USA > Maine > The Catholic church in Maine > Part 28
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On Ascension Thursday, June 1, he was in Portland. In the morning he confirmed a class of St. Dominic's and in the after- noon he went to Brunswick, twenty-five miles away, to do the same at St. John's. Two days later he visited Biddeford, con- firmed at St. André's in the morning and later in the day had a conference with the three pastors of this city; still later he crossed the Saco River to inspect the property recently pur- chased for the first parish in Saco. The next day, Sunday, he was at Gardiner, about a fifty mile drive, where he blessed the new St. Joseph's church. This was a week of light travelling, always within range of his residence.
On Thursday, July 8, the bishop preached at the solemn reception of sodalists at St. Dominic's. Two days later he went to Lisbon, about twenty-five miles from Portland. Here along the Sabattus River were a series of villages: Lisbon, Lisbon Center, and Lisbon Falls clustered around a variety of mills: saw, paper, wool at the Falls and cotton at Lisbon (called at this time Lisbon Factory). The first mill, in 1874, had attracted Catholic laborers; whereas the French dominated at Lisbon, at the Falls one could find an amalgam of both new and old immigrants: Irish, French, Germans, Poles, Slavs and Greeks, and in 1914 Bishop Walsh had established here the Holy Fam- ily parish. There were about 1600 Catholics in the three vil- lages, equally divided between the two parishes. He confirmed a class at St. Ann's at two in the afternoon and at the new parish a few hours later. The bishop always preached at these ceremonies and, if there were need, spoke in English and then in French to the congregation, usually a large one, for these visits were happily anticipated. He returned to Portland that evening, and on Sunday morning (July 11) preached at the cathedral. In the afternoon he confirmed at the cathedral and at St. Joseph's in Deering. The next day, in Portland, he announced the completion of plans for two new constructions in the diocese: an addition to the Catholic Institute in the city that would give them space for ten more classrooms and a
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new chapel on North Haven, an island in Penobscot Bay. This was another relatively easy week of travelling.
On Thursday, July 15, the start of the third week, he was in South Berwick, the southern end of the state, and after confirming he made a canonical visitation of the parish con- vent. The next day he attended school exercises at St. Joseph's, in Deering. He rose early Sunday morning and went to the Mother House of the Sisters of Mercy in Deering. Two Sisters were celebrating the golden jubilee of their profession and he was there to celebrate the Mass at six-fifteen and to preach on the happy occasion. He did not have much time to spend with the jubilarians for he had to be in Augusta, a drive of over fifty miles, first to bless the new St. Augustine's church and then, in the evening, confirm at St. Mary's. Tuesday he was in Worcester, attending the commencement at Holy Cross, but he was not free to delay, for he had to be at the Cathedral the next morning to offer Mass for all the boys of St. Aloysius school (it was the feast of St. Aloysius) and to talk to them.
The fourth week started with ceremonies at the cathedral. It was the feast of Corpus Christi and he presided. That after- noon he attended exercises at St. Joseph's Academy. The next day, Friday, he was in Bangor, a long and tiresome journey of 140 miles by train, conferring with the pastors of the city about services for summer visitors along the beautiful Penob- scot. After the conference he crossed the river to confirm the children of St. Teresa's in Brewer, but returned that evening to attend the graduation exercises at the Girls' High School. This was the school's first graduation and only a grave reason would have kept him from the affair. The mayor and the chair- man of the city's School Board were there and both addressed the overflowing crowd. The bishop reminded the audience and honored guests of the financial assistance Catholics gave the city of Bangor by conducting such schools. He remained overnight to confirm at St. John's, but he was back in Port- land for Sunday. It was graduation day for all the Catholic schools in Portland, starting with High Mass in the cathedral.
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The bishop preached. Graduation exercises were in the City Hall that afternoon, and both the mayor of Portland and the bishop spoke.
The bishop now started one of his long, busy and arduous trips through three counties: Franklin, Androscoggin, and Ox- ford in the west central section of the state. On Friday (June 30) he was in Farmington, where one priest attended the parish of St. Joseph's and four missions and five stations. He preached that evening on devotion to the Sacred Heart and the next morning he confirmed a class of twenty. Later in the day he went to Chisholm, ten miles below, bypassed on his way to Farmington, where again he confirmed and preached in French and English. He had plans for the Catholics of Chisholm and he remained there overnight. It was time for the parish to have a school; at Mass the next day, Sunday, July 2, he again spoke in French and English, urging the Catholics to support the project; they did, for not long after this visit St. Rose had three Ursuline Sisters teaching 112 girls and 108 boys. Shortly after Mass the bishop went to Riley Village, one of St. Rose's mis- sions. This was a gala occasion for the Catholics here, for in the diocese's sixty-three years this was the first visit of a bishop. He blessed the new chapel the Catholics had built and then confirmed the children; again he preached in French and English, although the congregation was composed "of many nationalities." He then moved on to Gilbertville, another mis- sion, ten miles away; there the pastor of St. Rose's was wait- ing to offer Mass. After confirmation the bishop preached in French, Italian and English. He finished at twelve-thirty and was soon on his way by auto (1916 vintage) to Rumford where 123 children were awaiting confirmation.
One can not tell from his journal where he spent the week of July 2. On Thursday he examined six candidates for the diocesan priesthood and on the following Sunday was in Dover, ninety or more miles northeast of Rumford. If he had returned to Portland to examine the candidates (it was unlikely that there were six in this area), he spent the week travelling.
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The bishop was now in the center of his vast diocese. Dover was about eighty-five miles due west of Calais and midway between Kittery in the southern extremity of Maine and Fort Kent in the north. He preached at the eight o'clock Mass in St. Thomas' and then proceeded northward by car to Brown- ville Junction. This was one of St. Thomas' missions, twenty- two miles away, and a new chapel was ready to be blessed and dedicated to St. Francis Xavier; after the blessing of the chapel the sacrament of confirmation was conferred for the first time in this town. A car was waiting for him after the ceremonies to drive him to Dexter, about forty miles southward. A large congregation, many of them Protestants, had gathered in St. Ann's to witness the confirming of eighty-nine persons and to listen to the bishop preach in French and English. It was now late in the day and he spent the night in Dexter.
The next morning he started for Greenville by auto. Dur- ing the drive of forty-nine miles he passed through many small hamlets and villages. As he approached Monson he was told that one Catholic family lived in the town. He visited them. This probably was the first visit of a Catholic bishop in Mon- son. In Greenville, located at the southern end of Maine's largest lake, the magnificent Moosehead, forty miles in length and ten in width, was the Holy Family church, a parish found- ed by Bishop Walsh in 1912. The pastor had twenty persons ready for confirmation, some of them, no doubt, from his two missions and eight stations. The parish territory was larger than that of some dioceses, for it included not only the towns on both sides of the lake but extended to Onawa, ten miles south of Greenville and to Chesnuncook, twenty miles above the lake. Again a large congregation with their Protestant friends were on hand to listen to sermons in French and in English. Later in the day he visited the mission at Mt. Kineo Lodge and remained there for a day.
He continued the journey on Thursday, July 13. His des- tination this day was Forks Village, twenty-seven miles south- east of Greenville, where the Kennebec joins the Dead River,
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and to get there he travelled by boat, train and car. He decided that a chapel was needed in this town and expressed the hope it would be constructed before the year ended. The Forks, today, is the starting point of one of Maine's finest all-river vacation trips, one that takes the vacationist by Bingham, Norridgewock, Madison, Skowhegan, Waterville, Augusta, Ran- dolph and Richmond into Merrymeeting Bay where the Andro- scoggin joins the Kennebec. Bishop Walsh was not vacationing. But he did drive along the Kennebec stopping first at Caratunk where another chapel was in the planning stage and then to Bingham where a chapel had been completed. At Caratunk the reception was small but warm. He was received in the Catholic home where Mass had been said whenever a priest visited for the past thirty years and all the Catholics in the neighborhood were there to welcome him. He spoke to them on the gift of Faith and about the new chapel they would soon have. "All were very much rejoiced and eager to begin." He left Bingham for Madison, timing his trip so that he could get the Portland train there at six-fifteen. He arrived in Portland the next morning. He rested on Saturday.
The bishop now spent a few weeks in Portland making canonical visitations, attending solemn professions, and attend- ing to diocesan affairs. In the second week of August he was off on another confirmation tour to the north.
East Millinocket and Millinocket were first on the schedule. He was now again as far north as Moosehead Lake, but fifty or more miles eastward and in Penobscot County. He spent the day, Wednesday, August 9, in these two parishes, and then drove northward forty miles to Patten, a town in Aroostook County. Thursday was a busy day as he visited Benedicta and St. Paul's in Patten and St. Agnes' in Island Falls, both missions of St. Benedict's, and arrived in Houlton in the after- noon to confirm at Houlton and to visit the Madigan Hospital. The confirmation ceremony in Patten was the first in the town's history. The Catholics here and at Island Falls needed a priest more closely located and a few years later (in 1920)
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they were detached from St. Benedict's and a resident priest assigned to Island Falls. He remained overnight in Houlton and the next morning officiated at the marriage of James Madi- gan. That afternoon, Saturday, he drove to Van Buren, more than seventy miles away. He had reached the St. John River. He confirmed in Van Buren Sunday morning and in Grand Isle in the afternoon.
He now turned back in order to be in Portland for the Feast of the Assumption and to be host to Archbishop James J. Keane of Dubuque, Iowa, who was coming for a week's visit. On his return he confirmed groups in both churches in Caribou and in the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Presque Isle. At the latter place he boarded the 6 p.m. train for Port- land that was scheduled to arrive the next morning at four. During this week's trip through Aroostook County he had travelled 757 miles, by train or car, had confirmed in eleven churches and had preached on thirteen occasions.
Travel during the next three weeks was light. Bishop Har- kins of Providence joined Archbishop Keane as Walsh's guests during the first week (August 15-22), but even so he went to Orono, seat of the University of Maine, on Sunday to talk on Catholic education, and attended the funeral of a beloved pastor, John P. Nelligan, in Bangor the next day. He spent much of the next week (August 23-30) in his office and then started a four day journey that took him first to Bingham on the Kennebec above Norridgewock where he blessed St. Peter's, a mission of St. Sebastian's in Madison; the Catholics were increasing here and Bingham would soon (in 1920) be a parish with its own missions. Bar Harbor, where he gave final ap- proval for a new convent, Waterville, where he attended the profession of some Ursuline nuns, and Fairfield were the other places visited on this trip. He was back in Portland on the first of September.
For the next ten days he remained close to Portland. The schools opened on September 8 and there was much work to do in preparation for this event. On Sunday, September 3, he
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preached at the cathedral on Catholic education and schools. He did, however, go to Lewiston to attend the solemn pro- fession of some Dominican nuns, and he blessed a new chapel (Sunday, September 11) in Kittery where he confirmed and preached as usual. Kittery was ready to be a parish, and the next year St. Raphael's had a pastor. The next day he went to Cushing Island in Casco Bay to make, along with 93 priests, his annual retreat; he was in seclusion until Friday morning. He was now ready to make his second journey to the Mada- waska district, but he postponed the start for a few days. He had to be in Philadelphia on Thursday (September 21) for his friend, Father Philip R. McDevitt, who had preached at his consecration, had been appointed Bishop of Harrisburg and was consecrated this day in Philadelphia. It was a hurried trip and he was back in Portland the next morning. He packed his bags again and started that day for Madawaska to cover the parishes omitted during his August trip. He first visited Easton, a mission of Fort Fairfield, to bless a chapel dedicated to St. Patrick, these "faithful people being descendants of a very old settlement of Irish people." He then moved on to Limestone, Fort Fairfield, St. Agatha, St. David, Upper French- ville, Fort Kent, Daigle, Wallagrass, Eagle Lake, Portage Lake, and Sheridan. From Sheridan he drove by auto to Presque Isle and there took the 5:45 train for Portland. He was back in his residence about 8 o'clock Friday morning, September 30. There still remained a few parishes yet unvisited but they would be covered during the pleasant days of October. The long, fatiguing journeys, however, were over for this year.
On Wednesday, October 18, the Feast of St. Luke, Bishop Walsh celebrated the tenth anniversary of his consecration. Bishop Harkins and Bishop Beaven were there. Bishop Mc- Devitt preached. Oakley C. Curtis, the governor of Maine, Carl E. Milliken, governor-elect, Frederick Hale, United States Senator-elect, Congressman Daniel J. McGillicuddy, Judge Charles L. Donahue, Judge Denis A. Meaher, Wilfred G. Chap- man, mayor of Portland, and many other prominent citizens
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attended the Solemn Pontifical Mass of Thanksgiving. Walsh spoke a few words from the sanctuary. He thanked the state and city officials and their predecessors "for their personal and official kind feelings and generous aid towards the great Church I have had the honor to govern and to represent," during the past ten years. My mission and aim, he told them, "was to build up, or strengthen or beautify, under the grace and blessing of God, the kingdom of God in this State of Maine, namely the Catholic Church. It is not for me to speak forth what has been done." There was no need. His listeners were well aware of what he had done.
6. THE END OF A BUSY LIFE
This was a pace a man approaching sixty could not stand. Not until he had overtaxed his physical constitution did Bishop Walsh adjust his schedule to his declining strength. By then it was too late. Walsh began to realize that he was straining his system in the fall of 1922, after he returned from the Mada- waska and Aroostook visitation, a busy nine days. He was fatigued on his return to Portland and was slow in recovering his strength. When he was still tired a few days later he ad- mitted: "Felt the fatigue of my trip north and realize that I attempted too much." Yet he found it difficult to modify his work program. Important problems were pressing for attention and he was now an influential member of the American hier- archy.
During the winter he discovered that he tired easily. Late in February he noted in his journal: "I felt the fatigue of Sunday and evidently cannot keep up my activities on high pressure." On Palm Sunday (March 25) he had a weak spell on arising, "a dizziness, such as never before and unsteady on my feet." He was unable to offer Mass. "I must slow up or down," he told himself, "if I wish to hold on to life some years longer." Early in May he went to Boston for a thorough check; nothing
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radically wrong was discovered, but he was ordered to slow down considerably. He took a complete rest at Kineo during August and early in September thought he was his old self again. At the September meeting of the National Catholic Welfare Council he was re-elected to the Administrative Com- mittee and even retained chairmanship of the Press and Publicity Department. He had planned to resign this post. Walsh found it difficult to slow down and the fact is that the post-war years had undermined his health and he was reluctant to admit it.
His days since the armistice had been heavy with problems and visitors. When in Portland, Judge Donahue, who handled the bequests to the diocese and the acquisitions of new property, and James Cunningham, who constructed most of the new diocesan buildings, were frequent visitors. In Houlton he often had conferences with James Madigan and James Pierce. In Van Buren, Peter Charles Keegan posted him on conditions in northern Maine and the legislature. Consultations with pastors were endless, about parish conditions, purchasing new parish properties, plans for new churches and schools.
Death, too, deprived him of some of his best workers and links with the growth of the diocese under Bacon and Healy. They came frequently during 1922 and 1923. There was Sister Mary Teresa, fifty-seven years a Sister of Mercy and the first Reverend Mother of the Sisters in Maine. She was a convert, a convert of the pioneer Manchester group, and after her conversion had come a vocation. She had spent fifty of those fifty-seven years in Maine and became "one of the most eminent women connected with the order." She died in 1922, and the next year Sister Mary Gertrude, a relative of the Kavanaghs, who had spent fifty-six years as a Sister of Mercy and fifty-two of them in Maine, passed away. Both knew Bacon and were friends of Healy. Pastors with long records of good work since the early years of Healy's episcopacy died: Father Timothy P. Linehan, for thirty-two years pastor of St. Mary's, Biddeford, and "a link with a long past all over
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Maine and New England" as Bishop Healy's travelling com- panion; Father Jeremiah McCarthy, pastor of St. Mary's, Bangor, forty-six years a priest and one of the first ordained by Healy; Joseph P. Ahearn, pastor at Eastport for twenty-six years where he did "two men's work for years;" Father Narcisse R. Charland, who spent forty-three of his forty-seven priestly years in Waterville, an able man who twice was considered for the Portland see. A diocese could ill afford to lose workers of this calibre.
Walsh had frequent consultations with the other suffragan bishops of the Boston archdiocese. When Bishop Harkins died in 1921 he succeeded as the suffragans' spokesman. He was ever exchanging views and information with Bishop William A. Hickey, Harkins' successor in Providence, Bishop John J. Nilan of Hartford, Bishop Daniel F. Feehan of Fall River, Bishop John J. Rice of Burlington. They looked to Walsh for guidance; he was, according to one of them, "the light and glory of Catholicity in New England." In the post-war years he became an influential voice in the American hierarchy, channeling his influence through the newly organized National Catholic Welfare Council. The Catholic Church in the United States had ceased to be a missionary land in 1908, a few years after he was elected bishop. Now after the war it started to organize its many diverse and disjointed activities through the NCWC. At the first annual meeting of the hierarchy in 1919 the National Catholic War Council had been converted into the National Catholic Welfare Council.
Walsh's contribution to the Church in America will be found in the part he played in developing this agency of the American hierarchy, and when the history of the NCWC is written he will be given considerable credit for its survival during the critical year of 1922. There was some opposition to the Council from some bishops on the score that it threatened to invade the bishop's jurisdiction in his diocese, and, although in the minority, they were sufficiently influential to secure a decree from Rome abolishing the agency. Walsh was a
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member of the Administrative Board and much of his time during the spring, summer and fall of 1922 was spent in reversing the decree so that, with minor modifications (such as the change in its name from Council to Conference) and clearer demarcations of its functions, the NCWC was given the opportunity to become the important clearing-house of information on Catholic activities and a common agency of the hierachy in promoting the welfare of Catholics and the Catholic Church in the United States. He was elected Chair- man of the Press and Publicity Department, a post he claimed he was ill-suited to hold but was obviously suggested by his success in obtaining publicity for diocesan affairs in Maine and Boston newspapers. He himself had prepared many of these articles and they appeared under his name. This, of course, lessened the risks of being misquoted and improved the chances for a good spot in the paper. But some of the publicity during his late years was unsought.
The tide was against him during these years. The recur- rence of nativism forced him to oppose measures and the men behind the measures and involved him in controversies. Gen- erally it was some aspect of the school problem. To a degree he was responsible for some of the measures he was now com- pelled to oppose. For years he had pointed to the dangers to the public commonweal from an education divorced from re- ligious training and had emphasized the good done by the Catholic schools. They were, he insisted, Catholic public schools; to the end he insisted on this, and an article he had with care prepared on the "Catholic Public School System of Maine" had appeared in the Lewiston Journal on January 2, 1923. Many non-Catholics agreed with him that education should not be divorced from religious training. It was difficult to remedy the situation, but some proposals were made. In 1921 a bill was introduced to make bible reading mandatory in public schools. Whatever the good intentions of the spon- sors, this could easily become a continual source of trouble, especially since the edition of the Bible was not specified.
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Bishop Walsh successfully opposed the bill. During the next two years a group of ministers advocated the introduction of the Gary plan for religious education in the Portland public schools. The Gary plan of education had been declining in popularity by this date, but it did make provisions for religious training through a released time program. It had been intro- duced in a few New York City schools where only the Catholic parishes used the opportunity for catechetical instruction and where some had raised the cry of violation of the separation of the church and state doctrine.
Walsh did not oppose the introduction of the Gary plan for religious education of public school children. But he did not think it was a practical solution to the problem. He told its sponsors that he himself favored the Netherlands plan where- by the state supported denominational schools. He thought the Gary plan, if adopted, would within ten years develop into the Netherlands plan. If he wanted to kill the plan in Port- land he could not have devised a better weapon. For the demand in Maine at this time for an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting aid to sectarian schools and institutions was increasing and the pressure on the legislators to approve the amendment was intense and widespread. Walsh spent the last years of his life fighting this amendment. The bill was debated at length during the winter and spring of 1923 and Walsh was frequently in conference either in Portland or Augusta. It received majorities from both houses in its first reading but then failed to receive the needed two-thirds ma- jority. The lower house supported the amendment ninety to forty-nine, a few short of the required majority; a week later (March 29) the Senate also defeated the bill. But immediately another bill with the same objective was introduced. This, too, was defeated. That ended the struggle for the current session, but it was obvious that the battle would be renewed.
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