Peter's Pence

Who should return to Paris, last fortnight, after a visit to the new Papal State, but beloved Louis Ernest Cardinal Dubois. When correspondents hastened to call upon the amiable and popular Archbishop of Paris, they found him in the best possible humor. He had just carried to Pope Pius XI, he said, a check for a half-million francs ($19,500). At first the Holy Father would not take it, but Cardinal Dubois gently proffered the sum a second time, and finally Pope Pius turned the check over to the Papal treasury, with instructions that it be used to relieve Catholic priests in Mexico, many of whom are homeless and impoverished due to the suppressive measures of Mexican President Emilio Fortes Gil (TIME, March 4 et ante).

The money, said Cardinal Dubois, was a gift from the French clergy. They had derived it from the special contributions known as "Peter's Pence." What may be called the underlying theory of "Peter's Pence" has been that these donations would supplant the income lost by the Pope in 1870, when the Papal lands and corresponding revenues were seized by the Italian State. Today, however, the State has promised, in the newly signed Italo-Papal treaty & concordat (TIME, Feb. 18), to indemnify the Holy See for its losses of 1870 by a cash payment of $92,000,000. Therefore the act of Pope Pius, last week, in despatching a half-million francs worth of "Peter's Pence" to Mexico, seemed to augur that a new underlying theory of "Peter's Pence" is being evolved by the prelates of the Papal State.

In discussing at Paris his recent audience with the Holy Father, Cardinal Dubois said: "He mentioned his joy in being able henceforth to travel about freely. Sooner or later the Pope, who claims world-wide spiritual dominion, will visit every part of the globe, America not excepted, of course. The imagination is staggered when one comes to think of what will happen when a Pope sets foot in New York. I do not say that the present Pontiff will attempt it, although, personally, I am sure, he is willing enough. But the day will come."

When strongly pressed to reveal the name of the first nation outside the continent of Europe on which Pope Pius XI will set foot, the Cardinal-Archbishop reflected for a moment, then answered cautiously, "perhaps Ireland."