s of ecclesiastical authority. And he noted, too, many a
protest against the political, rather than religious, character of
much of the business transacted in the office to which he was
attached. In the discharge of his ordinary duties he necessarily
became acquainted with much of the inner administrative polity of the
Vatican, and thus at times he learned of policies which stirred his
alien soul to revolt. In his inferior position he could not hope to
raise his voice in protest against these measures which excited his
indignation; but in the loneliness of his room, or on his frequent
long walks after office hours, he was wont to brood over them until
his mind became surcharged and found relief only in emptying itself
into this journal. And often on summer days, when the intense heat
rendered his little room in the dormitory uninhabitable, he would take
his books and papers to some one of the smaller parks lining the
Tiber, and there would lose himself in study and meditation and the
recording of the ceaseless voicing of his lonely soul.

On this particular afternoon, however, his mind had been occupied with
matters of more than ordinary import. It happened that a Bishop from
the United States had arrived in Rome the preceding day to pay his
decennial visit to the Vatican and report on the spiritual condition
of his diocese. While awaiting the return of the Papal Secretary, he
had engaged in earnest conversation with a Cardinal-Bishop of the
Administrative Congregation, in a small room adjoining the one where
Jose was occupied with his clerical duties. The talk had been
animated, and the heavy tapestry at the door had not prevented much of
it from reaching the ears of the young priest and becoming fixed in
his retentive memory.

"While I feel most keenly the persecution to which the Church must
submit in the United States," the Bishop had said, "nevertheless
Your Eminence will admit that there is some ground for complaint in
the conduct of certain of her clergy. It is for the purpose of
removing such vantage ground from our critics that I again urge an
investigation of American priests, with the view of improving their
moral status."

"You say, 'persecution to which the Church _must_ submit.' Is that
quite true?" returned the Cardinal-Bishop. "That is, in the face of
your own gratifying reports? News from the American field is not only
encouraging, but highly stimulating. The statistics which are just at
hand from M