Cardinal Cullen and the Propaganda

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 27, 12 July 1923, Page 13

Cardinal Cullen and the Propaganda

Our Rome correspondent writes: A little bit of Roman history evidently needs recalling. The revolution of '4B witnessed an attack on the colleges of Rome. Propaganda College was marked down for seizure, but it had at the time Monsignor Paul Cullen as temporary Rector. When the danger became more than imminent and when the orders to surrender the buildings were on the point of being enforced, the Irish prelate went to the official British representative here in Rome to get him to induce the English' Government of the day to interfere for the protection of an establishment in which a not inconsiderable amount of Irish money was invested in the form of burses. The British Government refused to interfere. Then the Irish Monsignore presented himself to the agent of the United States Government; this latter gentleman made representations to his Government, and as a result of his official activities the Propaganda College was saved. Now, after 70 years, the anxious day when the British Government was quite prepared to let the historic buildings fall into the hands of revolutionaries is quite forgotten, and the ecclesiastical institution- which was saved only by the courage and pertinacity of the Irish prelate is courteously absorbed into the British colleges in Rome. ' Verily, it is a story that is not without its lessons. The studious reader who desires the details of this achievement of the famous Rector of the Irish College who afterwards became Paul, Cardinal Cullen, will find the whole matter set forth in the pages of Monsignor ■George Dillon's book, The War of Antichrist on the Church.