USA > Maine > The Catholic church in Maine > Part 14
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1 As curate at St. John's, Utica, Bacon was in a good position to be posted on the doings of this erratic priest, for Farnan was the first pastor of St. John's (1819-1823), was removed by his bishop when he became involved in some trouble, and remained in Utica to embarrass his successor. Farnan was then assigned to St. James' in Brooklyn. These parish disturb- ances were well publicized.
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He was a happy pastor in Brooklyn. He developed the Assumption into a fine parish which included the Navy Yard where many of his Irish parishioners were employed. To care for the expanding parish he built another church, but he elected to remain at the old parish when the new parish was formed. In 1853 Father Bacon had a new bishop, for the diocese of Brooklyn was established on July 25, the same day the dioceses of Burlington and Portland were established. He was still at the Assumption parish when he was elected Bishop of Port- land.
Bacon was consecrated at St. Patrick's, New York, on April 22, 1855 by Archbishop John Hughes, assisted by Bishop John Fitzpatrick and Bishop John Loughlin. Bishop McCloskey preached. All four bishops were closely linked with him and his new office. Portland was a suffragan see of the archdiocese of New York and it was natural that his metropolitan be re- quested to consecrate him; the diocese of Portland had been part of the diocese of Boston and had remained under the jurisdiction of Fitzpatrick until the new bishop had been appointed; Bishop Loughlin of Brooklyn had been Bacon's ordinary. Bishop McCloskey was, as we know, a close personal friend of the new bishop.
The bishop's coat of arms had been selected with care; it was inspired by his record as a parish priest and by the work which faced him as the first bishop of an undeveloped diocese. On the shield was a church building. As a pastor he had been a builder of churches, and as a bishop new churches, especially a cathedral, would be among his many pressing problems. In some of the communities of his diocese it would be the problem of rebuilding churches, for since the diocese had been estab- lished two churches, in Bath and Manchester, had been destroyed during the Know-Nothing excitement, and another would be destroyed, in Ellsworth, a few days before the first anniversary of his installation.
There was some delay before Bishop Bacon was installed,
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and some have said that the hostile atmosphere of the diocese had delayed the event. This is doubtful. The winter was a poor time for such a ceremony and a prudent man would have waited for the coming of spring. Besides, the health of his sister may have delayed him. She died a few weeks after the installation. And he was busy collecting money from his friends. As his motto declared, he needed strength and hope (robur ac spes) to face the task before him. But he needed money, too. His former parishioners and friends responded generously to his pleas and he brought with him gifts amount- ing to thirty thousand dollars. There is still another reason for thinking that concern over anti-Catholic feelings did not dictate the installation plans. If it had, Father Bapst would not have been selected for a conspicuous part in the ceremony. He was, as the reporter informed his readers, the "noted" Father Bapst of Bangor, and he did not explain to them why he was noted. They knew. If the bishop and his advisers were anxious to humour the prejudices of some native Americans, Bapst would have been advised to spend the day in Bangor. It could well be that the hundreds attending the ceremony were as curious to see Bapst as they were anxious to see Portland's first Catholic bishop. It was a decision one would expect from a pastor who had stood in front of St. James' and had faced a mob quite similar to the one that had attacked Bapst.
The Eastern Argus did not run any notice in its issue of May 31 that the first Catholic bishop of Portland would be installed that day, but it did carry a news item that surely did not escape the notice of Bishop Bacon. All the Know-Nothing lodges, it was reported, had received a questionnaire. After inquiring about the local officials and membership, the men at the top wanted to know how many foreigners were in the town, what percentage of them were Catholics, how many were naturalized citizens, whether they usually voted; and finally they wanted to know if there were a resident priest and a Catholic church in the community. Bishop Bacon had the answers to the last
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two questions, for he was well acquainted with the statistics for the diocese of Portland given in The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory for the year 1855.
There is no better way to measure the century's growth and changes in Maine than to read the information in this Directory. It is a small volume, and a single page is sufficient for the data on the diocese. One should be acquainted with the information on this page, for it tells us who were the pioneer priests of the diocese of Portland.
There were ten priests in the diocese, five diocesan and five Jesuits.1 Six of the priests were in Maine, indicating that the majority of the Catholics of the diocese were in this state. We are acquainted with these six priests: Bapst, Pacciarini, Ciampi, Kennedy, Vetromile, Father John O'Donnell, pastor of St. Dom- inic's in Portland, and Father Edward Putnam at Whitefield. Bishop Fitzpatrick had arranged that a priest from Woodstock, New Brunswick, would visit the Catholics of Benedicta and Houlton periodically, and the churches in the Madawaska district were under the care of two priests of the diocese of Quebec. The Catholics in American Madawaska were in a strange position. It seems that they were not under the jurisdic- tion of Bishop Bacon, although the Bull establishing the diocese declared that the States of Maine and New Hampshire com- prised the diocese. Rome, however, had included the Mada- waska district, both Canadian and American, in the diocese of St. John, established in 1842, and did not transfer the American Madawaska to Portland when this diocese was estab- lished. It would take some years before this odd situation was rectified. Bishop Bacon's diocese was obviously ill staffed, but so too were other dioceses founded at this time. Bishop de Goesbriand of Burlington had started with ten churches and five priests; there were only twelve churches and about 15,000 Catholics in all Long Island when Brooklyn became a diocese.
In O'Donnell and Putnam the bishop had two priests who lent considerable prestige to the church in Maine. Father
1 With the departure of Father Pacciarini shortly after the installation of Bacon there were only four Jesuits.
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Putnam of Whitefield also had the care of the Catholics of Damariscotta, Augusta, and Gardiner. A convert with a talent for painting that could seldom be exercised, he was devoted to his parishioners and was in turn loved and respected. He bequeathed to the Catholics many lasting memories, one of which was his dislike for collections and another the way his sole pet, a small gray donkey, followed him about as a dog. Father Putnam's great desire was an academy for his parish children taught by Sisters, and an orphanage for the unfortu- nate ones of the district, and in this project he was encouraged by words and gifts by Winifred Kavanagh, sister of Edward Kavanagh. But he died in 1863 with his dream unrealized. Father O'Donnell, according to the Directory, was also pastor of the Catholics in Bath, Lewiston, Brunswick, Portsmouth, Gorham, and other missions in New Hampshire; Portland itself needed his full attention. He was soon transferred to Nashua to make room for Father Müller, the first Vicar-General of the diocese. This was one of those moves, the preference of a newcomer over a pioneer, that could have aroused resentment, but O'Donnell was not disturbed by the preference. He spent twenty-six years at Nashua, built the first Catholic church, the Immaculate Conception, in this town, and was elected to the school committee. The city of Nashua showed its respect for him by naming a public school in his honor; the bishop recog- nized his worth by appointing him Vicar-General when Father Müller died.
There were only three priests in New Hampshire. Father John Daly was at St. Mary's in Claremont, the oldest Catholic church in the state. He had a long missionary career to his credit. A Franciscan, he had been accepted by Bishop Fenwick in 1837 and sent to Vermont to help the pioneer priest of Ver- mont, Jeremiah O'Callaghan. These two priests had laid the foundations for the diocese of Burlington, with O'Callaghan covering the northern section and Daly the southern section of the state. Daley had also extended his activities into New Hampshire where some of his more exciting ventures took
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place. One of his trips to Manchester made good dinner con- versation; while offering Mass in a rented hall, he and the altar and the congregation quite suddenly went crashing through to the basement. An inspection revealed that the floor supports had been cut the day before.
Shortly after the diocese of Burlington was established he returned to Boston and was assigned to Claremont and the neighboring towns. He was now nearing the end of his active life as a missionary. So, too, was Father Patrick Canavan, who was pastor of St. Mary's in Dover. This was the church built by Father Ffrench, the second Catholic church in New Hamp- shire. Canavan had been appointed to this parish in 1834 and, after more than twenty years of generous work in this town and other missions, old age and infirmities were undermining his activities. The third New Hampshire priest, Father William McDonald, was stationed at St. Ann's in Manchester. He had been in this city since 1848 and shortly after his arrival he purchased a lot for a church and started to construct a church. There is a telling story behind this lot. The Catholics of Man- chester could have had a lot of land for a church free, if they so desired. The Amoskeag Company made the offer. But the lot was on the outskirts of the city, far away from the residential sections. That is where the important people of Manchester wanted the Catholic church, knowing that the Catholics, mainly Irish, would gravitate towards that section; such a migration would free the good city of Manchester from fre- quent contact with undesirables. Bishop Fitzpatrick advised the Catholics to select and buy a lot of their own choice. St. Ann's was built in 1849-1850, and was built in such a hurry that it had to be immediately reconstructed. By the time that Bishop Bacon came to Portland, the Catholics of Manchester had only half a church. The reconstructed church had been heavily damaged during the clash between Know-Nothings and Catholics on July 4, 1854. There was another church in New Hampshire, although the 1855 Directory does not mention it. It was the unfinished church in Portsmouth, started in 1852
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by Father Charles McCallion. His successor completed it in 1855, and the church was fittingly dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed a dogma of the Catholic faith the pre- vious December 8.
It is obvious from the location of the churches and the priests in the diocese of Portland that the great majority of Catholics were living in Maine.1 This is readily explained. The Irish Catholics had settled along New England's coastal and river towns, and New Hampshire's coast was restricted and coastal towns few. So they settled first in Dover and Portsmouth. An industry like the cotton mills of the Amoskeag Company in Manchester gradually attracted them inland. Claremont was an exception; the church there owed its beginnings to the extraordinary conversion and influence of the Barber family. Besides, New Hampshire discriminated against Catholics. A constitutional clause prevented a Catholic from holding a state office. Only Protestants were eligible. The Irish were political-minded and were slow to settle where these conditions prevailed. The converts to the Catholic faith among the New Hampshire natives found the constitutional provision that made them second-class citizens extremely painful, and their unfor- tunate status had occasioned a sharp rebuke to the citizens of New Hampshire by the editor of the Bangor Whig and Courier. The editorial (in the issue of January 26, 1854) had been occasioned by an article that stated there was only one Catholic priest in the state of New Hampshire; the editor thought this was an error, adding that he was sure there was a resident priest in Manchester, Portsmouth, Concord, and Dover, and probably in Nashua, Claremont, and New Market, too. The editor was misinformed on the number of priests in New Hamp- shire, but his comments on the constitutional provision barring Catholics from political office were sound and timely. He had
1 There were twenty churches (not eight as one sometimes reads) in Maine when Bacon was installed. This number includes the two churches in Madawaska and the three Indian chapels (at Indian Island, Pleasant Point, and Calais). The other fifteen churches were in Portland, Augusta, Damariscotta, Whitefield, Bangor, Eastport, Benedicta, Houlton, Machias, Calais, Trescott, Pembroke, Oldtown, Waterville, and Ellsworth. The last seven of these were in the missions under the care of the Jesuits and had been completed or constructed since 1848.
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known, he wrote, "several" converts to the Catholic faith in New Hampshire and "they keenly feel the full weight of that anti-republican and oppressive provision." Yet the citizens of the state were reluctant to remove this bar and did not do so until 1876.
We do not know how many Catholics there were in the diocese in 1855. Bishop Fitzpatrick did not venture to offer an estimate in submitting statistics for the 1855 Directory. Ac- cording to the next issue, the first with information supplied by Bishop Bacon, there were 40,000. This is an underestimate. Indeed, Bishop Bacon was not concerned about publishing the figures on Catholics in his diocese. We can be certain that there was an increase during the next decade, yet the number of Catholics in his diocese was still 40,000 in 1865. Only once during these years is there a variance in the Catholic population of the diocese of Portland; in 1861 it was 45,000, but it reverted back to the original figure next year. Possibly he did not want to arouse any fears among the natives over the growth of the church. But he did build churches during these years and new churches are signs of growth, signs that would not escape the eyes of those perturbed by the advance of Rome.
There were more Catholics in Maine than generally sus- pected, far more than in New Hampshire, and the see of the new diocese was located in Maine for that reason. Thirty thousand Catholics, counting the Madawaskans, in 1855 would probably not be far from the exact figure for Maine. This number, much higher than usually given, is based on Father Ciampi's estimate of fifteen thousand Catholics under the care of Jesuits working out of Bangor. Ciampi was more inclined to understate than to exaggerate; for instance, he counted only four thousand in Bangor, whereas there were nearer six thous- and Catholics. If we add the Catholics in the Madawaska district, in the Eastport area (Eastport, Machias, Calais, Tres- cott, Pembroke, Houlton, Benedicta, and other missions in this section), in the towns along the Kennebec ( Augusta, Gardiner, Whitefield, Damariscotta, Bath), in Portland, and the missions
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confided to Father O'Donnell of St. Dominic's, thirty thousand will not appear excessive. There were many towns where parishes could be established, if priests were available. The Catholics of Biddeford, for instance, were eagerly awaiting a resident priest and received one, Father Thomas Kenny, shortly after Bishop Bacon arrived. Without any delay, they hired Patrick C. Keely to draft the plans for a lanced Gothic brick church with a seating capacity of eight hundred. They were so happy with the prospects of their beautiful church that the building committee penned a letter to the Boston Pilot (July 12, 1856) informing the Catholics of New England that “in a short time" the Catholics of Biddeford would be worshipping in their own parish church. The situation was much the same in Lewiston where the Catholics purchased an abandoned Baptist church late in 1855 or early in 1856, and moved it to another site, on Lincoln Street. In 1857 they had a resident priest, Father John Cullin. One did not really know how many Catholics had settled in Maine cities and towns until a church was planned and a priest appointed to organize the parish. Even though there were more Catholics in Maine than generally conceded, they were a small minority, about 30,000 in a population of 605,500. The Catholics were well aware of this fact.
2. SEARCHING FOR PRIESTS
Bishop Bacon probably found it difficult to select the most pressing problem facing him as he retired to his room on Brackett Street after the guests at his installation ceremony had departed. There were so many clamoring for attention. But whatever problem he considered, whatever plan he drafted in his mind, depended on priests, and the diocese was sorely undermanned. The diocese needed more clergymen, and he could not expect any immediate help from the Catholics of his diocese. He had to turn to other dioceses, American, Can-
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adian, European. He had to search for them, beg for them, attract them, although he had little to offer except hard work with little compensation. Appraising his achievements during his score of years as Bishop, one is inclined to select his success in building up the clergy as his greatest. The story of this achievement is told, briefly and sometimes illegibly, in a small, black covered memorandum book with the names of and some information on the priests accepted or ordained for the diocese of Portland by Bishop Bacon. Under his direction, they fash- ioned the ground floor of the present diocese, building on the foundations laid by the bishops of Boston.
Before the year 1855 had ended there were nine new priests in the diocese. Within eight months the number of priests had doubled, for the original five diocesan priests and four Jesuits (Moore replaced Kennedy who died on September 4) were still there. This was a remarkable increase and gives the answer to those wondering why the diocese was established in the first place. Maine and New Hampshire needed the exclusive atten- tion of a bishop.
Many dioceses and countries contributed to this increase. From Lyons, France, came Father J. B. Nycolin who was im- mediately assigned to the French-Canadians in Waterville; from Germany, and more immediately from the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louis, came Father Eugene Müller whom Bishop Bacon selected for his Vicar-General and theo- logical adviser. From the diocese of Buffalo came Father Patrick McIvers who was assigned to Houlton and Benedicta; from the diocese of New Orleans came Father Patrick Canavan, called "the Younger" to distinguish him from the pastor of Dover, who was appointed pastor of the unfinished church in Portsmouth and of the Catholics in Exeter and New Market; from Ireland came Father John O'Reilly, the first pastor of Concord who died suddenly February 15, 1856, seven months after arriving in Maine; from the diocese of Brooklyn came Father Peter Mclaughlin who was assigned, in the bleak month of November, the delicate task of replacing the church in Bath,
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destroyed the previous year by a hostile element of the town; from the Augustinian Order came Father Charles Egan who at first remained in Portland and then, in 1856, was appointed pastor of St. Mary's in Augusta with Gardiner as a mission and who realized the old dream of the Catholics of Gardiner by building St. Joseph's church. The other two, Thomas Kenny and John Brady, deserve special attention in any history of the diocese of Portland for they were the first two priests or- dained by Bishop Bacon in Portland for the diocese.
One will notice that the Catholic Directory for 1856 lists three priests attached to St. Dominic's in Portland: Eugene Müller, now the pastor, and two assistants, Thomas Kenny and John Brady. Since Bishop Bacon did his share of pastoral work in the city, one wonders why four priests were located in Port- land when other cities and towns were in need of pastors. There was a good reason for this. Both priests had been recently ordained by Bishop Bacon and he kept them near him for a few months before imposing on them the heavy burdens of a pastor of souls. There was no waiting then for a score of years as a curate before assuming the charge of a parish; at best a few months with the bishop was the only preparation.
Thomas Kenny was the first priest ordained by Bishop Bacon in Maine. This was probably the bishop's first ordination, the first man he raised to the priesthood, and it is obvious from the bishop's memorandum book that he had a fatherly affection for the young priest. It seems that he began to record the new priests of the diocese in this small volume when he ordained Kenny, for he is the first priest listed although others had been accepted into the diocese before him. And Bacon has added a biographical sketch of his first priest, some of it obviously added after his premature death. Whereas with the others listed in the book, the bishop has given the bare essentials for those already ordained: from what diocese, when accepted, where assigned, and unhappily in some instances, when dis- missed, or for those ordained by him, the signed promise of obedience, the dates of receiving the orders of subdeacon,
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deacon, and priesthood, and where assigned. Bishop Bacon, aware that later generations would be interested in the first priest ordained in and for the diocese of Portland, devotes two pages to Kenny.
The Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1855, was a mile- stone in the history of the diocese. On that day the ancient ceremony of ordination had been enacted, secretly it seems, in the small sanctuary of St. Dominic's, where Bishop Bacon, with Thomas Kenny kneeling in his presence, had spoken the words: receive the power to sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass for the living and the dead. This was the first ordination to the priesthood in Maine. The major orders preceding the priest- hood had already been conferred on Kenny; he had become a subdeacon on August 5 and a deacon August 12, the day he promised to obey his bishop and to serve wherever assigned. There is no mention in the bishop's memorandum book of minor orders; he had, no doubt, received them in Ireland. Kenny, thirty-two years old, had waited a long time and had journeyed far in order to be the first priest ordained in Maine.
Kenny was born in Ireland, in the diocese of Kilmore. He had, we are told by the bishop, a desire for the American mission. If this was a desire entertained as a youth then his vocation was long delayed, and it could have been delayed by the death of his father that apparently interrupted his classical studies. Kenny arrived in Boston around the year 1847. Prob- ably his desire to be a priest now revived. Some time in 1849 he enrolled at Holy Cross College, or, as the bishop says, at "the Wooster college." He was then twenty-six years old, and it required no little courage and considerable determination to mingle with boys ten to fifteen years younger. The college records show that he remained only one year, and his return to the classroom at his age indicates that his classical studies had not been completed in Ireland and that his desire for the American mission had revived. He then went to Indiana. We do not know what sent him westward, but once there his health was undermined by a siege of fever and ague. He then moved
DIOCESE OF PORTLAND.
ESTABLISHED 1855. Embracing the States of Maine and New Hampshire. LATE BISHOP. Rt. Rev. D. W. BACON, D.D., First Bishop, consecrated April 22, 1853, died at New York, Nov. 5, 1874.
ADMINISTRATOR. Very Rev. JOHN O'DONNELL.
CHANCELLOR. Rev. EUGENE O'CALLAGHAN.
CHURCHES AND CLERGY.
MAINE.
Portland, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Rev. Denis Bradley, Rev. John Power. Chapel.of the Blessed Sacrament. Rev. John Power.
St. Aloysius' Chapel, Rev. John Power.
St. Dominic's, Rev. Thomas Wallace, Rev. John F. McKenna.
St. Joseph's, Calvary Cemetery, Rev. Thomas Wallace.
Chapel of Convent of Ladies of Mercy, Rev. John F. McKenna. Orphan Asylum, Rev. John F. McKenna.
Augusta, St. Mary's, Rev. Eugene O'Callaghan.
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