On the Luneta

(See front cover) In Vatican City a little more than two years ago, the hale Holy Father of the world's 331,500,000 Roman Catholics briskly bestowed his approval upon a decision tentatively made by the Permanent Committee of the Perpetual International Eucharistic Congress. Since 1881, under the guidance of this Committee, 32 great gatherings of Catholics had been held, as religious demonstrations against secularization, in such great cities as London, Chicago, Sydney, Buenos Aires, in such holy places as Lourdes and Jerusalem. The 33rd Eucharistic Congress, agreed the Committee and Pope Pius XI, would go to Manila in the Philippines, "Pearl of the Orient" not only to travel agents but, in the most spiritual sense, to the Church which shepherds 82% of its 18,000,000 souls, proudly claims them as the only Christian nation of the East.

Last month as preparations for the Manila Congress went forward, Pius XI lay racked with pain, dying some thought, in his third-floor chamber in the Vatican. To his bedside one day went a visitor who could not be put off, an old friend and trusted servant from across the Atlantic: Dennis Joseph Cardinal Dougherty, 71, Archbishop of the See of Philadelphia (824,250 Catholics), Metropolitan of the Province of Philadelphia (2,080,788 souls in six Sees), Titular Priest of Rome's Church of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo, member of the Congregations of the Sacraments, of Sacred Rites, for the Oriental Church, for the Propagation of Faith. Upon bull-framed, square-jawed Cardinal Dougherty, as vigorous a man physically as the Holy Father now was frail, Pius XI had chosen to bestow a high honor, sending him as Legate a latere--spiritually and literally "from the Pope's side"--to the Congress in Manila. Emerging from the Vatican after a half-hour visit, loyally declaring that the Pope looked "well, bright and cheerful," Cardinal Dougherty said the Holy Father's message to his children in Manila was: "Pray for the re- establishment of peace in a world which needs it badly."

As befits one who goes forth on a mission representing the person of the Pope, Legate Dougherty assembled a retinue in Rome and with bands blaring embarked at Naples on the S. S. Conte Rosso, flying the yellow-&-white Papal flag and carrying twelve altars for the devotions of its passenger list.

Eastward the Cardinal's passage was almost regal. He inspected II Duce's colonial Massaua, dedicated a new.-cathedral at Port Said, unflinchingly visited lepers in Colombo, enjoyed receptions in Bombay and Singapore. But always during the 22 days the Conte Rosso sped eastward the ship's wireless brought disturbing word of the Holy Father's health. Fifteen years ago storms at sea kept Dennis Cardinal' Dougherty from taking part in the conclave which elected Pope Pius XI after the death of Benedict XV. Last month, honored though he was as the first U. S. Prince of the Church ever sent as Legate to an international Catholic gathering, Cardinal Dougherty stood ready to disembark at any port, fly back to Rome, delegating his Legate's powers as he had made sure he was canonically allowed to. But that proved unnecessary; the Pope lived on.

Bells & Whistles-No other church on earth has the taste for pomp of the Roman Catholic Church, or possesses such a world-wide organization geared to deck a city with yellow-&-white flags, provide a week-long demonstration by happy, enthusiastic masses. The Committees of the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress included even a Committee on Bells & Whistles, and last week when the Conte Rosso ploughed into Manila Bay all the bells in the city, all the craft in the Bay, including 15 "floating hotels" for Congress pilgrims, set up a prodigious din while 25,000 Filipinos cheered on the Luneta, the city's spacious waterfront park. Welcomed by Manila's Archbishop Michael J. O'Doherty, Mayor Juan Posadas, and the pious Vice President of the Commonwealth, Sergio Osmena, Papal Legate Dougherty wept happily. Although many U. S. Catholics consider him a self- possessed, even arrogant man, his voice choked when he presented to Archbishop O'Doherty the Pope's gift to the Congress, a gold ciborium. For, as all the Philippines well knew, the arrival of the Cardinal was the homecoming of a churchman who had once labored there as missionary.

Obispo v. Obispo Maximo, Sixty years ago Dennis Dougherty ("Dinny" to his parents, Patrick and Bridget, Irish immigrants) was a schoolboy of grimy Girardville, Pa. who spent his vacations as a breaker boy in the coal mines. At 14 he passed the entrance examinations for St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook near Philadelphia. Told he was too young to enter, he spent two years in a Jesuit College in Montreal, returned to St. Charles, was admitted to the same class he would have joined in the first place. In 1885 Dennis Dougherty went to Rome's North American College where he took his doctorate, was ordained a priest. In 1903 Dr. Dougherty, who had become professor of dogmatic theology at St. Charles, was offered the bishopric of Nueva Segovia in the Philippines. A hasty search of maps in the seminary failed to show where this diocese was, but Father Dougherty said: "I will go." Nueva Segovia turned out to be north of Manila, with nearly 1,000,000 nominal Catholics, and Dr. Dougherty did not need to be told that his job would be difficult if not dangerous. The reason: Gregorio Aglipay.

Five years older than Bishop Dougherty, Aglipay was a shock-headed Filipino who had entered the Catholic Church because the priesthood seemed to offer material advancement, had organized a band of volunteers after the Spanish War, fought the U. S. under Rebel Aguinaldo. Battening on Philippine hatred of the Spanish, and of the landowning, predominantly Spanish clergy which the Vatican had sent to the Islands, Aglipay founded an Independent Philippine Church, with himself as Obispo Maximo or head bishop. When Bishop Dougherty arrived, Bishop Aglipay claimed to have won over most of the Philippines' 7,000,000 Catholics, was clamoring for custody of all the Catholic Church's Philippine property. This matter was partially solved when the U. S. paid the Vatican $7,200,000 for its lands, William Howard Taft, civil governor of the Islands, simultaneously suggesting that it might be wise for the Church to send some U. S. bishops to the Islands.

Soon as Bishop Dougherty arrived in his See city, Vigan, and found his residence sacked, its library scattered, its chapel fouled from having been used as a stable and the cathedral in possession of an Aglipayan priest, this sturdy son of Patrick and Bridget Dougherty girded for action. He gathered a band of loyal Catholics, braved a shower of stones to wrest the cathedral from the Aglipayan. Arming his flock he toured his diocese reopening and reconsecrating churches, confirming as many as 70,000 Filipino children at a time, spending weeks on horseback and at times paddling his own canoe through the jungle. He visited a colony of Catholic lepers alone, his guides dreading the plague spot. With his own strong arms he dug the grave of a fellow bishop he found dead of cholera and deserted by his servants. He opened schools and missions, imported clergy, sisters and monks to staff them. Finally, instead of going to court over questions of property, Bishop Dougherty built up Filipino public opinion against the time Obispo Aglipay should bring suit, guessing rightly that Aglipay would lose.

In 1915 Bishop Dougherty felt that his job was done, that the tropics were telling on even his robust frame, and so he intimated to the Vatican. He was named bishop of Buffalo, where he sold Liberty Bonds, built schools and churches, liquidated a $1,100,000 debt on a new cathedral. In 1918 he became Archbishop of Philadelphia where ever since the name of "Dockerty" (as many of his flock pronounce it) has been a potent one. Strictest disciplinarian of the four U. S. Cardinals, he rules his clergy with an iron hand, insists on punctuality, obedience, deference. To a young shipboard visitor on his recent trip he growled: "Boy, take off your cap!" Philadelphia newspapers know better than to print anything the Archbishop might take offense at, for a boycott may fall such as once forced the Public Ledger to apologize abjectly for a story quoting Katharine Mayo in disparagement of Philippine missions. More interested in archdiocesan than in national Catholic affairs, Cardinal Dougherty typically interpreted the Church's attitude toward the cinema in his own way, declaring a complete boycott which, though no longer enforced, still stands. Austere as his personal life is, he has lived in two costly Philadelphia suburban mansions, indignantly parting with the first--a bequest--when he found it was mortgaged for $90,000.

After he became Archbishop of Philadelphia, Dr. Dougherty denied publicly that he had solicited the post. Whether or not he subsequently voiced to the Vatican his claims--eminently just as they were--to be Philadelphia's first Cardinal, he was given his red hat in 1921, three months before the present Pope was raised to the purple. As a scholar with whom Pius XI enjoyed many a long chat in later years, as a doughty fighter for the Church whose solid accomplishments spoke for themselves, Cardinal Dougherty hardly needed to point out that he was the man to represent the Pope at the Manila Congress.

Absentees-Still living is Cardinal Dougherty's oldtime adversary Gregorio Aglipay, whose Independent Church now claims 4,000,000 members, is generally credited with about 1,000,000. Two years ago Aglipay did almost as well as Aguinaldo in the Presidential campaign in which Manuel Quezon swamped them both. Before the Eucharistic Congress opened, Aglipay sought an injunction to restrain the Commonwealth from issuing postage stamps commemorating the Congress. Failing, he kept out of sight last week and other Aglipayans did nothing to mar the pious occasion. Absent also, for apparently mixed reasons, was President Quezon. Four years ago Quezon was a Mason, an anti-Catholic. Ailing of tuberculosis, he was visited often by Manila's affable, Irish-born Archbishop O'Doherty. Finally Quezon abjured Freemasonry, had a chapel built in his house, became to all intents a good Catholic and took to playing golf with the Archbishop on Manila's Wack Wack links. For the duration of the Congress President Quezon invited Cardinal Dougherty to stay in Malacanan Palace, the old residence of Spanish and U. S. Governors General. But before the Cardinal arrived last week the wily brown politico slipped away, bound for Washington, he said, to confer on the date and agenda of a U. S.-Philippine trade and economic conference, which other Filipinos considered was of no pressing importance. From Tokyo Manuel Quezon welcomed the Cardinal by telephone while Senora Quezon appeared . at official receptions, addressed women in the Congress. To observers it looked as if Manuel Quezon, who has profited by turning Catholic, was showing in a not-too-delicate way that he could always turn back if need be.

Crowds & Rain, During the planning of the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress, its officials were at pains to announce that, according to the Manila Weather Bureau, there had never been a typhoon during February, and during its first ten days there had been rain in only 47 out of 69 years. On the Luneta, on which there had been erected a tall, glass- enclosed, air-conditioned altar, two downpours of rain scattered the faithful who came to worship in crowds of from 50,000 to 200,000 at a time. Also, to the scandal of strait-laced Filipinos, the Congress coincided with the annual Philippine Carnival, a 16-day combination of Mardi Gras, county fair and Coney Island which paralyzes Manila business for weeks. But the director general of the Carnival, Arsenio Luz, was chairman of the Congress Ways & Means Committee, and he canceled all balls, toned down sideshows.

As the Church's Oriental pearl, the Philippines are a missionary land, a model of what the Church began trying to perform elsewhere in the East 400 years ago, without anywhere making a comparable impression on brown and yellow millions. In the Philippine hierarchy, seven of twelve bishops are native. Of 1,400 priests--far from enough to care for the Islands --800 are native. The Manila Congress, involving as Eucharistic gatherings always do a number of acts of public faith for crowds of men, women and children, focused primarily on the missionary character of the Church, today filled with new zeal. Thus one of the members of Cardinal Dougherty's official entourage was Joseph Lo Pa Hong, rich Chinese Catholic charitarian of Shanghai, and a Solemn High Mass on the Luneta which drew 40,000 women was celebrated by Bishop Januarius Hayasaki of Nagasaki, Japan. Altogether there went to Manila a score of Oriental prelates as well as a dozen U. S. bishops and archbishops.

Pope's Voice-Happiest feature of the Congress was that, even as Cardinal Dougherty was speeding up the China Sea (for the 82nd time) toward Manila, in the Vatican Pius XI was gaining strength, and as the Conte Rosso entered Manila Bay last week the Pope was being moved about in a wheeled divan, doing more work and receiving more visitors than at any time since he fell ill two months ago. As Archbishop O'Doherty said last week: "Our fervent prayers ascended to the high heavens, beseeching God to prolong life of such a great Pontiff. Thank God our prayers were heard." On Saturday the Pope quietly passed the 15th anniversary of his election to the Chair of St. Peter.

Shortly after dawn on Sunday in Manila, 500,000 Catholics on the Luneta attended mass, celebrated by Legate Dougherty who appeared as a choir sang Ecce Sacerdos Magnus (Behold the Great Priest), In the afternoon, soldiers, prelates, priests, government officials, members of the Philippines National Assembly and men, women and children formed in a long liturgical procession which took five hours to wind up on the Luneta, where Cardinal Dougherty held aloft a Sacred Host in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. To these joyful Catholics then came, through loudspeakers, the voice of the Holy Father. On his divan in the Vatican, in a voice much clearer and stronger than that of his last radio address, the Pope said:

"It . . . is a pleasure to speak to you now with the paternal accents of our own voice. . . . Among the abundant fruits of salvation which we anticipate from your Congress and for which we pray, there is one hope of which we will make mention, the one which your session had particularly in view: It is our hope, namely, that from a more ardent love of our Lord in the august sacrament of the altar and from more frequent communion with him there may come a daily increase of devotion to missions and enterprise for the promotion of missionary activity. For it is from that very source that light is given our minds, ardor to our souls and supernal fecundity to our labors and good works. . . . These, venerable brethren and beloved children, are the wishes, these the hopes which we, present among you not only in the person of our Legate, but also in a way by that paternal love which transcends and conquers distance and space, commend in suppliant prayer to the most sacred heart of Jesus."

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