The New York herald., 1922-12-17

admirable foresight in most things
during his life, but never more so
than in his choice of biographer. Car
dinal Gibbons was great American, an
American statesman in fact, and it is
proper that his life should be written by
a layman. so that the sides of his char
acter and phases of his life which were not
confined to his ecclesiastical activities
should be properly presented to posterity.
> Mr.. Will is a Catholic man of letters, Bal
timorean, n friend and admirer of Cardinal
Gibbons for many years. During the lat
ter portion of the Cardinals life he gave
him the advantage of many intimate chats
and also access to documents, through both
of which means Mr.. Will was given unusual
advantages as biogfapher
The career of Cardinal Gibbons spans the
period that saw the creation of a new ma
tional Catholic .church-the Catholic church
of the United States He was ordained at the
beginning of the civil war. which marks the
end of the anti-foreign, anti-Cathohc know
nothing movement. 1t was German and
Irish foreigners, in large part Catholic, who
supplied the man power that enabled the
North to win the war and afterward sup
piled the nation with men who helped de-
velop the West and found the great works
of transport and industry. Cardinal Glib
bons lived through all that period of de-
velopment that lasted until the end of the
world war, the beginning of a new period
for mankind, when an aged man might well
be satisfied to leave the reins of government
in younger hands.
The interest of this book lies in observ-
ing how under the leadership of men like
Gibbons the Catholic ethos was preserved
in all it's essentials, while at the same time
it's foreign aspects are modified to suit the
American spirit Theories. practices. polit-
ical ideals, racial customs. loyalties. which
were racy of the soil in Germany or Italy.
Ireland or France had to make way in
this new republic for developments con-
genial to the character of it's national life.
This was the work in which Gibbons
stood out as the most conspicuous leader
1t would be easy to select from this biogra-
ply many pages to prove his work as
parish priest or Catholic Bishop or Roman
Cardinal. things done within the fold and
without any special reference to affairs
national But he will always be best re-
membered IN state and church the
mouthpiece and leader of the determined
and victorious army of Catholics in this
country who have made up their minds
that their church must be not foreign, but
American; that it would not be an outpost
for foreign penetration into this country,
but rather an outpost for the penetration
of American ideals into the church uni
versal.
Nobody pretends that Cardinal Gibbons
achieved this alone, nor even that he or
any other one man was the chief factor in
the doing of il. 1t was determined by the
nature of things. Thevastness and fertility
of the land the generous political institu-
tions so fruitful of loyalty from the op-
pressed helped to make foreigners into
loyal citizens. Concerning one of the races
that helped to found the church joke was
current thirty years ago-"Children, what
are the chief products of Ireland?"
american citizens. ma'am."
Many Catholics from other lands, how
ever, had to contend with the disturbing
element of alien tongues. and a certain
amount of propaganda carried on by their
own Governments abroad. These factors
complicated the business of Americanizing
them. The Cahensly movement was started
to provide foreign groups with their own
special bishops and clergy. Possibly chan
relleries of Europe were at the back of
:his idea, but most of its prfpagandsts in
this country were influenced by the desire