USA > Maine > The Catholic church in Maine > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
-
277
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
as he reviewed the seven decades of his busy life from the vantage of a large archdiocese and the position of a Prince of the Church, this contemporary opinion of the burdens of the Portland see was substantially modified. "My life in Portland," he wrote in his autobiography, "was passed amid the greatest tranquillity and, as the work of the Diocese was never exces- sively absorbing, I found plenty of time for reading and study."
At the time, the early years of the twentieth century, given the vast territory to be covered, the lack of facile communi- cations, the lack, too, of close unity between the two major nationalities among the Catholics, the need of more and better parishes, schools and social institutions, the demands of the Portland diocese were sufficient to keep the young bishop active. The diocese was vast; he soon discovered this. In his talk to the clergy on the first anniversary of his installation he admitted he had not been able to visit all the churches in Maine. Wherever he had gone, however, he had found evidence of unity between pastor and people and zeal in abundance, and he had noticed an improvement in the social conditions and material prosperity of the Catholics, and this, he hoped, would mean a more abundant growth of institutions of learning and charity in the diocese.
There was a noteworthy growth of the church during the five years; the number of priests increased from 92 to 121, the churches from 86 to 104, the Catholic population from about 97,000 to 110,000. Maine was profiting from what is called the "new" immigrants, those from Eastern Europe, the Italians, the Poles, and the Russians. Since 1890 they had been out- numbering the Germans, the Irish, and the Canadians. One of O'Connell's first instructions to his clergy had to do with these new immigrants in the diocese. Like the Irish and Ca- nadians of the nineteenth century, these newcomers were too often coldly received and isolated in the communities where they settled. In his first pastoral letter to the clergy he urged a Christian concern for them. This nation, he wrote, was “an international amalgam of every nation under the sun," and
278
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
does not bear "the stamp" of any overseas nation. We are, he reminded them, children of immigrants, and the marvellous growth of the Catholic Church in this country is due to the Germans, the French and the Irish. Now the country and the Church were facing a new era; thousands are coming from a different sector of Europe and the world, from Italy, Austria- Hungary, Poland, Russia, and the Orient, and these new im- migrants were receiving a treatment similar to that which "own fathers experienced." The clergy must never forget that the Church asked "naught of the racial affiliations or of the manner of speech" of those seeking her aid. The duty of both bishop and pastors was clear: to make provision to care spirit- ually for these new Americans. He asked the pastors to supply him with statistics so that a resident priest could be provided, if their numbers warranted, or a missionary who knew their language assigned to visit them periodically. Two singular coincidences are linked with this pastoral. It was written in 1903, fifty years after the bishop's father settled in Lowell; he may or may not have been aware of this. In 1903, a Polish immigrant, Stephen M. Muskie, migrated to America and set- tled in Rumford, Maine, as a tailor. The Polish immigrant's son, Edmund S. Muskie was elected fifty years later, 1954, as governor of Maine, the first Catholic elected by the voters of the state to this post.
O'Connell's pastoral letter was written May 31, 1903. Read- ing it, the Catholics of Maine realized their bishop was able to pen a well-written and timely pastoral; at this time, too, they realized their bishop was marked for higher posts in the Church. A month or so before this pastoral had been sent to the clergy O'Connell had declined an important promotion. The Philippine Islands were now American territory and Amer- ica priests were replacing the Spanish in the missions, parishes, and sees. . Rome offered O'Connell the office of archbishop of Manila. This invitation brought him to Washington to con- sult both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He discovered that his views on the Spanish-American war might be a handi-
279
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
cap in the new post; he had considered the war unjust but his was not a solitary opinion at the time and since. Barrett Wen- dell had considered it "a needless war," and Bliss Perry, thirty- five years after the event, adhered to his original and similar opinion. It could well be that Roosevelt had an inkling of the promotion when he visited Portland in the summer of 1902 and had asked to meet Bishop O'Connell; his friend and Ameri- can ambassador to Italy, George Von L. Meyer, had attended the consecration ceremony of O'Connell and could post the president on the young bishop. O'Connell was given a free hand; it was an invitation and not an appointment. He de- cided he "would remain in Portland and go on with my work there." It was, however, a fairly clear indication that he would not long remain there.
Among the projects remaining to be done was the renovation of the cathedral. More than thirty years had passed since this impressive Gothic church had been completed by Portland's first bishop and its construction had been plagued by one mis- fortune after another. It was Bishop Healy's task to pay off the debt. Now, after three decades of service, it was in need of repair, and Bishop O'Connell renovated it "from floor to the ceiling." When the work was completed he could say: "If in all America there is a better equipped cathedral in all that pertains to the dignity of worship and the glory of the House of God, I do not know it. And the work has been so thorough and so complete that for many years to come nothing more will be needed." The eighteen imported Munich windows were truly beautiful works of art. As becoming a church dedi- cated to Our Lady most of the windows remind the worshippers of the great mysteries of her life; becoming, too, are the two windows dedicated to Bishop Bacon and Bishop Healy. The great window of the Immaculate Conception above the high altar was a gift of Bishop O'Connell. Many years, as predicted, did pass before there was further need of extensive restoration and renovation. That time came when the diamond jubilee of the diocese and the sixtieth anniversary of the dedication
280
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
of the cathedral was celebrated in May, 1930. Then, under the direction of the cathedral rector, the Rev. George P. John- son, now Vicar-General of the diocese, the cathedral was again restored and beautified and a brochure on the history of the imposing edifice published.
As O'Connell reviewed his years as Portland's third bishop in his farewell pastoral to the diocese and farewell address to Portland, he mentioned the support he had given to the pro- motion of Catholic societies and clubs in Portland and the state, and one will readily agree that in this he was answering an urgent need. The hierarchy had been gravely disturbed during the second half of the nineteenth century about the large of number of Catholics seeking membership in societies considered dangerous to the faith of Catholics, if not prohibited by the ban on secret societies. But Catholics were seeking admission to them because of the attractive financial benefits accruing to members and the provisions for social and cultural activities and companionship. Attractive Catholic societies and clubs were needed, not to isolate the Catholics from their fellow citizens, but to provide them with adequate social facilities without risk to their religious convictions. Bishop O'Connell introduced the Catholic Union for Men, a society that had proven successful in Boston, and he sponsored the Catholic Reading Circles, founded by the Catholic Summer School, a Catholic Chautauqua project. As a curate in Boston in 1895 he had been invited to give a series of talks to the Catholic Summer School at Plattsburg and hence was long acquainted with the good work they had been doing in ad- vancing good reading among the young and adults. And he promoted whenever the occasion arose a love for church music; the two windows in the Cathedral symbolizing music tell us how dear this was to him. Nor did he forget the workingmen and the dock laborers in Portland. The Working Men's Club built at great expense gave them one of the finest social clubs in the state.
He had, he thought, made Portland a better known city:
281
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
"the name of Portland is known in every land of the Orient." This observation, made in his farewell address to Portland on Sunday, September 9, 1906, was a reference to his mission as papal envoy to the Emperor of Japan, a mission that was re- warded by his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Boston. The mission that took him around the world did, of course, introduce Portland into news reports, but Portland was not exactly an unknown city at the turn of the century and it is doubtful that many Maine natives, with the exception of the Catholics, were pleased to have a Catholic bishop advertising their most important city. The trip and the mission are ade- quately described in his autobiography and biography.
That Pius X had selected him for this delicate task was an unquestioned recognition of his ability. His friend Cardinal Merry del Val, now papal Secretary of State, was no doubt an important factor in the selection. Cardinal Satolli undoubtedly contributed, too. Satolli had visited O'Connell in Portland, the first Cardinal to visit Maine, late in July, 1904. The Russo- Japanese war had started the previous February. The Cardi- nal presided at Mass in the Cathedral Sunday, July 24, and the next evening O'Connell invited a few guests to dine with the Cardinal at the episcopal residence (Charles McCarthy refused an invitation but does not give us the reason why he declined). O'Connell spent that winter, sailing November 19, in Rome, returning in February.
Word that he had been appointed papal envoy arrived late in August, 1905, - the month that President Roosevelt met with the peace commissioners of Japan and Russia to draft the Portsmouth treaty ending the war. O'Connell was entrust- ed with a personal letter to the Emperor and a mission to observe the conditions and prospects of the Church in a na- tion that suddenly had become one of the world's major powers. He took two secretaries with him, Father Patrick Supple, a curate in the Boston archdiocese, and Father Charles Collins, chancellor of the Portland diocese. The trip was a rich and unexpected experience for Collins, a native of Ellsworth, Maine.
282
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
He was graduated from Holy Cross in 1891, when he was twenty-one, and had started his seminary studies at the Grand Seminary in Montreal and had completed them in Paris at St. Sulpice. Ordained in 1894, Healy had appointed him chan- cellor in 1899 and O'Connell had retained him at the post. He made a good companion, for he was well-read and inter- ested in history (he has to his credit some excellent studies on the Catholic Church in Maine). He returned to Portland decorated by the Emperor and raised to the rank of a Mon- signor by Pius X.
It was the middle of September when the bishop and his secretary departed from Portland. It was his final farewell to the city as the Bishop of Portland. When he returned to Boston in the spring of 1906 he was the Coadjutor Archbishop of Boston. He was, however, the administrator of Portland during the vacancy and visited occasionally to administer af- fairs and finally to deliver a farewell address. A year later, on the death of Archbishop Williams, Friday, August 30, 1907, he became the Archbishop of Boston. Portland then became one of his suffragan sees.
2. PORTLAND WELCOMES ITS FOURTH BISHOP
Rome did not long delay the appointment of a successor to Bishop O'Connell. Again Rome's choice was a priest from the Boston archdiocese, Father Louis Sebastian Walsh, the director of the diocesan schools. In Lewiston at least he was no stranger, for his brother, James, had had until his death in 1904 an im- portant post in the Lewiston Bleachery, and Father Walsh had visited him frequently and had spent his vacations in Maine. Some of the clergy knew him from student davs at college or seminary; others recalled him as the master of cere- monies at Bishop Healy's funeral. The newspapers that carried the news of his appointment and consecration gave the people of Maine a fairly complete picture of the new bishop.
283
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
He was a native of Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Patrick and Honora (Foley) Walsh, and was born January 22, 1858. He grew up to love the lore of this historic seaport and the history and traditions of New England. Salem was one of the few New England cities and towns with parochial schools, and when he was born there were three of them, two in Walsh's parish and another in the neighboring parish of St. James'. But his parochial education was interrupted in such a manner that it must be counted as one of the factors that shaped his position, both as a priest and a bishop, on Catholic education.
Walsh's first schooling was in St. Mary's parochial school for boys (the other parish school was conducted by the Notre Dame Sisters for girls) when he was five years old. Within three years, however, he was applying for admission to one of the public schools. A debt beyond the resources of the parish compelled the pastor to close the school in November 1865. The decision to close had been taken after financial help from the common school tax had been sought and refused; two years later St. James' parish school also closed. Later in life, when supervisor of the Catholic schools of the archdiocese, Walsh published a history of the origins of the Catholic Church in Salem and a history of St. Mary's parish (Bishop Bacon had preached the sermon and Father James Healy had been master of ceremonies at the dedication of a new parish church to the Immaculate Conception twelve days before Walsh's birth), and one chapter of this history is devoted to these parochial schools. The pastor's request for financial help was, he insisted at this late date, "founded in justice and equity." Maine legis- lators would frequently be told about the justice of supporting Catholic free schools.
Walsh completed his remaining elementary schooling and secondary education in the Salem public schools (1866-1876), and he willingly admitted that the schooling there received was a sound one however much he regretted that it was not coupled with a religious training. That had to be supplied at home during the week days and in the church on Sundays.
284
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
But during his high school years he was guided by a friend in the person of the new curate assigned to the Immaculate Con- ception parish: Father Matthew Harkins. The priest became his adviser, directed him to Holy Cross College, and later be- came an older and trusted friend.
Only the fortunate few attended college in the post-Civil War years. To send a son to college was a major decision in the Irish Catholic families, and so it was in the Walsh home even though newspaper accounts of Walsh written at the time of his appointment to Portland observed that his parents were "people in comfortable circumstances." It was his brother James, already working in Lewiston when Louis started his senior high school year, who guided him in the decision and underwrote the expenses. "You had better consult with Father Harkins," he wrote in September, 1875,
as to what studies you will need to be proficient in, when you should desire to try for Holy Cross College, and then do the best you can for the year, and if everything works favorably at the end of the year and you still desire to go to College, and can take a good rank at the examination why I will do what I can for you.
The two exchanged letters frequently during the year and Louis forwarded his report cards to Lewiston. James was will- ing to cover the expenses of high school graduation; "you know yourself," he added, "that the folks at home need all they can get to keep the home." Although Louis' future had not been "definitely settled" in August, he was told to "make arrange- ments that are necessary to prepare yourself for the examina- tion and recollect that if you can finish your course in Worcester in one year you will save a large sum of money." Louis did well in the examination and was admitted to the rhetoric class or sophomore year.
Walsh remained only one year at Holy Cross. His college grades continued to be excellent (better than a 95 average and a perfect grade in history), and Father Joseph O'Hagan, the college president, added to his June report: "Louis has done excellently in everything." Once on the campus he started his weekly letters to his parents and continued to do so during
285
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
the remaining years of study in Montreal, Paris, and Rome. The letters are clue to his character. They were never signed with the familiar Lou or Louis; it was always "Your Affectionate Son [or Brother], Louis S. Walsh." And the arrival of the let- ters to 10 Ward Street, Salem, Massachusetts, was the big event of the week; after they were read by the family they were carefully put away for future consultation and when the Walsh home was closed brought to Portland by the bishop.
In the fall of 1877, after his freshman year at the college, he started his studies for the priesthood and these took him first to the Grand Seminary (1877-1879) in Montreal for phi- losophy where he was "well satisfied with everything here and like [d] the Sulpicians far better than the Jesuits in every re- spect," then to St. Sulpice (1879-1882) in Paris for theology, and finally to Rome for advanced studies in canon law and theology. He was ordained in St. John Lateran in Rome on December 23, 1882. The following June, having received his degrees in both disciplines, he returned to Boston and spent one year as a curate at St. Joseph's in Boston's West End. He knew that this was a temporary assignment, for Archbishop Williams had another assignment in mind when he was sent to Rome for graduate work.
A diocesan seminary had been desired and planned since Bishop Fenwick's early years in Boston. The founding of St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy, in 1864, for the New York Province had partially solved the problem (only partially for this semin- ary was never able to take all the seminarians from the Boston diocese), but the problem became urgent once again in 1875 when New England became a province with Boston as the metropolitan see. A seminary of their own could now no longer be postponed. In the fall of 1884 the dream was realized with the opening of St. John's Seminary in Brighton staffed by the Sulpicians. But even they needed the assistance of some dio- cesan priests, and Father Walsh had been selected for the new faculty. He felt at home there, for the Rector of the seminary was Father John B. Hogan, his professor at St. Sulpice.
286
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
Education, as a professor or an administrator, was his daily fare for the next twenty-two years, thirteen as professor of canon law and history and nine as the director of the arch- diocesan school system. This was a new post established by Archbishop Williams in 1897 to replace the board of twelve or more pastors of important parish schools. The board had not been a success. Supervision of schools demanded frequent visitations and inspections to observe how established standards were observed, and this task called for an office and person acquainted with educational needs and trends. "A task of no ordinary difficulty awaited the young priest," remarked a writer in the Pilot, "as the schools were numerous, and a great variety of religious communities, with considerable difference in methods, were represented among the teachers." And there were the many pastors with different ideas and methods with whom he had to work, for they were the directors of the parish schools. He managed to make considerable progress despite all difficulties, and in 1906, when he passed the work on to a successor, there were nearly 47,000 children in the free Catho- lic schools of the archdiocese, and he had initiated a system of conferences for the teachers of the schools. His work in Catholic education had been recognized by his appointment as chairman of the parochial school department of the Catholic Education Association. In clerical circles, too, his ability was recognized. His name was frequently mentioned as the prob- able choice when death created a vacancy in the New England hierarchy; some thought he would succeed Bishop Healy and "he was talked of widely" as Williams' coadjutor archbishop.
He was, then, when appointed Bishop of Portland a recog- nized authority in Catholic education and a historian with deep interest in the Catholic history of New England, and he had found time in these latter years to publish in both these fields of interest. His first publication has been mentioned, a his- tory of the Catholic churches in his native town. This was followed by A Historical Sketch of the Growth of the Catholic Parochial Schools in the Archdiocese of Boston (1901), a vol-
287
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
ume that tells us how well he knew the background of the schools he supervised, and also in this same year The Early Irish Catholic Schools of Lowell, Massachusetts 1835-1852. This work on the Lowell schools was originally a sermon he had preached at St. Patrick's in that city on Sunday, April 21, 1901, the day before the news arrived that a native of Lowell, William H. O'Connell, had been appointed Bishop of Portland. Lowell, one will notice from the dates of this brochure, had Catholic schools before many other parishes in Massachusetts, but they, like those in Salem, had closed.
The Lowell Catholic schools, however, were unique, and one can observe the influence of the Lowell system on Walsh's ideas of the proper relationship between the Catholic schools and the local community. The Lowell schools were public. It is quite true that the system had been devised as a method of segregating the sons and daughters of the Irish immigrants from the Yankee children, but even so, the authorities of Lo- well recognized the need of providing educational opportuni- ties for the children of the immigrants and were willing to provide at public expense schools where the Catholic religion was taught and where the teachers were Catholics. It was an experiment that promised a solution to the educational problems of a pluralistic society, but unfortunately the revival of nativism in the 1850's ended the experiment. Had it been allowed to develop and adjust itself to the changing American scene it might easily have been the model system for other communities and other states. Father Walsh realized this, and as bishop would advocate a system quite similar to the Lowell experiment.
His appointment to Portland was well received. One even went so far as to write him: "You will find the clergy docile and well-disposed to you." This was, of course, more than Walsh expected, and he soon found that it was not literally true. Maine was not Utopia. But the Pilot's special corres- pondent in Maine did discover general satisfaction with Rome's choice. "Every prominent Catholic and many not connected
288
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN MAINE
with the Church who have been approached . . . have expressed sincere approval of the choice, ... " One of those approached, Father Thomas F. Butler of Lewiston, a classmate of the bishop- elect both at Holy Cross and at St. Sulpice, described Walsh's personal appearance and traits: a man of gentle, genial dis- position, ever on the alert, easy to approach although his man- ners were suave and benign. Walsh did impress people; one who had been deeply impressed by an early contact with him was the editor of the Portland Eastern Argus. Indeed, the editor thought Maine had been particularly fortunate in her Catholic Bishops:
Portland has been singularly favored in her prelates - they have all been men of piety, great scholarship, good judgment and great executive ability.
And Bishop Walsh was no exception. Now "in the prime of life, of medium stature," he is "a most charming man to meet. He is simple in his tastes, very scholarly and combines dignity with affability." The editor had noticed a trait that does not appear in Father Butler's description. Bishop Walsh was, as the Catholics of Maine would discover, dignified.
On Thursday, October 18, the feast of St. Luke the Evange- list, Bishop Walsh was consecrated. Arrangements were made with care, for this was only the second consecration in the Portland cathedral. The elders in the families could recall the first one, that of Bishop Healy some thirty years ago. But for them and the younger generation the coming event was, according to the Argus, "the chief thought in Catholic homes, as well as a subject of friendly interest among the non-Catholic citizenship." Portland was crowded for the occasion. "Every train arriving on the 17th inst. from North, South, East and West brought its quota," and "a special train at 6:50 A. M. from Boston brought at least two hundred other guests." Even Charles McCarthy, Jr., inclined towards sharp criticism in his old age, was delighted with the arrangements and ceremony:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.