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Show POPE UNDER OUR STARRY FLAG. ! Pius X Thus Photographed in a Group of Ameri-! Ameri-! can Pilgrims at Rome. I A correspondent of the Church Progress of St. j Louis, one of the party of American Catholics in j the pilgrimage to Rome, relates this incident: J "Monday, July 31, shall forever be a red loiter day in the life of our pilgrims. Our audience with the holy father was fixed for .":30 p. m. At 5 p.' m. we all arrived at the Vatican and were ushered into the reception room. Promptly at the appointed time the Pope entered. 1 cannot describe my feelings feel-ings when I iirst saw him. I could not realize that ; I was in the presence of the father cf Christendom, j We were all kneeling in line around the sides of j the hall. As his holiness came down the line offer-ii:g offer-ii:g the fisherman s ring for each of us to kiss. Bishop Keiley named the states we were from. I ( felt as I kissed the ring that my cup of earthly happiness hap-piness was full, indeed. After we all had kissed the ring Bishop Keiley presented an address to the holy father, signed by each of the pilgrims, to which the holy father replied in Italian, lie spoke for fifteen fif-teen minutes in a clear, distinct voice, with most graceful gestures. He praised American Catholics for their loyalty and devotion to the holy see. saving sav-ing that no country was dearer to his heart than America; that he blessed its people, non-Catholic as well as Catholic: the former for their liberality I and good will to the Catholic church, and the latter J for their devotion to the church. Again we all knelt down, and he gave us and our relatives his I apostolic benediction. We were then ushered into j another room, where our party was arranged to have a' group photograph taken. In about two minutes, to our delightful surprise, the pope came in and stood in tlv? center of the line to be photographed photo-graphed with us. This was a favor never before conferred con-ferred by any pope to any other pilgrims of any other country. Just think of the holy father condescending con-descending to stand among plain American citizens to have his picture taken with ours. This favor fully proves the love he has for America and Americans. Amer-icans. I must not fail to mention that during the audience and in the photographic group that the stars and stripes were held by a beautiful young lady dressed in white. She was from Washington, D. C, and represented typical "Miss Columbia." |