4.    McMahon to Scalabrini⁵

         Hartford, February 15, 1899

Most Reverend Bishop:

With this letter I want to express to Your Excellency my most heartfelt gratitude for all the favors I have received from you. With all my heart I also want to send you an invitation to assist at the sacred ceremony of the consecration of our beautiful Cathedral which will take place, God willing, next May 8, the third Sunday after Easter, the feast of our Patron, the Patriarch Saint Joseph. It would indeed be a great pleasure to see you present here among us on this most auspicious occasion as evidence of

the benevolence of Your Most Rev. Lordship. With this letter I am sending you an offering of L. 2,500, a personal gift to help as much as I can the great work for which Your Lordship still exerts very great efforts.

            I hope from the bottom of my heart that you can send me as soon as possible the two priests that you promised me, since Father Pietro Lotti of Bridgeport will return to Italy shortly because of his health. The poor Italians increase in number everyday in the main cities of our diocese.

            With expression of heartfelt esteem and fraternal greetings, I am,

Your Excellency’s

Servant and Brother,

Lawrence S. McMahon, Bishop of Hartford