Poetry

...England's views of church governance were consistent with his support of religious liberty and church-state separation . He recognized that there could be disagreements with church authorities and legitimate dissent by faithful Catholics . In a letter to U.S . Secretary of State John Forsythe in 1841, he wrote that if the American bishops had found in a papal apostolic letter "anything contrary to their judgment, respecting faith or morals, it would have been their duty to have respectfully sent Stephen Stepanchev The Church in the Desert "This is where it hurts," I say . I point To the belly, head, and heart of the figurine, My surrogate...

...The God-bearer doesn't hear...

...Though much of England's work seemed to die with him, his memory lives . His principal biographer, Peter Guilday, concluded that it will long be valued because of his "untrammeled Americanism, on account of his thorough grasp of American idealism, and above all because of the unique place he made for himself in American history by interpreting justly and accurately to his own epoch the harmony between Catholic principles and the constitutional bases of the American government ." Again, Greeley : "American Catholicism had a splendid opportunity in John England and missed its chance . The opportunity would not return again for almost a half century ." That opportunity did return with the arrival of the "Americanists" who were put under a shadow by Testem benevolentiae...

...them distinct and separate . It will be wisdom, and prudence, and safety to continue that separation . . ..You have no power to interfere with my religious rights ; the tribunal of the church has no power to interfere with my civil rights .. . .Any idea of the Roman Catholics of these republics being in any way under the influence of any foreign ecclesiastical power, or indeed of any church authority in the exercise of their civil rights is a serious mistake . There is no class of our fellow-citizens more free to think and to act for themselves on the subject of our rights than we are ; and I believe there is not any portion of the American family more jealous of foreign influence or more ready to resist it...

...I have no immunity . Sand whirls in the shadow of the little church Wrung from a cactus patch and oblivion . Light from a blue window shines in the mild eyes Of the saint, but intercession is a dream . Then, steady as the eye of the kingfisher, I plunge into the dunking pool and wash Away the gritty sand from my head and heart, The terrible, troubling appetites of day . Less comfortable in my disbelief, I swim, resisting, as the sun retreats . D Commonweal 20: 7 April 1995 their statement of such differences to the Holy See, together with their reasons for such dissent ." f almost everything about England is surprising, possibly the most startling, given his views, is that in general he had very good relations with Rome . For example, his Missal, along with a lengthy explanation of the Vatican's Holy Week ceremonies-written in Rome at the Vatican's request-was published in English in a single 310page volume, and then translated into French and Italian and published in all three languages at the expense of the then reigning pope, who was none other than Gregory XVI (1831-46), whose best-known encyclical, Mirari vos, vigorously condemned notions of religious liberty, separation of church and state, and freedom of speech and the press . Part of the explanation may be that Gregory recognized a difference between the political liberalism of North America and the continental movements that he found threatening...

...From the vantage point of post-Vatican II Catholicism, it is clear that the Americanism of John Carroll, of Gibbons, Ireland, Keane, and Spalding, and, above all, of John England was not heresy but heroism . We need new Americanist heroes today...

...The reason, Andrew Greeley has written, was that England "was too much for them and they were too small for him . . . .For John England committed the unpardonable crime-he was right . . . and such accuracy was intolerable in a man who had barely arrived on the shores of the new republic...

...But England's personality may also have played a part ; there are indications that he charmed Gregory XVI while Gregory was still Cardinal Cappellari, prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (England did in fact charm many people with his innocent openness, wit, and articulateness) . In 1830, five months before becoming pope, Cappellari sent England a letter of commendation : "Your letter gave me the greatest pleasure...

...She knows a mere two thousand years can't cure My ills . I die of the same diseases and griefs As my ancestors...

...for it contains a very clear proof of the remarkable care which your Lordship is giving to the religious problems of your diocese . . . .l desire eagerly to confess to your Lordship that the Sacred Congregation has a high opinion of your intelligence, your piety, your learning, and your other admirable qualities ." In contrast, most of England's peers in the American hierarchy were bitterly critical of everything he did-his constitution, convention, the Miscellany, hobnobbing with Protestants...