arms of the 
 Master, and other sheep into the one 
 fold and to the Good Shepherd. 
 
 But the great work and the glory of 
 the Congregation of the Holy Cross is 
 its work in the schools. In ten dioceses 
 its priests and Brothers are engaged in 
 teaching youth in schools, high-schools 
 and colleges. Called into being to teach 
 the catechism, its members have re- 
 mained true to their first vocation, but 
 they have found time to add thereto 
 secular knowledge, so that they may 
 take their place among the finished 
 teachers of the land. 
 
 Their great, their lasting monument 
 here is Notre Dame. Three-qu'arters of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 175 
 
 a century ago, it was a log chapel, a 
 little hut; today it is a university town. 
 Then there were one priest, seven 
 Brothers, a few scattered settlers, and 
 the survivors of the Indians. Today 
 Notre Dame is a complete university 
 with a score of full collegiate courses, a 
 faculty of national reputation, a stu- 
 dent-body of twelve hundred, the 
 largest in any Catholic educational in- 
 stitution in the United States with a 
 spirit all its own, gentlemanly, studious 
 and, above all, disciplined. In its build- 
 ings it compares favorably with any 
 university in the land, and yet it is 
 probably the only one that has been 
 erected without the help of large dona- 
 tions, and is maintained with practically 
 no endowment It stands here as a 
 monument to God's glory and to the 
 honor of our Blessed Mother, whose 
 golden image dominates it all, blessing 
 all who dwell beneath its shadow. It 
 stands here as an everlasting proof of 
 the devotion of the children of the 
 Church, who have given up all to teach 
 the word of God to the children of men. 
 To this university boys have come, 
 neither rich nor powerful, but from its 
 gates they have gone forth men, who
 
 176 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 have been a force and an influence 
 among their fellow-men, who have been 
 the pride of their church and a credit 
 to their country. Though we find here 
 spacious grounds, stately buildings, 
 splendid equipment, property valued in 
 the many hundreds of thousands, yet 
 this citadel of learning and religion 
 does not owe its being to the wealthy 
 with their millions. Instead, the priests 
 and brothers of this community have 
 coined their labors, their sweat and 
 their blood to pay for its stone and 
 metal, its brick and mortar. Their toil 
 and their fatigue have been unending. 
 Each one has patiently borne "the labor 
 of the day and the heats," and when for 
 him the night time came, he has passed 
 his task cheerfully, uncomplainingly, on 
 to his successor. The priests and broth- 
 ers have been careful, conscientious 
 teachers and have, in a literal sense, 
 proven a greater success as messengers 
 of God's word than the good Father 
 Dujarie could ever have hoped for. 
 They have taught the boys and 
 youths of successive generations, and 
 few were those whom they sent forth 
 who were not a credit to the University 
 that trained them. Not by preaching
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 177 
 
 and teaching alone, but by the printed 
 word as well have the sons of Father 
 Sorin fulfilled their mission of spread- 
 ing the word of God in this land. Week 
 after week, for more than fifty years, 
 have they sent into every part of the 
 English-speaking world a message of 
 praise to Our Lady's honor fittingly 
 labelled "Ave Maria." In these days 
 when the aim of most journals seems to 
 be rather to startle and scold than to 
 instruct and entertain, when our nerves 
 are shocked and our passions roused, 
 rather than our attention held and our 
 humor challenged, the "Ave Maria" 
 comes into our homes and into our 
 hands like an honored guest, like a 
 charming, gentle, well-bred lady, with 
 its kindly humor, with its wholesome 
 bits of wisdom, with its interesting 
 stories for young and old. It is one of 
 the few journals that require no apol- 
 ogy and no introduction, for once 
 welcomed into a home, it finds its way 
 into the heart, and is surely missed if 
 it fails to return. 
 
 And so today, at the close of three- 
 quarters of a century, the sons of 
 Father Sorin have gathered at the feet 
 of the Mother whom they have loved
 
 178 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 so well, and in the presence of the 
 Master for whom they have labored, to 
 chant their "Te Deum." We have gath- 
 ered here from far and from near, from 
 the beloved Prince of our Holy Church 
 who presides down to the poor and 
 humble friend who lives near the col- 
 lege gates, to thank Almighty God 
 because He guided the footsteps of 
 Father Sorin to this spot seventy-five 
 years ago. We thank Him for the many 
 and great things that have here been 
 done to the honor of His Holy Name, 
 for the progress of Holy Church and 
 for the salvation of countless souls. 
 And we pray Him today to grant that 
 the sons of Father Sorin may increase 
 in number and grow in perfection, so 
 that this University of Notre Dame in 
 the future, even more than in the past, 
 may be one of the glories of our Church 
 and of our country, a home of learning, 
 and a place of holiness. To the teachers 
 of Notre Dame, to the pupils, to the 
 stranger within its gates, may the 
 golden image of Our Lady, like "a pillar 
 of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by 
 night" be a guide and an inspiration on 
 their earthly journey: and when the
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 end comes to them and they must cross 
 into the Promised Land, may their eyes 
 be greeted by the glorious vision of Her, 
 to whom in life they so often breathed 
 the salutation, "Ave Maria."
 
 Address to the Knights of Columbus The Care 
 of Delinquent Boys, Febru- 
 ary 22nd, 1916 
 
 Today an entire nation, like one great 
 family, pauses in its daily avocations, 
 stills the clatter of its machines, stops 
 the wheels of its commerce, to celebrate 
 the birthday of one who was the father 
 of our country and was also its savior. 
 As long as this land of ours remains 
 the land of the free and the home of the 
 brave, just so long the name of him who 
 was first in war and then became first 
 in peace, will remain first in the hearts 
 of his countrymen. When Britain for- 
 got the role of mother-country to as- 
 sume that of cruel stepmother, and 
 ground under foot the rights of her 
 colonists across the seas, until they, 
 like northern serfs or southern peons, 
 groaned under the weight of her exac- 
 tions, then did he whose natal day we 
 commemorate today place himself at 
 the head of his countrymen, who strug- 
 gled and fought until they secured tho 
 freedom you and I do now enjoy. And, 
 like faithful children of Holy Mother 
 Church, we rejoice today that even in 
 those early days there were so many of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 181 
 
 our faith, among them Sullivan, Lafay- 
 ette, Kosciusko and Pulaski, to fight 
 with Washington side by side. We re- 
 joice that Gen. Washington, the noble 
 and generous father of our country, did 
 not hesitate to give praise by name to 
 his faithful Catholic soldiers, that he 
 stood forth loyally for their freedom to 
 practice their faith. And it is a matter 
 of secret satisfaction to us that in that 
 early struggle of our country, Arnold, 
 the greatest bigot of them all, proved 
 the greatest traitor to his country in 
 the end. And so on this day, none more 
 than we honor our country's father 
 none more than we will strive to pre- 
 serve his memory in our children 
 none more than we in our schools will 
 fervently sing "Land where our fathers 
 died, of thee we sing." And the long 
 roll of those who have fallen for their 
 country's flag on the battlefields of our 
 more recent wars will show that at no 
 time were Catholic men deficient in 
 patriotism, or our Catholic women 
 wanting in the spirit of sacrifice when 
 our country called their fathers, hus- 
 bands and sons to its defense. 
 
 In a word, we are proud of our rec- 
 ord. We have given brave soldiers to
 
 182 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 our fatherland in war and splendid 
 citizens in time of peace, and that, 
 whether we were Americans by birth 
 or just Americans in the making. For 
 we must not forget that peace has its 
 victories just as much as has war, and 
 though Washington was "first in war" 
 we hail him likewise as "first in peace." 
 Our forefathers have imitated him 
 when engaged in war for the defense 
 of our country's liberty or union. Will 
 we, you and I, enjoying the fruits pur- 
 chased by their endeavors, by their 
 blood, by their lives, will we imitate 
 him in the peace we now enjoy? I am 
 sure everyone of you will, without hesi- 
 tation, rise and cry out "we will." But, 
 can you? Let us see if there be some 
 special work in which you might enroll 
 as soldiers of peace, some movement 
 for the welfare of the country which we 
 hold so dear, for the city of which we 
 are proud, for the faith which we 
 value more than life. Today we hear 
 much of preparedness, a splendid thing. 
 There is also such a thing as prevention, 
 a better thing. The question heard in 
 every big city today is what will we do 
 with the bad boy? In Chicago that 
 question has become acute. The press
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 183 
 
 has heralded it the world over, so that 
 the world is watching how Chicago will 
 solve the menacing difficulty. Else- 
 where they have grappled with the 
 danger by creating institutions of re- 
 form. Let me say frankly that wher- 
 ever the state has attempted to solve 
 the problem it has failed; private con- 
 cerns have had no better success; the 
 reform institutions are too often breed- 
 ing places of criminals. What then 
 do we propose? Preparedness is the 
 answer, prevention is the solution. 
 
 And that is the problem I have 
 thought to hand over to so large and 
 so representative a body of Catholic 
 laymen as the Knights of Columbus. 
 There is no work that I know of that 
 will so merit their own personal satis- 
 faction, that is so much a man's work 
 and that will obtain for them the 
 applause and the good will of their 
 fellow-citizens more than this. What I 
 propose is this: Let us start a proba- 
 tionary system of our own, a big 
 brother movement that is really worth 
 while. We will put up a home outside 
 the city, where the air is good, where 
 the surroundings are healthy, where 
 the supervision is parental and kind,
 
 184 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 rather than corrective. This institu- 
 tion, or rather its governing board, to 
 be appointed a probationary officer of 
 the court, and to receive first offenders 
 from the Juvenile Court, who are 
 placed on probation, who have not 
 been marked with conviction for any 
 crime, and who will come to us for 
 the very same reason that the state 
 isolates those who have been exposed 
 to contagion. I have always maintained 
 that we alone can handle this situation, 
 because we have those who dedicate 
 their lives to the strayed and the stray- 
 ing. The state has tried it and failed ; 
 philanthropic and perhaps well-mean- 
 ing organizations may attempt it, but 
 accomplish little or nothing; even our 
 Sisters would not be able. But the 
 Lord has given us the religious orders 
 of men to do the work. If our Catholic 
 laymen who are members of your order 
 will co-operate, I believe we will succeed 
 where others have failed. If you will 
 furnish the building, I will provide the 
 Brothers to carry on the work. The 
 secret of the success of the work will 
 be that the boy is taken out of his en- 
 vironment for it is the environment 
 that produces the good or bad man.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 185 
 
 We are giving him a new home f or it 
 is only too often because a boy lacks a 
 home that he takes to the streets for 
 his recreation, for his companions and 
 finally for his occupation. This is a big 
 problem, which must be handled in a 
 big way by big men, and then it will be 
 productive of big results. 
 
 This will be a difficult task, it means 
 much care, the expenditure of a large 
 sum, but if you succeed, and I believe 
 you will, then the citizens of this city 
 cannot be grateful enough to you. No 
 greater work has been attempted by 
 any Catholic body of men, and if you 
 carry it out, then no branch of your 
 Order, large or small, will have accom- 
 plished what the Knights of Columbus 
 of Chicago have accomplished. It is 
 much easier to erect a splendid club- 
 house, but, gentlemen, I would rather 
 help save the soul of a kiddie of the 
 streets than erect the finest monument 
 in Chicago. It is perhaps simple to 
 perpetuate one's memory by giving a 
 library or endowing a university, but 
 to take a boy from the street-corner 
 and from temptation, give him a chance 
 which he may not have had, set him 
 right and show him how when he has
 
 186 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 made just a youthful mistake, that 
 means writing one's name in letters of 
 gold in the register where neither time 
 nor eternity will ever blot it out. Per- 
 haps the Church (that means the 
 bishop), might have solved the problem 
 of his own accord but that is not my 
 way I want the help of my people 
 I would not deprive you of the oppor- 
 tunity of doing great good. I would not 
 take from you the chance to earn the 
 reward promised by Him who repays 
 even a glass of water given in His name, 
 who will reward in eternity what is 
 done for those whom He calls "The least 
 of these my little ones." I would not 
 steal from you the opportunity of per- 
 forming a great civic duty and earning 
 the commendation and heartfelt grati- 
 tude of your fellow-citizens. To you, 
 gentlemen, who have children of your 
 own, I am pleading for the boy who is 
 begging for a chance, who is too young 
 to know that he has done wrong, who is 
 not a hardened criminal, just a boyish 
 first offender. You are the judge and 
 the jury. I place his case in your hands. 
 Today we honor our country's father, 
 our country's founder, our country's 
 savior. When I was a little boy in
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 187 
 
 school we wrote in our copy-books this 
 couplet, "Lives of great men all remind 
 us, we can make our lives sublime, and 
 departing leave behind us footprints in 
 the sands of time."
 
 Address at the Dedication of the Bishop Quarter 
 
 School for Little Boys, Oak Park, 
 
 Illinois, October 12th, 1917 
 
 Some time ago an old Religious, who 
 has been in many parts of the world 
 and has a deserved reputation for both 
 knowledge and experience, told me that 
 the greatest work of charity in this dio- 
 cese during the past two years was the 
 establishment of the Bishop Quarter 
 School for little boys. "For," said he, 
 "you will find plenty of little convent 
 schools for girls of all ages, but few, if 
 any, seem to think of and make provi- 
 sions for the little boys." I tell this now 
 for the consolation of the good Domin- 
 ican Sisters and their Mother Prioress, 
 who so cheerfully took up this work 
 when it was offered to them by the 
 Archbishop. 
 
 Personally, I have rarely found any- 
 body so helpless and so lonesome as a 
 young husband whose wife has died and 
 left him the whole care of their little 
 children. He actually seems lost. He 
 hardly knows where to turn in his grief 
 for the wife who has gone and his love 
 for the little ones that remain. He has 
 not the time, for he must work, nor
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 189 
 
 the knowledge, for that belongs to a 
 woman, to care for them. He does not 
 want to give them to others, for they 
 are bone of his bone and flesh of his 
 flesh. He wants to see them often, for 
 they are his children and they remind 
 him, too, of the wife whom he loved. 
 He wants to see them cared for, kept 
 clean, properly fed and educated in 
 mind and moulded in soul. And for 
 this he will gladly make sacrifices, will 
 gladly deny himself many things so 
 that his children may not be neglected. 
 Often the poorer he is, the more he 
 desires it, the more sacrifices he will 
 make. 
 
 An incident occurs to me now, which 
 is very vivid although it happened 
 many years ago. I had established a 
 little school under the care of the Sis- 
 ters. It was a free school, but in a 
 fashionable neighborhood, and I was 
 compelled to restrict it to children liv- 
 ing within the parish limits or whose 
 parents were pew holders. One night 
 a plainly dressed woman called on me. 
 She reminded me that as a young priest 
 I had married her, her husband being 
 a non-Catholic. She told me that they 
 now had three boys and had lately
 
 190 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 moved into the neighborhood. I found 
 on inquiry that they were living just 
 outside the parish limits. Of course, I 
 had to adhere to my rule, but her plea 
 to have the boys entered in this school 
 was so earnest that I picked out the 
 two lowest-priced seats, and then cut 
 even that price in two. But when I 
 told her what it was, she shook her 
 head and said "I'm afraid we can't 
 make it. My husband is only a clerk; 
 he earns nineteen dollars a week; we 
 pay twenty dollars a month rent, and 
 three boys need a lot of clothes and 
 food ; I don't see how we can afford it." 
 
 "Well," I said, "go home and think it 
 over and come back again on Wednes- 
 day night to see me." 
 
 She came back again on Wednesday 
 saying, "I talked it over with my hus- 
 band. When we could not find any 
 other way, he said 'I want the boys to 
 go to a Catholic school, and to pay seat- 
 money, I will give up smoking you can 
 keep my tobacco money, that will pay 
 for the seats'." "All right," I said. 
 "Send the boys; I'll find room for them 
 in the school. I won't be outdone in 
 generosity by a non-Catholic man, espe- 
 cially when it is a question of religious
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 191 
 
 education for the children." This hap- 
 pened nearly ten years ago. Since then 
 the man has come into the Church, and 
 I have one of the boys studying for the 
 priesthood. I cite this example to show 
 that perhaps the age is not so selfish 
 as we sometimes think, that there are 
 people ready to make sacrifices for 
 their children's eternal welfare, and 
 that the poorer they are, the more 
 ready they often are to deny them- 
 selves not only pleasures but even 
 necessities for this purpose. 
 
 These things were taken into consid- 
 eration in the founding of this school, 
 where a father can leave his motherless 
 little boy for a longer or shorter period 
 of time, where the little fellow will re- 
 ceive a mother's care from the Sisters, 
 where the father can come as often as 
 he wills to visit him, and where a work- 
 ingman's child will be as welcome and 
 will receive the same treatment as a 
 rich man's, at as low an expenditure to 
 the father as possible. The Sisters do 
 not expect that this school will be a 
 paying investment, at least in a worldly 
 sense. They have not established it for 
 that purpose. It is for little boys whose 
 fathers must labor day after day for a
 
 192 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 modest salary. But at the same time, 
 we must not forget that there is a very 
 heavy debt on this building, a large 
 sum must be paid every six months in 
 interest, the cost of living is very high, 
 and the Sisters, in making the rates as 
 low as possible, are running a risk 
 unless there is a goodly number of 
 children and all pay promptly. 
 
 The School is named after the first 
 Bishop of Chicago. Next year it will be 
 75 years since a New York priest, Rev. 
 William Quarter, was named first 
 Bishop of the newly-formed Diocese 
 of Chicago. At that time the great 
 grandfather of the present Archbish- 
 op's father was worshipping in the 
 basement of St. Mary's Church, New 
 York, of which/ Father Quarter was 
 pastor, so this School will act as a 
 link doubly binding the past and the 
 present, as a memorial erected to the 
 memory of our first Bishop by the 
 eighth Bishop, and third Archbishop, 
 of Chicago. Moreover, just four hun- 
 dred and twenty-five years ago today, 
 Christopher Columbus, that splendid 
 representative Catholic, first planted 
 the cross of Christ on the soil of this 
 fair land. Today, on the anniversary
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 193 
 
 of that event, just four and a quarter 
 centuries later, we have affixed that 
 same cross to the walls of this building, 
 first the home of purely secular learn- 
 ing, but now the abode of charity, of 
 religion, of education. May it for many 
 years be a place of consolation for 
 countless bereaved fathers and a shel- 
 ter and a home for countless motherless 
 boys!
 
 Address at the Silver Jubilee of the Women's 
 
 Catholic Order of Foresters, Auditorium, 
 
 Chicago, April 28th, 1916 
 
 I have come here this evening to 
 participate in the celebration of your 
 Silver Jubilee. I have also come here 
 formally to accept a new office one of 
 the many that have come to me during 
 the past few months. It is not only an 
 office, but an honor as well. It is a 
 distinction to be High Court Chaplain 
 of the Catholic Women Foresters, and 
 as such I assume it. 
 
 I have been receiving so many gifts 
 and so many responsibilities that I am 
 getting afraid that the transaction is 
 somewhat one-sided, so I am going to 
 give something away, something that 
 belongs to me, something that goes 
 with the office and dignity of Arch- 
 bishop of Chicago. And that something 
 I am going to give to you, representa- 
 tive Catholic women of this diocese; 
 and just because it is a gift that comes 
 from your High Court Chaplain, you 
 will not only accept, it, but you will be 
 delighted to be singled out for this
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 195 
 
 honor. It is this : in a word, I am going 
 to turn over a little part of my respon- 
 sibility to the Catholic Women For- 
 esters of Chicago. 
 
 The history of recent years has 
 shown that only too often have good 
 Catholic organizations died of dry rot, 
 simply because there was nothing for 
 them to do in the way of helping others. 
 It is a commendable thing to do, to pro- 
 vide for those near and dear to us, by 
 assisting Providence in saving for a 
 rainy day: it is wise to form strong 
 organizations of men or women: it is 
 splendid to have a large organization 
 like yours to represent a diocese, and 
 finer still to see the spirit that now 
 animates it but we are approaching 
 the ideal, when an organization like 
 yours has as its object not only the 
 mutual good of its members, but also 
 the good of others, when it works to 
 interest them and so help them and 
 their children; when it attempts to 
 solve a problem of the day; when it 
 does its share to bring about an im- 
 provement in individual conditions that 
 surround the homes in the city. The 
 day has gone by when either as indi- 
 viduals or as organizations we can
 
 196 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 simply look after our own little per- 
 sonal interests and rest content with 
 that. We must help others. We can- 
 not say "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
 We are keepers helpers, protectors of 
 others, of the weak, of the young, of 
 the dependent: we are accountable for 
 them; society will hold us accountable: 
 God will hold us accountable. To care 
 for them is a duty we owe our neigh- 
 bor; but it is more than a duty, it is a 
 source of grace, of blessing. The man 
 or woman, who has lived alone, for 
 self, who has not helped others, I say 
 he or she has lost one of the greatest, 
 one of the sweetest comforts in life. It 
 makes no difference either whether the 
 subject benefited turns out worthy or 
 unworthy. In the latter case there is a 
 disappointment, it is true, but the 
 gratification that comes from the con- 
 sciousness of having really helped 
 another fellow-being is something that 
 cannot be described, that cannot be 
 bought by money, that is like a remnant 
 of paradise. I have had my share of 
 it and I know, and that is why I want 
 others, why I want my people, to 
 participate. 
 Now what is it, Ladies, that I would
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 197 
 
 have you do? What is the work I 
 would entrust to your organization? 
 
 For a number of years a little body 
 of young women have been courage- 
 ously trying to do a certain work, but 
 though brave and willing enough, yet 
 they are not strong enough in num- 
 bers to accomplish it. Knowing that it 
 needed a big body of women to take 
 it up and carry it along, I thought of 
 you, and, to be candid, I said: "If the 
 Catholic Women Foresters want me as 
 their High Court Chaplain they must 
 be ready to work." 
 
 In the business section of this city 
 there are seventy to eighty thousand 
 young girls at work daily, in offices, in 
 stores, in shops. From sixty to seventy 
 per cent, of them are Catholic girls, 
 and more than half of them are eigh- 
 teen and under the dangerous age. 
 Cannot something be done to make 
 things a little better, a little smoother, 
 especially a little safer for them ? Now 
 I have outlined a plan to your officers, 
 by which, without too great an expense, 
 your organization can be an agency for 
 good among our little working girls; 
 can provide for them rest and good 
 food and pleasant surroundings; can
 
 198 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 watch over their welfare and safeguard 
 some of them from danger If you help 
 to save just a few girls from dangers 
 that threaten them in a big city, the 
 innocent, delicate little working-girls 
 of today, who will be the mothers of 
 tomorrow, it will be worth while. You 
 know it is not bombast to say that all 
 the gold in the treasury in Washington 
 could not pay for those few souls. As 
 individuals you might do but little, but 
 as an organization you would do much, 
 for you are more than 30,000 in this 
 city alone. You could make your force 
 felt, you could make your name known 
 throughout the city, and the burden on 
 the shoulders of each of you would be 
 so light as to be practically unno- 
 ticeable. 
 
 When this vital matter was first 
 broached, the answer given was, "If the 
 Archbishop tells the women to do it, it 
 will be done." So that is my purpose 
 here now to tell you to do it. I have 
 given the men the care of the boys; 
 they accepted the task with enthusiasm. 
 I am giving the women the girls. I 
 know they will be just as ready, just as 
 willing. And you will be successful; 
 if you take it up in the right spirit, you
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 199 
 
 are bound to be; and if you do, your 
 organization will merit the respect and 
 the good will of all the people of Chi- 
 cago, and you will receive, too, the 
 blessing of Almighty God. To some it 
 will mean labor, planning and arrang- 
 ing details; but to the most of you it 
 means only the addition of a few pen- 
 nies to your monthly dues, but, in the 
 course of time, it will bring about a 
 monument to the Catholic Women For- 
 esters of Chicago. You will have some- 
 thing that is entirely your own to fos- 
 ter, you will have a work to mother, you 
 will have something right in the whirl- 
 pool of traffic, in the center of business, 
 in the heart of the city, that you can 
 point to and say that it is yours. It will 
 be a work of prevention, not covering 
 up a mistake, healing a wound or cor- 
 recting an error. It will mean helping 
 in your own way to keep the inno- 
 cent white, the simple safe, the young 
 healthy and sound. Finally it will be 
 the silver milestone that will mark the 
 completion of the first quarter century 
 of your existence, and an insurance 
 against decay during a similar period 
 of the years full of golden promise that 
 now lie before you.
 
 Address at the Charity Concert of the St. Vin- 
 cent de Paul Society, Auditorium, 
 Chicago, October 20th, 1916 
 
 I believe I am hardly violating a 
 confidence when I tell you the following 
 incident that happened to me lately. 
 A young man called and asked me 
 whether he might dedicate to me a 
 book he had written dealing with mod- 
 ern social questions and particularly 
 with philanthropic work. Before per- 
 mitting him to do so, I was careful to 
 find out something about its contents. 
 He explained to me that the theory he 
 advocated was that gradually the State 
 was to take over the care of the 
 dependent, the unfortunate, the incom- 
 petent. Even where their care and 
 supervision was left in the hands of 
 other agencies, for instance, to the 
 Religious Orders of the Church like 
 the Little Sisters of the Poor for the 
 care of the aged, or the Sisters of 
 Charity for the care of infants even 
 then the State was to supply all the 
 necessary funds. When he had made 
 this clear to me, I said: "Son, I don't 
 know how long I am going to live, but 
 I hope I will not live long enough to
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 201 
 
 see the condition you describe come 
 into existence. For, when you take 
 from a man the chance to help from his 
 own scant earnings and savings his 
 poorer, weaker, needier neighbor, then 
 you not only rob him of the one great 
 opportunity of piling up merit for him- 
 self in heaven, but you deprive him of 
 one of life's purest and holiest feelings 
 of peace and satisfaction. In a word, 
 you would do away with every chance 
 to practise not only the Godlike virtue 
 of charity, but also the very lovable 
 natural virtue of philanthropy." 
 
 Nowadays, these two words, charity 
 and philanthropy, are mixed up rather 
 frequently and indiscriminately, and 
 the man or woman of rather ordinary 
 intelligence becomes somewhat confus- 
 ed as to the meaning of either. Where 
 does the difference lie? I am not going 
 to attempt a definition of these terms; 
 but let us see if I can illustrate it by an 
 example. A modern good Samaritan, 
 for instance, finds a man sick and desti- 
 tute. This man is nothing to him but a 
 fellow-being, but he is suffering and in 
 want. Our Samaritan helps him, 
 feeds him, nurses him, clothes him, and 
 coaxes him back to health. He does so
 
 202 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 because he is naturally kind, unselfish, 
 sympathetic, and feels happier when he 
 is giving something away to one deserv- 
 ing of help than when he is receiving 
 something from another. He doesn't 
 do it for glory, for pay, maybe not for 
 gratitude, but simply because he feels 
 happy in helping a fellowman. That 
 man is a philanthropist, and a mighty 
 good one, too. But, along comes our 
 St. Vincent de Paul man, and he finds 
 a man sick and destitute. He helps him, 
 feeds him, nurses him. The reason he 
 does it is not because he likes it, not be- 
 cause it gives him a thrill of satisfac- 
 tion, but because he recognizes in this 
 suffering individual Christ himself; be- 
 cause he is as really and truly minister- 
 ing to the Lord himself as if the Savior 
 had suddenly appeared to him ; because 
 of his belief in the literal meaning of 
 the words: "What you have done to 
 these, the least of my little ones, you 
 have done to me." He does it, not to 
 receive the thanks of another, not even 
 the approbation of his own kindly 
 heart, but for the reward promised by 
 Christ himself. Every true St. Vincent 
 de Paul man, therefore, is a philanthro- 
 pist, yet not every philanthropist can
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 203 
 
 be classed as good as a Vincentian. The 
 latter includes the former, and again 
 "the greatest of these is charity." 
 
 In the Church today we have socie- 
 ties, sodalities, confraternities. We 
 have Catholic societies and societies of 
 Catholics. But I have ever maintained 
 that there is no body of laymen in the 
 Church more Christian, more Catholic, 
 more charitable, than the St. Vincent 
 de Paul Conferences. 
 
 Quietly, constantly, unostentatiously, 
 they are doing a work more helpful to 
 individuals, more beneficial to the com- 
 munity, more fruitful to themselves, 
 than any other. When filled with the 
 proper spirit, when animated by the 
 proper motive, they are fulfilling the 
 Savior's mission, of Whom it was said : 
 "He went about doing good." A good 
 Catholic layman's activity should not 
 be confined to his own family; it should 
 be felt outside. It is true that "charity 
 begins at home," but it is a mighty poor 
 kind of charity that, having begun at 
 home, stays at home and ends at home. 
 Let him become a member of his parish 
 conference of the St. Vincent de Paul 
 Society, and at once he is opening a 
 savings-bank account which will stand
 
 204 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 him and those dear to him in good stead 
 when the spiritual rainy day comes 
 around. But, if we cannot all become 
 Vincentians, we can at least become 
 auxiliary members of St. Vincent de 
 Paul Conferences. We can become 
 helpers of charity, by giving assist- 
 ance and encouragement on occasions 
 like this, and to those actively engaged 
 in the work; by giving the helping hand 
 and the cheering word when it is need- 
 ed; by furnishing to the Samaritan the 
 oil and wine to pour into the wounds 
 of the stricken. What, then, is the re- 
 turn? From the Source from which 
 all blessings flow, we have a promise: 
 "Amen, I say to you; even a cup of wa- 
 ter given in My name will receive its 
 reward."
 
 Sermon on the First Sunday of Lent, Holy Name 
 Cathedral, Chicago, 1917 
 
 "Not my will, but Thine be done." Luke 
 XXII: 42. 
 
 It was when I was still a boy that I 
 came one day face to face with a trag- 
 edy. Without knocking, I rushed into 
 a neighbor's home. I found there an 
 old woman, her grey hair dishevelled, 
 her face haggard with grief, her eyes 
 red with weeping. Her daughter had 
 brought dishonor and disgrace upon 
 the honest mother's head and sorrow 
 into the little home. 
 
 Perhaps because I was only a child, 
 the old woman bared her soul to me, 
 and in broken words told me of how, 
 when this daughter was a child, she 
 fell ill and came close to death's door. 
 "And I prayed," she said, "I prayed so 
 awful hard that she might be spared 
 to me! I asked God to grant me this, 
 if He never gave me anything else in 
 life. I snatched her from God's hands. 
 I would not give her up, I prayed, 'God, 
 don't let her die ! I want her more than 
 I have ever wanted anything, more 
 than I ever will want anything let me
 
 206 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 keep her, and I'll never complain/ 
 Why, why did I do it? What a fool I 
 was ! If only she had died then, if only 
 I had not prayed as I did. Sonny, learn 
 from me. Don't ever ask anything 
 from God, if it is against His will." 
 Time, like the surf of the sea, rolls over 
 and blots out many memories, but the 
 sight of her pain-scarred face I have 
 never forgotten, and her burning words 
 I have ever remembered. I had looked 
 into a human soul and, child as I was, I 
 had seen there sorrow, remorse and de- 
 spair. The dear old woman and her 
 erring daughter are both long since 
 gone, and I trust they have found, the 
 one, the Great Consoler, the other, a 
 merciful Judge. 
 
 It was in the first year of my priest- 
 hood, the oil of ordination had hardly 
 dried on my hands. One night, taking 
 another's place, I was called to attend 
 a sick boy. He was the only son of a 
 widow a lovely little child, the apple 
 of his mother's eye, with a manner as 
 gentle as a girl's and a soul as white 
 as a baby's, where no sin had ever 
 found entry. He was an altar-boy in 
 the church and a leader in his class.
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 207 
 
 He loved his mother almost as much as 
 his mother loved him. He was very ill; 
 his frail frame was ravaged by fever, 
 and the doctor gave no hope of his 
 recovery. I told the young mother as 
 gently as I could. Her grief was tragic, 
 but it was mixed with a fierce deter- 
 mination to fight for her young. She 
 forgot everything else but that this was 
 her child which some unseen power was 
 trying to take away from her, and she 
 stood guard over him, prepared to de- 
 fend him with all her strength. She 
 would not give him up. "No, I won't 
 give him up! God can't ask it of me! 
 Why, he's all I have. I can't, I can't 
 give him up!" she cried again and 
 again. 
 
 I left them. The little lad had re- 
 ceived all the Sacraments and was 
 already unconscious. It was one of 
 those warm summer nights, when after 
 midnight a fitful little breeze springs 
 up and an exhausted city sinks to slum- 
 ber, the fretful children cease their 
 crying and the fagged-out parents 
 sleep. This heart-broken mother was 
 watching over her boy and listening to 
 his broken breathing, when, an hour or
 
 208 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 so after midnight, she heard the sounds 
 of a scuffle in front of the house break- 
 ing the stillness of the night. Looking 
 from the window, she saw the figures 
 of three young men on the walk below. 
 Two of them were evidently trying to 
 raise up the third, who seemed to be 
 completely drunk. "Come on," they 
 said, "get up. We want to get you 
 home." Lake light through a rift in the 
 clouds, these words seemed to cleave 
 through his drunken stupor, and he 
 muttered: "No, no, don't take me 
 home. It would kill my mother to see 
 me like this!" 
 
 To the watcher by the bed-side in the 
 room above, these words came like a 
 sword piercing the mother's soul. "Oh 
 God, I'll give him up," she cried and 
 just as the dawn crept over the house- 
 tops, the little light flickered and died 
 down, the little heart stopped beating, 
 the mother's head was bowed above the 
 lifeless form. The Lord had accepted 
 the sacrifice. The little lad had become 
 an altar-boy at God's throne. Today 
 there lives in that eastern city a white- 
 haired little woman. She has but one 
 real interest in life, to look forward to
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 209 
 
 the day when she will be summoned, and 
 a little boy's hand will clasp hers again, 
 at the threshold of heaven. 
 
 My dear friends, we are living today, 
 not in a critical age, but in an age of 
 criticism. It has become almost a mat- 
 ter of good form to question the mo- 
 tives and decisions of our superiors, so 
 that it takes a great deal of courage 
 for a man who is in any way sensitive, 
 to aspire to elective office. When reli- 
 gious influences no longer control, how 
 often do we not find children disrespect- 
 ful, subjects disobedient, friends selfish 
 and disloyal? The contagion has spread 
 to our own people and we find that even 
 those who are nourished with the body 
 and blood of the Savior are affected by 
 this spirit of the times and the world. 
 We, who have the guidance of the 
 church and the parish, sometimes find 
 the cold, clammy grasp of criticism 
 paralyzing and deadening our efforts 
 for the spiritual advancement of our 
 people. And this does not come from 
 without, but from within, where we 
 should least expect to find it from 
 those who should uphold our hands,
 
 210 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 who should advance our work, who 
 should support our efforts. 
 
 But, as we well know, the sharp tooth 
 of criticism bites even deeper. There 
 is a growing spirit of dissatisfaction 
 with God. If His decrees do not satisfy 
 us, we do not hesitate to complain of 
 Him, even sometimes to come out in 
 open rebellion against him. Sometimes 
 it's due to pride, sometimes to self- 
 ishness, sometimes, perhaps only to 
 thoughtlessness, but it happens again 
 and again. We reverse the rule, we 
 put our wills, our convenience, our tem- 
 porary happiness, above God's will. 
 
 When you and I want something 
 from God, and we kneel down and pray 
 to Him for it, are we not generally like 
 the old woman in the first picture? 
 Perhaps we are looking for health for 
 ourselves or for someone dear to us. 
 We want to live, or we want them to be 
 restored to health. Do we consult an 
 all-wise God as to whether it is best for 
 our souls, and our eternal salvation: 
 or do we not rather appeal even dic- 
 tate to an all-powerful Giver of life 
 and death to grant what we want 
 whether it is best for us or not?
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 211 
 
 It may be that we are ambitious, we 
 are looking for success, for position, 
 for money and the comfort that money 
 brings. And if it does not come, if we 
 fail, if we remain poor and struggling 
 and by hard work win only enough to 
 keep ourselves and our families from 
 absolute want, then we are disappointed 
 with God. He has not come up to our 
 expectations. He has not heard our 
 prayer. "Oh, what's the use of pray- 
 ing anyway?" 
 
 We forget that God wants us to save 
 our souls, far and above anything else, 
 and that when we pray He hears our 
 prayers, by giving us what is best for 
 us. We forget the hundreds, yes and 
 thousands, right here in this city, who 
 might have saved their souls, had they 
 remained poor and humble and strug- 
 gling. A short time ago, there died a 
 man away from church and God, with- 
 out a chance to make an act of sorrow 
 or repentance. He had been a good 
 boy in school, he had even served as 
 altar-boy for a saintly priest, but as he 
 grew older he grew prosperous, and 
 the riches turned his thoughts from 
 God, and in the end he died as he had
 
 212 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 lived. How many there are like him! 
 Does not God know what is best for 
 you and me? 
 
 But a short time ago there appeared 
 in one of our newspapers a lengthy dis- 
 cussion as to why God does not hear 
 our prayers and stop the bloody war- 
 fare in which so many are losing their 
 lives. Of course, to those outside of 
 the Church, those without the gift of 
 faith, the idea may not occur that per- 
 haps God is working out the spiritual 
 regeneration of the peoples of Europe 
 by the yery visitation that this war 
 brings into nearly every home and 
 family. Yet we are told that in France 
 thousands and thousands of young men, 
 who had not gone to church or Sacra- 
 ments from childhood, cleansed their 
 souls in the Sacrament of Penance be- 
 fore braving death in battle ; and every 
 Christian's soul must be moved to read 
 that wonderful Christmas pastoral let- 
 ter of the Bishops in Germany with its 
 note of triumph, not for earthly suc- 
 cesses that the war has brought or may 
 bring, but for the triumph of Christ, 
 for the return of almost an entire peo- 
 ple from frivolity, from laxity, from
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 213 
 
 dangerous doctrines to the observance 
 of the law of God, to the practice of 
 Christian simplicity, to confidence in the 
 Lord and resignation to His Holy Will. 
 "Thus have these hard times brought 
 us nearer to the Savior. We could re- 
 joice in the special mercies of His 
 Divine Heart and hear throughout all 
 the noises of the war, the beating of 
 that quiet, loving, soul-seeking heart." 
 How foolish for us to subject God to 
 an examination by the microscope of 
 0ur own selfish reasoning, or even fool- 
 ishly to ask whether we have lost faith, 
 because God does not end the war when 
 we tell Him to do so ! 
 
 During the holy season of Lent, we, 
 the followers of Christ, the children of 
 Holy Church, in a spirit of penance and 
 fasting and prayer, contemplate the 
 scenes in the passion and death of our 
 Savior. There is just one scene I would 
 bring to your mind, and if that alone 
 would remain indelibly etched in our 
 memory with the lesson it conveys to 
 us, then for you and me this Lenten 
 time would prove a profitable one in- 
 deed. It is the scene in the Garden, 
 when, on the night before His death,
 
 214 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 the silent figure of the Redeemer, all 
 alone, faced the vision of the sins of 
 the world. So awful was this vision, 
 so great the flood of the sins of vile 
 treachery, of beastly lust, of awful in- 
 gratitude, to this pure, sinless Son 
 of God, that the very weight of it 
 crushed His Sacred Heart, and drove 
 His precious blood oozing out through 
 every pore in His body, until it fell 
 from Him like rain and gathered in a 
 puddle on the ground. But when His 
 human nature recoiled at the sight and 
 His human will rebelled at the thought 
 of the immensity of the sacrifice, and 
 He cried, "Father, let this chalice pass 
 from me" ; He added at once (and this 
 is our lesson, yours and mine) "but not 
 my will, but Thine be done." 
 
 Sometimes a chalice is pressed to our 
 lips by the angel who carries out the 
 will of God. It may be filled with gall 
 and wormwood, but it can never be for 
 any of us as bitter as was the chalice 
 of Gethsemane. So if it be in God's de- 
 sign that we must suffer, whether it be 
 pain or disgrace or disappointment, let 
 us look back on the scene in the garden, 
 and remember that the Son of God
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 215 
 
 showed us how, and resolve that, like 
 Him, we, too, will not flinch; we, too, 
 will drink the chalice of bitterness that 
 comes to us from the hand of God ; we, 
 too, will have the faith, the courage, 
 and the confidence in God and resigna- 
 tion to His Holy Will, to repeat with 
 Jesus the words: "Not my will, but 
 Thine be done."
 
 Address at the Dedication of the New Church 
 
 of Sit. Ignatius Loyola, Chicago, 
 
 September 16th, 1917 
 
 When the Reformation of the 16th 
 century had broken out in Germany, 
 and like an epidemic or a scourge had 
 spread in different directions, it passed 
 through many towns and villages, leav- 
 ing in its train, like the ravages of the 
 scourge, the emptied churches, the scat- 
 tered congregations, the disordered 
 peoples, and came finally to the borders 
 of Spain and Italy. But the Lord, hav- 
 ing a special affection for these two 
 Latin countries, ordained that heresy 
 and schism were to leave them un- 
 scathed. 
 
 To combat this plague, He called 
 forth a small body of skilled spiritual 
 physicians, who were found all pre- 
 pared at its coming. 
 
 By them, almost 400 years ago, it was 
 checked, and Luther's teachings never 
 crossed the Alps into Italy or the Pyren- 
 nes into Spain. The man who was the 
 head and the leader of this body of 
 physicians of the soul was the one 
 whose name we have attached to this
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 217 
 
 splendid basilica, Ignatius of Loyola. 
 He and his companions were the prede- 
 cessors of the Fathers who are in this 
 sanctuary today and to whose care, 
 guidance, and instruction your souls 
 and those of your children are en- 
 trusted by us. In the four centuries 
 that have passed since then, the Society 
 had not changed much, for St. Ignatius 
 was a wonderful and far-sighted man ; 
 he had not only a profound love of God, 
 but he had a keen knowledge of men; 
 he had not only the desire of eternal 
 happiness for himself, but he had an 
 insatiable lust for souls; he was not 
 only working for his own time, but he 
 was building for the future. He laid 
 down for his followers what is perhaps 
 the most arduous course of training 
 that any body of men, no matter what 
 may be their position or profession, 
 must undergo. And he has builded 
 well, for, wherever they have been, they 
 have proven to be a help to religion, a 
 credit to the Church and a consolation 
 to the bishop. After their long years 
 of training, of discipline and of study, 
 they have without ceasing, taught the 
 youth in their schools and the adults in
 
 218 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 their churches. They have been active 
 in this city for fifty years, and in every 
 walk of life are found the thousands 
 who have been the recipients of their 
 ministrations in the class-room, from 
 the pulpit and in the confessional. 
 
 You people of this parish have been 
 especially fortunate. During the little 
 more than a decade of its existence, the 
 Jesuit Fathers have been your spiritual 
 fathers, pastors and guides. Small and 
 insignificant was the beginning, but the 
 growth was rapid, and today success 
 crowns their work. In the ceremony of 
 this morning, we see simply the faith- 
 ful observance of one of the traditions 
 of the Society. In every great city you 
 will find the richest, the most ornate, 
 the most beautiful of the churches is 
 the Jesuit church. You will find in the 
 Jesuit churches the choicest paintings 
 of the masters, the finest compositions 
 in music, the most eloquent of preach- 
 ers in the pulpit and the most crowded 
 congregations in the pews. 
 
 So today we welcome St. Ignatius 
 among the best architecturally of our 
 Chicago churches, a monumental basil- 
 ica church which will grow even more
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 219 
 
 beautiful with the years. We can rest 
 assured that nothing will be left undone 
 to make beautiful and attractive the 
 services of the church. We know that 
 this new Jesuit church will be charac- 
 terized by stateliness of liturgy, by 
 richness of music, by excellence and 
 solidity of preaching. May it serve as 
 a fountain of blessings and a source 
 of influence for good in every home in 
 this parish, that among you may be 
 verified the first prayer recited here 
 this morning, "0 God, who to propa- 
 gate the greater glory of Thy name, 
 didst through the Blessed Ignatius 
 strengthen the Church militant with a 
 new army, grant that by battling with 
 his aid and example on earth, we may 
 deserve to be crowned with him in 
 heaven."
 
 Sermon on the Feast of All Saints, Holy Name 
 Cathedral, Chicago, November 1st, 1916 
 
 On different days of the year, we 
 commemorate the birthday of some 
 favorite of ours among the Saints. It 
 may be of St. Patrick, St. Joseph, St. 
 Rita or one of the feastdays of our 
 Blessed Mother. But there is one day of 
 the year, the great family-feast of the 
 Catholic Church, the day of All Saints, 
 that, with its companion, All Souls day, 
 is more dear, more intimate, than any 
 other. On these days we gather for a 
 reunion with our friends among the 
 departed, those who have finished life's 
 labor, who have arrived safely at the 
 end of the journey, who have died in 
 the friendship of God and have gone to 
 sleep in the arms of Jesus, Mary and 
 Joseph. 
 
 One of the most impressive and ma- 
 jestic passages in all of Holy Writ is 
 read in the epistle of tomorrow's feast 
 when the inspired writer, describing 
 the hosts of heaven, after numbering 
 the elect of the tribes of Israel, uses 
 these words, "After this, I saw a great
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 221 
 
 multitude, which no man could number, 
 of all nations and tribes and peoples 
 and tongues, standing before the 
 throne and in sight of the Lamb, 
 clothed with white robes, and palms in 
 their hands." (Apoc. VII :9.) Why, 
 even when I was a child, I was always 
 moved by the reading of this pas- 
 sage. I could almost see them pass by, 
 the never-ending procession of God's 
 friends, from the king to the beggar 
 the courtier in his golden robes, the 
 soldier in his suit of mail, the mendicant 
 in his sack of rags, the very savage of 
 the wild in his breech-clout, the apos- 
 tles, the prophets, the confessors, the 
 virgins, the learned and the lowly, the 
 powerful and the servant, the master 
 and the slave, the red and the yellow 
 as well as the black and the white, the 
 sons and daughters of Sem, Cham and 
 Japhet, all of them further than the 
 eye could see, more numerous than the 
 stars in heaven, as different as the stars 
 in glory, "the multitude which no man 
 could number," the blessed in heaven, 
 the friends of God, the saints in glory. 
 Tomorrow, we forget, in a way those 
 whose names have been formally in-
 
 222 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 scribed on the calendar of the saints, 
 whom God has glorified by signs and 
 wonders, and whom Holy Mother the 
 Church by her infallible authority has 
 placed upon her altars for our venera- 
 tion, and we honor in particular the 
 millions of others, unknown to us now 
 perhaps but in whose company you and 
 I hope to spend eternity, those who 
 occupy the thrones vacated by the 
 fallen angels, those who have saved 
 their souls and who are now basking in 
 the sunlight of the Beatific Vision. But 
 did I say unknown? Let us see; in all 
 that vast throng is there no face that 
 you and I may recognize? Why yes, 
 for some of us there is perhaps the dear 
 old father or mother, who lead such a 
 simple, strict, religious life, who gave 
 us such good example, and died so 
 peacefully, comforted by the last Sacra- 
 ments, with the Holy Name on their 
 lips. They are in that throng; they 
 died in God's friendship. We celebrate 
 their feastday tomorrow. There may 
 be the loving husband or wife, who was 
 taken from us so soon, but the memory 
 of whose life is our consolation every 
 day; or there may be the little baby
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 223 
 
 whom the Lord lifted from our arms 
 that it might be a little angel playing 
 before His heavenly throne. Oh yes, 
 there are but few of us who have not 
 some friend there, some one, at least, 
 among all the Saints. 
 
 Do you understand, then, why this is 
 the great family-feast, why the day is 
 one that is near and dear to us? The 
 true Catholic's heart beats with joy this 
 day, the kind of joy a mother feels 
 when her child is delivered, the kind of 
 joy that the family experiences when 
 the war is over and the father has re- 
 turned home, that we feel when a 
 friend has arrived safe after a peril 
 at sea. - 
 
 With the next day, come signs of 
 mourning, the black vestments, the 
 dirge-like music, the repeated cry "Re- 
 quiem aeternam." And yet the pre- 
 vailing thought is not the sorrow of 
 parting, as at a burial. There is noth- 
 ing hopeless in it. Rather it is a sound 
 of pleading. It is a message of appeal. 
 It is a call for help from one part of the 
 Church to the other. Those whose 
 prayer the Church brings to us that 
 day are also God's friends, as they are
 
 224 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 our friends, perhaps our dearest. They 
 are being cleansed, they are being 
 whitened and brightened before they 
 can go in to see God. We can help 
 them. We can shorten that long and 
 painful preparation, we can lighten it 
 for them by our prayers, by the Sacra- 
 ments, by the Mass. And for that they 
 cry to us, "remember us, at least you, 
 our friends !" Again bear in mind, that 
 they are God's friends, and hence they 
 can help us. If we come to their aid 
 now, do you think for a moment that 
 they will forget us? They will be 
 grateful; they will repay us richly. 
 How wonderful is God's goodness ! We 
 part from our loved ones, but we do not 
 say farewell. We part only to meet 
 again in eternity. And even as they are 
 never absent from our thoughts, so are 
 they never away from our sides. We 
 are always in touch with them: we 
 can help them by our prayers, and 
 they, whether in purgatory or later in 
 heaven, are watching over us and help- 
 ing us. If we escape many perils and 
 are freed from many dangers, it is 
 often because a loved one is waiting 
 and praying for us, ready to welcome
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 225 
 
 us when we have entered the portals of 
 eternity. From the moment we become 
 God's children in baptism, unless we 
 ourselves become rebellious by mortal 
 sin. He keeps us in His Church, and 
 death only ushers us from the Church 
 militant here on earth to the Church 
 suffering in purgatory, and then to the 
 Church triumphant in heaven. No 
 matter in which of these three divisions 
 we may be, we are bound to all those in 
 communion with us by the close bond 
 of mutual help and love, the love that 
 glorifies life's pathway here and makes 
 happy our Father's mansions hereafter. 
 Just think of this sometimes, and 
 with a better understanding will you 
 recite the closing words of your profes- 
 sion of faith, "And I believe in the Holy 
 Catholic Church, the communion of 
 Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the 
 resurrection of the body and life ever- 
 lasting. Amen."
 
 Sermon on Good Friday, Holy Name Cathedral, 
 Chicago, April 21st, 1916 
 
 There is no day in the calendar of the 
 Church that is so vested with mourning 
 as is Good Friday. It is the one day of 
 the year that is literally steeped in sad- 
 ness. Our neighbors of other beliefs 
 and those of no belief at all sympathize 
 with us as a body today, even as they 
 do with us individually when a death 
 occurs in our home. Pleasure is sus- 
 pended, amusements are postponed, 
 even business is halted, out of sympa- 
 thy for us, and the world over, Chris- 
 tians throng their churches even as 
 you do this evening. Here, the bells are 
 silent, the organ is hushed, no music is 
 heard but the haunting, sorrowing 
 notes of the Prophet's lamentations, 
 and the plaintive, pleading, prayerful 
 psalms of the royal singer, foretelling 
 as they do, almost describing in ad- 
 vance, the great event which took place 
 on this day. We find here the altar 
 bare, the tabernacle empty, the sanctu- 
 ary stripped of its ornaments. Every- 
 thing seems to tell us that a tragedy
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 227 
 
 has taken place, everything tries to 
 move our senses to sorrow, to remind us 
 that some one near and dear to us has 
 suffered and died. 
 
 And yet, why this universal sorrow, 
 why this cry of mourning and affliction 
 without a single note of joy to relieve 
 it? Is not this the day for which the 
 nations had waited for four thousand 
 years? Is not this the time when the 
 great price of our salvation was paid? 
 By the great event of this day were not 
 the shackles stricken from our hands, 
 the bonds of slavery that held the hu- 
 man race broken, the gates of heaven 
 opened again, so that you and I might 
 enter therein? Why, then, are we sor- 
 rowing today? Why should we not 
 rather rejoice because we have* been 
 redeemed? 
 
 That you may better understand, 
 come with me, Christian people, for 
 a short while this evening, and I will 
 take you up to the hill-top. I will not 
 bring you through the awful agony of 
 that night; I will not ask you to count 
 the blows that fell upon the helpless 
 figure tied to the pillar; I will not ask 
 you to stand by and watch while the
 
 228 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 long sharp thorns are pressed down 
 upon the white forehead, until they dig 
 deep into the very cells of the brain ; I 
 will not drag you here along the weary 
 way of the Cross, nor ask you to wit- 
 ness the breaking of a mother's heart 
 when she bids farewell to her son; I 
 will not have you stand by when the 
 blunt nails are hammered through the 
 quivering hands and feet. No, I will 
 spare you this. But come with me for 
 a vision of that scene on Calvary's 
 mount; look at your God hanging on 
 a wooden cross; see the price He paid 
 for the blotting out of your sins, and 
 judge for yourself why it is that all 
 the world weeps with you at the bare 
 remembrance of that first Good Friday. 
 There, on the top of the hill of Cal- 
 vary, in the glare of the noon-day sun, 
 on the middle of the three crosses, its 
 entire weight suspended by the nails 
 driven through the hands, there hangs 
 a figure, hardly distinguishable as a 
 man, although the inscription above 
 him tells us that this is Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, King of the Jews. So shocking 
 is His condition, so terrible has been 
 the punishment He has received, that
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 229 
 
 there is hardly a speck of the white 
 skin to the found on His entire body; 
 it is rather like one great wound, like 
 a great blotch of caked blood attached 
 to that cross. Not a movement in the 
 body, not a vestige of life is apparent. 
 The body is crumpled up, hanging like 
 a dead weight from the two nails ; the 
 head has fallen forward and is resting 
 on the chest; the lower jaw has 
 dropped ; the eyes are glassy and partly 
 closed. It seems indeed as if death had 
 come to relieve this man on the cross, 
 this man of many sorrows, this victim 
 of a people's hate and fury. 
 
 There beneath him are the thousands 
 who had come to Jerusalem for the days 
 of the pasch. There they are huddled 
 together like a herd of cattle, the faces 
 all turned upwards, the eyes fixed on 
 one point the figure on the central 
 cross. There they are, restlessly mov- 
 ing, unquiet, disturbed, like the surface 
 of a troubled sea. Ordinarily a slug- 
 gish people, something had broken loose 
 within them, a wave of hysteria had 
 swept over them, the thin veneer of an 
 uncouth civilization and self-restraint 
 had been scratched from the surface,
 
 230 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 and bald, brutal, naked passions had 
 broken forth. Their faces distorted 
 with partial madness, their eyes bulg- 
 ing with hate, their voices hoarse and 
 raw with constant shouting, they had 
 become a lawless, irresponsible mob 
 that had broken away from all re- 
 straint: they had tasted blood, they had 
 seen it flow from this innocent victim, 
 and like a herd of jungle-tigers, like a 
 pack of timber-wolves, they would not 
 rest content until the last drop of blood 
 had oozed forth, until their living vic- 
 tim had become a lifeless corpse, until 
 the man on the cross had given up his 
 spirit. 
 
 What is it that has come over this 
 people ? They are not all strangers, for 
 all Jerusalem is gathered in that mob. 
 And even the others, all had heard of 
 Him, knew of His goodness, and most 
 of them had at some time seen Him. 
 There was no one in that crowd to 
 whom he had done a harmful turn. 
 Not even the priests and pharisees, who 
 were now going about adding fuel to 
 the flame, whose sneering words fell 
 like poisoned saline drops into the raw 
 and inflamed minds, not even them had
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 231 
 
 He harmed ; for had He not taught the 
 crowds to respect their authority, even 
 though He rebuked their hypocrisy? 
 There were some there whom He had 
 fed when they were hungry; there were 
 others whose sick He had cured, but 
 they dared not speak for Him now. 
 There were mothers there whose mem- 
 ories must have recalled to them the 
 day when He blessed their little ones 
 with the words, "Suffer little children to 
 come to Me, for theirs is the kingdom 
 of Heaven." Now in the hour of his 
 need, where was the mother whose only 
 son He had restored from the dead? 
 Where was the leader of the synagogue 
 whose little girl He had brought back 
 to life? Where was the father of the 
 lunatic boy? Where were the thou- 
 sands He had fed in the desert and who 
 wanted to make Him a king? No one, 
 not a single, solitary soul was left to 
 utter one word in his defence. For 
 three years He had gone about the 
 country always doing good, preaching 
 the gospel of love, ministering to the 
 poor, helping the weak. He made 
 friends of the lowly and the ignorant. 
 He cured the leprous outcast. He freed
 
 232 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 the woman of the streets from her sins. 
 And where are they now all gone, all 
 turned against Him, all part of that 
 howling, cursing mob all but His 
 Mother, John, and the Magdalene ! His 
 friends, His apostles, the retinue of His 
 disciples, have gone disappeared when 
 He needed them most cowards or, 
 worse, traitors ! One of them had sold 
 him; another, and that was the cruelest, 
 Peter, had denied Him, even as He was 
 passing by. Why, oh why, what was 
 the reason for this dreadful change? 
 Why had His friends become enemies? 
 Why had an entire people forgotten a 
 great debt of gratitude? Why had 
 they listened to the groundless, worth- 
 less charges of the pharisees, when the 
 sight of His good deeds had hardly 
 faded from their eyes? There was no 
 ground for their resentment, there was 
 no reason for their anger, there was 
 nothing, absolutely nothing to justify 
 that senseless, brutal cruelty. You, 
 young mother, if He had taken your 
 baby boy from his little white coffin, and 
 placed him living, breathing, smiling in 
 your arms, wouldn't you have gone 
 through fire for him? You, in the
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 233 
 
 flower of your manhood's strength, had 
 you been born blind, and had He opened 
 your eyes to see the gold of the sun- 
 shine, the blue of the sky and the faces 
 of your loved ones, wouldn't you face 
 and fight an army in His defence? 
 You, young girl in your youth and 
 beauty, had you been an outcast by the 
 roadside, with the leprosy eating into 
 your features and the flesh dropping 
 bit by bit from your bones, a thing of 
 horror to the sight and of terror to the 
 touch, and had He come and made your 
 flesh whole and your skin clear, would 
 not every breath you drew be given to 
 Him? 
 
 And yet would you ? Are you sure ? 
 Just wait a minute and see. 
 
 If you want to know what was the 
 reason of this sudden change of front, 
 of this brutal fury of the mob, of this 
 awful cruelty of judge and executioner 
 towards a helpless, innocent victim, 
 then let your memory go back a little 
 further. You remember that, when 
 the Savior was taken captive in the 
 garden, He turned to the chief -priests 
 and magistrates of the temple and said 
 to them, "This is your hour and the
 
 234 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 power of darkness." Go back even fur- 
 ther. What was it that caused His 
 dreadful agony during the early hours 
 of that night; what was the vision that 
 passed before His eyes, so terrible that 
 the blood forced through the pores of 
 His body, dropped from Him like rain 
 and gathered in a pool on the ground? 
 Was it the memory of anything disa- 
 greeable in His 1 life? Certainly not, 
 for He was spotless purity. Was it the 
 anticipation of His bodily sufferings 
 and the death He was to undergo ? No, 
 the Lord never lost His courage in that 
 way. He was too brave for that. What 
 was it? What was that weight that so 
 crushed His heart and bowed His 
 spirit? Your sins and mine were the 
 cause of all His sufferings ! Remember, 
 my dear brethren, this is no pious, fan- 
 ciful explanation; it is founded on abso- 
 lute fact, on the words of Scripture, the 
 teaching of the Patriarchs and Proph- 
 ets of old, the writings of the Fathers 
 of the Church, the belief of the Church 
 in all ages. Your sins and mine tEe 
 sins of generations of His own children 
 they and they alone caused this awful 
 tragedy. He saw them all that night,
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 235 
 
 one atop of the other, growing, multi- 
 plying, rushing on like an avalanche, 
 crushing His sacred Heart by their 
 awful weight, driving the very life- 
 blood from its source. So often, oh, so 
 often, He saw His passion and death 
 made useless; all that He had done, all 
 that He was to suffer, every drop of 
 His Blood, thrown into the gutter with 
 contempt by those He had loved with a 
 greater than mother's love; His sacri- 
 fice despised by you and by me ! It was 
 our sins that brought about that 
 change in the Jewish people, that egged 
 them on to insult, to injury, to injustice. 
 They are not so much to blame. You 
 and I are the culprits. You and I stood 
 in that mob. "Your hour and the power 
 of darkness," the night when you 
 yielded to the tempter and virtue went 
 crashing down like a blackened ruin in 
 your soul that scene and that sin 
 passed before the Savior, added to the 
 crushing weight, whirled through the 
 air, and like an evil spirit stirred up the 
 passion of that mob and left its mark 
 there in the wound on the Savior's flesh. 
 That evil thought, that vile plotting 
 that gave you pleasure, caused satisf ac-
 
 236 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 tion to you, perhaps harm to another, 
 which you foolishly thought no one 
 knew of, see it there, pressing the thorn 
 deeper into His brow, see it adding 
 venom to the pharisee's tongue, adding 
 to the hatred in the Jew's eyes, to the 
 contempt in the Roman's treatment of 
 the man on the cross! Why blame 
 them ? Are they more guilty than you ? 
 Did a Judas who sold Him do a more 
 dastardly thing than you, sacrilegious 
 Christian, who forced Jesus into your 
 filthy heart by an unworthy commun- 
 ion? You with the mark of Cain on 
 your brow, who drove an unborn infant 
 into outer darkness without a chance 
 of seeing God, did you not help wield 
 the hammer that drove the nails? You, 
 who by your wretched, bad example 
 and by your sneering words about God, 
 His Church, His ministers, and those 
 who try to do their duty, helped to tear 
 down the defenses that might have 
 saved a young man's or woman's faith 
 from destruction and them from spirit- 
 ual death, were you not in the forefront 
 of those who yelled aloud, "Others He 
 has saved, Himself He cannot save ! If 
 thou be the Son of God, come down
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 237 
 
 from the cross"? No, don't blame the 
 Jews ! You and I are the ones to take 
 the blame. Our sins crucified the Lord. 
 Therefore, in humble acknowledg- 
 ment of your guilt, in sincere contrition 
 for your misdeeds, raise your eyes in 
 supplication to the Savior dying on the 
 cross, and see, almost as if in answer 
 to your prayer, the head is slowly raised, 
 the eyelids open, the lips are parted, and 
 from them comes a prayer, a prayer as 
 much for you and for me as for the mob 
 below, "Father, forgive them for they 
 know not what they do." "They did 
 not know that they caused me such 
 pain, so much suffering, such awful 
 agony. They did not know that their 
 sins of weakness and their sins of mal- 
 ice were the executioners of their God. 
 They are poor, ignorant, miserable sin- 
 ners. Forgive them; do not let them 
 perish, Father, spare them for my sake. 
 See, I die for them." And even as for 
 the three years of His public life, He 
 wandered footsore and weary, search- 
 ing for the weak, the unfortunate, the 
 sinful, to save them, to restore them to 
 grace; so now, when hanging to the 
 cross, beaten, bruised, wounded, dying,
 
 238 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 this great Good Shepherd pours forth 
 all the golden love of His sacred Heart 
 into one last appeal to His heavenly 
 Father for you, for me, for other sin- 
 ners, "Forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do." 
 
 When contemplating his crucified 
 Lord, St. Bernard cried out in an 
 outburst of grief: "Ah, that head, at 
 the sight of which the Blessed Spirits 
 tremble, is now pierced with countless 
 thorns; that face, far lovelier than 
 any human face, is now soiled with 
 the foul spittal of the Jews; those eyes, 
 more brilliant than the sunlight, are 
 being dimmed by death; those ears, 
 which resounded with the hosannas of 
 the angels, are defiled by the vulgar in- 
 sults of the impenitent; those feet, so 
 often wearied in their search for the 
 lost sheep, are now nailed to the cross: 
 those hands, that had shaped heaven 
 and earth and man and every living 
 thing, are now stretched bleeding to the 
 tree of infamy; that whole body is 
 scourged and torn, and there is nothing 
 sound or whole in Him, nothing but the 
 parched tongue, which alone is con- 
 stantly refreshed by the outpouring of
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 239 
 
 His infinite love in order to beg forgive- 
 ness for His enemies, to reward the 
 penitent thief with the promise of para- 
 dise, to console Mary and John, to cry 
 out the words of triumph, 'It is finished,' 
 and to commend His departing soul into 
 His heavenly Father's hands !" 
 
 But stay, good Christian man and 
 woman, before that head droops, before 
 those eyes break, before that sacred 
 heart is pierced, before that divine 
 Spirit leaves its body, learn just one 
 lesson, utter one prayer here tonight 
 when your lips touch the crucifix: on 
 the cross to the right there hangs a sin- 
 ner like you. There may be more, there 
 may be less, excuse for him than for 
 you ; but in life you have imitated him. 
 Would you follow him after death? 
 Then let the prayer that fell from his 
 lips rise to yours; it merited him eternal 
 life, it will bring you a like reward. 
 There are some here this evening who 
 will have crossed into the great beyond 
 before another Good Friday comes. It 
 may be the preacher in the pulpit, it 
 may be the gray-haired man, it may be 
 the young girl near me. 
 
 "Remember me, oh Lord," when the
 
 240 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 hour draws near and I must come to 
 Thee to render my account, then do 
 thou remember me. When the heart 
 becomes weaker and the mind confused, 
 when the eyes are breaking and the 
 ears filled with a roar of confused 
 sounds, when the faces of loved ones 
 are fading away and the voice of the 
 priest is only a distant murmur, when 
 my limbs are grown numb and cold with 
 coming dissolution, and my fingers 
 clutch at airy nothings, then, good 
 Jesus, do thou remember me. When my 
 troubled conscience reproaches me, and 
 my misdeeds loom terribly before me, 
 when the ready excuses that before did 
 comfort me are now shrivelled up in 
 the fierce light of a nearing judgment, 
 do thou, Jesus, remember me. When 
 breath comes shorter and slower, when 
 death draws near to claim his own and 
 covers my face with his ashen pall, 
 when my body rises for the final revolt, 
 before the soul leaves this house of clay, 
 do thou then, good Jesus, remember me. 
 Let Thy holy name be the last to fall 
 from my lips, let Thy dying prayer on 
 the cross be the last thought in my 
 mind, the last eff ort of my heart. Let
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 241 
 
 Thy image on the cross cool my fevered 
 lips while my soul is hovering there, let 
 Thy face greet my eyes when they open 
 in eternity. Jesus, Son of God, Who 
 didst die on the cross for me, in the 
 hour of my death, remember me."
 
 Part II 
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS
 
 First Pastoral Letter of Appeal for the Support 
 of the Holy See 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM MUNDELEIN 
 
 By the Grace of God and the Favor of the 
 Apostolic See 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 
 To the Clergy and People of the 
 Archdiocese of Chicago: 
 
 Dearly Beloved: 
 
 Ever since the time that the Holy 
 See was despoiled of its temporal 
 possessions, the Sovereign Pontiff has 
 been maintained by the charity of his 
 children. Excepting a few very small 
 revenues, the Holy Father and the 
 entire government of the Church had 
 to subsist on the voluntary offerings 
 of the faithful throughout the world 
 which were given in the form of the 
 annual Peter's Pence collection. 
 
 For his own personal needs or for 
 those who immediately surround him, 
 the Holy Father requires very little, but 
 for the expenses of maintaining the
 
 244 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 government of the Church, the prelates 
 and priests attached to the various 
 sacred congregations, the representa- 
 tives of the Holy See and last, but by 
 no means least, the missions and 
 missionaries in distant, uncivilized, 
 heathen lands, the annual outlay even 
 with the greatest economy is very large. 
 By far the largest portion of the 
 funds to meet this has come from the 
 Catholic nations of Europe, who 
 counted it a filial privilege, like children 
 far away from home, to contribute to 
 the father's support and comfort. And 
 the most generous was the smallest of 
 them all, the little kingdom of the 
 Belgians. Next came Austria and 
 France, for both countries seemed to 
 vie with each other in liberally con- 
 tributing to the support of Christ's 
 Vicar on earth. 
 
 But within the past two years all 
 this is changed ; war with all its horrors 
 has spread over the face of Europe 
 and brought misfortune to these lands. 
 Poor little orphaned Belgium, the once 
 prosperous, progressive country, has 
 been trampled under the feet of an 
 invading army and its towns and 
 villages destroyed by the engines of
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 245 
 
 war. Once it was a land of plenty; 
 today it can hardly give bread to its 
 women, work to its men, milk to its 
 babies. Austria, too, a few years ago a 
 great Catholic country, its people, the 
 children of the Teuton and the Slav 
 races, open-handed, generous, kind; 
 but today the Austrian industries lie 
 idle, while its workingmen have 
 become food for the cannon and its 
 women, toilers in the fields to keep 
 themselves and their children from 
 hunger and want. France (even after 
 the separation of Church and State, she 
 contributed more to the Holy Father 
 than this country) and the Catholic 
 parts of Germany, all are now cut off 
 from the chance of contributing to the 
 support of the Holy See by the great 
 need the war plague has created at 
 home. And even in the few smaller 
 countries, unscorched as yet by the 
 almost universal conflagration, the 
 soldiers stand on guard and the 
 people watch with fear, and pray with 
 fervor that the black war clouds that 
 threaten may not break over them and 
 bring destruction and disaster in their 
 wake. 
 Thus, wherever he looks, in the very
 
 246 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 first years of his Pontificate, the 
 present successor of St. Peter, Pope 
 Benedict XV, sees only sorrow, death, 
 devastation; Europe, one big hospital 
 filled with maimed and wounded, one 
 vast trench crowded with soldiers, one 
 great house of mourning echoing the 
 cries of the newly-widowed women and 
 recently-orphaned children. There is 
 but one land where the blessings of 
 peace still remain, one country where 
 God's hand still rests in benediction on 
 His people, one nation that has cause 
 to be grateful to the Lord because war, 
 hunger and sorrow have been kept 
 from their homes and their hearts, and 
 that is our own beloved country. Is it 
 not fitting, then, that we should show 
 ourselves grateful, that while we give 
 thanks to Almighty God for all His 
 mercies, we give proof, too, of our love 
 and devotion to His Vicar on earth in a 
 generous and a practical manner? And 
 now the time and the opportunity for 
 this have come to us. 
 
 In a word, the Holy Father is in 
 want and he appeals to us for help. It is 
 to us, the Catholics of this country, 
 that the Holy See looks, and calls upon 
 to take up now some of the burdens
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 247 
 
 hitherto borne by other nations. 
 Perhaps because of our own needs we 
 were not asked to, nor did we do much 
 for our Holy Father in the past. But 
 now, when he is in need, not for him- 
 self, but for the government of the 
 Church, for the scattered far away 
 missions, for the poor, the destitute, the 
 widowed and the fatherless, who have 
 stretched out their arms to him for 
 succor, and who have not pleaded in 
 vain, when he has no one else to appeal 
 to, now it is different. It is a direct 
 appeal to our loyalty, it is a challenge 
 to our generosity, it is a test of our 
 love for our Church and its head. And 
 we American Catholics are a loyal 
 people; we have met every need that 
 has arisen; we have erected our 
 churches; we have supported our in- 
 stitutions; we have built and are 
 maintaining our schools. And par- 
 ticularly here in this city and in this 
 diocese, our people have never been 
 backward when called upon to help 
 the works of religion and charity. So 
 too, now that other great dioceses of 
 the country have given us such splendid 
 examples of generosity, we need have 
 no fear that the Catholics of Chicago
 
 248 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 will be found wanting in a generous 
 response to this special appeal. 
 
 Particularly when we consider the 
 object of this appeal, the purpose for 
 which this collection is to be taken, 
 what a privilege and a pleasure it offers 
 to participate therein! Were the head 
 of this diocese or the priests in your 
 parish in want and distress, there is 
 not one of you who would hesitate to 
 come to our assistance. But we are 
 appealing for one who is far greater, 
 who is more entitled to your respect, 
 who is more worthy of your love. He 
 does so much for us, his thoughts are 
 constantly filled with solicitude for us, 
 his heart is ever raised in prayer for 
 us, his hand is always extended in 
 benediction over us, and we have done 
 so little for him, we think so seldom 
 of him, we have given so sparingly to 
 him and for his needs. And yet, out- 
 side of the hidden Lord in the taber- 
 nacle, is he not the most sacred person 
 on earth, does he not represent in him- 
 self the authority of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, does he not hold 
 the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven? 
 And so, when on the last Sunday of 
 this month of November, which is also
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 249 
 
 the last Sunday of the Church's year, 
 you bring your gift for him for the 
 special Peter's Pence collection of this 
 year, think of our Holy Father that 
 morning while assisting at Mass; pray 
 for him, this man who bears the heavy 
 burden of the Papacy in these 
 troublous times, who with his frail 
 bodily frame, but with a strong clear 
 vision, and kind, fatherly heart, must 
 face so many difficulties, so many 
 worries, so many sorrows; pray for 
 him, that the Lord may preserve him, 
 give him strength, make him blessed 
 on earth and deliver him not into the 
 hands of his enemies. 
 
 Faithfully yours in Christ, 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 Octave of the Feast of All Saints, 1916.
 
 Second Pastoral Letter of Appeal for the Sup- 
 port of the Holy See 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM MUNDELEIN 
 
 By the Grace of God and the Favor of the 
 Apostolic See 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago 
 
 To the Clergy and People of the 
 Archdiocese of Chicago : 
 
 My Dearly Beloved: 
 
 The season of the year has again 
 come when the head of this diocese 
 appeals to his faithful people on behalf 
 of his and their father and superior 
 the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, 
 Pope Benedict XV. The third Sunday 
 in the month of November is the day 
 fixed by us, on which the priests and 
 people of this archdiocese are ex- 
 horted to earnestly pray and to 
 bring their offerings for our Holy 
 Father, that they may help relieve 
 his necessities, aid his charities, and 
 give practical proof of their pride 
 in him, of their reverence for his 
 supreme office and their affection for 
 his beloved and lovable person. The 
 response of our people to our ap- 
 peal last year was so noble, so
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 251 
 
 enthusiastic, so generous, that it was 
 recorded as the largest and most re- 
 markable offering ever sent by any 
 diocese in this country as the annual 
 Peter's Pence collection to the 
 Sovereign Pontiff. And it is the vivid 
 recollection of this outburst of gen- 
 erosity on the part of the faithful of 
 Chicago that gives us increased con- 
 fidence in placing before them our 
 Holy Father's needs this year and 
 pleading for their renewed support and 
 co-operation. 
 
 For surely we have reason to give 
 evidence of the feelings of our hearts 
 towards him who to-day sits in Peter's 
 chair. Nowhere in this wide world is 
 there a Catholic worthy of the name 
 who is not proud of our Holy Father. 
 He is the one bright, calm, compassion- 
 ate figure, standing forth amid the 
 gloom and the noise and the horror of 
 this conflict that has rent asunder all 
 Christendom. He is the one beacon of 
 hope towards which the tired eyes of 
 the stricken, sorrowing, suffering 
 peoples of Europe and Asia have 
 turned. To them he seems almost like 
 another Christ, whose Vicar he is, and 
 it is in answer to their agonizing,
 
 252 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 heart-rending plea "Lord, save us, we 
 perish" that he cries out, even as did his 
 Master, "Peace, be still." And reverent- 
 ly have they listened to the Holy 
 Father, Emperors, Kings, Presidents, 
 Catholics, Protestants and Pagans, 
 allies, combatants and neutrals, and 
 thanks to God none of them in their 
 answer to him have closed the door to 
 the hope of an early dawning peace. 
 
 It would seem, indeed, as if the 
 Almighty, repeating again an occur- 
 rence frequent in the history of the 
 Papacy, had raised up this Pontiff, a 
 brilliant statesman and a loving father, 
 to meet the particular need of this 
 time. From its very beginning has he 
 prayed, and without ceasing has he 
 urged us to pray, that this war, which 
 has devastated the world, which has 
 sown the seeds of sorrow and hatred in 
 almost every nation, which threatens 
 even the supremacy, yes, the very ex- 
 istence of the white races, may soon be 
 brought to an end. More than this, he 
 has labored day and night, has used 
 every means at his command, has taken 
 advantage of every opportunity that 
 presented itself, to bring nearer the' 
 approach of a lasting peace, to hasten
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 253 
 
 the dawn of that day when the civilized 
 world will awake from the nightmare 
 of hate and slaughter that has obsessed 
 it for three long years. 
 
 There are children of his fighting 
 under almost every flag on the battle- 
 field. He has not chided any of them nor 
 tried to side against them. He would 
 not add to the weight of sorrow that 
 now bears them down. He would have 
 no act of his rankle in their memory, 
 for they are all dear to him and are 
 prompted by the most unselfish emotion 
 of the human heart, the devotion to 
 their country and the love of their fire- 
 sides. For a long time we were mere 
 onlookers in this, the world's greatest, 
 fiercest, costliest conflict. But now, too, 
 the hour has come, when those who hold 
 the destiny of this land in their hands, 
 who were by us appointed as our 
 leaders and who have the right to look 
 to us for obedience and support in this 
 hour of our country's need, have led us 
 to the edge of the battlefield. From 
 a million homes have gone forth the 
 pick and flower of our manhood, and 
 this people, in whose veins flows the 
 blood of a score of races, again stands 
 ready to pour forth treasure and
 
 254 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 blood and life itself for freedom at its 
 country's call. 
 
 But even though a half year has 
 gone by since we entered into the 
 world-war, its horrors have not been 
 brought home to us as to our brethren 
 in other lands. We have not had to 
 watch the long procession of stretcher- 
 bearers and ambulance trains until the 
 moment when our arms would close 
 about the maimed and wounded forms 
 of those whom we love as part of our- 
 selves; we have not scanned again and 
 again the lists of the dead and the miss- 
 ing until the day when, with our eyes 
 blinded with tears and our hearts 
 broken with sorrow, we found there 
 the name of the soldier or sailor-boy 
 whom the voice of our country called 
 from our side ; we have not yet suffered 
 the pangs of hunger or heard the plaint 
 of our babies crying for milk. Another 
 year may bring us a knowledge of some 
 of these things. But because we have 
 been spared where others were stricken, 
 because our daily bread has been given 
 us while others were in want, have we 
 not good reason to show ourselves 
 grateful to God Who has been merciful 
 to us? Ought not our gratitude show it-
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 255 
 
 self not only in heartfelt prayer but 
 also in generous deeds? 
 
 Surely, nowhere else will we find a 
 more beautiful, a more Christlike 
 example to imitate than our Holy 
 Father himself. From the first moment 
 he took up the heavy burden of the 
 Papacy, he has labored unceasingly to 
 bring back peace and sanity to the 
 frenzied nations of Europe. He has 
 pleaded for the weak, the sick, the 
 wounded, nor has he pleaded in vain. 
 His starving and destitute children in 
 Poland, in Belgium, in Lithuania, have 
 stretched forth their arms to him, and 
 he has heard their cry. And even 
 though poor himself and with his 
 revenues cut off, this father of the poor, 
 this comforter of the afflicted reached 
 down into his almost empty purse to 
 share the few remaining pence with the 
 suffering children of these lands. Is not 
 this our opportunity too? Can we find a 
 better channel to dispense our charity 
 to our suffering brethren in Europe 
 than the hands of our common father, 
 Benedict XV? Can we find a more 
 worthy, a better fitted dispenser of our 
 alms to the wounded, the hungering, 
 the homeless, the innocent victims of a
 
 256 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 great catastrophe than the spiritual 
 sovereign of all? 
 
 Let us be generous then, on this 
 occasion, to our Holy Father who has 
 shown himself so extravagantly gen- 
 erous with his suffering children 
 plunged in the throes of this war. Let 
 us help him bring relief and still the 
 want of those who have appealed and 
 even now are crying to him, as their 
 father, for help. It may be that 
 the Heavenly Father will be moved by 
 our sacrifices and gifts, and in return 
 may repay our generosity to His 
 Vicar on earth by shortening the 
 pangs and horrors of this war and 
 bringing it to an early, a peaceful, 
 but a glorious end. 
 
 Faithfully yours in Christ, 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 All Saints Day, 1917.
 
 Pastoral Letter Prescribing- a Course of Doc- 
 trinal Instruction on the Apostles' Creed 
 
 Dearly Beloved: 
 
 Before the Lord went back to 
 Heaven, He made provisions to continue 
 His work on earth. For that purpose He 
 commissioned His Apostles. The com- 
 mand He gave them was "Go teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you: and behold I am with you 
 all days, even to the consummation of 
 the world." (Math. C. 28, V. 19 & 20.) 
 He therefore made them, first of all, 
 teachers. They were to teach others all 
 He had taught them during the years 
 of their novitiate, during the three 
 years they had spent with Him. They 
 were to teach those things which the 
 Paraclete was to teach them, "He" (the 
 Paraclete) "will teach you all things 
 and He will bring all things to your 
 mind whatsoever I have commanded 
 you" (John C. 14, V. 25) is the promise 
 given by Christ on the eve of His de- 
 parture. It is clear, therefore, that the 
 principal duty imposed by Christ upon
 
 258 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 His Apostles and those who were to 
 succeed them, is that of teaching others 
 the truths He had brought from heaven 
 and given into the keeping of His 
 Church and which we must believe, and 
 to explain clearly and correctly the 
 laws He established to regulate our 
 conduct if we would be saved. For we 
 have the Divine assurance that he who 
 believes this teaching and consents to 
 be baptized will be saved, and he who 
 rejects this teaching, will be con- 
 demned. 
 
 Therefore, if there is the obligation 
 of teaching on the part of the Apostles 
 and their successors, the bishops and 
 priests of the Church, there is also an 
 obligation of hearing and learning on 
 the part of the great body of the 
 faithful. And the lesson we may learn 
 from the experience of nations as 
 well as of individuals is, that the better 
 a Catholic is instructed in his faith, the 
 stronger is his affection for it and the 
 more conscientiously does he practice 
 it. For this very purpose have our 
 fathers built the parochial schools so 
 that from earliest years, their children 
 might be drilled and instructed in the 
 truths we must believe and the laws we
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 259 
 
 must obey, if we wish to save our souls. 
 But, as the years pass by and we grow 
 older, we are apt to forget some of 
 those great truths taught us in child- 
 hood unless they are sometimes re- 
 called to our minds. The remembrance 
 of God's laws, first published on Sinai's 
 Mount, may become faint unless they 
 are recited for us occasionally again. 
 The penalties for their transgression 
 may become less terrifying and there- 
 fore less effective, unless we are re- 
 minded of them from time to time. 
 
 Now, all of this is best accomplished 
 by frequent, short, doctrinal discourses, 
 called catechetical instructions. In 
 order, therefore, to bring about a better 
 understanding of the truths of our 
 Holy Faith, to promote the greater 
 spiritual good of our people, to fulfill in 
 a more uniform, practical, and efficient 
 manner the mission of our clergy as 
 teachers, we propose to institute a 
 regular course of catechetical instruc- 
 tions, so arranged throughout the year 
 according to time and matter that the 
 same doctrine of our Faith will be ex- 
 plained on the same Sunday in every 
 church of our diocese. This method 
 will prove to be helpful, uniform and
 
 260 
 
 consistent for both clergy and people. 
 Such a course of catechetical instruc- 
 tions at the low masses on Sundays was 
 strongly recommended by Pope Pius 
 X, of blessed memory, who in his 
 encyclical letter "De Christiana Doc- 
 trina Tradenda" of April 15, 1905, 
 writes: 
 
 "Since in these days, adults not less 
 than the young stand in need of 
 religious instruction, all parish priests 
 and others having the care of souls, 
 shall in addition to the usual homily on 
 the Gospel delivered at the parochial 
 Mass on all days of obligation, explain 
 the Catechism for the faithful in an 
 easy style, suitable to the intelligence of 
 their hearers, at such a time of day as 
 they may deem most convenient for the 
 people, but not during the hour in 
 which the children are taught. In this 
 instruction they shall make use of the 
 Catechism of the Council of Trent, and 
 shall divide the matter in such a way 
 as to treat, within the space of four or 
 five years, the Apostles' Creed, the 
 Sacraments, the Decalogue, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Precepts of the 
 Church. 
 
 "This We do, Venerable Brethren,
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 261 
 
 PRESCRIBE AND COMMAND by 
 
 virtue of our Apostolic Authority." 
 
 Moreover, we feel that it cannot be 
 too often repeated or too strongly im- 
 pressed on our people that our greatest 
 need today is a well-instructed, watch- 
 ful, active Catholic laity. This is the 
 day and the hour of the layman's 
 apostolate. No nation ever held a larger 
 proportion of non-Catholics, groping 
 in darkness, searching for truth, 
 well-disposed towards the Church and 
 its children. For them, for their eternal 
 salvation, for the spread of God's 
 Kingdom, we must be willing, we must 
 be ready to lend every assistance. And 
 we can only do so if our people are 
 thoroughly instructed in our Faith and 
 know well its teachings. 
 
 Finally, at no time were we more 
 in need of the anchor that a good 
 knowledge of God's laws gives to us to 
 hold us steady amid the wind and the 
 waves of temptation and to save us lest 
 we perish, than just now. In these days 
 when every appeal is being made to the 
 senses; when so many avenues of in- 
 struction and recreation are changed 
 into pathways that lead to error and to 
 ruin; when openly and shamelessly
 
 262 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 pernicious doctrines that propose 
 license for liberty, unsound science for 
 Christian Faith, and sinful indulgence 
 for virtuous living are published broad- 
 cast; when money, success, and 
 pleasure are the gods of our modern 
 pagan world, our people need all 
 the old-fashioned Catholic doctrine 
 they can get, to save them from mis- 
 taking the correct viewpoint and thus 
 forever losing their immortal souls. 
 
 And so, with the first Sunday of 
 Advent we will begin the first year of 
 our Catechetical instructions, the sub- 
 ject for this first year being the pro- 
 fession of our Faith as contained in the 
 articles of the Apostles' Creed. They 
 will be just plain, simple, ordinary 
 instructions, at the low masses, Sunday 
 after Sunday, for at most ten minutes, 
 of the catechism our children study in 
 the school. But let us not forget, the 
 little catechism is the synopsis of the 
 priests' theology, it is the condensed 
 form of the dogmas of the Church, it 
 is the textbook of our religion. If a phy- 
 sician never glances at his medical 
 textbooks, he will surely lapse into 
 more than one error; if a lawyer 
 neglects his lawbooks, he will become
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 263 
 
 forgetful of the law ; if a Catholic never 
 goes back to his catechism, there is 
 more than a chance that he will "become 
 careless in his faith. 
 
 Faithfully yours in Christ, 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 Feast of St. Andrew, 1917.
 
 Pastoral Letter Prescribing a Course of Doc- 
 trinal Instruction on the Decalogue 
 
 Dearly Beloved: 
 
 During the year that has just 
 elapsed, you listened Sunday after Sun- 
 day to the exposition, the definition 
 and the explanation of those revealed 
 truths contained in that brief and com- 
 pact profession of our Faith which we 
 call the Apostles' Creed. In these short 
 Sunday sermons, condensed into the 
 short space of ten minutes or less, we 
 revived and supplemented the catecheti- 
 cal instructions you received as 
 children, we studied more closely the 
 truths Christ brought from heaven, 
 and we explained to your now more 
 matured minds the doctrines to which 
 we must firmly adhere and in which' 
 we must believe, if we would save our 
 souls. 
 
 But we know that our obligation 
 does not end there. God demands more 
 of us than mere belief. The Apostle tells 
 us "Faith without works is dead" (Epist. 
 S. James II, 26). God wants of us 
 service, and He has made known to us 
 what is the exact extent of that 
 service He demands of us. He regulates
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 265 
 
 it for us. Christ has not only revealed 
 to us His doctrines ; He has defined His 
 laws. And these laws are embodied 
 almost entirely in the Decalogue, 
 which God gave to Moses on Sinaf s 
 Mount, and which Christ came on earth 
 "not to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matth. 
 V. 17). And that Church which He 
 founded, and which He has commis- 
 sioned to teach mankind the sacred 
 truths of the gospel, is the same cus- 
 todian and interpreter to whom He 
 has entrusted the explanation of His 
 moral code. He has not left His Com- 
 mandments to the mercy of any and 
 every man's interpretation, but that 
 Church which He constituted the in- 
 fallible teaching agency and commis- 
 sioned "to teach all nations," He also 
 made the highest tribunal to construe 
 and define the laws He laid down, 
 "teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded you" 
 (Matth. XXVIII, 20). 
 
 And so, with the opening of a new 
 ecclesiastical year, we begin the second 
 course of catechetical instructions, in- 
 augurated last year for the low masses 
 on Sundays in all the churches of this 
 Archdiocese. The subject matter of the
 
 266 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 instructions this year will be the Ten 
 Commandments of God, as well as the 
 Precepts of the Church. And as the 
 course of instruction progresses 
 during the year, the plan of legislation 
 outlining, defining and regulating our 
 relations towards God, our neighbors 
 and ourselves, as contained in God's 
 commandments, will become apparent. 
 The instructions will make clear to us 
 how these Ten Commandments, some- 
 times called "The Decalogue," were first 
 given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
 and later when Christ came, these same 
 commandments were retained by Him. 
 He did not add to their number nor did 
 He detract therefrom, but He did 
 broaden their scope so as to add an in- 
 terior observance, as we can readily see 
 from the reading of the Gospels 
 (Matth. C. V.). We will see how in the 
 old law the first three commandments 
 regulated man's relations with his 
 Creator, the other seven, his relations 
 with his neighbor; but in the new law 
 the Divine Lawgiver included in them 
 the curb he has placed on our thoughts 
 and desires, the restraint He has put 
 on our irregular appetites. In this way 
 He has perfected the law.
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 267 
 
 It is required of a confessor that he 
 have a competent knowledge of the 
 divine law, that he be instructed 
 thoroughly and grounded deeply in the 
 many obligations that come under 
 these three heads of man's relations 
 toward God, his neighbor, himself. To 
 acquire this knowledge takes years of 
 preparation and closest application to 
 study. The fund of knowledge he thus 
 obtains is mainly intended for and 
 principally used by him in the con- 
 fessional, where he sits in judment on 
 the penitent sinner, who is there both 
 the accuser and the accused, the 
 witness as well as the culprit, the 
 attorney for the defense as well as the 
 confessed lawbreaker. As the judge in 
 the sacred tribunal, wielding a tre- 
 mendous power, his decision is often 
 fraught with far-reaching conse- 
 quences, and for that reason he must 
 have just as thorough a knowledge of 
 God's law as the judge who sits in the 
 courts of men must have of the civil law. 
 And for that same reason may we not 
 also claim that the faithful, who week 
 after week and month after month ap- 
 proach the tribunal of penance not only 
 to be relieved of the weight of sin, but
 
 268 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 also to receive the graces and helps at- 
 tached to the sacrament, should possess 
 a more than fragmentary knowledge of 
 the moral law, as contained in God's 
 commandments, and of His Church's 
 precepts? An attorney would be of but 
 little service to his client in court if he 
 had only a superficial knowledge of the 
 law, and the penitent himself is the 
 counsel of his soul before that earthly 
 bar of eternal justice where the priest 
 commissioned by Christ, the Son of 
 God, remits or retains sins in the 
 Sacrament of Penance, and where he 
 must plead his own case in justice and 
 in truth. It is for that reason that a 
 better, a more extensive and a more 
 thorough knowledge of what is com- 
 manded and what is forbidden by the 
 Ten Commandments of God will prove 
 of great benefit to the hundreds of 
 thousands of our people who during the 
 coming year will listen to the instruc- 
 tions as outlined for the low masses on 
 Sundays in the various churches of this 
 Archdiocese. For it is then that the 
 priest will explain, in slightly abridged 
 form, what he himself studied during 
 the years of preparation for his sacred 
 ministry in the Theological Seminary.
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 269' 
 
 But a reason more powerful still is 
 presented by the solicitude a bishop 
 and his priests should have for the 
 welfare of the souls entrusted to their 
 care. The experience of many centuries 
 has shown us that the better a people 
 are instructed in the laws and com- 
 mandments of God, the more observant 
 they are of them; the oftener and the 
 more carefully the laws of God are ex- 
 plained to them, first in school and later 
 from time to time from the altar and 
 the pulpit, the deeper and more lasting 
 are these engraved on their hearts and 
 the more vividly do they rise before 
 their consciences. 
 
 Finally, I venture to say, judging 
 from my own experience, that no series, 
 of instructions will prove so interesting 
 to the people. If the instructions are 
 carefully prepared and condensed, so 
 as to be delivered in a short period of 
 from five to ten minutes, they will 
 prove a delight and a constant source of 
 information to both the priest who 
 has prepared them and to the faithful 
 who listen to them. 
 
 In the present disturbed condition in 
 which the civilized world is plunged, 
 there are offered to us cures and
 
 270 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 nostrums and untried theories of every 
 kind. How simple is the real remedy. If 
 the commandments of God as taught 
 by Christ and interpreted by His 
 Church were observed by rulers and 
 their subjects, how complete and how 
 salutary would be the change. Again 
 would sanity and moderation return 
 and peace and tranquillity reign every- 
 where in the world. For who can deny 
 that it is the violation of God's com- 
 mandments, the lust of possession of 
 the lands and territories of others that 
 have created the vast standing armies ; 
 that the stealing away of another's life 
 or property has built up the strong 
 prison walls; that it is the spirit of hate 
 and strife and discord that crowds our 
 courtrooms with disputants and their 
 litigation. But if we had a proper un- 
 derstanding of God's commandments 
 and a salutary fear of His judgments 
 and a vivid dread of eternal punish- 
 ment, less and less would we be guilty 
 of wrong-doing, happier and more 
 peaceful would be our dealings with 
 our neighbor, closer and surer would 
 be our approach to God. And it is our 
 hope and our prayer that the course of 
 instructions we begin to-day will in
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 271 
 
 some small measure help to bring that 
 about with the people committed by 
 God to our care, for the better we know 
 His wishes, the more faithfully we will 
 obey them, and naturally the more we 
 will love Him. We have His own 
 words, "If you love Me, keep My com- 
 mandments" (John XIV, 15). 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 *GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 Feast of St. Catharine, 1917.
 
 Letter Appointing a General Spiritual Director 
 for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul 
 
 Chicago, 111., Jan. 1, 1917. 
 The Rev. Edward F. Rice, 
 St. Joseph's Home for the Friendless, 
 739 E. Thirty-fifth St., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Father Rice: 
 
 I appoint you herewith Spiritual Di- 
 rector of the Metropolitan Council of 
 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in 
 the Archdiocese of Chicago, to succeed 
 Rt Rev. Mons. A. J. Thiele. At the 
 same time, I detach you from all paro- 
 chial work, that you may give all your 
 time and energy to extending and up- 
 building the work of relief among the 
 poor, distressed and unfortunate in 
 this great city. You will reside at the 
 St. Joseph's Home for the Friendless, 
 where you will act as Chaplain to the 
 Sisters and their charges, and you will 
 make the Central Office of the St. Vin- 
 cent de Paul Society, 8 S. Dearborn St., 
 Chicago, your headquarters, from 
 which you will direct the entire work. 
 
 To assist you in making this charita- 
 ble work as effective and far-reaching 
 as possible, it will be necessary for you
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 273 
 
 to further develop its scope, increase 
 its revenues and systematize the meth- 
 ods of bringing relief. To assist you 
 successfully to carry on this important 
 work, I would propose the following 
 points : 
 
 1) That a Parish Conference of St, 
 Vincent de Paul be established in every 
 parish of the city, and even of the dio- 
 cese, wherever it is possible. I have 
 never yet found a city parish in which 
 there were no poor, no distress to be 
 relieved. In fact, in the so-called richer 
 parishes I have found poverty of the 
 more pitiable kind, where people who 
 once were comfortable "had come down 
 in the world" and were trying to hide 
 their abject poverty from the eyes of 
 their neighbors by feeble attempts of 
 keeping up pretenses. It is in cases 
 such as these that you need a charita- 
 ble, kind-hearted St. Vincent de Paul 
 man, rather than a cold, professional, 
 statistical paid agent of public philan- 
 thropy. But, even if there be no real 
 poverty to be relieved in the parish, a 
 local Conference will do two things: 
 First, its surplus income will be badly 
 needed either by a sister Conference in 
 a poorer section of the city or by the
 
 274 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 many calls at the Central Office for the 
 relief of all kinds of distress. 
 
 2) At the suggestion of some of our 
 priests, I would propose that you form 
 a separate Conference of St. Vincent de 
 Paul among the clergy of the diocese, 
 with two classes of members one of 
 life members, by payment of a certain 
 sum, and the other annual members, 
 paying an annual fee, say, of ten dol- 
 lars. I will be pleased if you will enroll 
 me as the first life member of this 
 Conference, and I know that the Vicars 
 and officials of the diocese are also de- 
 sirous of becoming members. The 
 money received from such dues could be 
 used for some specific charity, as may 
 later be determined. 
 
 3) I would suggest that you arrange 
 a similar annual subscription list among 
 the business men and Catholics of 
 means of both sexes in Chicago, each 
 one contributing annually such sum as 
 he or she may determine, in return for 
 which you will take care through the 
 Central Office and the local Conferences 
 of the various appeals that may come 
 to them in person or by letter; in a 
 word, that you will dispense their char- 
 ity for them. I know that there is both
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 275 
 
 a need and a desire for a satisfactory 
 arrangement of this kind among our 
 people of means or engaged in business 
 of their own. I believe you will find the 
 majority of them recognizing the fact 
 that they have a duty of helping those 
 less fortunate than themselves. Even 
 among our non-Catholic brethren there 
 is a growing conviction, that becomes 
 more marked daily, that they must de- 
 vote some portion of their profits to the 
 care of the poor, the sick, the unfortu- 
 nate. As a result, we as a people are 
 becoming more generous to various 
 charities and works of relief. In this 
 respect, at least, public conscience is 
 improving. And, besides, when they 
 have the assurance that the recipients 
 of their charity are worthy and that the 
 relief is applied with a minimum of ex- 
 pense and largely by volunteer agents 
 animated by the pure motives of Chris- 
 tian charity, then they can indeed ex- 
 perience the satisfaction which the Sa- 
 vior meant when He said, "It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive." There- 
 fore, when you see men who have ac- 
 cumulated some substance, whom the 
 Lord has blessed with the goods of this 
 world, and even those who have been
 
 276 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 but moderately successful, tell them 
 that I send you to them as the apostle 
 of the poor, as the disciple of SJ. Vin- 
 cent de Paul. Tell them that you dare 
 not take no for an answer. There may 
 be a difference between what you think 
 they might give and what they think 
 they ought to give, but I would not have 
 you leave their door with a refusal for 
 your portion; for then perhaps good 
 fortune and God's blessing might go 
 with you. They may sometimes have a 
 reason for not contributing to a work of 
 patriotism, of education, even of reli- 
 gion, but they should not and I hope 
 they will not refuse one who asks them 
 for an alms, not for himself, but for the 
 poor. In order to encourage you on 
 your mission and exhort my people in 
 deed as well as by word, I will become 
 your first subscriber for one thousand 
 dollars each year until my death. 
 
 And now I send you forth with God's 
 blessing and my own on your new field 
 of labor. No man ever had a more glo- 
 rious mission, for you go to preach the 
 gospel of charity, to extend and build 
 up the real layman's apostolate, the 
 avenue by which thousands of our good 
 Catholic men give of their time, their
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 277 
 
 endeavor and their hard-earned wages 
 in the practice of the corporal and 
 spiritual works of mercy. Be to them 
 a real leader, a prudent advisor, a zeal- 
 ous co-worker. Be the almoner of the 
 rich and the provider of the poor, and 
 make the St. Vincent de Paul Society 
 one of the monuments and one of the 
 glories of the Church of Chicago, and 
 you may be the means of bringing many 
 souls to the Kingdom of the Blessed to 
 whom the Lord will say, "I was hungry 
 and you gave me to eat, thirsty and 
 you gave me to drink, I was naked and 
 you clothed me, I was in prison and you 
 visited me, I was a stranger and you 
 took me in." 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter of Appeal for Aid to the St. Vincent de 
 Paul Society 
 
 Chicago, 111., Sept. 15, 1917. 
 
 The Rev. Edward F. Rice, 
 Particular Council, 
 St. Vincent de Paul Society, 
 1318 Hartford Bldg., 
 8 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Father Rice; 
 
 In the midst of all the confusion inci- 
 dent to the war in which our country 
 is engaged, and the many appeals for 
 help coming from various sources be- 
 cause of it, we must not lose sight of 
 our charities at home, nor let our peo- 
 ple forget those who are left behind 
 and also suffer. 
 
 During the winter that is now ap- 
 proaching, if we may judge from de- 
 mands that are even now being made 
 upon us, there is likely to be increased 
 suffering and privation. In hundreds 
 of cases the principal provider of the 
 family has been called to the colors and 
 as a result the weekly income of the 
 family has shrunk considerably, while 
 the cost of food and necessities of life 
 have steadily risen and threaten to be-
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 279 
 
 come dearer and less obtainable for the 
 families of the poor. Moreover, those 
 who are not thus affected are not such 
 as have asked for help in the past and 
 will necessarily shrink from making 
 any appeal to any public philanthropic 
 agency in the future. In addition, we 
 have found that, due to some extent to 
 the unsettled conditions of the times 
 and also to the above causes, desertion 
 and consequent dependency is growing 
 in the poorer sections of our city, and 
 we anticipate that the capacity of our 
 charitable institutions and agencies 
 will be taxed to their utmost, whereas 
 the contributions for the support of the 
 same are falling below their usual av- 
 erage. 
 
 Under the circumstances, because of 
 the duty of the Bishop as shepherd of 
 the entire flock of Christ, and particu- 
 larly as protector and father of the 
 poor, the orphaned and the fatherless, 
 I am directing this appeal, through 
 you, the diocesan spiritual director of 
 the St. Vincent de Paul Society, to the 
 heads of the various Catholic Women's 
 Clubs in the city and their members, 
 that they may devote their energies and 
 their charity at this time to the care of
 
 280 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 the poor in their homes. It is my wish 
 that they help tlieir Church, their coun- 
 try and their less fortunate sisters at 
 this time by applying that love and sym- 
 pathy that God has placed in the wom- 
 an's breast especially to the care of the 
 wives, the widows and the children in 
 their homes, that the little families may 
 be held together and the sacred ties of 
 family be not sundered or the little 
 ones deprived needlessly of a mother's 
 loving and sheltering care. In order 
 that they may be inspired to do this 
 with deeper religious and charitable 
 spirit and that they may be strength- 
 ened and repaid by that Christ-given 
 promise to those who help His little 
 ones, I authorize you to enroll them in 
 the ranks of the Vincentians, so that, 
 without losing their own identity or 
 the purposes for which our Catholic 
 Women's Clubs were founded, they may 
 at the same time be numbered among 
 the Women Auxiliaries of St. Vincent 
 de Paul. Surely nothing will so appeal 
 to the highest and best in them, our 
 Catholic daughters, wives and mothers, 
 as to help those of their own sex, their 
 own faith and their own city, the poor 
 women and children in their own little
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 281 
 
 family circle, to keep together all that 
 they hold dearest and most sacred on 
 earth. 
 
 To all who co-operate with you in 
 this work I send my own blessing and 
 to them I hold out as an inducement the 
 Lord's own words, "Even a cup of cold 
 water given in My name shall have its 
 reward." 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter in Favor of the Work for Deaf Mutes 
 Chicago, 111., March 8, 1917. 
 
 The Rev. P. J. Mahan, S.J., 
 St. Ignatius College, 
 1076 W. Twelfth St., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Father Mohan: 
 
 I beg to acknowledge herewith the 
 receipt of your letter of the 3d inst, 
 the contents of which I have read with 
 a great deal of interest. I am glad to 
 see that the Catholic deaf mutes have 
 so courageously taken hold of the prop- 
 osition to build a little mission house 
 for themselves on the lots which have 
 been donated for that purpose. I feel 
 sure that if they continue as enthusias- 
 tically as they began it will not be long 
 before they will be able to make a begin- 
 ning, and even in less time than you per- 
 haps anticipate. Of course you realize 
 that I have many calls on me, particu- 
 larly at the present time, when we are 
 faced with so grievous a situation as 
 that of the orphan children for whom 
 the diocese must now care. However, 
 I do not want the Catholic deaf mutes 
 here in this town to feel that we have 
 not their interest deeply at heart.
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 283 
 
 In order to encourage them, there- 
 fore, in the good work in which they are 
 engaged, you may inform them, at their 
 next meeting, that I will personally sub- 
 scribe one thousand dollars toward 
 their building fund, the same to be 
 made payable to them as soon as they 
 have ten thousand dollars in hand. I 
 am sure that this little donation will 
 spur them on and will arouse in them 
 and in you an enthusiasm for this work 
 and may also be the means of their ob- 
 taining donations elsewhere, so that 
 soon they will have a little building of 
 which they may well be proud. 
 
 Sending to them all and to you my 
 blessing, and with every good wish, I 
 beg to remain, dear Father Mahan, 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter in Favor of the Work of the Red Cross 
 Chicago, 111., April 30, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Charles H. Wacker, 
 Citizens' Committee, 
 American Red Cross, 
 529 Monroe Building, Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Wacker: 
 
 I beg to inform you herewith of my 
 acceptance of membership in the Amer- 
 ican Red Cross Society, Chicago Chap- 
 ter, as requested by you. I have ac- 
 cepted appointment to but very few 
 committees during my time in this city, 
 but I feel it would be a neglect of civic 
 duty if I did not associate myself with 
 the Red Cross Society, particularly at 
 this time. In a time of national crisis, 
 every citizen must be ready to do his 
 share, either to serve the country or to 
 help relieve those who must serve in the 
 field. That is an obligation that is laid 
 upon us by reason of the many benefits 
 we have received in this wonderful 
 country of which we are citizens. 
 
 I shall be glad, therefore, to co-oper- 
 ate with you and to instruct and direct 
 others under me to co-operate with the 
 work of the Red Cross, particularly in
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 285 
 
 the line of bringing relief to the families 
 of those who serve in the army and 
 navy or those who may return wounded 
 and disabled from the battlefield. At 
 the same time, I wish you and those who 
 work with you every success in your 
 most laudable endeavor to place Chi- 
 cago at the head of the American cities. 
 I am sure you will find that our city 
 will rise to the occasion, as Chicago, if 
 she is anything, is certainly patriotic. 
 I beg to remain, my dear Mr. Wacker, 
 
 "Sincerely yours, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Second Letter in Favor of the Work of the Red 
 Cross 
 
 Chicago, EL, May 19, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Charles H. Wacker, 
 Citizens' Committee, 
 American Red Cross, 
 529 Monroe Building, Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Wacker: 
 
 There are one thousand little orphan 
 boys and girls in St. Mary's Training 
 School at DesPlaines who are very anx- 
 ious to do something for their country, 
 now that their country is at war. They 
 are too young to be soldiers or sailors in 
 the army and navy or nurses to care for 
 the wounded, and so they want to be- 
 come members of the Red Cross Socie- 
 ty. But they are orphans, and they 
 have no money. So they asked me to 
 advance the money to them, every one 
 a dollar, and maybe later, when they 
 have grown up and become men and 
 women and have money of their own, 
 they can pay it back. Now, Mr. Wack- 
 er, you have had children of your own, 
 and you know you should never refuse 
 help to a child when it wants to do 
 something for God or country. So I
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 287 
 
 send you herewith their names to be 
 added to the growing list of Red Cross 
 members of the Chicago Chapter and 
 my personal check to pay for their dues 
 as annual members. 
 
 Wishing you every success, I beg to 
 remain, dear Mr. Wacker, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter in Favor of the Liberty Loan 
 Chicago, 111., May 29, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Charles W. Folds, Chairman, 
 Liberty Loan Committee, 
 208 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Mr. Richmond Dean called on me yes- 
 terday in order to learn what, if any, 
 measures could be taken to enlist the 
 sympathies of the Catholic Clergy in 
 bringing before their congregations the 
 desirability of investing in the new Lib- 
 erty Loan by the members of their con- 
 gregations. At the conclusion of my 
 conversation with him, he asked me if 
 I would not embody in a short letter the 
 information that I had given him. 
 
 I told him that we were prepared not 
 only to speak well of the new Liberty 
 Loan, but that I felt that the Catholic 
 Church here in Chicago owed a much 
 more active co-operation with the gov- 
 ernment under the present circum- 
 stances than any mere advertisement 
 from the pulpit that they could give in 
 this matter. In consequence, at a meet- 
 ing of the clergy of the diocese held here 
 today, I informed them that the Arch-
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 289 
 
 bishop himself would take a large block 
 of the bonds and would at once sub- 
 scribe for ten thousand dollars worth 
 of bonds as the first installment. Sec- 
 ondly, there are three hundred and fif- 
 ty parishes here in this diocese, and the 
 pastor of each parish was instructed to 
 invest at least one hundred dollars or 
 more of the parish money in the new 
 loan, so that every Catholic parish in 
 Chicago, no matter what the national- 
 ity may be, would take an active co- 
 operation in the floating of this new war 
 loan. They were instructed, if any 
 parish were so poor that it did not have 
 a hundred dollar fund, that the priest 
 was to borrow that amount, and if later 
 on it was found necessary to dispose of 
 the bonds at any time that the Arch- 
 bishop would take them up and pay for 
 them at the same price at which they 
 had been procured. Thirdly, in order 
 to encourage the helping of the nation 
 at the present time, as well as the giving 
 in charity, it was announced that the 
 Archbishop would accept donations for 
 diocesan charities or religious purposes, 
 such, for instance, as Scholarships to 
 the Preparatory Seminary, in the form 
 of Liberty Bonds in preference to cash,
 
 and that he would accept the bonds at 
 a figure of 102, remitting to the donor 
 or placing to his credit $20 for every 
 $1,000 given in this form. Every pastor 
 was furnished with a blank form of ap- 
 plication which he was to fill out and 
 deposit with the bank that he does bus- 
 iness with, any time within the next 
 week or ten days. 
 
 I might add that the purpose of this 
 is to show the people of Chicago, and 
 especially our Catholic people, that the 
 Church feels it a positive duty at this 
 time to aid the nation in every way that 
 it possibly can in return for the peace 
 and the liberty that the Church has al- 
 ways enjoyed in these United States. 
 And I say this in no spirit of boasting, 
 but simply in order to carry out the 
 pledge that I made when our nation first 
 entered this war, that we will lend every 
 aid, every encouragement and every as- 
 sistance to our country at a time when 
 our country needs us. 
 
 I beg to remain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter in Favor of the Negro Parish of St. 
 Monica, Chicago 
 
 Chicago, 111., Oct. 26, 1917. 
 
 Very Rev. J. A. Burgmer, S.V.D., 
 Provincial, 
 
 St. Mary's Mission House, 
 Techny, 111. 
 
 My Dear Father Burgmer: 
 
 I am confiding to your care and that 
 of your Fathers the Mission of St. 
 Monica. The Rev. John S. Morris, who 
 has been until recently its Rector, has 
 been transferred to the pastorate of 
 St. Ailbe's, Chicago. Until such time 
 as the negotiations I have initiated 
 with your Father General are conclud- 
 ed, you will kindly look after the spir- 
 itual welfare of the people of St. Moni- 
 ca's and the temporal affairs of that 
 parish as administrator, either person- 
 ally or through one of your Community. 
 
 With the change of Rectors, a change 
 of policy is likewise to take place at St. 
 Monica's. Until now practically any- 
 one who so desired could affiliate him- 
 self with St. Monica's, attend the serv- 
 ices and receive the Sacraments there. 
 But now I desire St. Monica's to be re-
 
 292 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 served entirely for the colored Catho- 
 lics of Chicago, and particularly of the 
 South Side ; all other Catholics of what- 
 ever race or color are to be requested 
 not to intrude. It is, of course, under- 
 stood that I have no intention of ex- 
 cluding colored Catholics from any of 
 the other churches in the diocese, and 
 particularly if they live in another part 
 of the city, but simply excluding from 
 St. Monica's all but the colored Catho- 
 lics. 
 
 My reasons for this regulation are, 
 briefly: (1) Because there are two 
 large parishes with extensive parochial 
 plants in the immediate vicinity of St. 
 Monica's where these former can re- 
 ceive every attention and where, if they 
 live in the vicinity, they by right be- 
 long, which parishes they are bound in 
 conscience and in accordance with their 
 means to support. (2) St. Monica's was 
 founded for the colored Catholics, is a 
 comparatively small church, the sub- 
 structure alone being as yet completed. 
 By intrusion of others, the crowd- 
 ing, incommoding and embarrassing of 
 those for whom this mission was built 
 will result. (3) When St. Monica's was 
 first established the colored population
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 293 
 
 in Chicago was comparatively small, 
 very poor, and there may have been 
 reason to appeal for support to others 
 outside. Now, however, the colored 
 population of Chicago has grown very 
 large; the men are nearly all at work 
 and obtaining a much more adequate 
 wage or salary; the number of Catho- 
 lics among them has grown proportion- 
 ately, and they feel, I believe, even as 
 I do, that they are able and willing to 
 support their own church and school, 
 and if they do the credit therefor should 
 go to them and to nobody else. In a 
 word, because of circumstances that ex- 
 ist in this city I am convinced that our 
 colored Catholics will feel themselves 
 much more comfortable, far less incon- 
 venienced and never at all embarrassed 
 if, in a church that is credited to them, 
 they have their own sodalities and soci- 
 eties, their own school and choir, in 
 which they alone will constitute the 
 membership, and for even stronger rea- 
 sons the first places in the church should 
 be theirs just as much as the seats in 
 the rear benches are. 
 
 It would be puerile for us to ignore 
 the fact that a distinction as to color 
 enters very often into the daily happen-
 
 294 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 ings of our city. I am not going to ar- 
 gue as to the reasons for or against 
 this line of distinction which causes so 
 much bitterness, nor will I say anything 
 as to the justice or injustice of it. It is 
 sufficient to say that it does exist and 
 that I am convinced that I am quite 
 powerless to change it, for I believe the 
 underlying reasons to be more economic 
 than social. What I am concerned about 
 is that my colored children shall not feel 
 uncomfortable in the Catholic Church. 
 The existence of this line of distinc- 
 tion, it seems to me, ought to be the very 
 reason why St. Monica's ought to show 
 splendid growth and progress within 
 the next few years, now that its future 
 lies with the colored race in this city. 
 I am mindful of the fact that in the city 
 of New York, in a district the popula- 
 tion of which is almost entirely colored, 
 they have their own institutions, their 
 theatres, their hotels and restaurants, 
 in some instances not surpassed by the 
 best of similar establishments further 
 down-town. Why, then, should we not 
 accomplish as much here when there is 
 question of the one and only church the 
 colored Catholics call their own in this 
 city? At all events, I have confidence
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 295 
 
 in the colored Catholics of this city, 
 and as a preliminary step in proving 
 this I shall place the sole responsibility 
 for St. Monica's in their hands. If they 
 succeed in building it up, as I think they 
 can, then, one by one, as they are able 
 to take care of them, we will add other 
 religious and educational features; if 
 they fail, they will have shattered the 
 faith I have in their earnestness and 
 steadfastness in their religion, as well 
 as the laudable spirit of pride they 
 should show in their own and their peo- 
 ple's progress and welfare. In this city 
 we have people who come from all parts 
 of Europe. Far poorer in this world's 
 goods, much less in numbers and but 
 poorly equipped in knowledge of cus- 
 toms and conditions here, yet we find 
 them erecting splendid churches and 
 schools, as much to perpetuate their 
 customs and conditions as to preserve 
 their country's language. And yet later 
 on, when they will have been absorbed 
 into the great American people, their 
 children and their children's children 
 will point with pride to the sacrifices 
 their forefathers made in the days of 
 their poverty to preserve their nation's 
 ideals. Then, shall it be later said that
 
 296 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 the children of the colored race have 
 nothing to point to as the "footprints 
 in the sands of time" of the early gen- 
 erations of colored Catholics in this 
 city ? I refuse to believe it, and for that 
 reason I am appealing to the three or 
 four hundred colored Catholic families 
 in this city to come together and do 
 something to make their names and 
 their faith live, a monument for them 
 and for their children. Let them, of 
 their own accord, by making sacrifices, 
 even as others do, build up St. Monica's, 
 clear it of debt, make it attractive, equip 
 the school; and if they do if we see 
 their good will, their ready response, 
 their generous co-operation then this 
 will simply be the beginning of what 
 we are prepared to do for our colored 
 Catholics and their children. Should 
 they fail, I would be disappointed and 
 sadly mistaken in my judgment of 
 them, and a parish distinctly for them 
 would die like a poorly nourished in- 
 fant. But, when I consider their many 
 good qualities, their peaceful family 
 life, their love for their children, their 
 strong religious spirit, I do not see how 
 they can fail. I have never met a col- 
 ored man who was professedly atheistic
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 297 
 
 or blasphemous. The Creator seems 
 to have given them a spirit of reverence 
 and religion that is often lacking in 
 other races. Then, too, their children 
 are by nature deeply affectionate. Our 
 Sisters who have engaged in the work 
 of teaching the colored children soon be- 
 come strongly attached to them, so that 
 it is very hard later to part them from 
 their charges. Surely, when they con- 
 sider the splendid, self-sacrificing work 
 the two Communities of our Sisters 
 have done for their children, for those 
 of the parish, as well as for the orphan- 
 ed and dependent, there is no colored 
 man, woman or child in Chicago, even 
 those outside of the Church, who will 
 not be anxious that the opportunity of 
 doing something for the good of the 
 race, for the honor and pride of their 
 people, that this work of religion and 
 education which means so much for the 
 future welfare of their people be not 
 allowed to fail, but rather must be main- 
 tained at any cost. 
 
 Nor can I permit the opportunity to 
 pass of reminding the colored Catho- 
 lics of this city of the great debt of grat- 
 itude they owe to that noble woman 
 who has been such a benefactor to them
 
 298 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 and their children, Mother Katharine 
 Drexel, who has spurned every worldly 
 comfort and advantage that was hers, 
 who contributed every penny of her 
 great wealth, who has devoted her serv- 
 ices and her life and the lives of her self- 
 sacrificing Sisters in religion to the care 
 of an almost entirely neglected corner 
 of the Lord's vineyard, to the work of 
 saving the souls of the little colored 
 children in the crowded and often 
 squalid city quarters as well as in the 
 scattered and lonely country districts 
 of this land. Only on that last day, 
 when all things will be made clear to us, 
 will the colored people really know how 
 much these devoted handmaidens of the 
 Lord have done for the uplifting, the 
 education and the sanctification of the 
 children of their race. 
 
 The handful of colored Catholics in 
 Chicago have indeed a work to do. To 
 them there is entrusted the mission of 
 the laymen's apostolate. The colored 
 population of this city now numbers, I 
 am told, nearly one hundred thousand. 
 Though the Lord has created them reli- 
 giously inclined, yet the great mass of 
 these people are unchurched. What a 
 mission there is here for the Catholic
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 299 
 
 layman, how "white the fields are with 
 the harvest," yet when we consider the 
 apathy, the indifference, the absolute 
 neglect of their spiritual duties and op- 
 portunities on the part of so many so- 
 called Catholics, may we not justly say, 
 "but how pitifully few are the laborers 
 therein"? It is for this reason that I 
 have, through you, Reverend Father, 
 addressed this communication to them. 
 It is the first time, I believe, that a Bish- 
 op has directed an appeal to his colored 
 children alone. Surely their apprecia- 
 tion, their sense of duty, their very! 
 pride, will not permit it to be fruitless. 
 I am placing in their care St. Monica's 
 mission. I am entrusting to them, as 
 the objects of their constant and partic- 
 ular solicitude, its temporal growth and 
 its spiritual progress. I hope to see 
 their house of God increase in size and 
 grow in beauty. I Eope to see the par- 
 ish activities become more numerous, 
 and its burden of debt slowly but sure- 
 ly melt away. And, more than all, I de- 
 sire to see the number of its school- 
 children increase and the recipients of 
 the Sacraments multiply week after 
 week and month after month. And I 
 pray with all my heart that many a soul
 
 300 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 now dwelling in darkness and in the 
 shadow of death may enter its doors 
 and find the light, the truth and the 
 peace that the Master has hidden in 
 His Church, and which those alone find 
 who enter the true fold. Finally, I re- 
 mind them that they and their children 
 are as dear to me as their white-skinned 
 brethren, and that for them and for 
 their children, too, I must one day ren- 
 der an accounting before the Eternal 
 Judge Who looks not at the color of 
 our faces, but searches for the purity 
 of our hearts and judges us by the fruits 
 we have to show. And may the saintly 
 patroness under whose protection we 
 have placed our colored children show 
 for each of them that same maternal 
 solicitude that she showed her only son, 
 Augustine, and, like him, bring them to 
 eternal life. 
 
 To you, therefore, and to all the pa- 
 rishioners of St. Monica's I send my 
 blessing, in the hope that a new era of 
 material and spiritual prosperity is 
 about to dawn for this mission and its 
 work. 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter to the Catholic Total Abstinence Union 
 of Illinois 
 
 Chicago, 111., Nov. 13, 1916. 
 
 Miss Frances Martell, Sec'y, 
 The Catholic Total Abstinence Union 
 of Illinois, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Dear Miss Martell; 
 
 I have delayed answering your letter 
 of the 6th inst. until I should have found 
 a suitable County Chaplain and Spir- 
 itual Director for your union. I 
 have selected for this office a se- 
 rious and zealous priest the Rev. 
 William Kinsella, Rector of St. Philip 
 Neri's Church. I am quite sure he will 
 work in harmony with all your members 
 and that through this union you may 
 produce fruitful results. 
 
 As to the second request contained in 
 your letter, I wish to say that the work 
 of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union 
 of Illinois has my approval, my good 
 wishes and my blessing. Many a home 
 would be intact today and the family 
 happy had the father been a member 
 of your organization. Aside from that, 
 the object of your society is, after all, 
 a work of Christian abnegation of self
 
 302 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 and it implies a spirit of sacrifice and a 
 work of penance which we are assured 
 that the Lord Himself rewards. So* 
 that while total abstinence for some is 
 an absolute necessity, for us all it is 
 highly commendable. 
 
 That the Lord may bless all of your 
 members and make your work fruitful 
 in this city and in this diocese is the 
 wish of 
 
 Yours sincerely in Christ, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter in Favor of the Knights of Columbus 
 War Camp Activities 
 
 Chicago, 111., Nov. 23, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Leroy Hackett, State Deputy, 
 Chicago Chapter, 
 Knights of Columbus, 
 116 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Hackett: 
 
 The government of the United States 
 has officially recognized the Knights of 
 Columbus as representing the Roman 
 Catholic Church in the various training 
 camps for soldiers and sailors, both in 
 our own country and in Europe, while 
 the Young Men's Christian Association 
 acts in" the same capacity for all of the 
 various non-Catholic churches. As a 
 result, they have taken over the work of 
 erecting and directing the recreation 
 centres in the different encampments. 
 In addition to this, they are providing 
 and paying for workers and secretaries 
 in charge of these buildings and the ac- 
 tivities they represent. Last, but not 
 least, the Knights of Columbus are pay- 
 ing the salaries and expenses of a num- 
 ber of post-chaplains, about ten of 
 them accompanying the army now in
 
 304 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 France, others being stationed at Rock- 
 ford and other home camps in addition 
 to the regularly commissioned army 
 chaplains. 
 
 In all of these activities they are 
 working under the direction of the 
 Archbishops of the United States and 
 in harmony with the representatives 
 appointed by these prelates. A glance 
 at the tremendous work undertaken 
 and completed or nearing completion 
 will be sufficient to show that a vast 
 amount of money is needed to pay the 
 expenses incurred. The organization 
 representing the non-Catholic bodies 
 recently asked for and obtained thirty- 
 five million dollars. The agency per- 
 forming the same work under Catholic 
 auspices, the Knights of Columbus, 
 asks for less than one-tenth of that sum 
 but three million dollars. The State 
 of Illinois is to furnish one-sixth of that 
 amount. There should not be the slight- 
 est question of their obtaining it. The 
 work they are doing in the camps is not 
 for the benefit of their organization, 
 but for the benefit of the Church in 
 this country. The work they are doing 
 is absolutely necessary, for it means 
 safeguarding the religion and the mor-
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 305 
 
 als of these young men who are to be 
 the fathers of the families of the future, 
 who at a critical period of their lives 
 are taken away from the restraining 
 and refining influences of home, and 
 whom the Church and its representa- 
 tives are thus striving to protect in 
 their new environment. In consequence 
 it becomes the duty of all of us to give 
 a helping hand to this movement 
 
 I therefore give you permission to ap- 
 peal for funds in the Archdiocese of 
 Chicago for this purpose, the week's 
 public campaign beginning Sunday, De- 
 cember 9th; and I commend warmly 
 your appeal to all our Catholic people, 
 both to those who have given sons to 
 the army and navy and to those others 
 who have none to give, and in an espe- 
 cial manner to heads of industries and 
 employers of labor. And if, in a partic- 
 ular manner, every member of your 
 order will take a personal interest 
 in the campaign, give the same 
 assistance he would if it were for 
 himself, put his shoulder to the 
 wheel and push the campaign on to suc- 
 cess, there is not a doubt but that you 
 will more than exceed the amount al- 
 lotted to you and put Illinois, and espe-
 
 306 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 daily Chicago, "over the top." To all 
 who contribute and help this good work 
 along, whether they be our Catholic 
 children or are of the large number of 
 our generous non-Catholic citizens, I 
 send my blessing and my thanks. 
 
 With every good wish for victory and 
 success, I remain, 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 *GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago
 
 Letter Directing Requiem Services for the First 
 Chicago Soldiers Killed in the War 
 
 Chicago, HI., Dec. 7, 1917. 
 
 The Rev. Casimir Gronkowski, 
 St. Adalbert's Rectory, 
 1650 W. Seventeenth St., 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Father Gronkowski: 
 
 Dispatches from the headquarters of 
 the United States military forces in 
 France inform us that the first Ameri- 
 can soldier from the city of Chicago to 
 be killed in action is Peter Wojtalewicz, 
 a boy of St. Adalbert's parish and a for- 
 mer pupil of its parochial school. 
 
 It seems to me that we should show in 
 some special manner our appreciation 
 of the services rendered his country by 
 this heroic young soldier and of the dis- 
 tinction that has thus been conferred 
 on his parish the first to sacrifice one 
 of its soldier-sons for the cause of liber- 
 ty in the great world war. 
 
 Accordingly, you will announce to the 
 congregation at all the Masses on Sun- 
 day next that, at the direction of the 
 Most Rev. Archbishop, a solemn High 
 Mass of Requiem will be offered up in
 
 308 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 St. Adalbert's Church on next Monday 
 morning at 10 o'clock for the repose of 
 the soul of Private Peter Wojtalewicz, 
 who was killed in battle while fighting 
 under the flag of his country in a for- 
 eign land. You will request the people 
 of the parish to be present and, togeth- 
 er with the children of the school, to 
 pray for the youth who is the first to 
 bring home to us the seriousness of the 
 struggle in which we are engaged, and 
 whose name heads the list of those who 
 are giving their lives for our country. 
 We are proud that the first hero slain 
 on the battlefield from the citizens of 
 this, America's second largest city, was 
 a boy of Catholic family, educated in 
 our Catholic schools, who had been 
 among the first to volunteer even be- 
 fore the country had entered the war. 
 It is likewise a cause for congratulation 
 that his heroic death is a conspicuous 
 proof of the loyalty and patriotism of 
 the children of those of our people who 
 have come from other lands and who 
 form such a large and such a desirable 
 element in the citizenship of this city. 
 I would suggest, too, that some memo- 
 rial tablet of this, your first soldier's, 
 death be erected in the school or the
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 309 
 
 church building, and I will be glad to 
 
 be the first subscriber toward the same. 
 
 With best wishes, I beg to remain, 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 *GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter to the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Ancient 
 
 Order of Hibernians, Commending the 
 
 Study of Irish History 
 
 Chicago, Ills., July 10th, 1916. 
 
 Mrs. William McWhorter, 
 Ladies' Auxiliary, 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 5407 Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. 
 
 Dear Mrs. McWhorter: 
 
 I have your letter of the 3rd inst, 
 and in reply to the same I beg to say 
 that I give my hearty commendation of 
 the work inaugurated by your Auxil- 
 iary for the study of Irish History in 
 the schools. 
 
 From Ireland have come nearly all 
 of the Saints who have evangelized the 
 different nations of Europe, and, there- 
 fore in a way, no matter what nation 
 we are from, we are all interested in 
 the past history of Ireland ; for the his- 
 tory of Ireland means to a great extent 
 the history of the Church in the Middle 
 Ages. In a particular manner the chil- 
 dren of Irish parents ought to have 
 some intelligent reason for the pride 
 they show in their birth and in their 
 descent, and to accomplish this they
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 311 
 
 need to know, not so much the Ireland 
 of the present, as the Ireland of the 
 past. Yet the special reason for our 
 commendation of this movement is that 
 the memory of what Ireland and the 
 Irish people have done for the Church 
 must not sink into the dim memories 
 of the past, but should be kept alive in 
 the present and in the coming genera- 
 tions. 
 
 Wishing you every success, I beg to 
 remain, dear Madam, 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 *GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Letter Ordering a Collection for the Suffering 
 People of Poland 
 
 Chicago, Ills., March 16th, 1916. 
 
 Reverend Dear Father: 
 
 Because we are far distant from the 
 carnage of war and the noise of the 
 conflict, we little realize the dreadful 
 affliction that has visited the greater 
 part of the civilized world. To us, who 
 are living in peace and comfort and 
 security, it seems almost incredible that 
 countless lives have been sacrificed, 
 that billions of dollars have been squan- 
 dered, that hundreds of thousands of 
 families have been made fatherless, 
 rendered homeless, reduced to starva- 
 tion and beggary. More particularly 
 the smaller and weaker nations, that lie 
 in the path of the contending armies, 
 have suffered untold misery. None 
 more than poor unfortunate Poland. 
 For centuries she has been crushed 
 under the heel of the invader, her lands 
 divided among her bigger, stronger 
 neighbors, her people deprived of their 
 rights, many of her schools of their 
 country's language, her Bishops and 
 clergy often of the free exercise of 
 their jurisdiction. In spite, however,
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 313 
 
 of centuries of hardships and persecu- 
 tion, no nation has been more loyal to 
 Holy Mother Church, so that history 
 gives to her the title of "ever-faithful 
 daughter of the Church." 
 
 And now it would really seem that 
 the climax of her suffering has come. 
 Every able-bodied man and boy has 
 been impressed into one of the three 
 contending armies, and we must wit- 
 ness the heart-rending spectacle of 
 brother fighting against brother, not 
 for their country's freedom, but for a 
 cause in which they have no interest 
 and for the nations that hold their own 
 in bondage. But what is even more 
 pitiful, the silent, innocent sufferers are 
 the aged and the weak, the women and 
 the children; with their bread-winners 
 torn from their midst, in most cases 
 never to return, with their homes razed 
 to the ground, they are reduced to 
 misery and starvation that is appalling. 
 All Poland has been the battlefield of 
 the war; three great armies have swept 
 over its cities and its fields again and 
 again until today there is hardly a peb- 
 ble or a blade of grass in the land that 
 has not been crushed by a soldier's foot. 
 From trustworthy sources we learn
 
 314 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 that more than ten thousand small 
 towns and villages have been destroyed, 
 nearly all children under seven years 
 of age are dead, and half a million of 
 old men, of women and children are 
 facing starvation. Stricken, crushed, 
 bleeding from every pore, literally 
 dying from hunger and want, Poland 
 cries out to the world for help, and the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, the father of all the 
 faithful, but more particularly the pro- 
 tector of the weak and defenceless, 
 brings the cry of this suffering people 
 to our notice. In most of the dioceses 
 of this country, the Bishops have pub- 
 lished this appeal of our Holy Father, 
 adding thereto a commendatory mes- 
 sage of their own. And in nearly every 
 case the result has been a most gratify- 
 ing response from the faithful, a splen- 
 did outpouring of generosity for their 
 unfortunate brethren of the faith in a 
 war-scarred country. But in this arch- 
 diocese this appeal has been withheld 
 until now, awaiting the appointment of 
 a bishop to the See, made vacant by the 
 death of the late Archbishop. 
 
 And so today, while we sympathize 
 with a suffering people, yet we rejoice 
 that our first communication to you,
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 315 
 
 Keverend Father, and your people, 
 should be an appeal to their and your 
 generosity in behalf of the poor, the 
 hungry, the homeless, the worthy ob- 
 jects of our charity. We rejoice that 
 the opportunity is given to us to pay 
 the tribute of appreciation to our chil- 
 dren who have come to our diocese in 
 such large numbers from that now 
 helpless and suffering country. They 
 have never appealed to us for help 
 before, but though they may have been 
 poor and without worldly means, yet 
 they have erected here in Chicago in 
 little more than a score of years 
 churches that are monuments and 
 schools that are a credit to our system. 
 They -have been, and they are, our 
 obedient, loyal subjects, and their chil- 
 dren will be among the best citizens of 
 this city and true to the faith of their 
 fathers. Even now they would hesitate 
 to appeal to us for their dear ones in 
 their fatherland, but the disaster is so 
 appalling, the suffering so great, the 
 danger of the last drops of their na- 
 tion's blood dripping from its wounds 
 is so imminent, that they are forced to 
 apply to their brethren in the faith for 
 the charity and the help that is so badly
 
 316 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 and so quickly needed. And while we 
 give to their appeal our hearty sup- 
 port, at the same time we cannot 
 withhold the expression of our pride 
 and admiration at the worthy conduct 
 of the Polish episcopate and their 
 clergy, for notwithstanding the fact 
 that fifteen hundred Catholic churches 
 in Poland have been destroyed, yet 
 today every Bishop is in his diocese and 
 every priest in his parish (excepting 
 those who are with the armies) to share 
 their people's suffering and comfort 
 them in their distress. 
 
 Therefore, conforming to the wish 
 of our Holy Father, in response to the 
 appeal of the Polish Bishops, as well as 
 the dictates of Christian and fraternal 
 charity, we do now appoint the fourth 
 Sunday in Lent, the second day of April 
 next, as the day for a special collection 
 to be taken up in the churches of the 
 archdiocese of Chicago for the suffer- 
 ing people of Poland. And on the Sun- 
 day preceding, we direct that you read 
 this our letter to your people at the 
 Masses, and, if there be time, the letter 
 of the Cardinal Secretary of State and 
 the appeal of the Polish Bishops and 
 add a word of commendation of your
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 317 
 
 own. As soon thereafter as possible, 
 you will make returns to the Chancery 
 Office. 
 
 To you and to your faithful people, 
 while commending ourselves to your 
 prayers, we send our blessing. 
 
 Faithfully yours in Christ, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 Pastoral Letter in Favor of the Preparatory 
 Seminary of the Archdiocese 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM MUNDELEIN, 
 
 By the Grace of God and the Favor of the 
 Apostolic See 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago. 
 
 Rev. Dear Father: 
 
 Within the last score of years the 
 conviction has gradually forced itself 
 upon the bishops of the large dioceses 
 of this country that the number of 
 those presenting themselves as candi- 
 dates for the seminary and desirous of 
 entering the priesthood was slowly but 
 surely diminishing. They found it nec- 
 essary to take special measures to safe- 
 guard those to whom God has given 
 the grace of a priestly vocation not only 
 during the years of their seminary 
 course of theology, but even earlier, 
 when the first signs of probable voca- 
 tion in the young schoolboy manifested 
 themselves to the watchful eye of pas- 
 tor or confessor. In former genera- 
 tions, partly because the need of priests 
 was not so sharply and so noticeably 
 felt, the custom was to educate those 
 who had aspirations to the priesthood in
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 319 
 
 the then existing Catholic high schools 
 and colleges under the care of one of 
 the teaching Orders of the Church, 
 where they were associated with other 
 youths preparing for a professional or 
 business career and who had no voca- 
 tion for the clerical state. But every- 
 where, and particularly in our large 
 cities, we found that year after year, 
 though the number of our people was 
 increasing, the number of those who 
 knocked on the door of the seminary 
 and asked to be enrolled in the body of 
 the clergy was not growing apace. And 
 not today or yesterday, but for many 
 years past, has the conviction entered 
 the minds of watchful pastors of souls, 
 that the time had come when something 
 must be done to protect the tender 
 shoots of priestly vocation as soon as 
 they showed themselves in the clean, 
 pure hearts of good, bright young boys 
 in our schools, to shelter them not only 
 from the killing blasts of sinful tempta- 
 tion, but also from the chilling at- 
 mosphere of modern materialism, the 
 selfish craving for ease, the inordinate 
 love of money, the exaggerated spirit 
 of independence, which comes not only 
 into our schools and colleges, but enters
 
 320 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 right into the heart of the home itself. 
 And so we have learned a lesson from 
 the Religious Orders of the Church, 
 who long ago provided special schools, 
 preparatory novitiates, monastic scho- 
 lasticates, in which they taught and 
 trained and prepared from early boy- 
 hood those who aspire to lead this more 
 perfect life as members of their Order. 
 And we have argued, and probably 
 with a great deal of truth, that, if it be 
 necessary so to shelter, watch and care- 
 fully train those who will live their lives 
 in the community of their brethren in 
 religion and be protected by a special 
 approved rule of life, how much more so 
 is this necessary for the secular priest, 
 who so often stands alone, a shining 
 mark for the enemies of Religion, who 
 must be a dux populi and a flamma gre- 
 gis, of whom it is required that, though 
 he be in the world, yet that he be not of 
 it It is for this reason that in several 
 of the dioceses of the country the bish- 
 ops have established the more modern 
 form of the preparatory seminary, 
 where the young boy selected from 
 among his companions by the pastor or 
 confessor, who discerns in him the prob- 
 able signs of a vocation, the piety, in-
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 321 
 
 telligence and application which is re- 
 quired for the candidate for the holy 
 priesthood, even while remaining in the 
 sacred circle of the home and under the 
 watchful eye of a pious mother, is 
 placed apart and educated with those 
 only who look forward to that same 
 great work in life, the priestly field of 
 labor, keeping daily before his mind the 
 sublime vocation of the priesthood, pre- 
 serving him pure and pious by constant 
 exhortation, by daily assistance at the 
 Holy Sacrifice and by frequent recep- 
 tion of the Sacraments. 
 
 One of the first bishops of this coun- 
 try to realize this need for his diocese 
 and make provision for it was my pre- 
 decessor, the late Archbishop Quigley. 
 Nearly eleven years ago he opened the 
 preparatory seminary for the education 
 of boys to the priesthood, but the Lord 
 called him to his reward before he could 
 see the first fruits of this work and to 
 raise to the holy priesthoo'd the first of 
 the boys who had passed through his 
 Cathedral College. It was a year ago 
 last January that I saw Archbishop 
 Quigley the last time, at the funeral of 
 his friend, Bishop Burke of Albany. We 
 were at the railroad station awaiting
 
 322 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 the arrival of the train. I was probably 
 the last to speak to him then. For near- 
 ly a quarter of an hour we were to- 
 gether, and during all that time the 
 only subject of his conversation was his 
 preparatory seminary. When the mes- 
 sage came to me telling me I was to be 
 his successor, that scene came back viv- 
 idly to my mind. It almost seemed as 
 though he were enlisting my sympathy 
 in the work in which he was so much in- 
 terested, for which he had made plans, 
 which were not brought to fulfillment, 
 because death stilled the brain that had 
 conceived them. And it was then that 
 I determined that, with the help of his 
 and my priests, I would make his pre- 
 paratory seminary a lasting work, that 
 it should be placed on a stable basis, that 
 the buildings that would house his stu- 
 dents and their teachers should bear 
 his name and should be his monument, 
 so that the memory of this silent, zeal- 
 ous, self-sacrificing Prelate might live 
 for many generations of Chicago 
 priests. And, after all, what would be 
 more fitting? We know that he plan- 
 ned this work, that he began it and 
 that he supported it. But what many 
 of us do not know is that plans for its
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 323 
 
 growth and improvement were con- 
 stantly in his mind, that he was proud 
 of the progress his students made and 
 that he denied himself many things so 
 that he might personally contribute 
 large sums for its support. But in or- 
 der to insure its continuance as one of 
 our principal diocesan institutions, one 
 of which the clergy of Chicago and our 
 people may point to with pride, in order, 
 too, that it may be a fitting and lasting 
 monument to the late Archbishop, it will 
 be necessary to change both the build- 
 ings themselves, as well as the manner 
 of providing for its support in the fu- 
 ture. At present the buildings are anti- 
 quated, unsuited and insufficient for the 
 heeds of the diocese. Archbishop Quig- 
 ley himself had intended to erect new 
 ones. The manner of supporting the 
 institution is precarious, the source of 
 the support insecure and inadequate for 
 the maintenance of a larger number of 
 boys. Moreover, neither clergy nor peo- 
 ple contribute to its support, and it is 
 my firm conviction that helping in the 
 education of a boy to the priesthood 
 'does bring with it a special recompense
 
 324 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 from God, and therefore should be en- 
 couraged. 
 
 And now, with the help of Almighty 
 God and to the glory of His holy name, 
 for the conservation of the Faith here 
 in our midst, with the loyal co-operation 
 of my priests and people, I purpose to 
 establish the Quigley Preparatory Sem- 
 inary of the Archdiocese of Chicago. 
 Knowing, however, how much our peo- 
 ple are burdened with the needs of their 
 own parishes and the many calls upon 
 their generosity for the aid of their 
 poor and destitute neighbors, I am not 
 going to ask them to erect the buildings, 
 but I do appeal to them and their pas- 
 tors to share in the truly religious work 
 of educating boys to the holy priest- 
 hood by creating the fund which will 
 supply the means for future times of de- 
 fraying the expenses of this work. In 
 a word, I will provide the ground and 
 erect the main building of the new dio- 
 cesan preparatory seminary, if priests 
 and people of the diocese will provide 
 for its support by foundations of schol- 
 arships, each one of which will for all 
 times pay for a boy's education, during 
 the years he spends in this institution.
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 325 
 
 And I will go even further and say, that 
 if we succeed, and I fell assured we will, 
 then do I see my way clear, within a few 
 years, to provide a Theological Semi- 
 nary for this diocese, as complete, as 
 beautiful, as monumental, as any in 
 this country, and in that case without 
 burdening the parishes, priests or peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Therefore, before describing the lo- 
 cation or character of the new build- 
 ings, it may be wise to explain the 
 method of support It will take us 
 more than a year probably to erect the 
 first of the new buildings, but we hope 
 to increase at once the number of stu- 
 dents. At present they number about 
 two hundred. To provide for the rapid 
 growth of the diocese, the annual loss 
 "by death among the clergy, antici- 
 pating, too, the number of boys, who, 
 because of failing health, need of sup- 
 porting depending parents, younger 
 brothers or sisters, or other reasons, 
 may be forced to leave before their 
 course is completed, this diocese should 
 have fully five hundred boys in the Pre- 
 paratory Seminary. Beginning with 
 with the next scholastic year, all boys
 
 326 
 
 who come recommended by their pastor 
 or confessor and who have completed 
 'the eighth grade of the ordinary gram- 
 mar-school course will be received. 
 Graduates of any of our parochial 
 schools will be admitted on presentation 
 of their certificate. Graduates of other 
 schools must be prepared for a prelim- 
 inary examination, if this be required 
 by the faculty. The tuition of every 
 boy entering the Preparatory Seminary 
 from now on must be paid from one 
 source or another. Either his family 
 pays his tuition or the priest who sends 
 him pays for him, or he obtains a schol- 
 arship, which provides for his tuition. 
 Moreover, whenever a number of boys 
 are sent from one parish, the pastor 
 may pay their tuition bills from the 
 educational funds of the parish and so 
 charge it on his annual report. But 
 for the future continued success of the 
 Preparatory Seminary, we depend 
 largely on a constantly increasing num- 
 ber of endowed places, called scholar- 
 ships, which will automatically pay for 
 the tuition of a number of students in 
 perpetuity. It will be our endeavor to 
 make the offer of endowments in the
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 327 
 
 Preparatory Seminary as attractive as 
 possible, so that both for clergy and 
 laity the foundation of at least one 
 scholarship will be considered a splen- 
 did investment, "where neither the rust 
 nor moth doth consume, and where 
 thieves do not break through nor steal." 
 For the layman, what better work can 
 he perform than to be the means not 
 only during his life time, but long after 
 he shall have gone from this world, of 
 helping poor and deserving boys to real- 
 ize their fondest and most pious hope 
 of standing some day at God's altar, 
 there to offer up the adorable Sacrifice 
 of the new law for the spiritual and 
 temporal needs of one who has been 
 their benefactor. And after all, one 
 of the dearest wishes of every good 
 priest's heart is to leave behind him 
 some one whom he has guided, helped 
 and with his slender savings educated, 
 and who will take up the work from his 
 hands, when death shall have palsied 
 their activity forevermore. I have es- 
 tablished personally the first two of 
 these scholarships, both in memory of 
 the late Archbishop, the first, St. 
 James', to be occupied in perpetuity by
 
 328 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 a boy from the Cathedral School, the 
 other, St. Edward's, to be occupied 
 always by an orphan boy. Six others 
 have been promised, and it is my ex- 
 pectation that this number will be in- 
 creased to at least a hundred within 
 the next year. A brief explanation re- 
 garding the conditions of a founded 
 scholarship may not be out of place, 
 here and at this time. Because of the 
 rate of interest that can be obtained 
 with safety on long-time investments 
 at the present time, twenty-five hun- 
 dred dollars is the sum required for 
 founding a scholarship, so that its in- 
 terest may at all times educate a boy. 
 Each scholarship is to be known by the 
 name of a Saint, or some title of Our 
 Blessed Lady, and may bear in addi- 
 tion the name of the founder. The 
 scholarship may be placed at the dispo- 
 sal of a certain parish, to be occupied 
 by a boy from a certain school, or the 
 candidate to be selected by the donor, 
 or finally, the place to be thrown open 
 to completion, the choice to be sub- 
 ject in each and every case to the ap- 
 proval of the Archbishop and the Rev. 
 Faculty of the College. Though for
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 329 
 
 some of our parishes it may be prac- 
 tically impossible, yet for the others, it 
 would certainly be desirable for every 
 parish that is able to do so, to have a 
 scholarship of its own, to be occupied 
 always by some one of its children, 
 whom God has selected as one of His 
 messengers to carry the good tidings 
 of the Gospel and break the Bread of 
 Life, it may be, for those who have 
 known him from childhood. And it is 
 even more desirable still that some 
 God-fearing charitable men and women 
 may be inspired to found other scholar- 
 ships that will be placed at the Arch- 
 bishop's disposal, and so enable worthy 
 boys, and young men burning with a 
 desire to become priests, but who have! 
 no means of their own, and who other- 
 wise might never be able to realize this 
 fondest wish of their heart. Surely, 
 there is no greater charity than to 
 share in the making and training of a 
 priest of God, and thus have a share, 
 too, in the great fruits of his sacerdotal 
 ministration. Moreover, when a stu- 
 dent is accepted as a beneficiary of a 
 founded scholarship, he binds himself 
 in writing, that, if he completes his
 
 330 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 education in the preparatory seminary 
 and is afterwards ordained to the 
 priesthood, he will annually for the 
 space of ten years celebrate ten Masses 
 for the intentions of his benefactor, the 
 donor or donors of the scholarship. 
 
 This obligation is to be imposed on 
 every such student who completes his 
 education in the preparatory seminary, 
 no matter how long or how short a time 
 he has enjoyed the privileges of the 
 scholarship, and whether he is ordained 
 for this diocese or elsewhere. The 
 money donated for the foundation of 
 scholarships is not to be used for new 
 buildings or any similar purpose, but is 
 to be invested in proper securities, as 
 may be designated by the Most Rev. 
 Archbishop or others appointed by him 
 for this purpose. 
 
 A new site has been procured for the 
 proposed Preparatory Seminary, nearly 
 one-half of an entire city square, em- 
 bracing nearly thirty-five thousand 
 square feet, but a few short blocks from 
 the Cathedral, admittedly one of the 
 most favorable locations in the city and 
 giving easy access from all parts of the 
 city and diocese. The buildings will
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 331 
 
 easily be among the most beautiful in 
 Chicago. They are to be in the early 
 French Gothic style of architecture, 
 and by reason of their distinct indi- 
 viduality and their prominent location 
 will form a place of interest, not only to 
 visitors, but also to all lovers of the city 
 beautiful. The group of three build- 
 ings will be composed of a main or 
 college building, and the two ornate 
 wings will be, one the Chapel, the other, 
 the library and gymnasium. For it will 
 be of interest to the clergy to know 
 that, in accordance with the ancient 
 adage "mens sana in corpore sano," the 
 new Seminary will be equipped with a 
 kitchen and refectory as well as a 
 gymnasium and baths. 
 
 There is one other of the group of 
 buildings for the Preparatory Sem- 
 inary I should like to erect in the near 
 future. The seminary Chapel is to be 
 dedicated to St. James the Apostle, the 
 Patron Saint of the late Archbishop. I 
 wish it to be the gift of the Catholic 
 children of the diocese to their Arch- 
 bishop's memory, as a mark of their 
 affection for him and a recognition of 
 his solicitude for them. That every
 
 332 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 child, rich or poor, may have an oppor- 
 tunity of doing its own little share in 
 erecting this, their monument, let every 
 boy and girl in the parochial schools of 
 the diocese, and in the Sunday-schools 
 where there are as yet no parish 
 schools, contribute a penny each week, 
 and the priests, the Sisters and Broth- 
 ers arrange in each school and in 
 each classroom a proper receptacle or 
 method of collecting this little weekly 
 mite from the children and forward the 
 amount to the Chancery Office at the 
 end of each month. But the children 
 must be made to understand that this 
 offering, small though it may be, must 
 be a voluntary one on their part, and be 
 told what the exact purpose intended is. 
 Moreover, I would not have it interfere 
 in any way with any charitable or re- 
 ligious work they may already be en- 
 gaged in. So, even as giant oaks from 
 tiny acorns grow, a beautiful chapel, 
 an architectural gem, a fitting residence 
 for our Sacramental Lord and the love- 
 liest gift children ever offered to their 
 spiritual father, will be erected by the 
 pennies contributed weekly by our little 
 children.
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 333 
 
 And now I have endeavored to place 
 before you as clearly as I can and as 
 briefly as possible under the circum- 
 stances the reason for the explanation 
 of the plan of the Preparatory Sem- 
 inary. I commend it to your charity 
 and to your and your people's gener- 
 osity. It is perhaps the biggest, the 
 most important work the diocese will 
 ever undertake. We have undertaken 
 movements of charity, to relieve differ- 
 ent kinds of distress, but this is the first 
 work of religion inaugurated under my 
 administration. I am anxious it should 
 succeed, not for any personal motive, 
 but because it means much for the 
 growth of the Church in Chicago; it 
 means providing workers in the vine- 
 yard here, when we have gone, to 
 receive the day's wages from the 
 heavenly steward; it means the con- 
 tinuation of the many works of religion 
 and of charity we have begun, and to 
 which we of the clergy have given 
 freely and willingly of our time, of our 
 means, of our strength. It means a 
 proper appreciation, too, of the work of 
 my predecessor, and a constant remem- 
 brance of his soul's welfare in prayer
 
 334 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 and at the altar for many years to 
 
 come. "Mementote praepositorum ves- 
 
 trorum qui vobis locuti sunt verbum Dei." 
 
 Sincerely yours in Xt, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 
 Archbishop of Chicago, 
 
 Feast of the Holy Apostles Philip and 
 James, 1916,
 
 Letter in Favor of the Work of the Sisters of 
 the Good Shepherd, Chicago 
 
 Chicago, III, December llth, 1917. 
 
 Sister Mary of the Good Shepherd, 
 Superior, 
 
 Convent of the Good Shepherd, 
 1126 Grace St., Chicago, 111. 
 
 My Dear Mother Superior: 
 
 The season of the year again draws 
 near when the hearts of little children 
 the world over are gladdened because 
 of the coming of our Infant Savior; 
 and all of us, of every age in life, and 
 in whatever station we may be, strive 
 to make Christmas happy and memo- 
 rable for the little ones who have crept 
 into our hearts, for this is the one day 
 of the year that is surely theirs, the day 
 for which they have longed and waited 
 with all the ardor of their little souls. 
 Not only do we strive at this time to 
 make happy the children of our own 
 families and in our own homes, but our 
 charity and our generosity go beyond 
 the thresholds of our homes and help 
 to gladden the children of the poor, the 
 orphaned and fatherless, because on
 
 336 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 this day the Son of God came from 
 heaven, a helpless little child, for our 
 sakes, not in a palace, resting in a 
 golden crib, garbed in silken clothes; 
 but poor, helpless, homeless, forlorn. 
 "You shall find the Infant," said the 
 angel, "wrapped in swaddling clothes, 
 laid in a manger." (Luke 11:12.) 
 
 As far as lies with me, I would in a 
 particular manner make the Christmas 
 day that will soon dawn a day of joy 
 and gladness for those who dwell under 
 your roof. I would give some sign of 
 the solicitude I feel for the welfare of 
 the children committed to your care 
 the children to whom the world has been 
 so cruel, so unkind, so unjust; whose 
 innocent souls so early in life were 
 left torn and bruised by the heedless 
 heel of some selfish seeker after pleas- 
 ure ; whose baptismal whiteness became 
 soiled and tarnished so soon by contact 
 with the mud of the city streets and the 
 filth of Satan's haunts of pleasure; or 
 who were too often untaught, un- 
 warned, unprepared, and so suffered 
 the fate of the seed in the Gospel that 
 fell on a rock and "withered away be- 
 cause it had no moisture." (Luke
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 337 
 
 VIII :6.) To carry out Christ's own 
 mission of saving sinners, God in His 
 infinite goodness called you and your 
 Sisters in religion that you might give 
 up home and family and friends, every- 
 thing in life, to devote yourself and all 
 that is yours to the care of "the least of 
 these," His "little ones." He chose you 
 to bring them under the shelter of the 
 cloister and into the shadow of the 
 tabernacle where, far from the city's 
 glare and clamor, away from the beck- 
 oning finger of temptation, in the quiet 
 of the sanctuary and under the protect- 
 ing wing of religion you might bind 
 up their wounds, nourish back their 
 strength and make them feel the won- 
 derful love that beats in the Sacred 
 Heart of Jesus for the penitent sinner. 
 Surely, for this work of human sal- 
 vage in a great city, there are none 
 better fitted than you. Speaking from 
 a merely human standpoint, first of all, 
 you had and you have the desire for 
 this special work; you have selected it 
 of your own free will and you have 
 made it your life's work. You have, 
 therefore, enthusiasm and liking for 
 the rather difficult task in which you
 
 338 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 are engaged, elements quite necessary 
 for its successful accomplishment. Sec- 
 ondly, you have the required training. 
 You are specialists in this line and you 
 have the benefit of the experience of 
 others and of the traditions which your 
 Community has gathered and treas- 
 ured. But that which far more than all 
 this fits you for your task is the fact 
 that Christ has called you for this work, 
 and to you He has said in the hour of 
 your profession, even as He said to His 
 disciples: "You have not chosen me, 
 but I have chosen you." (John XV:16.) 
 He has given you those supernatural 
 helps which more than all worldly 
 training will fit you to make over again 
 into souls pure, pleasing and acceptable 
 in His sight, the wayward, erring, sin- 
 ning children of our great cities. In 
 this work of reform and reclamation 
 and reconstruction, your greatest aids 
 are the teachings of religion and its 
 means of grace. These alone can give 
 your precepts and warnings a lasting 
 effect; these alone can confirm your 
 children in the good resolutions that 
 they have made while under your care,
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 339 
 
 and give them strength in the hour of 
 temptation. 
 
 Yet the Lord often makes use of hu- 
 man instruments and of earthly means 
 to carry our the great designs of Provi- 
 dence; and you, too, to make it entirely 
 effective, should have some material 
 support for your work of leading these 
 strayed, erring, bewildered souls back 
 to their Savior. Only too often, to your 
 great sorrow and disappointment, has 
 one of these children, for whom you 
 had great hope, fallen back again into 
 the slough of sin, succumbed to the lure 
 of vicious company, become enmeshed 
 in the net of former bad habits. For 
 some years past I have given this mat- 
 ter which must concern me very 
 nearly as the pastor of a great diocese 
 long and serious consideration. It 
 has seemed to me that, when the girls 
 left the shelter of your roof to begin 
 again, unaided, the battle of life in the 
 world, the results might perhaps be 
 more lasting, if their good resolutions 
 were backed up by some pecuniary 
 help. Surely no sensible person can ex- 
 pect you to give them that help, for 
 your institution is heavily debt-laden,
 
 340 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 and is costly to run, while the County 
 pays you but thirty cents a day for each 
 girl that is committed, a mere pit- 
 tance goes but a short distance. The 
 labor that the girls perform (and it 
 would certainly be unwise to leave them 
 without employment) is generally crude 
 and rather poorly paid. To meet this 
 need and to provide that help, I would 
 propose the following plan: First; let 
 every girl be selected and trained for 
 the kind of work for which she is best 
 fitted by experience or intelligence 
 whether this be needlework, fine sew- 
 ing, fine laundry or plain laundry-work 
 and a market be found therefor. 
 Second ; let every girl, as far as possible, 
 be put on piece-work for which she is to 
 receive a commensurate wage, the same 
 again to be graded according to the 
 character of the work and the price it 
 brings in the open market. Third; at 
 the end of each working-day, let every 
 girl's wage be computed and entered by 
 the forewoman in charge of this part of 
 the work. Fourth ; at the end of every 
 week, to the amount contributed by the 
 county for each girl's keep, let her 
 wages be added, deducting a proper
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 341 
 
 amount for her board, clothing and 
 other expenses the amount remaining 
 to be entered in her own bank-book, 
 which will be held in safe-keeping for 
 her, as may be determined. Fifth ; this 
 money on deposit is not to be paid tq 
 any girl until she is about to leave the 
 institution: she cannot give it to an- 
 other or purchase anything with it dur- 
 ing her stay in the House of the Good 
 Shepherd, for reasons I shall give later. 
 Sixth ; in the case of any girl committed 
 fto the institution because of frequent 
 lapses into inebriety, and for whom the 
 money might prove more of a tempta- 
 tion than a safeguard, on leaving the 
 institution arrangements can be made 
 to have the Court appoint a custodian 
 or guardian of this money. 
 
 Finally, I wish to be distinctly under- 
 stood that I am not binding the Sisters 
 to any arrangement from which they 
 can not later on recede, for if they do 
 not receive additional help from else- 
 where it is perfectly clear that they can 
 not carry out the plan outlined by me 
 and on their present very meagre in- 
 come provide for the care and mainte- 
 nance of their vast institution. It is
 
 342 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 for that reason, dear Mother, that some 
 time ago I asked you to study out this 
 compensation idea and let me know 
 what would be the additional cost to 
 pay the number of girls who are now in 
 your charge according to the plan I 
 have outlined. You then informed me 
 that it would entail an additional ex- 
 penditure of five hundred dollars each 
 month, or an extra annual outlay of 
 six thousand dollars quite a large 
 amount of money. However, I consider 
 this work to be of so great importance 
 for the saving of souls and bound to be 
 of so much benefit to the city, as well as 
 to the individuals affected, that I am 
 willing to add to my already numerous 
 charities, even under present war con- 
 ditions, one-half of this sum as my own 
 responsibility. 
 
 So, as my Christmas gift to the chil- 
 dren of the House of the Good Shep- 
 herd, I am sending, together with this 
 letter, one-half of the sum guaranteed 
 by me (namely, fifteen hundred dol- 
 lars), a similar sum to come a few 
 months later, so that the plan as above 
 outlined may go into effect on the first 
 day of the New Year. Surely some
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 343 
 
 generous souls, especially among our; 
 women, will provide you with the rest, 
 since I have given them the example 
 and shown them the way. The best and 
 the surest way of providing, however, 
 would be for some one who is desirous 
 of piling up treasure in heaven, where 
 it cannot be lost or stolen, and of erect- 
 ing a monument more lasting than uni- 
 versities or libraries a monument built 
 of human souls forever safe in the arms 
 of the Divine Shepherd to give a trust 
 fund of a hundred thousand dollars, the 
 income from which would practically 
 take care of this part of your work. 
 
 I anticipate splendid results from the 
 introduction of this system. In the first 
 place, I think you will find that the girls 
 will more gladly stay with you, be more 
 diligent and cheerful while they are 
 with you, and often really sorry to 
 leave, if they realize that, under your 
 protection, they are working for them- 
 selves and that every penny that they 
 earn will be added to the nest-egg that 
 will steady and strengthen them when 
 they return to the world where the very 
 want of money may previously have led 
 them into temptation. Every girl that
 
 344 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 has been with you for a sufficient time, 
 if she has been careful and industrious, 
 will be leaving with a sum sufficient to 
 provide her with quite good and com- 
 fortable clothing, to pay her board in 
 some respectable house and locality 
 until she obtains suitable employment, 
 and to leave her, in addition, a few dol- 
 lars safely tucked away in the bank for 
 the proverbial rainy day. When she 
 leaves you, she will take with her more 
 than her good resolutions. She will 
 have money to back them up. And 
 should she fall again which is not so 
 likely want would not be her excuse. 
 Finally, besides benefiting the children, 
 it will benefit you. While they are with 
 you there will be more of a spirit of 
 cheerfulness and satisfaction prevail- 
 ing amongst them and when they leave, 
 I think you will more often find your 
 efforts crowned with temporal and spir- 
 itual success. K will serve, too, to 
 silence forever those who have not hesi- 
 tated to accuse us of profiting finan- 
 cially by the labors of these girls. 
 
 Before concluding this letter, I deem 
 it wise to meet an objection that will be 
 raised, the objection that preference
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 345 
 
 should be given to the needs of the 
 poorly-paid working-girl, who, alone in 
 a great city, must skimp and save to 
 purchase the bare necessities of life and 
 to pay the room-rent in a bleak board- 
 ing-house, while sighing and praying 
 for the company, the comfort and the 
 conveniences in a Catholic atmosphere 
 that so often are offered to her under 
 non-Catholic auspices. To her and 
 there are many like her in this big city 
 I can simply say that I am not un- 
 mindful of her needs, and that I hope 
 the day is not far distant when such a 
 hospice will be built here in Chicago as 
 an abode of comfort to our working- 
 girls and a source of pride to us all. 
 God, however, must first move the 
 heart and hand of some man or woman 
 of wealth to help us make this possible, 
 for to do it will mean not only to pay 
 for a suitable building, conveniently 
 situated, but to some extent at least to 
 endow it, as we could Hardly expect it 
 to be entirely self-supporting. But your 
 work must be encouraged and assisted 
 first. Your children are spiritual con- 
 valescents, leaving the Hospital after 
 recovering from a serious illness. We
 
 346 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 must help them for a little while until 
 they can walk on the sometimes rough 
 and stony paths of life, until they have 
 again got their bearings, until they 
 have found and returned to work. 
 
 Moreover to you, Mother dear, and to 
 your Sisters, as in like manner to me, 
 the mission the Master has given is first 
 to go after the weak, the strayed, the 
 fallen: our 'duty is to nurse them back 
 again to health and life and innocence. 
 With this as our object we must use 
 every means at our command and em- 
 ploy any helps that will make that work 
 of saving, of healing, of reformation, 
 lasting. In this way do we follow in the 
 footsteps of Him Who said, "I am not 
 come to save the just, but sinners." 
 (Matth. IX:13.) But to the young girl 
 in the world who toils and struggles, 
 whose life is so devoid of pleasure, often 
 barren of comforts, who stands alone, 
 but who has withstood temptation, who 
 keeps herself in God's grace and her 
 soul in purity and innocence, to her I 
 would address the words of the Master 
 the words addressed by the Prodigal 
 father to his elder son: "Daughter, 
 thou art always with me, and all I have
 
 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 347 
 
 is thine; but this thy sister was dead 
 and is come to life again: she was lost 
 and is found." (Luke XV :31 and 32.) 
 
 When in the early hour of the Christ- 
 mas morn the Babe of Bethlehem again 
 comes down from heaven and rests on 
 your chapel altar, when He stretches 
 out His tiny hands to all who there 
 kneel about Him, to your Sisters, to the 
 Sisters Magdalen and to your children 
 whom He loves so dearly, in that mo- 
 ment, when He is so kind, so generous, 
 do you ask Him to watch over this city, 
 this diocese and its people. Pray to 
 Him especially for those who have wan- 
 dered away from Him, whose eyes are 
 blinded by pleasure and whose hearts 
 are hardened in sin, that they may re- 
 turn to Him Who came on that first 
 Christmas day, "that they may have life 
 and have it more abundantly." (John 
 X :10.) Pray, too, for the clergy of this 
 diocese and their archbishop, that the 
 Good Shepherd may keep them all faith- 
 ful to the end, that among them all no 
 one will be found a hireling on that last 
 day, that we may all be numbered 
 among those over whom the angels of
 
 348 PASTORALS AND LETTERS 
 
 heaven rejoice even more than over 
 those who have no need of penance. 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 
 ^GEORGE WM. MUNDELEIN, 
 Archbishop of Chicago.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA