Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/866

 PHILADELPHIA

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PHILADELPHIA

Chiiroh (luring the stormy days of the Revolutign. l,iko llio majority of their flock, they remained neu- tral, till the cominf; of the French allies called for repeated services on occasions of joy or sorrow; the addresses, however, were mostly delivered by the chaplain to the French amba,ssador.

At the end of the war Father Molyneux opened the first Catholic parish school. In Oct., ITS.'j, the sacra- ment of Confirmation was administered for the first time in Philadelphia by the Very Rev. John Carroll, prefect Apostolic. On 17 .\uj;. of the following year Father FarnuT pas.s<'(l to his r"ward. Ilis funeral was attended by the American Philosojiliical Society, the professors and trustees of the University of Pennsyl- vania, and by large numbers of non-Catholics. No one had done so much to make the Catholic religion re- spected by the residents of New Jersey and Pennsyl- vania. Father Molyneux soon after retired from ac- tive service and was succeeded by the Rev. Francis Beeston, who built the presbytery of St. Joseph's which is still occupied by the clergy. In 1788 a num- ber of German Catholics agitated for a new distinc- tively German church: Dr. Carroll reluctantly con- sented, warning them against a feeling of sejiaratism and admonishing them that they could not be per- mitted to name their own pa.stors. In 1795 the Ger- man church was ready for occupancy, and was named Holy Trinity, being, it is said, the last building for public purpo.ses erected in Philadelphia of alternate red and black glazed brick. This church gave great trouble to Bishop Carroll, on account of the preten- sions of the trustees, and had to be placed under inter- dict. The three churches now built, St. Joseph's, St. Marj''s, and Holy Trinity, were all in the southern part of the city. Provision had to be made for the Catholics living in what was then the extreme north- ern section. Opportunely, the Augustinians were seeking to found a house in the United States, and to them the new congregation was entrusted. In 1796 the Rev. Matthew Carr, O.S.A., issued an appeal to the inhabitants of Philadelphia and received a gener- ous response. President Washington figures in the list of .subscribers, for S.'JO, Commodore Barry, for SI 50, and Stephen Girard, for $40. After many vicissitudes, "the largest church in Philadelphia" was dedicated under the invocation of St. Augustine, 7 June, 1801. When Father Carr removed to his new residence near St. Augustine's, the trustees of St. Mary's petitioned the bishop to send them a pastor capable of sustaining the dignity of "the leading church in the United States". The bishop found them the priest they were looking for in the person of the Rev. ^lidiael Egan, a Franciscan stationed at Lancaster. He had come to America in order to establish in this country a house of his order, but found the time premature and be- came a missionary priest under the jurisdiction of Bisliop Carroll. He was ably assisted at St. Mary's by Father Rossiter.

The time having arrived when Philadelphia should be erected into an episcopal see, Pius VII, by Bulls dated 8 April, 1808, designated the diocese as includ- ing "the entire two States of Pennsylvania and Dela- ware, and the western and southern part of the State of New Jersey". An accompanying Brief appointed Father Michael Egan (q. v.) to be the first occupant of the see. Owing to the existing political conditions in Europe, the Briefs did not reach Baltimore until 1810, and during the interval Father Egan remained in Philadelphia as vicar-general to Bishop Carroll. On 10 Nov., ISOS, there arrived in Philadelphia the Dominican Father William Vincent Harold, who came from Ireland recommended by the Archbishop of Dubliri and other dignitaries. Bishop Egan accepted him with eagerness, and the eloquent preacher soon became a great favourite. Bishop Egan having been con.secrated at Baltimore, 28 Oct., 1810, made Father Harold his vicar-general and took up his residence at

St. Joseph's with him and an uncle of his, the Rev. James Harold, who had arrived from Ireland in March, 1811. Relations between the hislio]! and lln' ll.-irolds became strained for domestic reasons not well ex- plained. Trouble arose between the elerny and the trustees, and I lie Harolds returned to Europe. .After a troubled aduiinistration of three years and nine montlis Bishop Egan died at the age of fil'ty-three. The trust ees of St. Mary's had acquired for themselves such a rejiutation for insubordination, that it was no easy matter to find any one willing to take up the burden of the episcopate. Fathers Mar6chal, D(d{arth and David declined to accept.

Finally, after an interval of five years, the Holy See selected the vicar-general of Armagh, Ireland, the Very Rev. Henry Conwell, seventy-two years old. He was consecrated in London by Bishop Poynter, 24 Sept., 1820, and arrived in Philadelphia on 25 Nov., of that year. A very disagreeable duty was awaiting him in the case of the Rev. William Hogan, a priest of Al- bany whom the administrator had imprudently ad- mitted to the diocese without sufficient inquiry or credentials. Bishop England states that he was "de- ficient in the most common branches of an English edu- cation". But he was a man of fine personal presence, afluent talker, a born demagogue, and able to preachtHi topics which tickled tlie ears of men wliose religion was a matter of fasliion. ,\ clear and imiiartial narrative of the Hogan Schism is found in Father Kirlin's excellent work, "Catholicity in Philadelphia". (See also CoN- WELL, Hbnrt.) It remains a question whether the Hogan schism, which engrossed the interest of Cath- olics throughout the entire nation, did not do more good than harm. It focussed the attention of Cath- olics and non-Catholics on the important question of episcopal rights. While some lukewarm Catholics fell away from the Church, the body of the faithful rallied to their pastors with ardour and increased in- telligence. The question of lay interference in the administration of the affairs of the Church was settled for all time in Philadelphia. The repudiation by the Holy See and by the hierarchy of the United States of the compromise of 9 Oct., 1826, in which Bishop Conwell surrendered to the already beaten trustees several episcopal rights, ended forever in these States the tyranny of trusteeism.

On 7 July, 1830, there arrived in the city of Phil- adelphia a man who was to shed lustre on the diocese and on the United States, Francis Patrick Kenrick (q. v.). Having been appointed coadjutor of the diocese, he found a valuable lieutenant in the person of the Rev. John Hughes, a man five or six months his junior, who remained Bishop Kenrick's right hand and secretary until his own elevation to the See of New York. After fruitless admonitions to the trus- tees of St. Mary's, the administrator, on 16 April, 1831, closed the church and cemeteries of St. Marj''s. On 18 May the trustees surrendered, and on 28 May the church was reopened. In 1832 Bishop Ken- rick opened what eventually became the diocesan seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, the beneficent re- sults of which were soon apparent. During the first two years of this administration the number of churches was doubled, the first addition being the church of St. John the Evangelist built by Father John Hughes and dedicated 8 April, 1832, which was soon followed by that of St. John Baptist, Manayunk, with the Rev. Thomas Gegan as first pastor. On 8 April, 18.33, was laid the cornerstone of St. Michael's church at Kensington, organized by the Rev. Terence J. Donoghue.

When the avrful cholera scourge visited Philadelphia in 1832, the intrepidity of the priests and sisters pre- sented an example of heroic Christian charity which was long remembered. On 14 May, 1837, death called away one of the most vaUant priests of the city, Father Michael Hurley, O.S.A., who almost from the