Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-03-23
APPEAL TO Pope
TO END DISPUTE
Archbishop ireland at Odds
With Father Harrison and
Prominent Layman.
DlSSENSlON IN ST. PAUL
Priests Friends Assert Unfair Treat
ment in Raising Funds for New
Church-Say Promise
Was Broken.

st. Paul, Mimi. March 19.-Almost
simultaneously with the departure for
Rome of Archbishop John ireland, of
this city, announcement is made that
a controversy involving him on n
side and Father J. I. Harrison and
Daniel w. Lawler, a prominent Cath
plic layman of St. Paul, on he other,
has been reierred to the vatican for de-
cision and promises to result in sensa-
tional revelations. 1t is whispered In
church circles here that Archbishop Ire
land is to he appointed a curia car
dinal and TO take up his permanent
residence r. Rome, but members Of the
Harrison party declare their belief
that he has been summoned by the
holy see to explain his actions.
According to the friends OF Father
Harrison, who was for many years in
charge Of st. J~oseph's parish in st.
Paul, he was instructed by Archbishop
ireland in 1900 to set about the build
ing Of "a church to cost $4,000, and
II committee Of pariShione~s, OF which
Mr.. Lawler was chairman took the
matter in hand and raised that rSfount.
Subsequently, ii is charged, the Arch
bishop decraed that the church should
cost 500, 900, and before the -four years
prescribed for its completion the COM
mittee has raised $4,000 and arranged
to obtain the remainder.
A site was selected at Dayton and
Western venues, in the fashionable
residence district, for which $33, 900 was
paid, and the work of erection was be-
gun.
When tho project had progressed thus
far, it is ayered, the archbishop an
nounced that st, Joseph's parish had
been Joined to the Cathedral parish,
and therefore did not need a new
church. but instead a cathedral to cost
81 0nn mn would ha nrlpfn1 on SnIhU
Hill.
Priests Friends Indignant.
Indignant because all their previous
work had gone for nothing owing to
this change, supporters Of Father Har-
rison declared the action virtually legis-
lated him out of office. They were es-
pecially chagrined because it a been
believed that If Father Harrison sue
iceeded in building the 500, 900 church
he would ave been made an irremov-
able rector.
Meantime Father Harrison had been
assigned to take charge Of st. Stephens
parish in Minneapolis, but he filed a
request for a vacation on the ground Of
i'll health, which. his friends say, was
refused by Archbishop Ireland.
The committee Of which Mr.. Lawler
is chairman then called a meeting of
the p%arishioners of st. Joseph, who had
.IollII lpuNSu ~ NAAS 1AhAN'' $1,000 NAhsA
resolutions were adopted asking the
archbishop to reinstate Father Harri-
son or return the money contributed
for the building of the church.
According to the version OF the Law
Ter faction, the archbishop's answer to
this was a refusal to restore the priest
or return the $35, 900 to the parishioners.
Friends of Father Harrison then bought
for him a house, which he occupied for
several months, and are now said TO be
paying his expenses at a hotel In San
francisco pending settlement of the
controversy.
IT was at this stage Of the proceed
ings, in June, 1904, that Father Harri-
son sent a communication stating his
side of the facts to Rome, where 1t was
referred to Mgr. Falconio, papal dele
gate in Washington. The Lawler COM
mittee also filed a separate appeal TO
Rome.
Reach an Agreement.
Before Mgr. Falconio had been able
to take up the case Archbishop Ireland
and Father Harrison met in Wash
ington, and, supporters of the latter
assert, came to an agreement which
was TO dispose Of the whole diff
Guilty. The priest, who was to nave a
parish again. agreed to submit TO the
archbishop, who thereupon ~reinyested
him with all the ecclesiastical func-
itions of which he had been deprived.
Both men returned to st. Paul, but
only a few weeks had passed when
Father Harrison's friends again came
to the front with the assertion that
Archbishop Ireland was not living UP
to the terms of the agreement.
Representations to this effect were
made to Rome, as a result OF which
Cardinal Gotti, project OF the propa-
ganda, wrote to Mgr. Falconio, in
structing him to examine into and re-
port upon the agreement said to have
been made by the archbishop and the
priest and whether 1t had been broken.
About the same time statements were
circulated that a layman in New York
had received an offer of $4,000 If he
should obtain the elevation OF Father
Harrison to a bishopric. but these
statements were repudiated by both
sides.