The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-03-18

America was indeed, what the present
Pope has called ''the blooming strength
of the Catholic church." And because
it promised so much it deserved some
thing, and before the mission had end
ed the Holy Father had agreed to the
establishment of a Catholic University
at Washington. The University is
there, and Archbishop Ireland, with
Archbishop Keane, are in many ways
the cause of it. Archbishop Keane was
later its rector. The next year, Father
! Ireland was made bishop and on May
Is, of the year, the diocese was made
an archdiocese, with Archbishop Ire
land its first primate.
His work as archbishop is probably
beyond possibility of criticism. That
is, Of course, after you have allowed
him to brush away the cloud Of oppo-
sition which always envelopes bold
man who dares to assert himself. For
the archbishop is thoroughly ambitious
won't tolerate anyone who isn't,
even though he holds as a cardinal
principle the belief that everyone is
individual and should be thinking for
themselves. Fourteen years, ago the
city Of st. Paul wanted to educate
some of it's children, but they had no
school and didn't relish the expense
of building one. Archbishop Ireland
had school, parochial school, and
teachers enough, but the means Of pay
ing them wasn't easily available. So he
proposed to the city that he should
open his school at Faribault to the
children of the city, Catholic and
Protestant, and that the city should
pay the expenses of educating. The
plan was agreed upon. The late Arch
bishop C"rrigan of New York, opposed
it vigorously. Archbishop Ireland
worked the matter so that his own
children assembled at $50 and heard
mass in the chapel, and the other
children We're dismissed at $3.50 when
his own had Catechism. Everybody
Works archbishop objected strenousIy
to what he thought was too LIBERAL
policy, and when the Saltwater scnool
adopted the plan, carried his appeal to
Rome. The question was threshed
out, and on April 60 1892, the Congre-
CATION of the Propaganda issued a
statement, saying that Archbishop
| Ireland's plan was a good one. Pope
Leo favored it, but no provisions We're
made for extending it. That was the
| triumph No. 1 scored for his indivd-
| uality.
y few years ago-in 1890 think it
was-a French translation of the life
of Father Hecker, the Paulist Father
was circulating, when it was discov-
cred that the preface of the book was
written by Archbishop Ireland, in
which st. Paul's primate had praised
| Father Hecker as Il model priest. The
books teachings were denounced and
the Pope issued Il special encyclical
condemning it, under the name
"Americanism." Archbishop Ireland
happened to be in Rome at the time.
He read the encyclical, went to the
Vatican, and showed them very
plainly that misconceptions about the
book had arisen, and that they had
arisen through Il poor translation Of it.
His book proved to be entirely ortho-
doN, and the ban against it was raised.
Again Archbishop Ireland triumphed,
and this time, against the odds which
cmperors and kings in medieval times
have bowed to.
There was boldness to be sure, but
it was sincerity, and In the end it as
serted itself triumphant. Pope Leo APP
preciated fully, this man among men,
for such indeed he had proved and I'M
til his death two years ago, Pope Leo
was constantly calling upon st. Pauls
archbishop for counsel and advice.
| When the relations between church
and state in France first appeared
| threatening, Pope Leo asked Arch
| bishop Ireland to go to the Parish and
arrange matters. He begged that he
might be allowed to go, not as an arch
bishop, but as an ordinary priest, and
the request was granted. After re-
ception in London, ut which, as Arch
bishop ireland he had. received the
royal representatives Of the United
| Kingdom. he went to Paris, and reg
istered ut the Grand Hotel as John
Ireland. The room assigned to him
was better for a criminal, but he took
it. said it was small, but good enough,
coed enough" \ French dignitary,
getting word probably from London
that the archbishop was in Paris,
secured the hotels. and finally asked
the Grand Hotel people for Archbishop
Ircland's room.
why, we have no archbishop in
this hotel" was the answer.
but lie must be here. no other hotel
has him. Arc you sure?'
We'll, there's Il John Ireland regis
tered, but he isn't an archbishop"
Further inquiry proved that he was
the archbishop, and when the French
official saw him and noted the quarters
he was in, he blurted out in rage: