USA > Maine > The Catholic church in Maine > Part 13
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Bapst decided to give to the Catholics of Bangor a church worthy of their faith and their devotion. This now became his consuming project. St. Michael's, a modest little wooden struc- ture located off Court Street, had long been inadequate for the
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parish. Father O'Sullivan had plans for a new church before he was removed and had already acquired a lot. When Bapst became pastor he found he had a delicate problem on his hands. First, the lot was in the name of Father O'Sullivan and had not yet been paid for. One thousand dollars were due in June 1854; if not remitted, the lot, along with the two thousand dollars paid, reverted to the owner. Bapst begged the Provincial at the beginning of May to allow Father Moore to remain one more month in Bangor to collect the money. Bapst did not have a high opinion of Moore as a missionary, but he admitted that he was a good collector of money and the money invested in the lot had to be saved.1
But the money was a secondary problem. The site for the new church was on Broadway, the fashionable part of the city, and the residents there objected to having a Catholic church in their residential section. Such objections could have been, and no doubt were, anticipated, when the site was selected. It was an unwritten law that Catholic churches were located in in- conspicuous places. But Father O'Sullivan and his advisers were unwilling to listen to the objections. That was the situa- tion when Bapst became pastor. He favored a new site, one located near the section of the city where the Catholics lived and one that did not offend the feelings of the Protestants. He met opposition among some of his parishioners and he told them in no uncertain terms that he was pastor. A new site was acquired in the poorer section of the city where the Catholics lived, on York Street where the land drops sharply, ravine like, towards the Penobscot. The Protestants were grateful for the decision, and whatever hard feelings aroused within the parish had disappeared by the time Father Ciampi was praising the Catholics of Bangor.
Bapst avoided serious trouble between the Catholics and the native Americans of Bangor by this decision, and those who are inclined to blame him for provoking the Ellsworth affair
1 We doubt if this request was granted. The next trace of Moore is the report in the Boston Pilot for November 4, 1854 that he did not sail, as intended, on the Arctic out of Liverpool. It was fortunate that he did not. This ship sank after a crash with another vessel on the night of September 27-28, with a very heavy loss of lives and a valuable cargo.
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should compare his actions in both communities. Bapst was quite willing to avoid offering any reason for arousing ill- feelings and antagonism in Bangor, even to the extent of incurring the opposition of some of his parishioners, when this could be done without compromising conscience and Catholic doctrine. In Ellsworth the forced reading of the Protestant version of the Bible was a matter of conscience and doctrine; · the site of a new church was not. If he had insisted on building the church on Broadway, quite probably it would not be stand- ing today. But he was not spoiling for a fight with Protestants, and this was realized in Bangor. That is why the citizens of Bangor rallied to him when he was attacked. If he were "some- what of a zealot," as he is described in the Dictionary of American Biography, his willingness to consult the feelings of the Bangor Protestants and their respect and admiration of him pose an interesting character problem.
Patrick C. Keely, the best Catholic architect in the country, designed the new Bangor church. It seems every parish in the East wanted a Keely church; in the fall of 1854 no less than thirty-six churches designed by him were under construction. The cornerstone ceremonies on June 11, 1855 attracted a large crowd, many of whom were Protestants. There was an added attraction in the person of David William Bacon, the first Bishop of Portland. He had been installed on May 31 and so this was his first visit to Bangor. The papers reported that "the utmost order prevailed" at the ceremony. By December con- struction had progressed so well that Christmas services were held for the first time in the church. But it was far from com- pleted and the cost ($60,000) was staggering even to a gener- ous parish. Bapst did his best to relieve them of the burden. With Bishop Fitzpatrick's permission, he collected in Boston, and on one trip he garnered $850 from the Catholics of the Cathedral and St. Mary's parishes; his salary and his perquisites as pastor, after living expenses were paid, went into the church fund.
The new church was dedicated October 12, 1856, and this
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was a grand ceremony. Bishop Bacon presided, Father Con- way, who had spent many years at Indian Island and Bangor, sang the Mass, Bishop Fitzpatrick preached, and in the sanctu- ary was Bishop Fitzpatrick's Secretary and Chancellor, James Augustine Healy. As Portland's second bishop, Healy would visit this church frequently. Four thousand persons witnessed the ceremony, according to the newspapers, and if this is an accurate count, hundreds must have been standing on York Street. It was a large brick church of Gothic design, one hun- dred and fifty feet by seventy, without galleries, seating fifteen hundred.
Everyone, then and since, speaks of its beauty; all acknowl- edged that it was the finest church in Maine, and others that it was the best brick edifice in the country. When another pastor added the great windows, remarkable for their design and col- oring, Bangor had one of the most beautiful church in New England, and the site of the church, once the cause of a bitter dispute, was better than at first feared. It was the first object that caught the eye of those on the Bangor boat as it moved up the beautiful Penobscot to dock. The newspapers were very generous in their praise of Father Bapst and the Catholics of Bangor for their achievement. One Bangor paper thought it a matter of justice to give Bapst the credit due him:
To his indomitable energy and persistent endeavors our Catholic population owe their enlargements from the narrow and graceless St. Michael's into the present spacious, noble, and beautiful edifice of St. John's.
We do not know if the parishioners were allowed to voice their desires on a new patron saint. We suspect they were not con- sulted.
The decision to terminate the Jesuit missions involved St. John's parish. It was a large parish and the new bishop wanted it for one of the diocesan priests. Father Stonestreet and his successor, Father Burchard Villiger, S.J., one of Bapst's exiled companions of 1848, considered St. John's necessary to support the work in the other missions. Bapst agreed with them. We do not know when Bishop Bacon decided to appoint a diocesan
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priest pastor of St. John's, but it was known to Villiger long in advance. The gradual recalling of the Jesuits from Maine until Bapst alone remained was a clear sign of the end of the missions.
Father Kennedy died suddenly at Eastport on September 4, 1855. He was a young priest, only thirty-seven, but his health had never been robust and northern Maine was not kind to one who suffered, as did Kennedy, from rheumatism. He was buried at Pleasant Point, in the chapel of the Indians. Father Moore, at the time of Kennedy's death residing at Holy Cross, took his place at Eastport, leaving the college November 15, 1855. Moore did not remain long in Maine. Father Ciampi was appointed President of Holy Cross for the second time in 1857, and no one replaced him. Father Vetromile was recalled a year later, reporting to Holy Cross September 11, 1858. Father Bapst, the first of the Jesuits to arrive in Maine, was the last to leave. He arrived at the college on October 1, 1859. The students were glad to see him; a half-holiday was declared.
Many in Bangor were not happy to see Bapst leave. By August the news of his removal was known. Both Catholics and Protestants proceeded to embarrass all concerned: Bapst, Bishop Bacon, and the Jesuit Provincial. They did not under- stand all the reasons behind the decision, but they did understand that they were losing a good pastor and an asset to the city of Bangor. Late in August a petition was circulated requesting his Superiors to allow Bapst to remain in Bangor. By August 31 the petition had been "already very numerously signed by the Protestants of the city, embracing our most prominent citizens." The Whig and Courier admitted that this was an "unusual step on the part of the Protestant people of the city," and explained that they acted out of regard for Bapst's "estimable character as a man and a citizen and his eminent services in the cause of temperance and good order." A week later a petition with 1500 signatures, Catholics and Protestants, was forwarded to the Jesuit Provincial.
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The petitions did not alter the decision, but they were and still remain a solid refutation to the charge that Bapst was a zealot and a trouble maker. Surely the respectable Protestants of Bangor, who knew him well, were not going out of their way to retain in their midst a zealot; nor would the editor of the Whig and Courier have surmised: "It will be difficult, if not im- possible, to fill his place." Zealots were plentiful in the 1850's.
The parishioners of St. John's were the real losers. On Tues- day evening, September 27, they gathered at their church to bid him goodbye. A spokesman thanked him for the blessings his labors had brought them and told him that the unqualified approval of him by both Catholics and the Protestants was ample evidence of their appreciation of what he had done for the Catholics and the city of Bangor. They were, however, happy that they could express their feelings in the form of a gift. Then they gave him a purse of seven hundred and sixty- three dollars. Bapst begged to be excused from a formal reply. But he gave them a few words of advice: though pastors change, the Church continues; look to the minister, not to the man; give to his successor the love and confidence and the obedience they had given him. Two days later, on Thursday, he boarded the steamer Sanford for Boston.
Bangor had changed since he first saw the city eleven years ago, on August 7, 1848. So had the Penobscot valley and northeastern Maine. He and his companions had constructed seven churches in this area: in Oldtown, Waterville, Ellsworth, Winterport, Rockland, Trescott, and Bangor; they had com- pleted some they had found in the process of building when they arrived, as in Machias and Calais; they had acquired a building of some sorts in the other missions and converted them into churches, as in Pembroke and Belfast. Much had been done, but much more remained to be done.
Many years passed before the Jesuits returned again. Eighty- one years later, in 1942, they returned to conduct Cheverus High School in Portland.
5
MAINE'S FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP DAVID WILLIAM BACON 1855-1874
DAVID WIL AVID WILLIAM BACON was installed as the first Bishop of Portland on Wednesday morning, May 31, 1855. Accom- panied by Bishop John Fitzpatrick of Boston, his arrival in the city had been unobtrusive. St. Dominic's, the only Catholic church in Portland, was crowded for the event, and many hundreds, according to the papers, were unable to gain ad- mittance; those who stood outside did at least get a glimpse of the new bishop as the procession passed from the rectory through the ranks of the members of the Young Catholic's Friend Society. They saw a tall man of imposing presence and courtly manners with a strong, attractive countenance, some- what sombre and grave for a man in his early forties. In the procession he was preceded by six priests. Two of them were familiar to the spectators: Father O'Donnell, the pastor of St. Dominic's, and Father Patrick O'Bierne, a former pastor who had accompanied the two bishops on the trip to Portland. There were two other diocesan priests, Father Edward Putnam of Whitefield, and Father John B. Daly from Claremont, New Hampshire. The other two were John Bapst, S.J., and Basil Pacciarini, S.J. No doubt the bishop noticed, as he marched towards the church, the absence of Father William McDonald, pastor at Manchester, and Father Patrick Canavan, pastor at Dover, and wondered why. No doubt, too, the spectators noticed the absence of two New England bishops, Louis de Goesbriand of Burlington and Bernard O'Reilly of Hartford.
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DIOCESS OF PORTLAND.
DIOCESS OF PORTLAND .*
This diocess, which comprises the states of Maine and New Hamp- shire, is administered for the present by Rt. Rev. John Fitzpatrick, Bishop of Boston.
CHURCHES AND CLERGY. MAINE.
Portland, St. Dominick's-Rev. John O'Donnell, who also attends Ports- mouth, Bath, Lewiston, Biddeford, Saco, Gorham, N. H., Brunswick, and other missions. Whitefield, St. Dennis,
Newcastle, St. Patrick's,
Rev. E. Putnam.
Augusta, St. Mary's,
Gardiner, Damariscotta, )
Bangor, St. Michael's,
Ellsworth, new church,
Cherryfield,
Benedicta, St. Benedict's, new church,
Indian Old Town, St. Ann's, Penobscot Indians, Oldtown, new church,
Frankfort, lot bought,
Bucksport, Belfast, Skowhegan,
Rockland and Thomaston, a lot of ten acres bought with large house on it, which is to be changed into a church.
-
Waterville, new church,
Eastport, St. Joseph's,
Pleasant Point, St. Ann's, Passamaquoddi Indians,
Calais, Immaculate Conception,
St. Ann's, Passamaquoddi Indians,
Machias, St. Mary's, Trescott, St. Mary's,
Pembroke, new church,
Stations at Plaster Mills, Lubec, Roberton, Bellville, Whitimville, East Machias, Columbia, &c.
Benedicta, St. Benedict's, Rev. J. Connolly, of Woodstock, N. B.
Holton, St. Mary's,
Madawaska. In this section, allotted to the State of Maine by the treaty with Great Britain, there are two Catholic churches, served by cler- gymen from Quebec. The inhabitants are mostly Canadian French ..
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Dover, St. Aloysius-Rev. P. Canavan.
Claremont, St. Mary's --- Rev. J. B. Daly, O. S. F.
Manchester, St. Ann's, Rev. W. McDonald.
Nashua, Concord, &c.
The other missions of the State are visited occasionally by one of the above named gentlemen. RECAPITULATION.
Churches
24
Clergymen
* Report furnished with that of Boston diocess. 10
Rev. John Bapst, S. J., Superior, Rev. Ant. F. Ciampi, S. J., Rev. Eu- gene Vetromille, S. J.
-
Rev. Basil ¡ Paccia- rini, S. J., Supe- rior, Rev. Augus- tin Kennedy, S. J.
The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laities' Directory for . . . 1855 (Baltimore, Lucas Brothers )
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It was an occasion that called for the presence of all New England bishops, unless it was agreed that this was not the opportune time to stress the growth of the Catholic Church in New England.
Father Bapst, according to the special correspondent of the Eastern Argus, officiated at the ceremony. He was in error, however. Bishop Fitzpatrick officiated and also preached. Bapst sang the High Mass. At the end, Bishop Bacon spoke a few words. There was a notable pause before he spoke, and the reporter detected "more of his heart expressed in his face, than is usual in his appearance." From what has survived of his talk, it is obvious he spoke from his heart; he told his audience that the task before him had been imposed, unsought, that he had long labored with people he loved and where he had spent his boyhood's pleasant hours, that he now transferred his affections entirely to the faithful of his diocese. In return he asked that they should ever pray that "I may honor the church." His words were concise, cogent, impressive, confirm- ing the advance notice that he was an able preacher. It was an imposing ceremony, and best of all good order prevailed. After the ceremony had ended, the two bishops and the six priests were guests of William Pitt Preble, a prominent Protes- tant.1 In view of what had happened in the State during the preceding year and the attitude still prevailing in some quarters, Preble's act was a bold and encouraging gesture of friendship. It was a happy ending to a day that the Catholics of Maine had long been awaiting. At last they had their bishop in their midst.
1. THE SITUATION IN 1855
The diocese of Portland, embracing Maine and New Hamp- shire, had been established on July 29, 1853, the same day as the diocese of Burlington. Both these dioceses had been part
1 Known locally as Judge Preble, he was a friend of Edward and Winifred Kavanagh. Preble had also invited Bishop Fenwick to his home when St. Dominic's was blessed in 1833.
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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
of the sprawling diocese of Boston, and the decision to establish two more dioceses in New England, making a total of four, was evidence of the growth of Catholicism in this area. But a reason more compelling than the increase of Catholics was that the scattered Catholics of these three states could not be adequately tended by a bishop residing in Boston; one nearer to them was demanded.
Burlington had its bishop long before Portland. Bishop Louis de Goesbriand had been installed on November 6, 1853 as the first Catholic bishop of Vermont, and his arrival in the city on the evening of November 5 had aroused considerable talk and no little fear among Catholics in other states. It was hardly the time one expected a rousing public reception to a Catholic bishop, yet Bishop de Goesbriand had been met at the railroad station by a huge crowd, many of them Protestants, a band that played "Hail to the Chief," and a ten-pounder that boomed a salute of welcome. Vermonters, accustomed to unique and strange manifestations of feelings, had accepted the welcome in good grace. If events had progressed as planned, the first bishop of Portland would have been consecrated with Louis de Goesbriand and he would have been installed without the public welcome, at about the same time. But the bishop-elect of Portland, the Very Reverend Henry B. Coskery, Vicar- General of the Baltimore archdiocese, declined the office, and the Holy See was compelled to make another choice.
Bishop James Healy, Bacon's successor, in an address com- memorating the centennial of the city of Portland, observed that "several attempts" were made to obtain a bishop for Port- land. What the bishop had in mind is not clear, but we should not gather from his words that others, like Coskery, were appointed and declined the office. There was a long interval before Rome acted. There were, however, added reasons for acting slowly. The situation in Maine was nearing the explosion point, and Bishop Fitzpatrick, well informed about the state, was in a better position to direct the Catholics of Maine and New Hampshire than any newcomer would have been. Rome,
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MAINE'S FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP
too, had to be assured that the appointment would not be declined a second time. Probably some were queried in ad- vance. We know that Father Ciampi received confidential news in February 1854 that he was being considered and im- mediately sought the support of his Superiors to prevent it. We know, too, that the talk in Bangor late in this year was that the "Rev. Mr. Conroy" would be appointed. Ciampi mentions this in a letter dated December 17, referring, no doubt, to Father John J. Conroy, a friend of Bishop John McCloskey and the future bishop of Albany. But this was a rumor. A week before this letter was written, on December 8, Pius IX had appointed the Bishop of Portland: David William Bacon.1 He had selected for the Catholics of Maine and New Hampshire a man who could face adversity, one who was not easily frightened. A glance at his massive head and strong face tells us that, and the Eastern Argus reporter recognized it as he saw the man stand to address the crowded congregation of St. Dominic's.
David Bacon was born in Brooklyn on September 15, 1813, the first child of William and Elizabeth (Redmond) Bacon. The Bacons had been married in old St. Peter's, New York, with Father Benedict Fenwick blessing the marriage, and the child was baptized there. Young David never remembered his father, for he was lost at sea off the coast of African Guinea when the child was two years old, and five months before the birth of his second child, Jane. The widow and her two children were befriended by her sisters, and David became devoted to the Redmonds. This devotion prompted him, when he became the last surviving member of the Bacons and the Redmonds after his aunt, Catherine Redmond, died January 27, 1873, to gather the remains of his loved ones, mother, sister, and two aunts, and inter them in the vault of his episcopal chapel.
Bacon was sent to Montreal College for his classical studies and then, his vocation decided, he entered St. Mary's, Balti- more, for his theological training. Evidently he was one of the
1 Some authors give April 22, 1855 as the date of the appointment, but December 8, 1854 is the date Bacon himself gives in his Memorandum Book.
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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
better students in the seminary, for he was a member of the faculty of St. Mary's College during three of his seminary years (1834-1837).1 During the last year he was free to concentrate on his approaching ordination. At the age of twenty-five he was ordained by Archbishop Samuel Eccleston in Baltimore. Brooklyn was still part of the New York diocese, and his first assignments were in Utica and Ogdensburg. Later he was transferred to Belleville, New Jersey, and another transfer sent him to take charge of St. Joseph's in New York, a post vacated by Father John McCloskey, who had been appointed President of St. John's College, Fordham. These two priests, McCloskey and Bacon, became good friends. McCloskey, three years older, had also been born in Brooklyn, had been baptized at St. Peter's, and had studied at Mount St. Mary's. When poor health compelled McCloskey to resign his post as president, he returned to St. Joseph's and Bacon was assigned to organize the new parish of the Assumption in Brooklyn.
Bacon returned to his home town as pastor when the Catholic population was rapidly multiplying and in the wake of a harm- ful ecclesiastical squabble. One can realize the rapid increase of Catholics by recalling that the diocese of Brooklyn was established only thirty years after the first Catholic church was built. There was no church in Brooklyn when Bacon was born and he had to be taken across the East River to St. Peter's to be baptized. He was ten years old when this first church was blessed; a group of Catholics had organized, purchased the land, and started the church in 1822. They called it St. James', and Bacon was old enough to recall the day, August 28, 1823, when Bishop John Connolly blessed the church. He could remember, too, that the Catholics, after many petitions, had to wait two years before a resident pastor, Father John Farnan, arrived. It would have been better if they had waited longer, for hardly had four years passed when their pastor was sus- pended. Farnan, however, did not move on; he remained in the locality and persuaded some of his former parishioners to
1 Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, is frequently given as the institution where he studied theology.
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MAINE'S FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP
form an "Independent Catholic Church," acquired some prop- erty and proceeded to build a church. When his supporters gradually abandoned him, the project failed and the church property was lost by default. Bishop John Hughes eventually purchased the abandoned church and established a new parish, only the third in Brooklyn. He then appointed Bacon pastor of the new parish with the task of completing the church. It was dedicated on June 10, 1842 to the Assumption of Our Lady.
No doubt he was well posted on Father Farnan and the history of the building that was now his parish church.1 By the time he became pastor, the trouble had been fairly well for- gotten and forgiven. But the intimate knowledge of the harm that comes from a recalcitrant priest was part of his pastoral training when he assumed the office of bishop. He had other experiences as a Brooklyn pastor that served him well as a Maine bishop. He had shown a talent for attracting non- Catholics to the faith, with the result that he was instrumental in converting a number of prominent persons of Brooklyn; there was a wide field for this in Maine and New Hampshire. He knew how to face a mob intent on destruction of church property and convince them that they would not escape freely from any act of vandalism; this he had done in 1844, he and a group of Catholics quickly mustered, when a mob marched on St. James', and this display of courage had saved the church. This kind of courage was needed during his first few years in Maine. A cholera epidemic a few years later had tested his charity. In Brooklyn he had made manifest his devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, by dedicating the two churches constructed under his direction to her; so, too, would his cathedral and many of the churches built in Maine and New Hampshire be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. From Brooklyn, too, he brought with him the disease that gradually sapped his strength and prematurely ended his life.
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