The copper era., 1910-04-15
Roosevelt in Rome.

Soon after arriving in Rome, MT. Roosevelt himself publicly announced the breaking off of diplomatic over lures for au audience with the Pope. He inferred from the correspondence that the Papal authorities conditioned the audience upon his refraining from addressing the Methodist mission at Rome. Former Vice-President Fair banks had offended in this way and was consequently denied an audience. We give the correspondence with reference to MT. Roosevelt, as MT. Roosevelt has given it to the news papers, and verbatim as they reported it. While at Cairo MT. Roosevelt re- ceived the following message from the American ambassador at Rome, J. G. A. Leishman, dated March 23:
 Mgr. Kennedy, rector of the Ameri- can Catholic College, in reply to an inquiry which I caused to be made, requests that the following communi- cation be transmitted to youl "The Holy Father will be delighted to grant an audience to MT. Roosevelt on April 5th, and hopes that nothing will arise to prevent it, such as the much regretted incident which made the reception of MT. Fairbanks inn possible"
 Replying to MT. Leishman on March p, MT. Roosevelt said:
 Please present the following to Mgr. Kennedy: ''It would be a real pleasure to me to be presented to the al "a Xuh I fa in high respect, both personally and as the head of great church. I fully recognize his entire right to receive or not receive whomsoever he chooses, for any reason that seems good to him, and if he does not receive me 1 shall not for a moment question the propriety of his action. On the other hand, I in turn must decline to make any stipulations or submit to any conditions which in any way would limit my freedom of conduct. trust that on April 5th he will find it con venient to receive me-"
 On March 2S MT. Roosevelt at Cairo received a cablegram ID from MT. Leish man, giving a message from Mgr. Kennedy. which concluded by saying:
 His Holiness would be much,pleased to grant an audience to MT. Roosevelt, for whom he entertains high esteem, both personally and as the former President of the United States. His Holiness recognizes MT. Roosevelt'S entire right to full freedom of con- duct. On the other hand, in view of the circumstances for which neither His Holiness nor MT. Roosevelt is re- spousible, an audience could not take place except on the understanding expressed in the former message.
 The following day MT. Roosevelt sent another message to the Ameri- can ambassador, saying:
 ''The proposed presentation is, of course, now impossible"
 Through an editorial message to the Outlook from Rome on the 3rd, MT. Roosevelt issued an appeal on the subject to the American people in which he said:
 am sure that the great majority of my fellow citizens, Catholics quite as much as Protestants, will feel that I acted in the only way possible for an American to act, and because of this very fact I most earnestly hope that the incident will be treated in a matter of course way as merely per- sonal, and, above all, as not warrant ing the slightest exhibition of rancor or bitterness. . Bitter comment and criticism, acrimonious attack and de- fense are not only profitless but harm ful, and to seize upon such an incident as this as an occasion for controversy would be wholly indefensible and should be frowned upon by Catholics and Protestants alike and all good Americans.