A Truly Significant Occasion by S. B. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

A Truly Significant Occasion

By S. B. H.

AT the recent Thanksgiving-day service conducted at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, a situation was presented that is in keeping with the usual political strategy of the Roman Catholic Church.

Thanksgiving-day services in American churches are held presumably out of deference to and in response to the Thanksgiving proclamation of the President. The occasion is distinctively Protestant and American in its conception and practise. But the possibility of turning this national custom to her own advantage dawned upon the Catholic Church leaders in 1909, and accordingly a scheme was devised to make that which distinctly pertains to the United States a Pan-American affair. In this arrangement, the church apparently pays deference to the President’s Thanksgiving proclamation, and at the same time proposes that all the incidents connected therewith shall be arranged in such a way as to indicate that the church is carrying out an occasion of its own creation.

Upon the occasion referred to, the most notable personages present were President Taft and Cardinal Gibbons. As the clock struck eleven, a retinue of priests and altar boys came down the aisle of St. Patrick’s Church, leading in their wake the special ushers to the President, Mgrs. Russell and Cerretti. Then came the President, and, after a few minutes elapsed, a stately and more august incident came to pass,—Cardinal Gibbons, in gorgeous array, attended by a brilliant entourage of priests and pages, was ushered to the altar premises.

The services over, Mgr. Russell ascended the pulpit, and requested the audience to stand and remain so until the President and other distinguished guests had left the building; and, as if to deny to the executive of this great republic even a brief moment of fitting courtesy in permitting his exit to be first, he had to wait until the cardinal should pass down the aisle.

This Pan-American Thanksgiving service is without doubt an official function of the Roman Catholic Church. The local press of Washington in referring to this service spoke of it as follows:—

“The only official celebration of Thanksgiving will occur at St. Patrick’s Church this morning at eleven o’clock, where the third Pan-American Thanksgiving-day service will be held. President Taft, Secretary of War Stimson, and Secretary of the Interior Fisher, Chief Justice White of the United States Supreme Court, Justice McKenna, and representatives of all the Latin-American countries, will be in attendance. Cardinal Gibbons will assist at the mass.”—Washington Herald, Nov. 30, 1911.

Impressed with the pomp and circumstance of the incident, the Washington Herald, of Friday, December 1, again referring to the Pan-American Thanksgiving service, gives utterance to the following suggestive language:—

“If the state and the church were united in this country, the pomp and circumstance with which the third Pan-American Thanksgiving mass was celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church yesterday morning in the presence of President Taft, members of his Cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, members of both houses of Congress, the diplomatic representatives of twenty Latin-American republics and other countries, and members of official and resident society, could not have been more beautiful and impressive.”

S. B. H.