Drafts and Copies of Memorandum, Protest, and Letters from Hagan to Cardinal Sbarretti

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Pontifical Irish College

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Hagan, John

Hagan, John, 1873-1930

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Hagan's defence against allegations of 'modernism' File containing typescript and handwritten drafts and copies of a memorandum, a protest, and of letters from Hagan to Cardinal Sbarretti, Cardinal Secretary of State, concerning the suspicions against Hagan based on his friendship with Professor Buonajuti, and in defence of his own orthodoxy. Memorandum by [...] offering detailed account of Hagan's and O'Riordan's friendly relations with Buonaiuti as a colleague and friend; these were continued advisedly also after the first investigations into Buonaiuti in 1907. Hagan's attempts to warn Buonaiuti against 'thorny' subjects fell on deaf ears; there has been no or very little contact over the last years. Pointing to the fact that Hagan's connection with him was brought up and used during the vacancy of the Irish College rectorship, when the British legation made every effort to exclude Hagan. The campaign continued, through protests against the political slant of O'Riordan's funeral panegyric, through the hesitancy in awarding Hagan a prelature, and by one Cardinal's claim that Hagan was behind 'certain anonymous letters which every Irishman in Rome deplored and rejected with disgust' (4 July). The representative of the Irish hierarchy, at a time of crisis for the country, is therefore kept at a distance through 'the whole web of fabricated calumnies that enter so largely into England's methods of putting down opposition and spreading her light' (4 July). Taking up the subject again in late November following insinuations that Hagan is disposed towards modernist thought, by protesting his orthodoxy to the Holy Father (through Sbarretti as the College's protector), calling the rumours 'malevolent calumnies' and urging confidentiality as previously guaranteed by Sbarretti and by [Archbishop Gilmartin] (22 November). 'I am and have always been a most devoted son of the Holy Church, adhering closely to all her doctrines, and I hope to do so until my last breath' (23 November). In deep thanks for Sbarretti's reply, asking to arrange a papal audience to show his gratitude to the Pope. [4 July- 22/28 November 1921]