XII Limburg, June 10, 1884

Letter of Mr. P. P. Cahensly, Secretary General of the Society of St. Raphael for the Protection of German Immigrants, to His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the S. C. of Propaganda

Eminence,

You will kindly forgive the negligence of your most devoted servant. It should have been my duty to send you sooner my sincere thanks for the interest of Your Eminence in the work of the St. Raphael Society and for the help given to me last year during the time of my journey to America. God will bless you for the protection that Your Eminence has granted to a holy cause.

            The Most Reverend Archbishop of New York, Msgr. Corrigan, has received me with the greatest benevolence and has shown much interest toward the Society. He has also written me that during his stay in Rome he had the occasion of talking with Your Eminence about the Society and that a committee has been formed, made up of the most reverend archbishops of Naples, Genoa, New York, Baltimore and Boston. The Rev. Dr. Kirner, chaplain for the Italians in London, has been sent to New York to organize there this Society. During my stay in America, which lasted eighty days, I tried to stimulate some interest also for the Italians. But I found little understanding for my cause among Italian priests. I encountered so many difficulties with the German immigrants, that all my time was taken up with that.

            Under the presidency of Msgr. Wigger, Bishop of Newark, a society linked to the St. Raphael Society has been established in the United States. This society has as its purpose the protection of the migrants, the founding of a home for them, where the many German girls will first find shelter, and finally the founding near Castle Garden of an oratory, where a priest will offer the comforts of religion.

            On my suggestion the president of the Society, Prince Isemburg-Birnstein, has granted $500 to support the work in America, notwithstanding the limited means of the Society. According to the information received, the project progresses very slowly. The lack of coherence and unity among the various parishes does not make them work well together for a common end. The Cardinal (McCloskey) and his (Coadjutor) Archbishop of New York (Corrigan) showed great sympathy for the work. But one of the more influential Irish priests in that city seemed slightly disposed toward it. The work is too holy and urgent; the Protestants give us an example of how to act. Let me briefly mention how the Protestants take care of the immigrants in a truly extraordinary way. The Methodists give to each migrant in the ports of embarkation a booklet similar to the one that I take the liberty of enclosing for Your Eminence, with the help of which he finds, soon after his arrival, a brother who looks after him. I myself have seen in Castle Garden twelve Protestant missionaries taking turns and being fully active. They give out bibles and booklets freely, not only to the Germans, but also to the English, Norwegians, Scotch, and finally to all the peoples coming from the Protestant countries of Northern Europe, while only one old man was hired by us, who did what he thought best. The Protestants have a house for migrants near Castle Garden, where some of the migrants lodge freely and are treated well.

            May the time not be far away when the migrants of all the Catholic countries, Germans, Italians, Poles, and Bohemians, will find a similar support in the New World.

            May God will that we may come to see a house built where the migrants of every country may find co-religionists and support, so that their faith and morality be protected, and that they may remain faithful to the Catholic Church.

            Your Eminence, whose protection has already been of great aid to the Society of St. Raphael, will hopefully permit me to have recourse again to this same protection, in case there should be difficulties in the future.

            Renewing my sincere thanks, I confirm myself a most devoted servant of Your Eminence.

P.P. Cahensly

Secretary of the Society of Saint Raphael

for the Protection of German Immigrants

P.S. It might please Your Eminence to know something about the significance of immigration to the United States and I take the liberty of giving you some information. In the port of New York alone there disembarked in the last three years: 547,750 Germans, of which 183,550 were Catholics. Last year there were migrants from other nations: 23,656 Italians, 52,035 Dutch, 17,432 Austro-Hungarians.