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BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP IN CHRIST.

199

archives of the Baltimore diocese. Especially suggestive are those from the family of Professor Allen, of Pennsylvania University. Many are from the ladies of this family gentlewomen of the highest refinement and sensibility. All the members, male and female, appear to have held the Archbishop in not merely the esteem of a revered pastor and spiritual guide, but a friend most endeared to them by tenderest ties. Their letters breathe of this feeling-such a one as we are taught to believe existed among the early Christians, engendered by their realization of that fraternity in Christ which is the source of the holiest joy and charity in friendship. And yet there is not the least trace of that tendency which is known as pietism about those ingenuous communications. They treat of spiritual influences at times, no doubt, but they reflect the human side of life as subjected to the calm, benignant light of inward grace, and as a thing worthy of the free communion and the mutual sympathy of hearts in accord on the sublime things of faith and hope. The personality which could awaken such friendships and inspire so beautiful a sympathy in the work of life must have had something of the irresistible force of sweetness which made the saints of old subdue even savage beasts.

The storm which had long been menacing the country's peace was now beginning to mass its forces for an outburst. It was a most anxious period for the Church, both in the North and in the South. Every eye was turned on Archbishop Kenrick in that period of uncertainty and vague dread; he was looked to as the centre of illumination. Questions relating directly or indirectly to the one absorbing topic were addressed to him by prelates and clergy, all perplexed how to act consistently with their consciences and the welfare of the Church. It may be doubtful whether, since the days of Solomon,

any such trying problems ever demanded solution as in this crisis. The Archbishop bore himself so as to elicit the admiration of all. He gave no offense to any side: he simply acted as the minister of religion whose charity was due alike to foe and friend and whose sole object should be to hasten the work of peace by every means that seemed available to that end.

Still, the embarrassments of the Archbishop's position began to crowd in thick and fast. He was placed between two fires, figuratively speaking, while, owing to his own position as head of a border-state diocese, he was perforce obliged to adopt a position of watchful circumspection. Southern sympathizers were numerous in Maryland; Unionist adherents were keeping eye on these; the whole atmosphere was charged with suspicion and inflammable jealousy, ready to burst at any moment into a destructive conflagration. The distractions of the hour were augmented by the conflict of views pro and con. regarding the morality of slavery. Not a few of the Bishops and clergy of the South maintained that it was lawful and on moral grounds defensible. Amongst the Archbishop's correspondence we find reference to a pamphlet of Bishop Verot's in defense of slavery; also a long letter from a priest in the West Indies to the same effect, in which the writer states that he had offered to pay for a slave's liberty there, but the man had refused, saying he had too good a master.

Under date of April 28, 1861, Bishop Whelan, of Wheeling, wrote to the Archbishop complaining bitterly of the action of certain Northern prelates in allowing party sermons and permitting the display of flags in churches. Unless the churches were kept neutral, he pointed out, the victorious party on either side would find a good pretext for their destruction. The writer expressed his approval of the peace movement on the part of the hierarchy.

CIVIL WAR-JEALOUSY AND ESPIONAGE.

201

In a subsequent letter from Bishop Whelan it is seen that he had learned from the Archbishop of a rumor that an order had been issued for his (the Bishop's) arrest. The Archbishop advised him that he ought to be temperate in his expression of views. To this the Bishop replied that he had never said or done anything to warrant arrest; that he had been circumspect, and had only spoken in private, and had never counselled resistance to the Government. In this correspondence we find proof that even the office of a Bishop did not insure immunity from the general system of espionage prevalent in those calamitous days of mutual suspicion and selfish greed of the informer's guerdon.

During the same month the Bishop of Pittsburg (Dr. O'Connor) gave expression to his apprehensions of danger to the Church over the war. He told of his having raised the flag over the Cathedral, and of a speech which he had delivered to the "committee of fifty" having been misreported, even by the Catholic papers. He hated, the Bishop added, to take any part in politics, but the interests of the Church made it absolutely essential to do something to avert hostility. Later on, in May, he is found writing to say that his words had had a good effect in allaying hostility and disarming bigotry; even some had gone so far as to apologize for what they had previously said and to ask pardon. To the Bishop it seemed a providential arrangement that Archbishop Kenrick should be at the head of affairs at that critical juncture for troubled dioceses, and the force of the remark is easily apparent. "Where the troubles were the thickest," he wrote, "it appears Providence made choice of you to be there. As it was when you were in Philadelphia, so it is now in Baltimore.".

In that hour of grievous trial the task of the American Bishops was rendered well nigh impossible of fulfilment by reason of the partisan action of the Catholic press.

A deadly feud sprang up between Brownson's Review and the New York Freeman's Journal over the attitude of the Catholic population toward the question of slavery and the cause of secession. Even the well-meant efforts of Pope Pius IX. to avert war and compose the seething elements of coming trouble were slighted and almost satirized by Brownson, and His Holiness was told in effect, by the Review, that he had better set his own house in order before attempting to counsel peace in the States, at the expense of principle; the "non possumus" which he had given for answer when the demand was made for the surrender of his temporal sovereignty was also the answer of the United States when national dismemberment was the proposal to be considered. The Pope did nothing more than advise the whole American hierarchy to do all in their power to bring about the restoration of peace; yet the bitterness of sectionalism could see nothing in this humane and paternal act but an advice to surrender to the demand of the secessionists. If laws are compelled to be silent during war, the bitter experience of the Civil War in the United States would cause men who wisely love their country and recognize that a condition of peace is the truest blessing to wish that the press could also be brought under the same rule. Brownson's attacks upon the Catholicity of the Irish and their loyalty to the Union did incalculable damage in these deplorable years, and were the fruitful source of trouble in many dioceses. It was little wonder that he was distrusted and that the subscriptions to his Review during the war period fell away by two-thirds. The office of candid friend is never either grateful or profitable to any party. His attacks upon the loyalty of the Jesuit order proved equally embarrassing, and no less injurious to his own reputation. He himself, in his calmer hours, bitterly regretted he had ever published them.

INFLUENCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 203

CHAPTER XI.

FATHER SORIN ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE BLESSED
VIRGIN--THE LIBERALISTIC MOVEMENT-FA-

THER HECKER-DR. BROWNSON-MELANCHOLY
EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE ARCHBISHOP'S
SPIRIT--THE HORROR OF GETTYSBURG OVER-
POWERING THE ARCHBISHOP SUCCUMBS-A
PEACEFUL DEATH.

When it was resolved by the Baltimore Council to place the country under the patronage of the Immaculate Mother of God, it had not been, perhaps, anticipated what results might flow from this touching tribute to our Blessed Lady. Bishop Kenrick had from his early years been a devoted client of hers. It is not often that Catholics reflect seriously upon the full meaning of this formal recognition of the honor and influence of the Blessed Mother. It is only those who have had practical experience of the power which the cult of that exalted Mediatrix has always exerted that can fully appreciate its efficacy. There are some. thoughts the very entertaining of which is in itself a blessing, as the entrance of the bright and innocent of heart brings immediate sunshine into the gloomiest circle. Wonders have been wrought by the mere gazing on some beautiful picture or statue of the Blessed Virgin. It is given even to the painter or the sculptor who has taken her exquisite life as the inspiration for his ideal of her face and form, on canvas or in marble, to melt the hearts of the indifferent, or the scoffing and stir depths of reverence and love that had lain there unsuspected for years. Father Sorin, the founder of Notre Dame University, tells in a letter to Dr. Brownson that the beau

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