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Show Bogus Roman News. HARDLY a day passes that we do not read some dispatch from Rome inspired by a correspondent correspon-dent of a London newspaper. One would almost imagine that these London Lon-don correspondents had entree to the Vatican as freely as they have access to the House of Commons and each had a desk and stationery provided for his convenience by the chamberlain of His Holiness. The last bit of gossip from Rome published in the London Chronicle is about an audience given Bishop Kei-ley, Kei-ley, of Savannah, Ga., at which the pope was strongly urged "to emancipate emanci-pate American Catholicism from the jurisdiction of the Congregation of the Propaganda, on the ground that the congregation was only intended to supervise su-pervise religious affairs in infidel regions." re-gions." It was also stated that Bishop Keiley voiced the wishes of a large number of American bishops for this proposed "emancipation." With that recklessness characteristic of correspondents ignorant of the duties du-ties assigned to the various officers of the Vatican, this one presumes that "infidel regions" is a good definition for missionary countries over which the congregation named has jurisdic- tion. Either that or his ideas of "infidel "in-fidel regions" are very vague. Infidelity, Infidel-ity, in the sense that it is a denial of Christianity and unbelief in revelation, is found everywhere on the civilized globe and is not confined to spots or "regions." During the Crusades the word infidel was applied to the Mohammedans Mo-hammedans by the Christians. In like manner the Turks did then and do now apply the same word to Christians. Some of the early Christian writers made use of it also In referring to pagans. pa-gans. But see the position in which this correspondent places Bishop Keiley, accepting the theory that he knows the meaning of words in his own English language. His report of that "audience" "audi-ence" is tantamount to a declaration from Bishop Keiley that the Propaganda Propa-ganda has jurisdiction only in those countries believing in the faith taught by "Mahomet. What a mess these English correspondents make out of a piece of Roman news! If Bishop Keiley really interviewed the pope upon the subject mentioned, it is most unlikely that the conversation was given verbatim or in substance to a kindergarten journalist such as this London correspondent proves to be. If Bishop Keiley spoke about enlarged benefices to the American church because be-cause it had outgrown what Is designated desig-nated as a missionary country, he did so on his own volition, just as any bishop might properly do in an audience audi-ence with His Holiness. Pope Leo is anxious to discover all that Is possible concerning Catholic conditions and sentiment sen-timent in this country, and no doubt the initiative in this conversation was taken by the pontiff himself. Nobody on this side of the water ever heard that Bishop Keiley was delegated by "a large number of American bishops" to express their longing to be "emancipated" "eman-cipated" from the Propaganda. |