My dear Monsignor Pizzardo,
You were good enough to ask me yesterday to tell you over again in a letter what I stated to you in the course of our conversation. I do so now with very great pleasure.
When I was in Rome a few weeks ago Monsignor Borgongini Ducca gave me repeated assurances that a Papal representative would be sent to Dublin at the end of the Catholic Emancipation Celebrations in June. He would be a Chargé d'Affaires to be followed in a few months by a Nuncio or Internuncio. I conveyed these assurances to my government and although they felt somewhat disappointed that there was no apparent possibility of receiving a Nuncio straight away, they were exceedingly glad to be able to announce in the Parliament that the Holy Father would send a representative in time to secure that his entry into Dublin would form the great final act of the Emancipation Celebrations. They also immediately decided to offer to the Holy Father for his representative the house and grounds in the Phoenix Park situated immediately beside the residence of the King's representative. When conveying this offer to you yesterday I told you that the house was completely furnished and that for beauty and health of situation was unsurpassed even in our country. My Government, feeling that nothing would be too good for the representative of the Holy Father, also decided to cast aside all precedents established for the reception of representatives of secular monarchs and to give to the Papal Envoy a state welcome such as was never before given to any person coming to Ireland. Any other action on their part would be contrary to all our most sacred traditions, for we never have measured and we never shall measure our loyalty and devotion to the Vicar of Christ. He has been, and always will be, our first and greatest King, and we claim with all humility that no nation has ever given such ardent and constant proof of devotion and loyal service as our Irish Nation has given to the Rules of the See of Peter.
You will, therefore, easily understand, my dear Monsignor, with what poignant feelings of disappointment I learned, on visiting the Foreign Office in London last Friday, that His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State had informed Mr. Chilton on Thursday that no person had yet been thought of to fill the Irish post. And when I immediately conveyed the information to my Minister in Dublin, he cabled to me that my personal feelings of grief and disappointment were completely shared by all the members of my Government.
You have been so kind to me since the beginning of our very many conversations on this matter that I feel I can tell you with the utmost frankness what our innermost thoughts have been, and I have no fear that you will quarrel with the manner in which I formulate them to you in this friendly exchange of communications. We feel deeply wounded at what appeared on the first impression to be a grudging measure for a measure flowing over into time and space, and the wound was all the more painful because it appeared to be inflicted by Him who has all our affections and who - we know it so well - holds our country so near to His heart. But I now know from your lips that His Eminence made the statement to Mr. Chilton without referring to his papers, and that Mr. Chilton did not convey a precise interpretation of the Cardinal's mind as expressed to him. I need not tell you how greatly your assurance moved me, and how eagerly I sent on the good news to my Minister the moment I had left the Vatican.
You remember how strongly I urged upon you the need for regarding the appointment to Dublin as one of exceptionally great importance to the Church as well as to Ireland and to the English-speaking Catholic world. I recalled to your mind that the Irish-born members of the Vatican Council were second in number only to the Italian, and you generously acknowledged that the importance of the Irish race as a factor in the growth of God's Church had gone on increasing since then, until at the present moment that race represents the most powerful element for the progress of Catholicism in the most powerful group of States that the world has ever seen. You have followed - as we have - with profound emotion and gratitude to God the progress which the Church has made not only within the group of nations known as the British Commonwealth but also in the United States of America, and you realize - as we do - that that progress is due in a pre-eminent degree to the work and untiring zeal of our Irish people.
Taking advantage of the fundamental agreement between your views and those of my Government, I urged upon you with greater boldness than I had hitherto ventured to use in my relations with you that the situation was ripe and the opportunity appropriate for the appointment of a full Nuncio. The news of the approaching establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and the Holy See has been received with extraordinary enthusiasm in the Catholic press of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United States of America. It would be superfluous to add that the enthusiasm which greeted the news in Ireland was without limit or qualification. I enclose a cutting from the principal Dublin morning paper giving the text of the Minister's speech in the Chamber. You will agree, on reading it, that no such expression of loyalty to the Holy See has ever been heard in the English language from any Minister of State since pre-reformation times, and you will not hesitate to conclude that the good results of such a formal and definite ministerial statement will not fail to be very far-reaching indeed.
In the rush and worry of the difficult task which has just been so happily concluded by the Holy See there has not been much time to consider the import of the events connected with the Centenary Celebrations of Catholic Emancipation in Ireland and Great Britain. In our country especially these celebrations are assuming a nation-wide aspect. They synchronize with the end of the first stage of reconstruction and the beginning of a new era of prosperity and happiness for our people under a native Irish Government. There could not be a more appropriate moment for the sending of a full Nuncio to our country when the eyes of the whole English-speaking world are turned in our direction. Such an act will not only show to the world that the Holy Father appreciates the importance of our island and our race in the full story of Christianity, but it will also give to the world a manifest proof that the Irish nation, having won a position of independent equality within the British Commonwealth of Nations, is no less loyal to the Holy Father than it was in the days of persecution. I am perfectly assured that the Holy Father will realize that this most desirable result can be much more surely and splendidly achieved by the appointment of a Nuncio than by introducing an intermediary step such as the appointment of a Chargé d'Affaires or Internuncio.
Dublin is in a very special manner the centre of the English-speaking Catholic world, and the gesture of sending a Nuncio there will evoke lasting echoes in every corner of that world.
We are now standing at a turning point of English-speaking Catholicism which is so very largely Irish Catholicism, and I beg of you, my dear Monsignor, in your conversation with the Holy Father and His Eminence to point out the necessity of making a gesture which may be adequate to the occasion.
In addition to the population of Dublin which with that of the immediate surroundings reaches about half a million we expect to have at least two hundred thousand visitors from the provinces and Great Britain participating in the Dublin celebrations. This vast multitude will assist at the entry of the Papal Envoy on the 24th June - the day after the great procession of the Blessed Sacrament, and will regard it as the culminating and crowning event of the celebrations and the opening of a new chapter in our history. Never again in our time in Ireland will there be such an opportunity to do honour to God by welcoming the Envoy of His Vicar on Earth. My Government feel convinced that His Holiness will not fail to appreciate its full importance and that He will accordingly grant their request.
Meanwhile, my dear Monsignor, my Government would like to have Mr. Bewley received as Minister Plenipotentiary at the earliest possible date. I shall raise the question with you tomorrow.
