[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 90 (Thursday, July 13, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6585-S6586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  GUEST CHAPLAIN, REV. MONSIGNOR VAGHI

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, as those who were present will 
recognize, Monsignor Peter Vaghi is a member of the Senate family. He 
served here some years ago as the assistant to our esteemed and beloved 
brother, Pete Domenici. He is now the pastor of old St. Patrick's, or 
St. Patrick's Church on 10th Street, in the city, which is the oldest 
denominational church in the Federal city. It was founded in 1794 to 
provide for the religious needs, in the main, of Irish construction 
workers building the White House and the Capitol. Then came the 
Italians who were recruited for Jefferson's Marine Band, which was the 
principal source of culture and enthusiasm in the city in those days.
  When the British arrived with their horrendous purposes--
corresponding exactly, I have to say, as a New Yorker, to the New York 
forces, which rode across Lake Ontario and burned the city of York, 
then their capital, what we now know as Toronto--in the manner of the 
military of those days, they responded.
  There were a sufficient number of British troops in town for a period 
that they, too, went to St. Patrick's. It has been a long relationship 
with the Nation's Government, as well as the parish--in no sense to 
make an issue of the matter, but simply to record a certain amount of 
patience. Monsignor Vaghi is, of course, a Roman Catholic. The Roman 
Catholic ministers are descendents of the one Roman Catholic Chaplain 
we have ever had in the Senate, Rev. Charles C. Pise, who served a 
year, as was the practice, from 1831 to 1832.
  There descended on the Nation a spell of religious fanaticism--if you 
like that term, if you accept that term--which we associate with the 
``know-nothings.'' When they were asked what they were doing about 
these matters, they would respond, ``I know nothing.'' And for a period 
of about 40 years--up to and including the Presidency, one regrets to 
say, of Ulysses S. Grant--the anti-Catholic forces in this country were 
quite alarmed and, if not ubiquitous, to be found in most places.
  We have a curious debt to those people, which is the Washington 
Monument, as designed by Mills. It was to be the great obelisk, but it 
also was to be surrounded at the base with prancing stallions, such 
that we would never see the pristine statement that we now have. It was 
built with voluntary contributions by the Washington Monument 
Association. You can see them if you walk up; there are bas-reliefs 
inside saying who contributed.
  In 1854, Pope Pius IX contributed a block of marble from the Temple 
of Concord in Rome, and a group of alert citizens learned that the 
installation of this block of marble was to be the signal for the 
Catholic uprising, and they broke into the stoneyard and dumped the 
block of marble somewhere in the Potomac. There was a measure of 
scandal, and the stump just stayed there indefinitely--until 1880. The 
Congress got nervous about the matter as the Centennial was coming, and 
the Corps of Engineers was dispatched to finish the job, which they 
did.
  You can see a change in the color about a quarter of the way up. But 
also we were spared the prancing stallions, so there is some good that 
comes of all these things.
  It is just such an honor to have the Monsignor with us. I speak as 
one of his parishioners. His family, Mr. and Mrs. Vaghi, are in the 
gallery today, as

[[Page S6586]]

is Father Murphy and another parishioner. We welcome them. Although we 
are formally not supposed to acknowledge that anybody is up there, I 
think no one will mind on this occasion.
  It is very fortunate for us to have him today. We thank him. We will 
spare him the debate that now commences with my dear friend, Senator 
Roth, one long day of the death tax.
  With that I thank him, I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.

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