Chapter 6
by John Gavin Nolan
To save the mission in Russia, in other words, the N.C.W.C. had first to be saved, and Father Walsh, whose political instincts were distinctively Boston Irish, was doggedly at work. On 22 June, for the reason, among others, that the American bishops had “commitments to the US government for ... Russian relief work,”13 the 25 February decision to abolish the N.C.W.C. was reversed; and a few weeks later, on 12 July 1922, the pope issued an apostolic letter to the leaders of the Catholic world ordaining a general subscription in “Favour of the Population of Russia,”14 in which one sees someone’s, probably Father Walsh’s, fine American hand. In a paragraph that was perhaps inserted after the letter was originally composed, the Holy Father singled out “our dear sons from thriving America,” and saluted the United States Senate:
Our dear Sons from thriving America––it pleases us to declare it here––have taken the first place through the scope of their munificence, the unanimity of their assistance, and their talent for organization. Moreover, it is not only distressed Russia but the whole of mankind that shares the debt of gratitude to them. We should not pass over in silence the important credits voted for the same purpose by the Senate of the United States.15
Americans would also be encouraged to know that the funds collected would reach the hungry, regardless of race or creed, directly and economically:
It will not escape you that the charity, to be effectual and fruitful, calls for a wise method in the organization of collections as much as in the distribution of the offerings. It will be the concern of your solicitude, Venerable Brothers, to put into operation the best means of raising alms. The delegates chosen by Us will carry the sums thus collected to the places where the need will require them; they themselves will distribute them to the most destitute, without distinction as to religion or nationality.16