Chapter 1
by John Gavin Nolan
In Syria, meanwhile, Catholics and Protestants were not on speaking terms. Archbishop Giannini, the apostolic delegate, refused even to see Nicol on the grounds that a “full report,” evidently prepared by the archbishop’s secretary, the Syrian Father Cyrille Coussa, O.F.M., had already been sent to the committee's headquarters in New York.41
When Mr. Smith brought that report to Baltimore, Cardinal Gibbons, the peacemaker, suggested to the committee in writing that if Nicol could achieve a “better understanding” with Archbishop Giannini, the committee would have access to information which would improve the relief work in Syria and lead to a “better feeling” in the United States.
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Here the matter might have rested, had not Archbishop Giannini written also to Rome. Within weeks Cardinal Gasparri asked Cardinal Gibbons to reply to the following:
Credible information sent to the Holy See showed that in fact the distribution of funds in Syria was characterized by partiality, and served either directly or indirectly as a means of Protestant proselytism. The distribution is turned over to, and carried out as if it were a monopoly by members and adherents of an organization whose head is Mr. James Nicol of the Regular Protestant Mission. Thus, throughout these regions, it has to the ordinary native the appearance of being the work solely of American Protestant beneficence. The danger is still greater for Catholic orphans, who, collected together by the minister of the Regular Protestant Mission, can fulfill their religious duties only with great difficulty.43
Cardinal Gibbons obviously was concerned. He sent Cardinal Gasparri’s statement word for word to Mr. Vickrey, reminding him that “many times” and “all along” he, Cardinal Gibbons, had maintained that “your Organization was actuated by a spirit of fairness and impartiality,”44 and telling Mr. Vickrey he wanted the facts immediately because Cardinal Gasparri was expecting a reply. After seven days without reply from Mr. Vickrey, Cardinal Gibbons sent him a telegram: “Await answer to my letter of June 16.”45