Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-12-12
BIOGRAPHY AND AlNERLCANLSM
CARDINAL. GIBBONS
Definite Biography Tells Career
of Notable American Ec-
clesiastic and Publicist

Allen 8. VIII, NJ. A., Lift. d., LID,
in his defnitive biography Of James
Cardinal Gibbins, quotes the Rev. DR..
Lyman Abbott as saying, In Plymouth
Church at a time of controversy when
a sort Of nownothinsism was rampant
II do not understand the folly of men
who would blot out the Roman Catholic
Church from this country. Thank God
for Cardinal Gibbons. Long may he
wear his red cap and his red cloak.
And II there could be an election now
and you and could vote, / would vote
to make him Pope"
An amusingly unintentional reflex Of
this ia found in the physical equipment
of '.The Life Of Cardinal Gibbons" (E.
p. Dutton & Co... The book proper
is appropriately bound in the shade Of
red reserved to members Of the Sacred
ther and is a papal purple.
James Gibbons was born in Baltimore
in 1884 and died there in 1921. DR..
Will, in his two portly and authorita-
tive Volumes, chronicles, usually topi-
cally, the fertile career that ran be-
tween these two widely separated dates.
It was a career that made Gibbons a
priest Of sanctity, a prelatc Of power
and achievement, publicist deeply In
tercsted in the affairs Of his country,
a citizen who held highest ideals OF his
privileges of being an American and
who was always ready to serve and to
inspire Americunisni, confidant OF
statesmen, and administrator Of wide
territory and vast revenues.
Detailedly the story Is told Of his
early days in Baltimore, his education
both In this country. and Ireland,
where the family had gone for his
fathers health, his return to his native
land, his education for the priesthood
he was a Nountaineer, as the gradu-
ates Of the old seminary Of Mount St.
Mary's are called-his notable service
us young man ut the Plenary Council
Of Baltimore, his vicariate in North
Carolina, his promotion to the Bishop
ric of Richmond, his translation to Bal
timore, his elevation to the archbish :
ops pallium. and his final sacerdotal
honor as cardinal.
On the side of public service are re-.
lated his chaplaincy on the Federal side
during the Civil War, his winning fight
at home and ut Rome against Cahen-
slcyism, an organized movement spon :
sored mostly by Germans to have for
eign language bishops and virtually
spiritual foreign colonization Of the
Church in America, In which he took de-
cisive action on the question of 'exclud-
ing foreign nationalist influences from
the American Church, following the
American national spirit promulgated
by Archbishop Carroll on the organiza.
ton Of the Church in the United States {;
his liberalism on behalf Of the right of
labor to organize; and Of free speech, as
evidenced in his attitude toward the
knights of Labor and American Fed
Grafton Of Labor, and toward Monsignor
Brann, one of Henry Georges most I'M
portant adherents in the single tax
movement; his sagacious and wholly
American stand In the settlement Of the
over by the United States of Catholic
Porto Rico and the Philippines his
patriotism in the World War.
Like John Carroll, he thoroughly be-
ieved In tho American system Of the
separation Of Church and State. DIR.
| VIII writes-and he had the confidence
of the cardinal-on this point: ''He
felt that the Catholic religion was safer
under the American flag than anywhere
else. The impartial but full protection
of that flag was the best shield for the
| Church's spiritual mission. She was
free in America, as the people were
free. None dared interfere, none in au-
thority thought of interfering, In the
internal affairs of the Church, directly
or remotely. Spoliation, to which the
Church in Europe was not stranger,
then or since, was undreamed Of where
the Stars and Stripes stood rs the SYM
Dol of guardianship for law and order"
This Life" may be said to be au-
thoritativc. For years before the car
dinal's death DR.. VIII had by arrange
ment almost daily talks with him, with
the understanding that the material
would be used in biography, and, In
fact, prepared such work on a smaller
| scale during the subjects life. (Thls was
the nearest Gibbons would heed the Oft
made suggestion that he write his auto
biography The cardinals diary of n
lifetime, the corporation of his imme-
diate friends as we'll as OF the hierarchy,
and access permitted to the archiepisco-
pal archives, have resulted in compre.
hensive, we'll -documented and usually
very interesting biography of great
American.