THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL BISHOPS’ INTERVIEW WITH HIS HOLINESS THE POPE.

New Zealand Tablet, 18 September 1919, Page 7

THE AMERICAN EPISCOPAL BISHOPS’ INTERVIEW WITH HIS HOLINESS THE POPE.

In an address delivered before the Episcopal Club at a banquet in the Hotel Sinton, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., on July 7, Bishop Vincent, of the Episcopal diocese of Southern Ohio, discussed the interview which he and other Episcopal bishops had with Pope Benedict XV., for the purpose of laying before him their plan for a world congress of religious denominations to bring about Christian unity. He said that the Pope received them in private audience and accorded them a charming welcome. However, the .Pontiff frankly, but courteously, refused to cooperate in the proposed conferences in the same way as other religious bodies, saying that, as the successor of St. Peter, it would be impossible for him to sanction such a conclave, though he expressed his personal sympathy with the plans of Christian unity for which the conference was to be called. What other attitude could the Holy Father take? Truth cannot yield to error. The sects must be reunited to the parent stock or there can be no union worthy of the name. A union, of non-Catholic Churches is possible ; but from the very nature of the case the Catholic Church must' stand aloof. ---- k