p. 1226 | The Pan-American Mass by C. S. L.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 18, 1913

The Pan-American Mass

By C. S. L.

NOTHING has happened for some time that has so stirred the religious world and provoked religious controversy as has the announcement in the Catholic press and in the Pan-American official bulletin that the Pan-American Thanksgiving mass, celebrated in St. Patrick’s Church, Washington, D. C., was to be henceforth “a permanent institution,” and was now recognized as the “official celebration of Thanksgiving day.”

As soon as it was announced that President Wilson had accepted the invitation to attend the Pan-American Thanksgiving mass this year, the newspapers were filled with protests from the Protestant churches and the patriotic societies of Washington, D. C. The American Federation of Patriotic Societies, of Washington, D. C., first entered protest by sending to President Wilson a letter, reading in part as follows, and resolution:

“WASHINGTON, D. C., “Thursday, Nov. 6, 1913. “To his Excellency Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. “SIR: We beg the privilege of calling your attention to a custom in connection with Thanksgiving-day services in the District of Columbia, from which we trust you will feel free to depart. “During former-President Taft’s administration the local Roman Catholic hierarchy inaugurated a service to which were invited the representatives of Latin-American republics, the President of the United States, his Cabinet, and other national officials, the occasion being styled ‘the Pan-American Thanksgiving mass.’ These services have been held in the St. Patrick’s Church, located at Tenth and G Streets, N. W. “As you well know, the Thanksgiving-day service is distinctly an American feature, originating with our Protestant colonial forefathers of New England. It is also needless to say to you that the Latin-American republics bear only a political and not a religious relationship with this republic. In our judgment the Pan-American mass occasion was evidently designed to bring to the feet of the Roman hierarchy the leaders of our American republic. And we believe, with all due respect, that the formal invitation hitherto extended to the President of the United States to attend the said Pan-American mass has been official, and doubtless the Roman hierarchy

feel that in accepting the invitation and attending the said mass, the President of the United States relates himself to those occasions in an official way. “‘We respectfully submit this question: Do you believe that for the President of the United States to contribute to this function in this way is in harmony with the principles upon which this government was founded? And, further, while in no wise would we dictate to you in this matter, do you not think it wise, under all the circumstances, to depart from the custom of your immediate predecessors respecting the function mentioned? “‘With assurances of esteem and best wishes,’ etc.”

The following resolution was passed by the American Federation of Patriotic Societies, Saturday evening, Nov. 1, 1913:— “Whereas, The Thanksgiving proclamation of the President of the United States has been issued in accordance with the time-honored custom, and,— “Whereas, This custom is an American feature handed down by the fathers of the republic, and,— “Whereas, The Roman Catholic hierarchy of the District of Columbia has for several years conducted a service on that day, making the said service officially partizan and religious, inviting thereto the ambassadors and ministers of the Latin-American republics resident in Washington, together with the President of the United States and his Cabinet, therefore,— “Resolved, That the American Federation of Patriotic Societies respectfully tender to President Wilson this resolution as a protest against his following the custom of former-President Taft, who attended these functions officially with his Cabinet.”

There was also enclosed the following quotation, to prove that it was regarded as an official affair:— “The Pan-American Mass at Washington, D. C. “With the usual impressiveness and solemnity, the Pan-American mass, which has now become a prominent feature in the program of Thanksgiving day at the nation’s capital, was duly celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church, on Thursday, Nov. 28, 1912. This makes the fourth successive year that the Thanksgiving service at St. Patrick’s Church has been consecrated to Pan-America. The ready and appreciative response which has come from the diplomatic representatives of the Americas, as well as from the high officials and dignitaries of the United States, has made these exercises particularly notable, while the dignified and official character which the occasion has now assumed renders them unusually effective and inspiring.”—Bulletin of the Pan-American Union, par. 1, page 1158, issue dated December, 1912.

Immediately following this came the resolutions which were passed by the Ministerial Association of the Protestant churches of Washington, D. C. The protest was published in the newspapers. It is as follows:— “For the last three or four years there has been celebrated in St. Patrick’s Church, in this city, on Thanksgiving day, a solemn high mass, at which the President of the United States and some members of his Cabinet, the Chief Justice and several other justices of the Supreme Court, with a number of senators and members of Congress, have attended as the guests of honor. “This service is now called in the public press ‘the official celebration of Thanksgiving day,’ and is described in the Bulletin of the Pan-American Union as having an ‘official’ character, and every effort is made by the Roman hierarchy to give this Roman mass the color of an official function—as if it were generally recognized as a national service, and as if the President and his Cabinet by their presence wished it to be so recognized (which we are sure is not the case). “One of the organs of the Roman Catholic press (the Catholic Citizen of Milwaukee) states that ‘the Pan-American Thanksgiving-day high mass is now a permanent institution at the national capital;’ and says further, ‘One day in the year in which the bountiful Giver of all good things is acknowledged by the nation, as a nation, this expression of gratitude is made in a Catholic church, around a Catholic altar, by means of the one Catholic worship that is worthy of God, the sacrifice of the mass.’”

“Attendance of President

“The attendance of our chief magistrate and members of his Cabinet not once, but year after year, for four or five years, has been made use of to give color to the Roman claim that this service is now the official celebration of Thanksgiving day in our national capital. “This fact has been understood, both in the United States and in foreign countries, to give the Roman Catholic Church a prestige and a preeminence over all other churches, and has even been believed by people in Brazil and in Italy to show that America is not a Protestant, but a Roman Catholic country. “We protest against the presumption of the Roman Catholic press in putting forward the claims that the Roman mass is ‘the official celebration of Thanksgiving day’ in the capital of the republic. “We protest against the attempt to convert our national Thanksgiving day into a Roman Catholic festival, in a service entirely out of harmony with the history and the genius of our country and the spirit and purpose of the day. “We desire to give voice to the widespread feeling of indignation among the millions of Protestants in America against the efforts of the Roman press and the Roman hierarchy to exploit the attendance of our chief magistrate and some of his Cabinet (which we are convinced has been intended only as an act of courtesy and good will) for the purpose of glorifying the Roman Catholic Church and giving this service an official character, which it does not and cannot possess.”—Herald (Washington, D. C.), Nov. 29, 1913.

On the heels of this came thousands of protests from Protestant churches and religious and patriotic societies from all sections of the country. It was reported that three large mail-bags of protests arrived at the White House the day before the President went to the mass. The President refrained from any statement concerning the question, and attended the mass.

The Catholic clergy are jubilant over the affair, and regard it as a sweeping triumph over their enemies, whom Monsignor Russell, the pastor of St. Patrick’s Church, compared to a “peanut” trying to “impede an automobile.” But the affair is far from being settled.

President Wilson has been severely criticized by some of the ministers of his own (the Presbyterian) church, because he did not attend the Thanksgiving service in his own church, in harmony with his exhortation to all the people to repair to their own appointed places of worship on Thanksgiving day.

This affair has done much to increase the high tension of feeling between the opposing religious and political factions in this country. The lines of demarcation are being drawn clearer and stronger. To the student of prophecy, these evidences of coming events are very portentous, while to the casual observer they seem only fortuitous.

C. S. L.