THE VATICAN IS DISAPPOINTED by The Marquise de Fontenoy

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 4, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 23.

THE VATICAN IS DISAPPOINTED.

By The Marquise de Fontenoy

[The Marquise de Fontenoy, in S. F. Exam.]

PROFOUND is the disappointment which prevails at the Vatican in consequence of the failure of President Roosevelt to take any notice whatsoever of the pope’s pontifical jubilee. All of the rulers of the great powers of the world have sent special embassies to the Holy See for the purpose of presenting congratulations and good wishes to the one ruler, who, while universally acknowledged and recognized as a sovereign, has no dominions.

Even nations that are not strictly speaking in diplomatic relations with the papacy, and which do not maintain embassies or legations at the Vatican—such as, for instance, Great Britain and the Netherlands—have sent special missions—the Earl of Denbigh, with a large suite, having been despatched to Rome by King Edward, while Queen Wilhelmina has sent General Count Henry du Monceau, one of the principal dignitaries of her court and household. The Prince of Montenegro, who is the father-in-law of the King of Italy, has delegated Louis Vojnovich, while all the South American republics have commissioned special embassies for the occasion. Turkey and Japan actually are represented, and the only two powers—the one coming under the denomination of “great,” and the other of minor importance—that have taken no notice of Leo XIII.’s pontifical jubilee are the United States and Mexico.

This is all the more surprising, as there has been friendly intercourse in the past between the White House and the Vatican, and valuable gifts have been exchanged between former American presidents and the present pontiff. Some years ago Leo XIII. sent a superb volume containing reproductions and photographs of the newly restored Borghese galleries at the Vatican to the President—I think it was President McKinley—the work being identical with that which the pope was presenting to the other rulers of the great powers of the world. Some beautiful mosaics accompanied the gift. The President

responded in kind, so that there is a precedent for amicable intercourse.

The Italian Government does not take any offense at these special embassies. For Premier Crispi, in spite of his inveterate hostility to the Vatican, on the occasion of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of Leo’s Diamond Sacerdotal Jubilee, in 1897, which was recognized by the arrival of special embassies to the Vatican from all parts of the world save the United States, inserted a graceful allusion to the celebration as a “happy event” in one of the royal messages from the throne.

Of course it would not do for President Roosevelt to send any Roman Catholic prelate, since that would be contrary to etiquette, and give an altogether wrong idea with regard to the mission. All the special envoys are laymen, and if President Roosevelt sends anybody, he should despatch some prominent layman commissioned to express his good wishes, precisely in the same way that he is sending Dr. Curry to Madrid, with the identical object in view in connection with the coming of age of the King of Spain, and Mr. Whitelaw Reid to London, on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward.

It would constitute a recognition, not of the pope’s claims to temporal sovereignty, but merely of his efforts throughout the entire term of his pontificate to maintain peace between nations, to promote the respect of the masses for the duly constituted authorities, and to act in every dispute as a mediator. No one did more than Leo XIII. to induce Spain to yield to the demands of the United States in 1898, and to avert the conflict which subsequently ensued between the two countries.