The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-07-05
THE AMERICAN PILGRIMS IN ROME.
THEIR RECEPTION AT THE VATICAN,
Bishop Dwengers and Judge Theard's Addresses K
& the Holy Father.

Translated from the Journal.de Florence June Ill
a# come from the Vatican under the charm of
J the touching reception which our Holy Father,
the Pope, has given to the pilgrims who come
3 from the furtherest countries of America to
express to the Vicar of Jesus Christ the same
absolute devotion which was expressed to him.
month ago, by the pilgrims from France; to
share, like them, the anguish of their de-
spoiled and captive Father and to beg for
! themselves and their absent brethren that
apostolic beuediotion which has not ceased to
vivify all the works of our Faith, in ancient
and modern times.
The revolutionary writers, priding them
selves on their outrages, have not blushed to
represent the American pilgrims as tourists
uniquely desrous of making, at the return of
the beautiful season, an agreeable voyage at
the expense of fanatics who have assessed
Z: themselves to pay them. And do they not see,
these senseless calumniators, that, to procure
for these hundred and thirty pilgrims the
pleasure of an excursrn of several thousand
miles, it would be necessary to find, in each
State from which these pilgrims have started,
hundreds of fanatics, that ia, of Catholics, all
devotion and all zeal, who would assume the
expenses Of long and costly voyage,-and
that thus the absurd calumny, far from di min
ishing the Importance Of the demonstration
which has just been accomplished, would in
crease tf y
As for the rest, it is notorious that each of
the pilgrims undertook, with his own resources,
the voyage to Rome, although some among
them, in view of their limited means, must
Z have made real sacrifices to satisfy their fil:al
piety. 1t Is evident from this that the real
object of their pilgrimage attains to the
heighth of their sacrifice, and that this end
they achieved to-day when Plus *. appeared
to them radiant with vigor and health and
that it was given unto them to hear his revi-
vifying words.
"What Happiness it is for u.s." one of them
has just said to me, 6 to be able to contemplate
the prodigy which heaven, departing from the
rule which in certain way is traditional, con-
secrated by eighteen centuries of history, has
worked in sustaining beyond the years of
Peter, the august Pontiff who has known
no limits in his glorifcation of the Blessed
Mother of God, and who has not placed a
boundary to his paternal solictude for the
great Catholic family" ss-
The pilgrims, who were joined on the occa-
sion by he students of the American College
and some resident passing strangers in
Rome, wero introduced into tue vast hall of
the Consistory, where the Sovereign Pontff
presented himself at about midday, attended
by their Eminences, Cardinals Guibert, Guidi,
Borromeo, Panebianco, Archbishops Hassoun,
Howard, Pedriccini, De Merode, Mgrs. Rcci,
Pacca, sanminiatelli, Nardi, Chatard, rector of
: --.nerican College, etc.
Immediately Mgr. Dwenger, Bishop of Fort
Wayne, approached the throne and read an
address in Latin, of which the translation is
as follows:
Most Holy Edther.-You see prostrate at the
feet of your Holiness, sons who are from the
far West, and who, in these times of your
sffliction, have feared neither the ocean, nor
the earth, nor immense distances, in order to
contemplate in your person, st. Peter truly
sovereign Pontif, sovereign by sufferings and
e. by prosecutions, sovereign by patience, hope
and confidence in God.
Never has son so much desired to see the
father who is SO dear TO him, as we have de-
sired to see your Holiness; and distance has
not diminished our love; it has increased it.
abandoned as You. are by the princes of
earth aud confined in prison, we have not
abandoned you, but we have come from 80
great distance in order to testify, in the face
of the whole world, our devotion and our re-
spect for you, who are the Infallible Pastor of
the whole Church, the centre of unity of our
Faith, aud the Rock on which is built the
Church of God.
We wish that by you, worthy successor of
. st. Peter, our faith be confirmed and aug
mented.
Behold the long desired day upon which we
can see You and receive yonr benediction, not
only for "a ourselves, but for all the others who
Gcd their supplications with their tears for
you, who are prisoner!
They declare here with US that while being
friends of genuine civil liberty, they never
theless condemn, with all their hearts, the
tyrannical persecution of the Church of God
the part of those who boast of false
liberty and who wish to subject the soul and
the conscience not to God but to the civil
power.
beg, Most Holy Father, that one of us, in
the name of the lay pilgrims, be permitted to
express briefly our devotedness
Immediately after the reading of this ad dress,
which his Lordship delivered with evidences of
the most profound respect, Judge Paul Emile
Theard, of New Orleans, President of the pill.
grims' read before the Holy Father this mag
nifcent address which was several times inter.
rupted by applause:
Most Holy Father T..
Behold at your feet American pilgrims from
the various Dioceses of the United States of
America and of Cauada. We come from free