George Matulaitis Journal

333 that this representative of the Polish government was pleased with my visit. He said to the priest who accompanied me: Szlachetny gest zro- bil. (He has made a noble gesture.) After this visit I also told the Resurrectionist Fathers that I have been released from my duties in Vilnius. Then I called on some of the more prominent Poles. August 13 Today the Holy Father was pleased to receive me. It was a great pleasure for me as well. He said that he had been thinking about giving me and our Congregation some small place to live, but was not able to realize his wish. He told me to see His Eminence Cardinal Pompilji 1 about this matter. From my conversation with the Holy Father I learned that I had done the right thing in asking to be relieved of my duties. The Polish government would have declared an absolute veto to my being made archbishop. I had also been told this by other people, namely the Resurrectionist Fathers. The Holy Father granted me two favors that I had requested: 1) During the war I had granted many dispensations and was anxious about whether I had always done right. The Holy Father was pleased to confirm everything and validate sanare in radice (to heal at the root) all that I had done as Bishop of Vilnius. 2) He permitted the Marians to settle in Rome. The Cardinal Vicar was not in Rome. He will return only at the end of October. I was not able to attend to the matter at hand right away. Some Polish pilgrims were in Rome 2 with Father Taskunas and Bishop +ozi<s ki (of Mi<sk ). With them I participated at the Mass celebrated by the Holy Father as well as at the audience he gave them. I did all this so that the Poles could see that I am not bitter 1 Basilio Pompilji (b. 1858): became Cardinal in 1911; at this time he was Vicar of the Diocese of Rome. 2 Pilgrimages were especially popular that year because it was proclaimed a Holy Year by Pope Pius XI. It had begun on Christmas Eve, 1924, and was to end on Christmas Eve, 1925.