« Previous page | Start of chapter | Book contents | Next page »
CHAPTER XIX....concluded
In 1822 the diocese of New York, which comprehended the whole of the State of New York, together with the northern part of Jersey, possessed but seven churches; and including the Bishop, Dr. Connolly, who discharged the ordinary duties of the humblest missionary, the number of priests did not exceed nine. Two of the churches were in New York; the others being in Albany, Utica, Auburn, New Jersey, and Carthage. The clergyman officiating at Albany occasionally visited Troy, Lansingburgh, Johnstown, and Shenectady. Under the head of the 'Clergymen officiating in the diocese,' we find the following items, alike indicative of the laborious duties of the clergy and the spiritual destitution of the scattered flocks:--
'REV. PATRICK KELLY, Auburn, Rochester, and other districts in the Western part of this State.
'REV. PHILIP LARISSY attends regularly at Staten Island, and different other congregations along the Hudson River.'
Philadelphia, which included Pennsylvania and Delaware, was a comparatively flourishing diocese, with fifteen churches. 'It is pleasing to reflect,' says the Editor of the 'Laity's Directory,' 'that at the present day the professors of Catholicity make up nearly one-fifth of the population of the city.' Even then the Irish were strong in Philadelphia.
The Bishopric of Bardstown was then of 'prodigious extent,' comprehending the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with the Michigan and North Western Territories. A few years back all these countries were little better than a wilderness, and with scarcely a Catholic to be seen in them; and though we are told, in the 'Directory,' that they formed, in 1822, 'one of the most populous flourishing portions of Catholic America,' we must only say the Catholics were left very much to themselves; for in the entire of this diocese--we shall not state how many times larger than the United Kingdom--there were but nineteen churches, the majority of them of wood. We are not, therefore, surprised to read a passage like this--'There are yet parts of this country in which many Catholics have settled (chiefly on the borders of the great lakes) who have not yet seen the face of a Catholic clergyman.'
The diocese of Louisiana, which included the whole of ancient Louisiana and the Floridas, was then one of the most flourishing of the domains of the Church. It had a considerable staff of priests when compared with the other dioceses, though there were many portions of this extensive region in which the voice of the minister of religion was never heard.
In the diocese of Richmond, which embraced the whole of Virginia, there were but seven churches; and in the famous Bishopric of Charleston, to which Dr. England lent such undying lustre, Catholicity had made but little progress at that time.
The diocese of Charleston included North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 1822, or two years after the appointment of Dr. England to the see, there was but one church in the City of Charleston; there was no church in North Carolina, and no church in South Carolina, though churches 'were intended to be;' while in Georgia there were three churches, one in Savannah, one in Augusta, and one at Locust Grove. In this vast diocese there was ample field for the energies of the most zealous missionary: and we shall hereafter see how vigorously the most illustrious Bishop of his day girded his loins to his great work. There were as yet, we are informed, no Catholic schools in any part of the diocese, but active exertions were then being made by Dr. England to diffuse a correct knowledge of the principles of the Catholic Church, through the establishment of societies which had for their object the dissemination of books of piety and instruction.
We now, with the aid of 'The Metropolitan Catholic Calendar and Laity's Directory for 1834,' pass over a period of twelve years. This little volume, not greater in size than that published at New York in 1822, was printed in Baltimore; and we are not surprised to read in it the following description of the position of the Church in this favoured diocese:--
'Baltimore has, not improperly, been styled the Rome of the United States; and, indeed, whether we consider the monuments of religion, rare and magnificent of their kind, or the splendour of the ceremonies of the Church, or the number, respectability, and piety of those who profess the Catholic faith, there is no one who could question the justice of her claim, or attempt to deprive her of the glory of her title.'
We find four new dioceses in the year 1834, namely, that of Cincinnati, established in 1823, St. Louis in 1827, Mobile in 1825, and Michigan in 1823. Of the old dioceses, we discover more apparent progress in that of Boston, in which twenty-six churches are well distributed through its different States. Thus, while there are nine in Massachusetts, there are three in Rhode Island, two in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire, two in Vermont, and six in Maine. This improved condition of things denotes that the Irish Catholics were even then making their way in the home of the New England Puritan. New York, with a wonderful future before it, has still but nineteen churches throughout its vast diocese; while Charleston, under the vigorous administration of Bishop England, has already twelve, but with only twelve priests for its three States.
The Religious Orders are making themselves known in several of the dioceses, where their value is already thoroughly appreciated. The Sisters of Charity have established twenty-five branches in seven dioceses, these taking the charge and management of academies, free schools, asylums, infirmaries, and hospitals.
In 1829, when the first Provincial Council of Baltimore was held, which was attended by the Archbishop of Baltimore and five Bishops, four being absent, the assembled Prelates expressed their gratitude to God for the increase of the Church, whose position is accurately stated in the following enumeration:--11 dioceses, 10 bishops, 232 priests, 230 churches, 9 ecclesiastical seminaries, 8 colleges, 20 female academies, and a Catholic population of at least half a million. In four of the dioceses, Baltimore, Richmond, New Orleans, and St. Louis, the number of priests was 132, thus leaving but 100 for New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Bardstown, Charleston, Cincinnati, and Mobile. The progress, such as it was, was considerable, taking into account the difficulties with which the infant Church had to contend, especially the want of churches and pastors for fast-growing congregations, and the various hostile influences arrayed everywhere against the faith. In the Directory of 1834, we frequently read such announcements as these--'Mass occasionally'--'Mass every two months'--'Mass once a month'--'Mass twice a month.' The 'occasionally' was in those times, and for years afterwards, a word of large significance, and might mean once a year, or once in three years, as was in many instances the case. If a certain proportion of the Irish emigrants did lose their faith, the explanation is obvious. It may, however, be given from an authority that cannot be questioned, namely, the Pastoral Letter of the Archbishop and Bishops of the Second Council of Baltimore, dated the 2nd of October, 1833; from which the following passage is taken:--
In viewing the members of our flocks who are spread abroad over the surface of this country, and the comparatively small number of our clergy, we have often been forced to deplore the destitution of spiritual aid under which multitudes labour. God is our witness, that so far as we had the means we have endeavoured to supply the wants of our beloved children. We have not been sparing of ourselves, nor have our brethren in the priesthood been spared. Of this, you, brethren, are also our witnesses. But notwithstanding these efforts, the Catholic has been too frequently removed far from the voice of his pastor, far from the altar of his redeeming Victim, far from the bread of angels, far from the other sacraments and institutions of religion. The emigrant who comes to our shores for the purpose of turning his industry to more profitable account than he could do in regions long and thickly inhabited, has wandered through our forests, our fields, our towns, and some of our cities, in amazement at not being able to find a church in which he could worship according to the rites of his ancestors; he has left our Republic in the bitterness of disappointment, or he has not unfrequently become indifferent. Others have with a firm faith preserved the sacred deposit, and transmitted it to their children, looking forward with hope to that day when they would be cheered by the ancient sounds of a liturgy derived from the Apostolic ages, and known through all the nations of the earth.
From the condition of things in a single diocese, in which, for more than twenty years, the Bishop had to do far more than the hardest work of a missionary priest, the reader may form a notion of the state of Catholicity in many parts of the United States, not alone from the year 1820 to the year 1834, when the Second Council of Baltitimore was held, but down to a very recent period indeed --wherever, in fact, the circumstances were at all similar. I have been favoured with a diary kept by Dr. England, Bishop of Charleston, during the first three years of his episcopate; * and some extracts from its pages will afford the reader a lively idea, as well of the multiplied work which a Catholic Bishop in those days had to go through, as of certain peculiarities in the religious world of America, for which there is no match to be found in these countries, where the hard line of separation is rigidly defined. Before the Bishop speaks for himself, it may be well to show what manner of man he was, and how far he was fitted for the position to which Providence had called him.
END OF CHAPTER XIX.
« Previous page | Start of chapter | Book contents | Next page »
NOTE:-
* This cherished memorial of her illustrious brother was entrusted to me by his venerable sister, one of the oldest members of the North Presentation Community of Cork. For half a century known by the honoured title of 'Mother Catherine,' Mrs. England has been eminent for much of that vigour of intellect and energy of character for which the Bishop of Charleston was remarkable; and in zeal for the glory of God--for religion and Christian education--it were difficult to decide to which, the brother or the sister, the priest or the nun, the palm should be awarded.