Archbishop of Baltimore to Woodrow Wilson
Title
Archbishop of Baltimore to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Gibbons, James, 1834-1921
Identifier
WWP25556
Date
1918 November 27
Description
Gibbons passes on a message from the pope.
Source
Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence
Catholic Church
Contributor
Anna Phillips
Relation
WWP25557
Language
English
Provenance
Document scan was taken from Library of Congress microfilm reel of the Wilson Papers. WWPL volunteers transcribed the text.
Text
To the President of the United States.
My dear Mr. President:
I thank you very much for your courteous reply to my last letter. I have taken the liberty of transmitting your letter to the Holy Father, as I know it will be a consolation to His Holiness.
The Holy Father has, both in letters and in private conversation, so often expressed his great admiration and confidence in you, that I have taken it upon myself to do also what has long been in my mind, which is to make the following request of you. I know that it will give the Holy Father increased confidence and courage to know that you are going to be present at the Peace Conference, for as you will remember in the last message that I had the honor to convey from His Holiness to yourself, the Holy Father expressed to you his conviction that all humanity trusted to your ability and impartiality. I have since learned that while you are abroad you will visit Italy and I take for granted that you will go to Rome, and this brings me to the point of my request.
My dear Mr. President, as an American as well as a Catholic, as one who is bound to you by the bonds of Patriotism as I am bound to the Holy Father in the bonds of religion, I ask you in the strongest and most affectionate manner of which I am capable not to leave Rome without paying a personal visit to the Pope. I ask you to do this not only because it will be a great consolation to the Holy Father who so admires and trusts you, not only because it will bind the hearts of Catholics to you forever, but because it will delight the hearts of all good men, who whether they agree with the Holy Father in religion or not, at least recognize him as the representative of the greatest moral authority left in the world, and because you, Mr. President, in the opinion of all men, are the one who raised the late war from the plane of national jealousies into the plane of idealism and made it a conflict and a struggle for justice, for righteousness, for liberty and for nothing else. I say then that this will give delight to all men of good will to know that you have not disregarded or slighted the representative of the moral order.
I feel sure that I have only asked you to do what you have already determined in your heart to do, but which I felt it was nevertheless my duty to put before you.
I am, my dear Mr. President, with sentiments of the highest esteem,
Very sincerely Yours,
J. Card. Gibbons
Archbishop of Baltimore
My dear Mr. President:
I thank you very much for your courteous reply to my last letter. I have taken the liberty of transmitting your letter to the Holy Father, as I know it will be a consolation to His Holiness.
The Holy Father has, both in letters and in private conversation, so often expressed his great admiration and confidence in you, that I have taken it upon myself to do also what has long been in my mind, which is to make the following request of you. I know that it will give the Holy Father increased confidence and courage to know that you are going to be present at the Peace Conference, for as you will remember in the last message that I had the honor to convey from His Holiness to yourself, the Holy Father expressed to you his conviction that all humanity trusted to your ability and impartiality. I have since learned that while you are abroad you will visit Italy and I take for granted that you will go to Rome, and this brings me to the point of my request.
My dear Mr. President, as an American as well as a Catholic, as one who is bound to you by the bonds of Patriotism as I am bound to the Holy Father in the bonds of religion, I ask you in the strongest and most affectionate manner of which I am capable not to leave Rome without paying a personal visit to the Pope. I ask you to do this not only because it will be a great consolation to the Holy Father who so admires and trusts you, not only because it will bind the hearts of Catholics to you forever, but because it will delight the hearts of all good men, who whether they agree with the Holy Father in religion or not, at least recognize him as the representative of the greatest moral authority left in the world, and because you, Mr. President, in the opinion of all men, are the one who raised the late war from the plane of national jealousies into the plane of idealism and made it a conflict and a struggle for justice, for righteousness, for liberty and for nothing else. I say then that this will give delight to all men of good will to know that you have not disregarded or slighted the representative of the moral order.
I feel sure that I have only asked you to do what you have already determined in your heart to do, but which I felt it was nevertheless my duty to put before you.
I am, my dear Mr. President, with sentiments of the highest esteem,
Very sincerely Yours,
J. Card. Gibbons
Archbishop of Baltimore
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Collection
Citation
Gibbons, James, 1834-1921, “Archbishop of Baltimore to Woodrow Wilson,” 1918 November 27, WWP25556, World War I Letters, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.