57. Corrigan to Scalabrini

         New York, June 15, 1901

Most Reverend Excellency:

Your Excellency’s most valued letter of May 30 has been very much appreciated. I thought of participating in your Jubilee festivities with a small souvenir so as to give Your Excellency a token of my old esteem and friendship. I am happy to learn that my gift turned out well and was of satisfaction to Your Excellency.

            I have no difficulty in granting Your Excellency full faculties to exercise the sacred ministry within the limits of my jurisdiction. In fact with the greatest pleasure, from this very moment, I am complying with the request of Your Excellency and I am very happy with the desire expressed by you to give a course of Spiritual Exercises to the priests. The Reverend Father Gambera had talked to me about it and I offered the Seminary as the most suitable place for the retreat. In fact, it would be desirable that Your Excellency give the Exercises to all the Italian priests of the diocese since they cannot participate in the annual retreat of the diocese because they do not know English.¹²³

            To carry out this plan, it would be necessary that Your Excellency anticipate your departure from Italy since I have the Seminary available until the first week of September. After this period, the students will return to the seminary and a course of exercises would become impossible in the same place. Moreover, I am taking the liberty of calling to your attention that by leaving before August 15, Your Excellency will have a better crossing and you can more readily have a very comfortable cabin.

            The reason is that after the middle of August, travelers return to America and, therefore, the ships are more crowded; hence, the increase in prices and the difficulty in finding a good cabin.

            At the moment I cannot make any decision concerning the Italian-Greek priest for the Albanians. I think there are very few Albanians

in my diocese. However, I will do some research in this matter and then I will be able in future to inform Your Excellency if there will be a need to accept the priest in question.

            I have nothing more but to ask Your Excellency to hasten your visit to the United States. You will be always welcome in my diocese and I will be very happy to spend some days with you. In the meantime with sentiments of high esteem and veneration I remain

Your Most Reverend and esteemed Excellency’s

Most Devoted and Most Affectionate Servant,

Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York