Chapter 7
by John Gavin Nolan
Father Walsh’s worrisome warnings did some good in Rome, however. One week prior to the 1 November 1928 deadline and in advance of their 10th annual meeting, the pope sent a letter to the American bishops that dealt exclusively with the S.P.F. and CNEWA. He acknowledged with gratitude the money collected by both agencies, "two works of religion which are the object of intense, daily, and We were about to say, harrowing concern of Our Apostolic ministry."32 Then, endorsing both CNEWA and the S.P.F., he touched upon their individual roles:
... The first of these works of religion, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is, as you also, Venerable Brothers, continually set forth in word and deed, truly the work of works, first and supreme in its importance because it is the continuing through the centuries and in the whole wide world of the work of the Divine Founder of the Church Himself and of His First Apostles; the second looks toward the East, so dear to us and so worthy of our veneration, whence first shone out on the world the light of Christianity, that East which once was a most flourishing garden of the Catholic Church and which later, separated, or rather torn, from the Catholic Church, fell into so wretched a plight, spiritual and material as well, that East which now as never before fills Us with hopes so strong and so sweet of seeing her return to the One Fold, but which for this very reason is more than ever beset and tempted by propaganda (only too well equipped with worldly resources of every kind) hostile to Christ and His Church.33
Father Walsh felt rebuffed again, for although the "material plight" of the East was mentioned — secondarily to the “spiritual” — the pope failed to define CNEWA as a Vatican Red Cross. Nevertheless, the pope did express approval of CNEWA, as he approved of the S.P.F., and he urged each bishop individually to become a loyal and loving interpreter of CNEWA and the S.P.F. to the laity and clergy, particularly the parish priests, "in order to make these two works more perfect, more stable and more efficient. “34