Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/478

Rh AMERICAN 424 AMERICAN two from Brooklyn, five from Philadelphia, and the remainder from the New England States, the South, and the West. The first ordination of an alumnus to the priesthood was on the 11th of June, 1862, in the Church of St. John Lateran, by Cardinal Pat- rizzi. The finance.s of the college were not, however, on a sound basis; the rector, therefore, in 1866, ap- pealed for aid to the American bishops assembled in the second Plenary Council of Baltimore. The ap- peal was successful, for Archbishop Spalding, who as Delegate of the Holy See, conoked and presided at the Council, in his letter promulgating its decrees, commended the college to the good will of the bishops. In consequence, the Rev. George H. Doane, a clergy- man of the Diocese of Newark, was appointed by the bishops to collect funds for the college. After mak- ing a tour of the country, he succeeded in collecting Sl.'iO,000, which at once placed the college on an excellent financial footing. During the 'atican Council, the American prelates in Rome decided that the property of the college should remain in the hands of the Sacred Congrega- tion of Propaganda. With regard to the burses or scholarships founded, it w^as agreed that when they were vacant, one-half of the proceeds should go to the college and the other half to the diocese to which the burse belonged. There are now (1906) thirty-five burses founded in the college. The Rev. Dr. McCloskey was made Bishop of Louisville, Ken- tucky, in 1868, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Francis Silas Chatard, who remained rector until 12 May, 1878, when he was consecrated Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana. The Rev. Dr. Louis Hostlot, vice-rector of the college, succeeded Dr. Chatard, and remained in office tiU his death, 1 February, 1884. Then for a time the Rev. Dr. Augustin J. Schulte governed the college, until the election of the Rev. Dennis J. O'Connell, D.D., now Rector of the Catholic University at Washington. He resigned in July, 1895, and was succeeded by the Rev. W^illiam H. O'Connell, D.D., who became Bishop of Port- land, Maine, in 1901. The Right Rev. Monsignor Thomas F. Kennedy, of Philadelphia, succeeded him. Under Dr. Kennedy's rectorship property adjoining the college was purchased, in November, 1903, at a cost of 850,000. His predecessor. Dr. William H. O'Connell, had purchased for S20,000 the Villa Santa Catarina, at Castel Gandolfo, as a simimer residence for the students. At the present time (May, 1906) their mnnber is one hundred and fif- teen, the largest number the college has ever had. The college has an Alumni Association in the United States comprising two hundred and seenty-fie members, out of four hundred and fifty students who ha'e been ordained priests in the college. This asso- ciation made a contribution of 825,000 to the fund for the recent acqtiisition of new property by the college. Besides the late Archbishop Corrigan, of New York, the following American prelates, who arc still living, studied theology in the college: Archbishops Farley, of New York; Moeller, of Cin- cinnati; O'Connell, of Boston; Bishops Richter, of Grand Rapids; Burke, of St. Jo.seph, Mo.; Horst- mann, of Cleveland; McDonnell, of Brooklyn; Hoban, of Scranton; Hooker, of Jaro, P. I.; Dougherty, of Nucva Segovia, P. I.; Morris, Coadjutor, of Little Rock. Archbishop Riordan, of San Francisco, and Archbishop Seton, as well as Bishops Byrne, of Nashville, Keiley, of Savannah, O'Connor, of New- ark, N. J., and Northnip, of Charleston, S. C, are partially indebted to this institution for their train- mg in theology. By his brief, Ubi primnm, 25 Oc- Ui)PT, 1884, Leo XIII rai.sed the American College to the rank of a Pontifical College. The administration of the college is controllc<l by a board composed of the archbishons of Baltimore, Boston, New York, »nil Philadelphia. Its internal management and dis- cipline are entrusted to the rector, who is assisted by the vice-rector and by the spiritual director. The students attend the lectures, and are subject to the academic regulations, of the Urban College of Propa- ganda. The curriculum of the last-named institu- tion comprises a two-years' course in philosophy and a four-years' course in theology. Supplementary lectures are given in the American College on the subjects treated in Propaganda. The most interesting incident in the history of the American College was the attempt of the Italian government, after the taking of Rome, to seize the college property. Italian statutes of 15 August, 1866, and of 7 July, 1867, confiscated to the State the property of religious corporations. A law of 1873 applied the general law to the City of Rome. The Propaganda had for ten years contended in the courts that these laws did not apply to its property; but the highest Italian court on the 29th of Janu- ary, 1884, decided the case in favour of the State. Cardinal McCloskey and Archbishop Corrigan, his coadjutor, wrote a joint letter on the 3d of March, 1884, to the President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, begging him to "ask the King of Italy for a stay of proceedings, if it be not possible further- more to exempt the institution as virtually American property from the operation of the law ". Arch- bishop Corrigan, who, for a long time, was secretary of the board of bishops, having charge of the affairs of the American College, sent special letters to the Secretary of State, Mr. Frelinghuysen, who wrote on the 5th of March, 1884, to Mr. Astor, the Ameri- can Minister at Rome, urging him to use his influence with the Italian government to save the college property because "although technically the Ameri- can College is held by the Propaganda, it is virtually American property, and its reduction would be attended with the sacrifice of interests almost ex- clusively American". The efforts of President Ar- thur, Secretary Frelinghuysen, and Mr. Astor, sug- gested and urged by the cardinal and his coadjutor, saved the college; and on the 2Sth of March, 1884, Mr. Astor sent a telegram from Rome, announcing that the college had been exempted from the effect of the Italian statutes of confiscation. Compiled from documents given to the author by the late Archbi-;hop Corrigan. See also Annual Reports of the Aiumni Association. Henry A. Brann. American College, The, xv LoDV.iN,an institution for tlio (■duration of priests. Its official title is "The American College of the Immaculate Conception of the Bles.sed Virgin Mary". It was founded in 1857, with the cordial support of the Belgian hierarchy, by two American bishops, the Rt. Rev. M. J. Spalding, then Bishop of Louisville, Ky., later Archbishop of Baltimore, and the Rt. Rev. P. P. Lefevre, Adminis- trator of the Diocese of Detroit, Mich. Its purpose was, on the one hand, to enable American-born stu- dents to pursue thorough courses of theology in Europe, while familiarizing themselves with the hin- guages, usages, and customs of the t)ld World; on the other hand, to afford young men of various Euro- pean nationalities an easy means of ijreparation for the work of the ministry in America, thus jircscnting to the bishops an opportunity of adopting well-trained subjects for their several dioceses. Originally, the college was established only for the instruction of stu- dents in elementar)' and advanced theology. They were supposed to have studied philosophy, either in America or in one of the preparatory seminaries of Europe. The actual scope of the college is some- what wider. In October, 1906, a faculty oi phi- losophy was organized providing a two-years' course for students who have successfully completed their classical studies. Although the bishops mentioned above took the