or as honors and dignities in the Church
proceed by way of distinguished merit and abilities, the qualities
which they have always recognized and esteemed in you are by the
event made known to the whole world.

"This elevation to the cardinalate of an American prelate as a
cheering sign that the dignities of the Church are open to men of
merit of all nations, and it is to be hoped that every nation will be
represented in the College of Cardinals in proportion to its
importance, and in that way the Holy See will represent by its
advisers the entire world, and render its universality more complete.
The Church will be a gainer, and the world too; and I have no doubt
that your appointment to this office in the Church will be, from this
point of view, popular with the American people."

His continued and insensibly increasing weakness of body, as well as
what seemed an unconquerable mental aversion to attempting even
partially to resume his former career in the United States, seemed to
settle negatively the question of his early return home. He began to
think that it was God's will that he should permanently transfer his
influence to the old World. His mind was full of the religious
problems of Europe, and the notion of Paulists for Europe, differing
in details from American Paulists but identical in spirit, soon
occupied his thoughts. The reader will remember Father Hecker's
conviction, expressed when leaving Rome after the Vatican Council,
that the condition of things in the Old World invited the apostolate
of a free community of wholly sanctified men, such as he would have
the Paulists to be. He now became persuaded, or almost so, that God
meant his illness to be the means of practically inaugurating such a
movement. By it the dim outlines of men's yearnings for a religious
awakening, which he everywhere met with among the European nations,
could be brought out distinctly and realized by an adaptation of the
essentials of community life to changed European conditions. He
thought he could select the leading spirits for the work, and,
without overtaxing his strength, teach them the principles and
inspire them with the spirit necessary to success. All this is
brought forward in his letters and discussed. But it was not to be in
his time.

The following entries in his journal, made during the Lent of 1879,
have this European, or rather universal, apostolate in view:

"The Holy Spirit is preparing the Church for an increa