The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-05-11
BISHOP FITzGERALD'S ''NoN PLACET."
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ber 1869 He was in Rome in attendance at the
Vatican council. | was surprised that so Young a
mamie was only 32-had been honored with the
pectoral cross and mitre | was also surprised to
learn from him that he walked out from his odg-
ings in the Via Romualdo, and was going to walk
back In Rome, everybody who is anybody. takes
carriage, if only for three blocks Noblesse
oblige as the French say and one must conform to
the established customs of the country | insisted
upon him taking seat in my carriage, and, OH our
way to the city, began intimacy of association
and companionship which ended only when he left
Rome. No S., via Romualdo, to which number
drove him, unpretentious but respectable
looking house. At his request [ dismissed my car
riage and accompanied him to his room His soil
tary apartment was bare of all but absolute neces-
sary furniture, a rather large sized crucfx and
few books. In the charm of his conversation his
manhood and the simplicity of his manner | forgot
the modesty. | going to say the poverty of his
abode He frequently dned with me at nv hotel
the Albergo Alemagno which, some of your read
ers may remember, on clean little street. lust
off the Piazza d'Espagna. Bishop Fitzgerald had
all the marks, the sincerity the humility, the strong
faith and unobrusive pety of the apostolic age If
l had any fault to find with him. it was that he did
not dress for the important role he played on the
ecclesiastical stage He was stalwart, manly man.
typical missionary bishop who had served his APP
premiership for the episcopate in rough and lonely
country missions. | learned after a time that his
diocese was then poor, and that to make ends meet
in the expensive city of Rome he had to form the
acquaintance of a rather rigid economy. ] even
suspected that he OF a dozen or so of bish-
ops in partibus infidelium whom the Holy Father
helped out to enable them to attend the Ecumencal
Council. His death completes. [ think the necr-
oogy of the North American bishops who were pres
ent at the Vatican Council. They were great men.
many of them emnently so, and while not of com
handing intellectual force, the bishop of Little
Rock was as a conscientious churchman and an
upright, honorable man, the peer of the best among
them. God rest his soul.
Green be the turf upon thee.
Friend of my early days.
None knew thee but to love thee
None name thee but to praise"
And that they all gone / violate no
confidence, nor will | evoke any unpleasant memo
ries among the living, if | record the history Of
the famous "Non Placet'' vote for which Bishop
Fitzgerald was so unjustly censured at the time.
Never was there an assembly of great and eminent
men, where the liberty of discussion and debate was
more encouraged than that of the Vatican Council.
Particularly was this the case when the all i'm
portant question of the infalGbilitv of the Pope
was before the august assembly. 1t is true there
were two American bishops and four five Ger
who fought the nfability itself on scriptural
and patriotic authorities, but all the others con
ceded the logical and scrptura actually and neces-
sity of the DOGMA but sixty-eight of them contend
ed that the times not ripe for its proclama-
ton. Of these were Archbishop Kenrick of St.
Louis, Cardinal Schwartzmburg, Bishop Dupan-
loup, Archbishop Connolly of Halifax and sixty
four Others including Bishop Fitzgerald. Three
days before the debate the infallibility was to
close those who were opposed to the opportuneness
of the definition met by invitation in Grand Sale
of the Palace of Prince Respigiosi, occupied dur
ing the council by Bishop Dupanloup his secretary
and retinue. At that meeting it was resolved by
the siXtyseven archbishops and bishops present that
the day when the vote to be taken they would
all be present and vote non placet" that is at is
not pleasing to u.s." Remember. they were to pro-
nounce on the time not the infability which, with
the exceptions already mentioned, they all believed.
Well. on the morning of the vote on the supreme
issue, not of those who attended the meeting
at the Respigliosi Palace was in his accustomed
place in the brachio of st. Peters where the ses-
sions of the council held except the bishop of
Little Rock and an Italian bishop whose name do
not remember. What happened! This happened.
The morning before the vote to be taken an
emergency call to the Respiglios preates was sent
out They met in obedience to the summons early
III the day Suspecting that the anti Christian press
of Europe would twist their opposition to the pro-
camation of the infallibility into denial of the
infalhbility itself, a motion carried to leave
the Eternal City that night Not until the dogma
was proclaimed, and messages flashed all over the
world announcing the definition, it known that
siXty-fiye prelaes did not record their votes And
now we come to my large hearted friend. Bishop
Fitzgerald. The message sent to him to attend the
emergency meeting miscarrled. The first inti1na-
ton he had of the change of program was the sixty
five empty stalls in the council halls after the ten
minutes grace had expired the doors closed and
two of the noble guards sentry. Something un-
known to him had occurred. That was patent His
pledge, the pledge of an honorable man and an
honest churchman, was given; he was not and did
not ask to be released from what he deemed con-
scientious duty. As each bishops name was called
he rose in his place and in loud voice said, pla-
cet.' Four hundred and ninety-one bishops re-
corded their votes consecutively in favor of the
definition when the name Eduardus Fitzgerald was
called out by the secretary of the council. The
bishop of Little Rock rose to his feet, said 'non
nlacetn breaking the solidarity of the vote inviting