3.    McMahon to Scalabrini³

         Hartford, December 28, 1888

Most Esteemed and Reverend Bishop:

Your welcomed letter came into my hands a few weeks ago. Due to some extremely urgent business and the visitation of some places of the diocese – and then I wanted to consider more the situation about which we are so concerned – I could not hasten to answer you sooner.

            I wished to speak of this matter in greater detail with Father Zaboglio in Boston. Therefore, I went to visit him personally. Unfortunately, he was out of the house and thus I had to return without seeing him.⁴

            In the meantime, may Your Excellency be pleased to receive my most heartfelt gratitude for the promises you made to me in your revered letter, to favor me on behalf of your countrymen who reside in the diocese of Hartford. On my part, I shall always be very happy to provide every possible service to the Italian immigrants and to support at any cost, the efforts of Your Excellency in your charge to afford them the blessings of our most holy religion. With regard to the house being prepared for the priests, I would only like to suggest to Your Excellency that perhaps it would be well to lodge them for the moment in the house of another fine pastor who would be very happy to receive them, until their own house which is contiguous to the church, can be readied. The reason is that a debt of more than $7,000 is still outstanding on the Church that the Italians have already purchased and, as Your Excellency knows, they do not have enough money. If this proposal meets with Your Excellency’s approval, I would consider it to be the best in the present circumstances. In any case, I will be always ready to make every effort to go along with your pious and prudent desires. Hoping, therefore, to receive an expression of the wishes of Your Excellency and thanking you once more for the timely interest that you deigned to take toward the unhappy souls of your compatriots in this land, I invoke on you abundant heavenly rewards and with feelings of singular esteem I remain,

Most Reverend Excellency’s

very devoted and respectful confrere,

Lawrence S. McMahon, Bishop of Hartford