USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Century of Catholicism in western Massachusetts; being a chronicle of the establishment, early struggle, progress and achievements of the Catholic church in the five western counties of Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin > Part 18
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
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The up-to-date plumbing installation used throughout the college buildings is indicated by the above wash-room and shower baths in the dormitory building
gymnasium and a large campus, already dotted with tennis courts and golf apparatus, and affording room for indefinite expansion, as the number of the students grows. Special courses in Music and Arts may be arranged at the convenience of the students.
As knowledge without the power to use it is sadly handicapped. Our Lady of The Elms stresses especially whatever develops the power of self- expression, the power of imparting knowledge to others with grace, ease, force and clearness. Hence, she holds her periodic assemblies, at which classes in turn present public programs dealing with their own class subjects : weekly exercises in oral ex- pression, where the graces of public speech, pro- nunciation, enunciation, voice, gesture, ease and poise are emphasized. Her Dramatic Club, her student assemblies of the Sodality. her French Club. her Metaphysical Club, with their plays, sketches. and discussions. all contribute to the for- mation of "The Elms" girl-thoroughly grounded in religious and secular knowledge, with poise. pre- cision and power in expressing her views, and the easy elegance of a Catholic lady in her social con- tacts and activities.
The Seven Liberal Arts in which "The Elms" girl will be grounded :
I. The Art of thinking clearly.
II. The Art of reasoning logically.
III. The Art of speaking convincingly.
IV. The Art of writing gracefully.
V. The Art of spending leisure profitably.
VI. The Art of assuming social responsi- bility easily.
VII. The Art of "seeking first the Kingdom of God" naturally.
The graduate who pursues successfully a course in the liberal arts, in the subjects on the curriculum.
Recreation Hall and Gym- nasium in new college building.
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REFECTORY. IN O'LEARY HALL DORMITORY
will graduate the typical "Elms" girl-a cultivated, Catholic lady, at home wherever her vocation calls
her. Her motto is that of the episcopal founder of her Alma Mater : Viam Veritatis Elegi, and her entire course aims at its fulfillment in both natural and revealed truth.
Rt. Rev. Thomas M. O'Leary, D.D., founder of Our Lady of The Elms, is the president of the college. He is assisted in the administration of the institution by Rev. Patrick F. Doyle. Ph.D., S.T.D., Vice-President : Sister Mary Baptista, S.S.J .. Dean of Studies; Mother John Berch- mans, S.S.J., Treasurer.
For catalogue or further information those in- terested may address :
The Office of the Dean COLLEGE OF OUR LADY OF THE ELMS Chicopee, Massachusetts.
One of several attractive and cosy reception rooms in O'Leary Hall Dormitory.
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Springfield's Contribution to the College of the Apostles
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RT. REV. WILLIAM A. HICKEY, D.D. Bishop of Providence
RT. REV. THOMAS J. CONATY, D.D .* Sixth Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles
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RT. REV. PHILIP J. GARRIGAN, D.D .* First Bishop of Sioux City
RT. REV. WILLIAM J. HAFEY, D.D. First Bishop of Raleigh
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RT. REV. JOSEPH J. RICE, D.D. Bishop of Burlington
RT. REV. DANIEL F. FEEHAN, D.D. Bishop of Fall River
* Deceased
EPISCOPAL SONS OF THE SPRINGFIELD DIOCESE
Springfield in the College of the Apostles
EVERAL priests advanced from pastorates in our diocese to membership in the College of the Apostles. Besides Bishop O'Reilly and Bishop Beaven, who ruled the destinies of the Springfield fold, Bishop Conaty, who died as Bishop of Los Angeles, Bishop Gar- rigan, who closed his life as head of the Sioux City Diocese, Bishop Rice, of Burlington, Bishop Feehan, of Fall River, and Bishop Hickey, of Providence, were all priests of our diocese before attaining to the honors of the purple.
Eloquent and scholarly Bishop Thomas J. Conaty was founder of Sacred Heart Parish, in Worcester, where he remained until his appoint- ment as head of the Catholic University. He was the "young man eloquent" of such living causes as total abstinence and Irish home rule, and was first president of the Catholic Summer School of America. Throughout his life he was in constant demand as orator on momentous occasions, and was the voice of the Church at Worcester's great memorial meeting, when President Mckinley was assassinated. Thanks to his initial labors and ener- getic leadership, Los Angeles has become one of the great dioceses of the West.
Similarly distinguished was the career of Bishop Garrigan, who, after his ordination, served as head of the seminary at Troy, spent fourteen years as pastor of St. Bernard's, Fitchburg, served as first vice-rector of the Catholic University at Wash- ington, and, from that position of eminence in the world of scholars, was elevated to the episcopacy as head of the Diocese of Sioux City. Ever and always he proved himself the thorough scholar and able administrator.
Bishop Garrigan's successor as pastor of St. Bernard's, Rev. Daniel F. Feehan, followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, not merely by his splendid accomplishments as pastor at West Boyl- ston and Fitchburg, but by joining the episcopal ranks as head of the Fall River Diocese, in 1907. He recently observed the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, an anniversary which coincided with that of the present Holy Father, who sent a
gracious letter of congratulation to his co- jubilarian. A master of French, as well as English, and tireless in his activities, Bishop Feehan has made Fall River a flourishing see.
Our next pastor to be honored by Rome with an episcopal appointment was Rev. Joseph J. Rice, pastor and founder of St. Peter's Parish, North- bridge. He had occupied several curacies in our diocese and served as professor of St. John's Seminary, Brighton, previous to receiving the honors of the purple at Burlington, in 1910. Under his able leadership the scattered Vermont diocese has become a united and energetic unit.
Nine years later Rome again honored our priest- hood by selecting one of its members as coadjutor bishop to Bishop Harkins, of Providence, in the person of Rev. William A. Hickey. An accom- plished bilinguist, Father Hickey served in several of our French speaking parishes before becoming pastor of Gilbertville and St. John's, in Clinton. It was from this latter pastorate that he was pro- moted to the See of Providence, where he has been especially zealous and eminently successful in furthering the cause of Catholic education, and has crowned his diocesan educational system by opening Providence College. Bishop Hickey's own scholarship appears in his charming translation from the French of Le Camus' masterly "Life of Christ."
Other members of the Apostolic College, who have Springfield association, though they never served as priests in our midst, are Bishop Shahan, president emeritus of the Catholic University and one of the foremost authorities of our time in Church History; Bishop Hafey, of North Caro- lina, a native of Chicopee, who was ordained for the Baltimore Diocese; and Bishop Dinand, of Jamaica, who served two terms as head of Holy Cross and whose name is perpetuated in stately Dinand Library, most impressive of the Holy Cross group. Incidentally, too, Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, who founded Holy Cross College, in 1843, sleeps his last sleep in the little God's Acre on Mt. St. James, as some one has well said: "in the shadow of the monument which he himself had reared."
NS AIS
The Altar of the Popes
STRIKING VIEW OF THE MAIN ALTAR OF ST. PETER'S, ROME, RESERVED EXCLUSIVELY FOR CEREMONIES AT WHICH HIS HOLINESS, THE POPE, PONTIFICATES.
Our Catholic Lay Societies FR
It goes without saying that in this great diocese, where everything Catholic thrives and prospers, Catholic socie- ties are flourishing. In every nook and corner of the Springfield fold, we find divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Ladies' Auxiliary, councils of the Knights of Columbus and the Daughters of Isabella, courts of Foresters for both men and women, branches of the St. John Baptist organization and Franco-Americans, the Catholic Daughters of America, the Ladies' Catholic Benevolent Association, the Catholic Women's clubs, which had their origin in war work, and espe- cially in work for the chaplains. These, of course, are in addition to the strictly church sodalities and fine Holy Name organizations, which are found in nearly every parish. Each society and its aims and accom- plishments would be mat- ter sufficient for an en- tire volume. Here space permits only a cursory glance at what each has contributed to the sum total of Catholic progress in western Massachusetts.
The St. Vincent de Paul Conferences
HE work of charity carried on by lay groups in Catholic parishes, a work begun by Ozanam and his seven companions, at Paris, less than a century ago, early took root in our diocese and has been going on for nearly sixty years. The object of this great undertaking is to have capable and sympathetic men in every parish, who visit the homes of the poor, discover their needs and furnish relief in a spirit of Christian fellow- ship. The work of the St. Vincent de Paul con- ferences is carried on quietly, has no publicity feature, and the recipients of St. Vincent de Paul bounty have no fear that their identities will be coldly divulged on records open to public inspec- tion. In St. Vincent de Paul work, the right hand knoweth not what the left hand doeth, but the last national report shows that, within a twelve- month, over three hundred thousand visits were made by unpaid workers, whose labors are purely a labor of love, whose only reward is the blessing of the God of the poor, whose greatest happiness is affording help to the poor.
This great organization always works under the supervision and inspiration of the Church, but its personnel is entirely lay. It has its Super- ior Council in New York, its Central Council at Boston, its Diocesan Central Council at Spring- field, its particular councils throughout each dio- cese and its parish conferences. In the Spring- field diocese, the particular councils are found at Springfield, Worcester and Pittsfield. The parish conferences, in our diocese, date their origin from the foundation of St. Patrick's Conference at Chicopee Falls in 1878. It is characteristic of the first pastor of Chicopee Falls, the gentle Rev. P. T. Stone, that his flock showed the way in St. Vincent de Paul work. The first report of the particular council formed at the Cathedral in December, 1892, pays this merited tribute to this pioneer conference : "This conference, aggregated May, 1879, is the oldest in this diocese. Besides
relieving the poor, it is boarding five children in families, and three at Mt. St. Vincent."
Thus St. Patrick's Conference, at Chicopee Falls, inaugurated St. Vincent de Paul work in our midst. St. John's, in Worcester, organized in 1879, and was aggregated two years later. Aggregation to the state and national councils does not take place for at least one year after the initial establishment of a conference. St. Ber- nard's, of Fitchburg, began formal St. Vincent de Paul work in 1884, and St. Michael's Cathedral parish organized in March, 1891. The following year, the particular council of Springfield was established, to co-ordinate the formation and work of neighboring conferences, and give each the benefit of the experiences of all by the inter- change of ideas at quarterly assemblies.
The very next year saw St. Vincent de Paul conferences multiply apace. First came the three Sacred Heart parishes of Worcester, Springfield and Holyoke, in the early months of the year, and in the closing months, Notre Dame, of Worcester, followed suit. 1894 saw organizations at St. Patrick's, South Hadley Falls; Holy Name, in Chicopee, and the formation of particular coun- cils at Worcester and Holyoke. Holy Name, of Worcester, and St. Joseph's, of Springfield, joined the St. Vincent de Paul ranks in 1896, St. Joseph's, of Pittsfield, in 1897, St. Paul's, of Worcester, in 1898, and St. Mary's, of North- ampton, in 1899.
All these conferences have done splendid work, and achieved results which have won, not merely the approval of their superior officers in St. Vin- cent de Paul, but also of those in charge of public welfare work. We remember, some years ago, at a state convention of public charities, a state officer criticized the churches for their helplessness in the face of need. When a Catholic demanded an explanation, the speaker replied that he referred to non-Catholic societies, because the Catholics, with their well-organized conferences of St. Vin- cent de Paul, were generally ready and willing to
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cope with any situation. Some years back. a pub- lic official of Fitchburg questioned what St. Ber- nard's was doing for its poor and the reply of St. Bernard's pastor, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Donnelly, was to prove that St. Bernard's expended more on its needy members the previous year than the public welfare agencies on all the poor of the entire city. That a public official did not know these facts is merely a reminder that St. Vincent de Paul work is never done to the accompaniment of the trumpet's blare or the bugle's blast, but its annual financial outlay in our state is well over a quarter of a million dollars.
The youngest of our St. Vincent de Paul par- ticular councils is in Pittsfield, where a particular council began its existence in 1921, and where conferences have been relieving distress in St. Joseph's, since 1897, St. Charles', since 1916, St. Mary's, since 1916, while Mt. Carmel, the Immaculate Conception and St. Teresa's are the latest to take on this work. The present year and the present industrial depression have led to renewed activity especially under the particular council at Worcester, where the work languished in the years of plenty. Several of the older con- ferences have been stirred to renewed activity, and several new ones have been inaugurated in the more recent parishes, such as St. Bernard's and the Blessed Sacrament. It was noticeable how many were eager to join the new foundations, because they remembered the St. Vincent de Paul membership and activities of their fathers and grandfathers, in the earlier parishes. The present year, also, saw a new conference at Immaculate Conception Parish, Easthampton.
Our present Vicar General, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Bernard S. Conaty, was the moving spirit in the organization of our oldest and youngest partic- ular councils-Springfield, in 1892, and Pittsfield, in 1921. Among the charter members of the Cathedral Conference we note the name of James B. Carroll, its first vice president, now a justice of our Massachusetts Supreme Court, but still an active member of this fine old con- ference. Among his fellow members was Edward A. Hall. a lifelong worker for St. Vincent de Paul conferences, a real warhorse in charitable endeavor, and an authority on all matters pertain- ing to St. Vincent de Paul conferences. Incident- ally. Mr. Hall's life of aggressive Catholicity goes back a generation beyond the formation of our
diocese, and he speaks from personal experience on Catholic progress since Civil War days. His memory proved most accurate, for instance, when we were seeking information about the saintly Father Power, all of whose priestly labors were confined to Chicopee, Springfield and Indian Orchard. He is at present president of the Cen- tral Council of Springfield, and also its particular council, and Judge Carroll is vice-president of both.
The first head of the Worcester particular council was another sturdy veteran of St. Vincent de Paul work, the late Matthew B. Lamb, who began his charitable labors under the late Bishop Conaty, at Sacred Heart, in Worcester, continued it under our present vicar general and was rewarded with the highest gift within the power of his fellows of St. Vincent de Paul to confer- the presidency of the Worcester particular coun- cil. His successor is Attorney Daniel P. Callahan of Worcester, who is most active in organizing new conferences and stirring the older ones to renewed activity.
Present conditions, which have reduced to penury many an ordinarily self-supporting fam- ily, have led to a veritable rebirth of St. Vincent de Paul activity. Old conferences are redoubling their efforts. New conferences are springing up. Rt. Rev. Thomas M. O'Leary, Spiritual Director of our central council, has given every encourage- ment to the work, and the spirit of charity thus engendered has become contagious. Many parishes which have no formal conferences are extending helping hands to the needy, and parish conferences will result. Within the jurisdiction of Springfield's particular council, where activity has varied but never languished, new conferences came into existence in Holy Family, 1908; Holy Name, 1912; Mt. Carmel, 1913, and in St. Anthony's, for work among the city's needy. Among the leaders of our entire state in financial assistance to the poor and unfortunate. are the Cathedral, Holy Family and Sacred Heart. all of Springfield, according to the latest report of the central council.
Members of the St. Vincent de Paul confer- ences receive no salaries or reimbursement, except the spiritual favors with which the Church blesses their work, their families, their beneficia- ries and their benefactors. They hold weekly meetings at which prayer, spiritual reading and a
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discussion of the work in hand constitute the pro- gram. They contribute a weekly offering to the cause, as well as giving their personal efforts in investigating the merit of cases reported. The primary aim of the society is the personal sanctifi- cation of its members. Their means to that end is visiting and aiding the poor, though no good work is foreign to the scope of the St. Vincent de Paul conference.
In the first report of the Springfield particular council, in 1892, we find this scope of the work illustrated by these excerpts, one from the Cathedral's own report, the other from St. Joseph's, of the same city. The Cathedral Confer- ence writes that besides relieving the poor and safeguarding the faith of neglected children, by sending them to Catholic institutions, or provid- ing for them Catholic homes, its Christmas work "supplied about fifty-five families, the inmates of the jail and the poor farm, the Industrial School and wherever children or adults were deprived, by their position, of the luxuries of life. The reverend rector of the Cathedral (our pres- ent vicar general) has recently organized in the parish a society, The Young Women's Guild, which has materially aided the conference, in the making and distribution of clothes."
St. Joseph's Conference, in its initial account of stewardship, says: "This conference reports the largest number of visits made. It is indefatigable in its labors among the children. Not only has it found the same difficulties which attend this work in other conferences, but has to cope with special efforts made by men of position and wealth to proselytize the little ones of French parentage. It has rescued many children from this baneful influence, and is now caring for three at Mt. St. Vincent, and five at the house of the Angel Guardian at Boston."
This gives us a glimpse behind the curtain at the early stages of a work which is still flourish- ing in our midst, and which gives the layman his golden opportunity of co-operating gloriously with his Church's charitable program. We have space for only these brief observations on prac- tical St. Vincent de Paul work, and by a few instances must judge all. The sum unostenta- tiously raised and spent for charity by this
organization since its first labors at Chicopee Falls would mount into the hundreds of thousands and the numbers of visits and good works keep pace with its expenditures of dollars. The amounts raised by individual conferences are at times astounding, but never broadcast: the St. Vincent de Paul worker is a true follower of Ozanam and he is satisfied if his labors are recorded on the golden books of God.
Since its early days, St. Vincent de Paul work has expanded until today nearly every form of suffering is relieved. At times, the parish confer- ence will come to the aid of a suffering family by sponsoring medical attendance or providing hos- pital care. At other times, fuel and food are provided to tide the breadwinner over a critical situation. The alert conference visitors do not hesitate to report spiritual needs to the pastor, that the stray sheep may receive needed direction for his return to the fold. Many a conference quietly finances the distribution of milk to in- digent children in the parish school, pays milk bills regularly for large families of little ones, aids in reaching an agreement with the impatient landlord whose arrears of rent are impelling him to action-in a word, the active conferences stand ready to relieve to the full extent of their financial ability, any situation in which the needy Catholic finds himself, and are especially responsive to the appeal of childhood in distress. They never forget that St. Vincent de Paul's ministrations reached alike the slave in the galley, the outcast in the prison dungeon, and the infant abandoned by the roadside, exposed to death, or worse. It was the charity of Christ which urged St. Vincent de Paul, and it is the same charity for which the modern apostle of benevolence prays.
This ideal of St. Vincent and Ozanam is so dear to Mother Church that she blesses with her richest spiritual gifts those who carry her con- solation and relief to her suffering members. The Catholic man, eager for God's blessing, can find a royal road to the charitable Heart of Jesus by membership in his St. Vincent de Paul confer- ence, and active participation in the cause which the Master made His own : "In so far as ye do it to the least of these my brethren, ye do it unto Me."
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Ancient Order of Hibernians
HE active life of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in our diocese goes back to 1867, when Division 1, of Worcester, was formed. A sturdy growth followed this in- itial foundation, and the Ancient Order everywhere was in the van in keeping alive the history, traditions and achievements of the Old Land and its scattered children. The earliest memories of Catholics of Irish descent has to do with musical and literary observances of St. Patrick's Day, sponsored largely by the Hibernian divisions.
Today, the five counties which comprise our diocese have forty-five divisions, with thirty-one hundred and forty-five members, of which Worcester has over two thousand in its twenty- six divisions. Hampden County follows, with ten divisions and seven hundred fifty-four members. The county presidents are :
Berkshire-Cornelius O'Connell, of North Adams; Franklin-W. J. Murphy, of Turners Falls; Hampden-John F. Powers, of Westfield; Hampshire-Michael Dwyer, of Florence; Wor- cester-James H. Ivory, of North Brookfield.
That the Hibernians of our diocese exert a beneficial influence and leadership beyond their local ranks is indicated by the fact that the national secretary is Patrick J. Dowd, of Holyoke, the state president is John J. O'Connor, of Hol- yoke, and the state secretary is Patrick J. Leary, of Worcester.
For the origin of the Hibernians, we must leave our diocese, our continent and our country, and go back to the Ireland of the sixteenth century, when the fiendish Penal Laws were promulgated against Catholics, and the heads of Catholic families incurred a fine by refusing to attend Protestant divine service. Priests were forbidden to eat or sleep in Erin, and harboring them became a capital offense. Protestant organiza- tions, which finally crystallized in the Orange society formed, quickly supported the Penal Laws and grew rich on the legalized loot of their perse- cuted and outlawed Catholic neighbors.
Adherents of the old Faith quickly rallied to its defense. Such leaders as Rory O'Moore and
such organizations as "The Defenders" organ- ized to protect the priest as he travelled by stealth and offered the holy sacrifice of the Mass on the Mass rock in mountain fastness or hidden bog and morass, or even on a raft, tied to the shore, so that it could be cut adrift at the approach of the English forces. It was preferable to trust to the mercy of the Atlantic waves rather than to any surrender to representatives of an iniquitous law. Out of these societies, formed to defend the hunted priest and protect the proscribed altar, was evolved the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
The first American divisions were authorized in New York, in 1836, and quickly multiplied on our continent, where the Ancient Order carried out its traditional work of promoting and defend- ing the Church of St. Patrick. The Hibernians have also rendered valuable service in promot- ing a knowledge of Irish history, and keeping alive the old Gaelic literature, whose treasured manuscripts outnumber those of Greece and Rome, a literature couched in
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