The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-04
Failure to Arrange Meeting Is Expected to Create
 Tremendous Stir
CONDITIONS IMPOSED BY
 VATICAN TIE CAUSE
Roosevelt Hopes Incident Will Be Treated as Merely Personal md Not Warranting Exhibition
 of Bitterness
..................

| Rome, April S-The audience which it was believed ex-President Roosevelt would have with the Pope on Tuesday
 next, will not take place, owing to con ditions which the Vatican has imposed and which Mir. Roosevelt refuses to &C., cept
 | Although the definite negotiations rea
 tive to the audience ended before MT. | Roosevelt left Egypt the announcement was withheld until after MT Roosevelt
 reached Rome tonight, at the solicitation of his American Catholic friends here,
 who believed that in the meantime the Vatican might change it's attitude. One
 of the former presidents American
 friends, who had been with him in Egypt.
 came to Rome yesterday without, how
 ever, any authorization from MT. Roose-
 welt, and interceded with Cardinal Merry | del Val, the papal secretary, in an en- deavor to avoid situation which. as | 1t now stands, has caused real sensa-
 tion in Rome although it was not en-
 tirely unexpected. But his efforts were
 unavailng.
 | While at Gondokoro in February last,
 Mir Roosevelt wrote to Ambassador
 Leishman. saying he would be glad of
 the honor of an audience with King
 Emanuel and the Pope. The audience
 with the king was promptly arranged. Before an arrangement could be reached
 relative to an audience with the Pope,
 several telegrams were passed and the
 negotiations were ended by MT. Roose-
 welt refusing in any way to be limited as
 to his conduct and announcing that an
 audience with the Pope under the cir | cumstances was now impossible. l As matter of fact, MT. Roosevelt, | while declining to accept any conditions | in connection with his audience with the
 Pope had neither directly or indirectly.
 before, during or after the negotiations,
 made or considered any engagements in
 Rome except those of official char
 aeter, and he actually entered Rome to-
 night with but two definite engagements
 the audience with the king, and the dn-
 ner to be given in his honor by the
 municipality.
 History of Negotiations
 The history ff the negotiatonL is about | as follows:
 While at Cairo, MT. Roosevelt received | the following telegram from Ambassador
 Leishman, dated March 23: | Manager Kennedy, rector of the Amer | ican Catholic college in reply to an in- | quiry which l caused to be made, re- quests that the following communication | be transmitted to you: The Holy Father will be delighted to | grant an audience to MT. Roosevelt on | April and hopes that nothing will arise | to prevent 1t, such as the much regretted | incident which made the reception of MT.
 Fairbanks impossible. Replying by cable to Ambassador Leish- | man on March 25 Mir Roosevelt said l "Pease present the following to Mama | ger Kennedy: It would be real pleas | ure to me to be presented to the Holy | Father, for whom I entertain high re- | spect both personally and as the head of | a great church. I fully recognize his en- | tire right to receive or not receive whom 1 soeyer he chooses for any reason that l seems good to him, and if he does not | receive me l shall not for moment | question the propriety of his action. on l the other hand, I in my turn, must de-
 cline to make any stipulations or submit | to any conditions which in any way l would limit my freedom of conduct. l | trust that on April he will find 1t con- | venient to recognize me. 1 On March 2S MT. Roosevelt at Cairo. | received a cablegram from Ambassador | Leishman giving a message from Mana ger Kennedy which concluded by say
 ing
 | ..The audience cannot take place except 1 on the understanding expressed in the | former message.
 The following day MT. Roosevelt sent | another message to the American ann | bassador, saying:
 '"rhe proposed presentation is, of course, now impossible.
 | Mir. Roosevelt particularly desires that
 the incident shall be regarded by his | friends both Catholics and Protestants.
 iu America. as personal. and that 1t shall not give rise to an acrimonious contro- versy. With this end in view he cabled
 today the following statement to the Rev 1 Lyman Abbott editor of the Outlook
 at New York:
 statement of Colonel Roosevelt l "1h,ough the Outlook wish to make | A statement to my fellow-Americans re- gal ding what has occurred in connection
 with the Vatican. l am sure that the
 great majority of my fellow-citizens, | Catholics quite as much Protestants. | will feel that l acted in the only way l possible for an American to act, and be-
 cause of this very fact I most earnestly
 hope that the incident will be treated | in manner, of course, as merely per
 sonal and, above all, as not warranting
 the slightest exhibition of rancor or bit | torness.
 | Among my best and closest friends are | marry Catholics The respect and regard
 of those of my fellow Americans who are Catholics are as dear to me us the re- | spect and regard of those who are Pro-
 teslants On my journey through Africa
 l visited many Catholic as well as many | Protestant missions.
 "As look forward to telling the people at homo all that has been done by Pro testants and Catholics alike. as l saw it | in the field of missionary endeavor. 1t | would cause me a real pang to have any ] thing said or done that would hurt or give | pain tc my friends. whatever their re- ligious belief. But any merely personal | considerations are of no conseouence in | this matter The important consideration. is the avoidance of harsh and bitter com ment such as may excite mistrust and anger between and among good men,
 "The more an American sees of other
 countries the more profound must be lis