Bishop Horstmann's Approbation.
The great work which I proposed in 1899—a History of the Diocese of Cleveland —has now been completed. I know what labor has been expended by both the authors and the publishers in giving it to the Clergy, the Religious, and the faithful of the Diocese of Cleveland.
No one, unless he has undertaken such labor, can imagine how exact must be the investigation, and how careful and critical the examination, to make a faithful record of what has taken place in the history of a diocese from its beginning.
I feel assured that this History will be a model for the other dioceses of the country, and I hope it will incite capable men everywhere to take up the same character of work and carry it out with equal diligence and success. We need such records. They will be invaluable for future historians. They show what those who have gone before us in the Faith, bishops, priests and people, have done for the propagation and preservation of the Church in their day.
Our thanks are due to the Rev. Chancellor Houck who, for a number of years, and especially since 1899, has devoted so much of his spare time to this work, which I know is thoroughly reliable. We therefore commend it to our clergy and to the laity, and hope that Mr. M. W. Carr and the Catholic Historical Society, who have now finished the work, will be rewarded abundantly.
"Gather up the fragments lest they be lost." This History has fulfilled that precept. May others "go and do in like manner."
† Ignatius F. Horstmann, Bishop of Cleveland.
Cleveland, Ohio, Feast of St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr, February 1, 1903.
