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Show PRELATES AT CELEBRATION Four Hundredth Anniversary Anni-versary of First Catholic Cath-olic Diocese to Be Observed Ob-served San Juan. Porto Rico, Jan R In or dor to participate in the 400th annl penary of the creation of the first Catholic diocese In the New World, and the same anniversary of the arrival ar-rival of the first Catholic bishop in the Americas, Cardinal Farley of New York and Archbishop Blenk of New Orleans, who was formerly bishop of Porto Rico, are among the prelates from the I'nited States who will come to Porto Rico for the church celebration, celebra-tion, which will be from February L'.T to 27 Together with Bishop Norris of Little Lit-tle Rock Ark and Bishop Gunn of Natchez. Miss. Cardinal Farley and Archbishop Blenk will sail from Ne" York Saturday, February 1". An in vitation has been extended to all Catholic bi6hops in the United States to attend the anniversary ceremonies. The last day of the anniversary there will be a public demonstration In connection con-nection with the third Insular fair The diocese of Porto Rico is tho oldest Ca'holic diocese in the Americas Ameri-cas and was erected by Pope Julius j II in loll Bishop Alonso Manso ih' I first bishop to reach the New World, discovered bv Columbus reached Por to Rko in 1518. He died in 1539 and his body was burled in the cathedral In San Juan where the remains of many of thp fifty bishops of the diocese dio-cese have been deposited This ca Ithedral marks The site of the mother I church in the Americas, and while much of the present building is modern, mod-ern, parts of date back to earlv in 1600. Cardinal Farley will officiate at the-lirst the-lirst of the anniversary services R solemn high mass to be celebrated Sunday morning;, February 33 The following dav. Monday. Archbishop Blenk will officiate at a special serv i e. w hen the remains of Ponce de leon. the first governor of Porto Rk-u who died in his quest for the fountain of youth, will be, placed in a crypt in an elaborate monument erected in the cathedral Many churchmen t from other countries coun-tries are to partieipate in the anniversary anni-versary ceremonies, including Cardinal Cardi-nal Mmarez of Seville. Spain, who was eleated to the cardinnlate with Cardinal Farley a little more than a year ago BiBhop Estrada of Havana, Cuba. Archbishop Bernada of Sam, ago. Cuba. Bishop Rui?; of Pinar del Rio, and Bishop Aurelto of Cientuo-gos. Cientuo-gos. Cuba Archbishop Adolfo .Nouel of Sanio Domingo, who recently was chosen president of that country has sent vord to Bishop Jones of Porto Rico that his duties as president will prevent pre-vent him from coming to San Juan Through one of his priests President Nouel. who still remains head of the church in Sanlo Domingo, he has id vised Bishop Jones that if lie left Dominican Do-minican soil for eight days there would be another revolutionary outbreak out-break None of the d.oceses in the United States can compare In ane with the diocese of Porto Rico While St. Augustine. Au-gustine. Fla , was an established com-tiiuiui com-tiiuiui and bad a church .11 1566, yet It did not become a diocese until 1870. The first diocese in the United States was that of Baltimore, which was in-ated in 1 7 f New Orleans became the uext diocese In IT'O. v. hile New York. Boston and Philadelphia were created as sees In 1808. and are the aext oldest. With the coming of this anniver sary celebration many intTestinc bits: of church history have bren due up from old records. As far back as 1533 the high cosi Ol livlnR seems to have been problem i thai the first bishop in the Americas reckoned with for old records show that he oidered prepared a report "on the sin of usury and of buying and selling at inordinate price " At th" same time, records show that "Blsh top Manso commanded that a d-'r,., be read In the cathedral In San Juan exhorting usurers to go to confession I within a certain period of time, rlmt they might receive from the bishop or I his vicar-provisor salutary mej. in for their spiritual malady Should anv be rebellious, he must be reported report-ed And only a little later the church records show that there was a sucar tariff that Bishop Rodrigo Bastldas. who succeeded Bishop Manso thought needed revising so badly that ho wrote to the Spanish crown, saying "The new impost upon sugar will cause depression in business, which is already suffering. Det the Impost be suppressed" This was In l."44 In the same letter to the Spanish sovereign Bishop BaBtldaB wrote: "It would be convenient to estab llsh In this bishopric a school of grammar." gram-mar." Me reported other affairs in Porto Rico to the crown indicating a finan clal depression about that period He wrote Work on the cathedral has been suspended owing to the scarcity of funds and we beg you to give an alms "The employes of the treasury attend, at-tend, 1 believe to their work well, but there Is so little to do that four are too many and two wouid suffice iz The treasurer and the auditor "I have Inspected the Fortaloza and Morro castle They are good forts but there is need of some artlllerv The Fortaieza is the present resl deuce of the governor of Porto Rico while Morro ca6tle was one of the fortifications fired ou bv Admiral Sampson In 1898. It still stands In I an "ALwIlent stale of preservation. Records recently found give the lo-' BM ' 1 1 ration of many old crypts unflei the cathedral in San Juan One of tbest proved to be the burial place of bis h op do Soils, who died In 1841 Of this bishop the records say thnt he en torcd the priesthood after the death of hiH wife and that he had -both per formed and receUed all the MCr rnents of the church " His dentil followed fol-lowed a pilgrimage ihrough the diocese dio-cese during which It is recorded that he baptized 10.000 Indians Old church documents show that the present bishop's palace was pur .-based In 1738 by bishop Sebastian Lorenzo Jlzarro who "spent 4 000 pesos pe-sos in repairs." no I |