Religion: Papal Week

Achilla Ambrogio Damiano Ratti, Pope Pius XI, is surely one of the world’s most busy men. Last week especially did he toil in the hushed and shadowy gardens of the Vatican in Rome. A large part of his labor was, to be sure, of a somewhat contemplative variety; the eyes of his attention, diverted always to the odd corners of the world, rested upon the U. S., where the affairs of the Roman Church flourished exceedingly.

The Pope promoted one of his most able U. S. lieutenants. This was the Right Rev. Thomas Joseph Walsh, formerly bishop of Trenton, N. J., whom Pope Pius elevated to the Bishopric of Newark. At the same time the Pope appointed the Rev. John J. McMahon of Buffalo to fill the vacated seat of Trenton.

More tidings arrived in Rome from Scranton, Pa., to inform His Holiness that the Right Rev. Thomas C. O’Reilly, former pastor of the Church of St. John the Evangelist at Cleveland, Ohio, had been enthroned as Bishop of the Scranton Diocese. Perusing these, the Pope was able to imagine the city-wide scenes of jubilation which had marked the splendid event. He perhaps pictured to himself the flag-filled town, the excited citizens, the procession of 400 clergymen, the important witnesses, the strange and architecturally miscellaneous cathedral to which humble U. S. worshippers came, and at which non-Catholic passers-by gazed with wonder and dismay.

The attention of His Holiness was not, however, directed entirely toward the actions of his U. S. servants. He spoke to 1,000 new members of the Catholic Youth Associations on the subject of athletic and other amusements, saying in heartfelt manner: “Amusements serve to refresh the spirit which otherwise would be too strained and unable to perform with satisfactory capacity its high noble functions.”

Several circumstances in the city of Rome demanded the Pope’s attention. One was the solemn benediction performed, near the Forum, by an abbot and a troupe of assorted monks, upon a bevy of parked automobiles. Holy water was sprinkled upon the radiators of the cars in honor of Santa Francesca Romana, a patroness of motorists. The other circumstances were connected with Vatican Bond Issue, sold in the U. S., to finance the building of the College for the Propaganda of the Faith, potent Catholic Missionary institution. The Pope had summoned George William Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago to Rome, so that he might see the cornerstone of the college laid (TIME, Mar. 5); last week, the Cardinal was expected soon to arrive at the Vatican, but the cornerstone laying would, it seemed, be delayed by the illness of Willem Cardinal van Rossum, present head of the Propaganda Fide. This was unfortunate, because Cardinal Mundelein had contemplated an almost immediate return to the U. S.

Perusing the Vienna Roman Catholic Church Gazette, His Holiness noted that St. Paul’s Church in Vienna had been conducting services for three days “in atonement for outrages on morality” committed by Josephine Baker, Negress dancer, who had been performing next door at the Johann Strauss Theatre.

Most noteworthy perhaps, of all his week’s work actions, was the one which Pope Pius took upon the subject of marriage annulment, a matter of especially spectacular import since the case last year of the Duke of Marlborough and his Duchess, formerly Consuelo Vanderbilt of Manhattan. The matter of annulments, where only one of the parties is a Roman Catholic, hitherto decided by the Tribunal of the Sacra Rota, will henceforth be taken out of this body’s jurisdiction. The Congregation of the Sacred Office, composed of nine cardinals and Pope Pius as chairman ex officio, will deliberate and pass judgment upon all such annulments.