Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/34

 NEW ORLEANS

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NEW ORLEANS

by Bishop DubourR. He joined tlip Lazarists and was ordained in8t. I.ouis, ^IissouI•i, 13 October, 1822. On 23 February, 1S32, lie convoked a synod attended by twenty-one i>riesls. Regulations were promulgated for better discipline and steps were taken to form an association for the dissemination of good literature.

Americans were now pouring into New Orleans. The ancient French limits had long since disappeared. Such w;is the entcrjirise on all sides th;it in 1S30 New Orleans ranke<l in iinportance inmiediately after New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. It \v;i.s the greatest cotton and sugar market in the world. Irish emigration also set in, and a church for the English-speaking peo- ple was an absolute necessity as the cathedral and the old I'rsuline chapel were the only places of worship in New Orleans. X site was bought on Camp Street near Julia, a frame church, St. Patrick's, was erected and detlicatcd on 21 April, 1S33. Rev. Adam Kinde- lon was the pastor of this, the first English-speaking congregation of New Orleans. The foundation of this parish was one of the last official acts of Bishop de Neckere. The year was one of sickness and death. Chol- era and yellow fever raged. The priests were kept busy day and" night, and the vicar general. Father B. Rich- ards, and Fathers Martial, Tichitoli.Kindelon fell vic- tims to their zeal. Bishop de Neckere, who had retired to a convent at Convent, La., in hope of restoring his shattered health, returned at once to the city upon the outbreak of the epidemic, and began visiting and min- istering to the plague-stricken. Soon he too was seized with fever and succumbed ten days later, 5 September, 1833. Just before the bishop's death there arrived in New Orleans a priest who was destined to e.xercise for many years an influence upon the life and progress of the Church and the Commonwealth, Father James Ignatius Mullen; he was immediately appointed to the vacant rectorship of St. Patrick's. Upon the death of Bishop de Neckere, Fathers Anthony Blanc and V. Lavadiere, S.J., became the administrators of the diocese. In November, undismayed by the epi- demic which still continued, a band of Sisters of Char- ity set out from Emmitsburg, to take charge of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. The sisters had come into the diocese about 1832 to assume the direc- tion of the Poydras Asylum, erected by Julian Poy- dras. a Huguenot. Seven of the new colony from Emmitsburg were sent to the Asylum and ten to the Charity Hospital. Bishop de Neckere had invited the Tertiary Sisters of Mount Carmel to make a foun- dation in New Orleans, which they did on 22 October, 1833, a convent school and orphanage being opened.

Father Augustine Jeanjean was selected by Rome to fill the episcopal vacancy, but he decUned and Father .\nthony Blanc was appointed and consecrated on 22 November, 1835 (seeBLANC, Anthony). Bishop Blanc knew the great want of the diocese, the need of priests, whose ranks had been decimated by age^ pes- tilence, and overwork. To meet this want Bishop Blanc asked the Jesuits to establish a college in Louisi- ana. They arrived on 22 January, 1837, and opened a college at Grand Coteau on .5 January, 1838. He then invited the Lazarists and on 20 December, 1838, they arrived and at once opened a diocesan seminary at Bayou Lafourche. In 1836, Julian Poydras having died, the Asyium wdiich he founded passed entirely under Presbj'terian auspices, and the Sisters of Char- ity being compelled to relinquish the direction, St. Patrick's Orphan .'\sylum, now New Orleans Female Orphan .\sylum, was founded and placed under their care. In 1841 the Sisters Marianites of Holy Cross came to New Orleans to assume charge of St. Mary's Orphan Boys' Asylum. They opened also an Acad- emy for young ladies and the Orphanage of the Immac- ulate Conception for girls. The wants of the coloured people also deeply concerned Bishop Blanc, and he worked assiduously for the proper spiritual care of the slaves. After the insurrection of San Domingo in

1793 a large number of free coloured people from that inland who were slave-holders thems<'Ivcs took refuge in New Orleans. Thus was created a free colnuicd ))opulation among which succc'ssive cpideinics jilayed havoc leaving agi'd and orphans to lie cared for. Ac- cordiiiglv in IS 12 Hi.shdp Hlaiie and Father Kousselon, V.G., founded the Si.sters of the Holy Family, whose duty was the care of the coloured orphans and the aged coloured poor. It was the first coloured sisterhood foundeil in the United States, and one of the only two that exist.

Bishop Blanc planned the erection of new parishes in the City of New Orleans, and St. Joseph's and the Annunciation were founded in 1844. The foundation of these parishes greatly diminished the congregation of the cathedral and the trustees seeing their influence waning entered upon a new war against religion. Upon the death of Father Aloysius Moni, Bishop Blanc appointed Father C. Maenhaut rector of the cathe- dral, but the wardens refused to recognize his appoint- ment, claiming the right of patronage formerly en- joyed by the King of Spain. They brought an action against the bishop in the parish court, but the judge decided against the trustees, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided that the right to nominate a parish priest, or the jus patronatus of Spanish law, was abrogated in the state, and the decision of the Holy See was sustained. But the wardens refused to recognize this decision and the bishop ordered the clergy to withdraw from the cathedral and parochial residence. One of the mem- bers of the board, who was a member of the city council, obtained the passage of a law punishing by fine any priest who should perform the burial service over a dead body except in the old mortuary chapel erected in 1826 as part of the cathedral parish. Under this ordinance Rev. Bernard Permoli was prosecuted. The old chapel had long outlived its purpose, and on 19 December, 1842, Judge Preval decided the ordi- nance illegal, and the Supreme Court of the United States sustained his decision. The faithful of St. Patrick's parish having publicly protested against the outrageous proceedings, the tide of public opinion .set in strongly against the men who thus defied all church authority. In January, 1843, the latter submitted and received the parish priest appointed by the bishop. Soon after the faithful Catholics of the city petitioned the Legislature to amend the Act incorporating the cathedral, and bring it into harmony with ecclesiasti- cal discipline. Even after the decision of the Legis- lature the bishop felt that he could not treat with the wardens as they defied his authority by authorizing the erection of a monument to Freemasons in the Catholic cemetery of St. Louis. To free the faithful, he therefore continued to plan for the organization of parishes and the erection of new churches. Only one low Mass was said at the cathedral, and that on Sun- day. Bishop Blanc convened the third synod of the diocese on 21 April, at which the clergy were warned against yielding to the illegal claims of trustees, and the erection of any church without a deed being first made to the bishop was forbidden. For the churches in which the trustees system still existed special regu- lations were made, governing the method of keeping accounts. At the close of 1844 the trustees, defeated in the courts and held in contemi)t by public opinion throughout the diocese, yielded completely to Bishop Blanc.

This controversy terminated, a period of remarkable activity in the organization of parishes and the build- ing of new churches set in. The cornerstone of St. Mary's, intended to replace the old LTrsuline chapel attached to the bishop's house, was laid on 16 Feb., 184,5; that of St. Joseph's on 16 April, 1846; that of the Annunciation on 10 May, 1846. The Redemptor- ists founded the parish of the Assumption, and were installed in its church on 22 Oct., 1847. "The parish