fter this audience he told me
that I might communicate this to Archbishop Bizarri. I did so by
note, telling him that if the Pope set aside my expulsion and was
determined to give the other American Fathers dispensation from their
vows, in view of the circumstances which had arisen I would be
content to accept my dispensation also. This note of mine was shown
to the Pope, and hence he immediately associated me with you in the
dispensation.

"The wording of the decree is such as to make it plain that it was
given in view of your memorial, and its terms are calculated to give
a favorable impression of us. . . . Archbishop Bizarri told me
yesterday, when I went to thank him for his part, that in it the Holy
See had given us its praise, and he trusted we would show ourselves
worthy of it in the future. I rejoined that since the commencement of
our Catholic life we had given ourselves soul and body entirely to
the increase of God's glory and the interests of His Church, and it
was our firm resolve to continue to do so to the end of our lives. He
was quite gratified with our contentment with the decision, for I
spoke, as I always have done, in your name as well as my own.

"But whom do you think I met in his antechamber? The General [of the
Redemptorists]. When he came in and got seated I immediately went
across the room and reached out my hand to him, and we shook hands
and sat down beside each other. . . . In the course of the
conversation he inquired what we intended to do in the future. My
reply was that we had been guided by God's providence in the past and
we looked to Him for guidance in our future. . . . As to my return
[home], the cardinal says I must not think of departing till after
Easter. Indeed, I see that before I can obtain an audience to thank
the Holy Father it will be hard on to Easter. If there be a few days
intervening I will go to Our Lady of Loretto to invoke her aid in our
behalf and for her protection over us as a body and over each one in
particular. In May, earlier or later in the month, with God's
blessing and your prayers, I hope to be with you.

"The decree, which places us, according to the Canons, under the
authority of the Bishops, you will, of course, understand, does not
in any way make us parish priests. The Pope could not tell us in it
to commence another congregation, although this is what he, and
Cardinal Barnabo, and Archbishop Bedini, and others, expect from us.
He [the Pope] said