Immaculate Heart

Funds are going to Rome to build the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Pope Pius XI wishes the new temple to be magnificent and monumental, worthy of Rome. He has contributed 100,000 lire. Queen Victoria of Spain is expected soon to give an even larger sum.

The plan of the church follows the traditions of papal Rome. It will be circular, traversed by a Greek Cross, on the arms of which will rise jewelled chapels. Short flights of steps will give access to these chapels through arches representing the triumph of the Gospel. The interior of the dome will be 201 feet, the exterior 344 feet.

Plans were drawn by Pellegrino Tibaldi. They were considered impossibly sumptuous, but the Holy Father said: "We do not ignore the grave difficulties of the work, but considering its great necessity, we trust and shall always continue to trust in Divine Providence, which will not abandon us. ... It is a great imprudence to allow oneself to be conquered by the first difficulties; and in works having to do with divine worship, we must begin with great magnificence, leaving to posterity and above all to Divine Providence, the task of completing them."

The building of St. Peter's Church in Rome covered almost a century, and the cost was met by all Europe. The Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary may require an even longer time and greater fortune.

There are already about 400 churches in Rome.