A Hint From Rome

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 28, 1909

A SIGNIFICANT hint was thrown out recently in Rome, whose evident intent was to involve President-Elect Taft in dealings with the head of the Catholic Church. There has been an agitation in this country for some time, the purpose of which was to influence the pope to appoint Archbishop Ireland as the second American cardinal. It was this agitation, or what grew out of it, that resulted some time ago in the recall of United States Ambassador Storey, and the appointment of another to take his place, while the papers were filled with the published correspondence of President Roosevelt and the ambassador. Concerning the matter a Rome correspondent of the New York Herald cables his paper as follows:—

The Herald correspondent is in a position to say that never before were the chances of Archbishop Ireland’s becoming the second American cardinal so strong as they are to-day. The president-elect is a warm personal friend of the archbishop, and this fact is now urged by the admirers of Mgr. Ireland as an additional reason for giving him a seat in the senate of the church, and if the president-elect will express a desire to have this honor bestowed on the archbishop of St. Paul, the appointment is as good as certain.

The question naturally arises, What has President-Elect Taft, or any other American official, to do with the pope’s appointment of a cardinal in the United States or anywhere else? Why should the friendship of the president-elect for a Catholic archbishop be used as a lever of influence with the Vatican unless it be the purpose of those using it to give the Catholic Church greater influence with the chief executive of the nation? And why should the pope yield to a non-Catholic “request,” while refusing to yield to similar requests from influential members of his own church, unless out of that yielding he expected an advantage which could not otherwise be obtained? It is the age-old scheme of entangling state officials with the operations of the church, that the influence of such officials may be made much of in other plans. There is no intimation that Mr. Taft will act upon the suggestion, but the way is open, the invitation to do so is extended, and some day it will be done. Were a Catholic in the presidential chair, however, instead of his being invited to make suggestions to the Vatican, suggestions would be made by the Vatican to him, and he would be expected to carry them out.