Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/469

 LEAVENWOBTH 453 ICAVENWOBTH

and augmented the secular clergpr a himdredfold. and ordained in 1885. He was consecrated Bishop He had Catholic schools established everywhere, of Leavenworth, in Kansas City, 27 December, 1904. except where absolute poverty prevented. He His episcopal administration of the Leavenworth lived to see the State of Kansas dotted over with Diocese was eminently successful. The growth of churches and institutions of every kind, with a the church under his jurisdiction was irarked by fine body of clergy and a loyal and generous people, the foundation of new congregations, and the build- He established many new parishes and urged the ing of churches and parochial schools. Catholic building of substantial churches, schools, and pas- societies were strengthened, and the diocesan toral residences, encouraged the founding of sodali- statutes revised to enforce the decrees of the Third ties, confraternities, and religious associations of Plenary Council of Baltimore under present condi- various kinds, and especially encouraged Catholic tions. He adopted practical means of enforcing home life. It was he who introduced into Kansas the papal ^'Motu Proprio,'' on the Church music, the Franciscans, Capuchins, and Passiomsts; the In March, 1910, he was appointed coadjutor to the Sistersof St, Joseph^ Ursuline Nuns, Sisters of Mercy, Bishop of Kansas City, Missoiuri, cum jure succes- Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, Sisters of St. Francis, sumis.

Sisters of St. Agnes, and the Oblate Colored Sisters The third incumbent of the See of Leavenworth, of Providence. The Apostleship of Prayer-League Rt. Rev. John Ward, D.D., was appointed 24 of the Sacred Heart, St. Vincent de Paul Society, November, 1910, and consecrated by His Excel- Holy Family and Holy Childhood Associations were lency, Most Rev. Diomido Falconio, Apostolic also organized by him. Besides being noted for his Delegate to the United States, 22 February, 1911. missionary zeal, Bishop Fink was regarded in his He had been chosen from the clergy of the diocese day as a learned churchman and a master canonist, and on that account the event was one of special The statutes of the second synod of Leavenworth significance to the priests and people of Kansas, are most admirable, and his set of catechisms is not As a priest. Bishop Ward had for twentynseven excelled. He is the author of a great number of years, labored in the diocese and endeared himself pastoral letters and his innumerable epistles to to the people of every parish where he served. His priests and religious are models of strict discipline first permanent appointment after ordination 17 and wise counsel. After the division of the diocese July, 1884, was to a little church on the wild by the erection of the sees of Wichita and Con- prairies of Marshall County, twelve miles from a cordia (2 August, 1887), he enjoyed a respite from store or postoflfice. Here he remained for four his many cares. He had already moved his resi- years and lent his youthful energy and zeal to the dence from Leavenworth to Kansas City, Kansas, welfare of a scattered farming community along in order to be more accessible to the priests and what was known as Irish Creek. His next appoint- people of the diocese because of the converging of ment was as pastor of the then small town of all railroads at that point. At the time of his Parsons, where he spent seven years, and from death, 17 March, 1904, the statistics of the diocese there he went to St. Thomas' Chiurch, Kansas City, show all the details of a well organized ecclesiastical Kansas, then known as Armourdale. When Very establishment. The laws of the Baltimore Council Rev. John F. Cunningham, V. G., became Bishop of and the statutes of the diocese were in full force. Concordia, Septembt, 1898, Father Ward was ap- All financial affairs were well in hand and a peace pointed rector of the cathedral, which important and unity existed that made the Leavenworth Dio- charge he held for eleven years. Finally, when the cese the admiration of the entire West.^ There irremovable rectorship of St. Mary's Church, Kan- were then 110 priests, 100 churches, 13 stations and sas City, Kansas, became vacant by the retirement chapels, 37 parochial schools, 4000 pupils, and 35,000 of its venerable pastor, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Kuhls, Father Catnolics. Ward won the prize at the concursus ordered by

Michael Fink was bom in Triftersberg, Bavaria, Bishop Lillis in the Spring of 1909. As rector on 12 June, 1834, and after studying in of St. Mary's, his administration soon proved the Latin school and gymnasium at Ratisbon, came financially successful and his interest in the chil^ to this countnr at the age of eighteen. Called to a dren resulted in crowded parochial schools. The religious life, he sought admission among the Bene- subsequent story of his life as a bishop has been in dictines of St. Vincent's abbey in Westmoreland keeping with his early record. Bishop Ward was County, Penn^lvania, He was received by the bom 23 May, 1857, in the vicinity of Cleveland, founder. Abbot Wimmer, and made his profession Ohio. He attended the parish school at Olmstead, January, 1854, taking the name of Louis Maria. Ohio, and passed through the hish school at Berea. After comi)leting his theological studies he was He continued his classical studies at Mount St. ordained priest on 28 May, 1^7, by Bishop Young Mary's, Cincinnati, and completed his collegiate of Erie. His missionary laboi^ were at Bellefonte, coiu^e at Sandwich College, Ontario. He took up Pa., and Newark, N. J. He was then made pastor his studies of science, philosophy and theolo^ of a congregation at Covington, Ky., where he under the Benedictine Fathers at the famous insti- completed a fine church. He introduced into tution of learning at St. Meinrad's, Indiana. He the paridi Benedictine nuns to direct a girls' school, was ordained to the priesthood in the cathedral which was one of his earliest cares. Appointed to of Leavenworth, 17 July, 1884, by his saintly pre- St. Joseph's, Chicago, he aroused a spint of faith decessor, Rt. Rev. Louis Mary Fink, O.S.B. The in his nock at that place and gathered so many religious orders now (1922) established in the aroimd the altar that a new church was required, diocese include: men, Jesuit Fathers (Missouri which he erected at a cost of $80,(X)0, planting a Province) St. Mary's' College, St. Marys, Kansas, lai]ge and well arranged school house beside it. As Fathers 25; scholastics 15; Brothers 15; lay pro-

Srior of the house of his order in Atchison, Kan., fessors 10; students 500; Benedictine Fathers: e showed the same zeal and ability, and when priests 40; clerics 20; Brothers 10; students 325. Bishop Miege wished to obtain a coadjutor to Franciscan Fathers : priests 10; Kansas City, Em- whom he could resign his charge, he solicited the poria, and Olpe. Carmelite Fathers: American appointment of the prior of St. Benedict. Province; priests 5, Leavenworth and Mt. Carmel.

The successor of Bishop Fink was the Very Rev. Fathers of the Sacred Hearts: Louvain, Belgium; Thomas F. Lillis, vicar-^eneral of the Diocese of priests 1, Kansas City, Kansas; women, Sisters Kansas City, b. at Lexington, Missouri, in 1862, of Charity: founded 1858; conducting academies,