Financial Step-port for tlzc Clmrch in Texas
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Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross in the United States, the Very Reverend John A. Zahm, and the new president of the University of Notre Dame, the Very Reverend John W. Cavanaugh, C.S.C. After c!inner, they went out on the porch. "The Archbishop was cold and, I thought, rather forbidding. He expressed a general interest in the idea, and said that he had read my article and quite approved of it but, there were difficulties," Father Kelley commented years later. Darkness began to fall around the little party. In the fading light of parting day only the Archbishop's cigar glowed bright like the divine spark of love that kindled the heart of the apostle of American home missions. The others soon left ~elley and Archbishop Quigley to themselves. Kelley, afraid to say too much, but unwilling to say too little, talked rapidly and enthusiastically. Perhaps it was thirty minutes before he finished. The silence that followed was embarrassing. They were anxious minutes for the young priest until the soft-spoken Archbishop spoke. He recalled that he had had a similar plan years before; but he had waited too long before acting. The poor missions could not afford to wait much longer, he asserted. The plan outlined by Father Kelley might not be perfect, he said, but it was at least a beginning. As the bell rang a summons to the retreatants for the opening conference, the Archbishop rose and suggested to Kelley that he get about twenty interested persons and come to Chicago to discuss the project further. "Come to my house. It will show publicly that I am with you.... I will entertain you all at lunch. Write me when you are ready," he said as he departed. The project had found a sponsor. "I went home singing Halleluhas all the way."2s Organizati<ni of the Catl,olic Clmrck Exte11si011- Society. The names of persons interested were carefully considered before the final list was submitted to the Archbishop, who sent out the invitations. Seven laymen and twelve clergymen met in the Chicago Archiepiscopal residence on October 18, 1905. Among them were the Most Reverend James E. Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago; the Most Reverend Peter Bourgade, Archbishop of Santa Fe; the Most Reverend John J. Hennesy, Bishop of Wichita, Kansas; the Most Reverend Peter J. Muldoon, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago; the Very Reverend Doctor P. L. Duffy, of Charleston, South Carolina; the Reverend Francis C. Kelley, of Lapeer, Michigan; the Reverend Gilbert P. Jennings and the Reverend E. P. Graham. of Cleveland; the
25 /bhl., 45.
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