Copy of typed letter from + McQuaid to + Donal Herlihy, Ferns, saying he would not admit Fr. Liam Ryan and Fr. Fergal O’Connor, O.P., to carry out a Survey of Clonliffe as part of a survey of Irish Seminaries with a view of rationalising Seminary facilities.

Copy of the letter to + Staunton, Ferns, Summerhill, Wexford.

Handwritten letter to +McQuaid from + Staunton, Ferns, criticizing points made at the meeting with the Minister for Health.

Typed copy of a letter to be sent to the Archbishop of Cashel, and the Bishops of Galway, Ferns and Cork regarding a meeting.

Handwritten letter to +McQuaid from + James Staunton, Ferns. His first reading of the Health Bill did not disclose to him anything that calls for an Episcopal statement. He takes it that the new Bill withdraws into the Mother and Child section of the 1947 Act.

Handwritten letter to +McQuaid from + James Staunton, Ferns, making the following points: encloses two suggested clauses for the Adoption Bill; the Minister realizes that Irish children are being raised by money partly contributed by foreign bigots, in the Protestant religion, to continue the British policy of increasing the number or Protestants in the country, and to provide recruits for the British Army; the Children’s Act helps to proseltyse; Irish law allows anybody of any ‘ism’ to adopt a child if he states that he is doing it for ‘love and affection’; children in the Bird’s Nest are all Catholic.

• Correspondence relating to the presence in Dublin of one priest and two lay-brothers of the German Missionary Congregation of St. Ottilien. Letters and Memoranda. Already pre- war fund-collecting in several parts of Ireland by one of the lay-brothers (Ferns, Ardagh, Limerick). Immediately before outbreak of war the trio were in Ireland, escaping interment in Britain as Enemy Allies; their house in Hendon (Westminster) having as Superior a priest (English?) who was the only member of the community not interned. Archbishop gravely displeased at the trio’s residence in Dublin. Plan for temp. Hospitality at Glenstal fails. Superior at Hendon takes issue with Archbishop. Report of Dept. of External Affairs Benedictines Monasteries-General

Correspondence between +O’Herlihy of Ferns, +McQuaid and +Carroll regarding the Theological Association and the Commission on Seminaries.

Letter from Mgr. Paro to +McQuaid stating that the Nunciature has received a letter from Mgr. Montini. He is going to ask Dr. Staunton, Bishop of Ferns, to make the contents know at the next Hierarchy Meeting in Maynooth. The letter comments on the Holy Father’s wishes in relation to the nominations to the Central Committee in Rome. In addition, a special office has been established for the Holy Year. As the Central Committee is no enough, a national committee is to be established in each country.

Handwritten letter to +McQuaid from + Staunton, Ferns, regarding the material benefits for the higher income group in the Scheme.