USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > History of St. John's Church, Newark > Part 9
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all, and the stifling of human passion-at the head of the procession, these sons of savage hate and crass ignorance wended their way to the modest edifice which stood for the faith and for the sacrifices of the Irish Catholic. Father Howell well knew what it would mean, if in some way he could not induce the men of the congregation to absent themselves from the scene of impending conflict. He succeeded. Then to the women he entrusted the task of defending the Church. With their babes in their arms, they grouped themselves, these worthy daughters of martyred sires, in front of the main door, and awaited the oncoming hostile mob. In the forefront, nerving the rest to courage by her bravery, stood the wife of Captain Whelan. In her arms her infant son, who, grown to manhood, was destined to meet and overcome more subtle and more powerful foes of the Master, faced the leader, who was well known to her. 'Come, Mary, stand aside with your child!' shouted the leader. 'No, Sam, I will not. You cannot enter this door, but over the dead body of my child and myself! she quietly replied. Daunted by this manifestation of courage, and not entirely devoid of the chivalrous spirit which at times his forefathers were wont to manifest, he hestitated for a moment. Then, turning to his fellows, he told them to go home, and with a terrible oath he swore he would brain the first man who would lay a finger on woman or child. Father Howell's strategy was successful, and the Church was saved."
Mgr. Doane took great pride in St. Patrick's Parish Schools, which are in charge of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity; St. Mary's Academy, in charge of the Sisters of Charity; the St. Vincent de
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Paul Society; the Sodalities and the Holy Name Society; but he ever manifested special interest in St. Michael's Hospital-one of the best institu- tions of that character in the United States. As the history of St. Michael's Hospital will be written at some future time, the author desires to anticipate the work of its historian by relating the fact that the necessity for such an undertaking was recognized by the Rev. Patrick Moran, Pastor of old St. John's, in the need which arose in 1848-9 when so many Irish immigrants came to Newark suffering with "ship fever." Many of the unfortunates came here only to die. Father Moran secured a refuge for the afflicted Irish immigrants where many were nursed back to life, and where those whom God called were at least assured of care before the last summons. The Pastor of St. John's, although not a physician, was skilled in medicine; but before coming to Newark he used to attend Bellevue Hospital, New York, where he acquired some practical knowledge of medicine. He secured quarters for a temporary hospital; and the first hospital in the city of Newark was opened in St. John's Parish, on Mulberry street, near the Centre Market. The late Dr. James Elliott was graduated from the New York University in 1849, and Father Moran immediately secured his professional services in ministering to the sick.
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CHAPTER XXIX
Mgr. George H. Doane's Monument
The late Right Rev. Mgr. Doane, Prothonotary Apostolic and Rector of St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral, was a faithful priest. The work performed and the results attained during the years of his ministry stand forth resplendently as a monument to his zeal, earnestness of purpose and fidelity to duty. Through the generosity of the citizens of Newark, regardless of racial or religious proclivities, a monu- ment in bronze and stone has been erected in Rector Park, North of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, to perpetuate, not the priestly character of Mgr. Doane, but, as the Civic Committee stated, "in honor of a man who identified himself with many move- ments for the betterment and uplifting of the civic spirit of our city." The Civic Committee comprised Hon. James Smith, Jr., Chairman; Rev. Louis Shreve Osborne, Jeremiah O'Rourke, Richard C. Jenkinson, Dr. Leslie D. Ward, Hon. Gottfried Krueger, Henry M. Doremus, Rev. M. Leucht, James Taafe, John F. Shanley, William Campbell Clark, Samuel Kalisch, William B. Kinney, John Cotton Dana, John F. Kehoe, Joseph M. Byrne, Treasurer, and James M. Reilly, Secretary. Mr. Shanley and Mr. Taafe, having received permission from Bishop O'Connor and also the consent of the Reverend Rectors, visited the
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different Catholic Parishes to create an active interest among the people for the purpose of raising subscrip- tions towards the Monsignor Doane Monument Fund. They were aided by the Treasurer and Secretary of the Committee. This Monument was unveiled January 9th, 1908, with imposing ceremonies. Hon. James Smith, Jr., former United States Senator, Chairman of the "Doane Memorial Committee of the City of Newark," presented the Monument, on behalf of the subscribers; and His Honor, Mayor Jacob Haussling, accepted it on behalf of the city. The Right Rev. John J. O'Connor, D. D., now happily ruling the See of Newark, made an address, in which he said it was not necessary to erect a monument made by human hands to perpetuate the memory of George Hobart Doane among the Catholic people. Addresses were also made by Hon. Samuel Kalisch, the Rev. Joseph M. Leucht, Rabbi Emeritus of the Jewish Temple, Hon. Richard Wayne Parker, M. C., the Rev. Louis Shreve Osborne, Rector of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, and others.
The Knights of Columbus* of this city, the Young Men's Catholic Association of St. Patrick's, the Holy Name Societies representing different Parishes, the Grand Army and other organizations took part in the parade. The Joint Committee of Newark, Olive Branch, and Star of Bethlehem Councils, Knights of Columbus, had authorized their Chairman, Paul V. Flynn, and their Secretary, Miles F. Quinn, to issue an address to the members of the Order, from which this excerpt is taken : "While citizens gener-
*The Knights of Columbus, in National Council, at St. Louis, this year, resolved to raise the sum of half a million dollars for the Washington University. The sum is expected to be raised within the next two years. The membership of the Order approximates 225,000.
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ally are called upon to pay tribute to the memory of the late Mgr. Doane, it is especially not only meet and proper, but the duty of the Knights of Columbus and our co-religionists to bear public testimony to the civic and religious virtues of him who accomplished so much for Catholicity by word and example. Mgr. Doane was an ideal citizen. In him the love of his religion and the love of country, in all the potency of their strength and the splendor of their magnifi- cence, manifested themselves in the perfection of their nature. He had the courage of his convictions-the courage to do that which was right, no matter the personal sacrifice. In the grandeur of his life what a magnificent legacy has he not left! Let us profit by his example. When the Civil War threatened the disruption of this land of ours, Mgr. Doane marched to the front with his co-religionists and the other co-patriots, encouraging them onward to duty and ministering unto them. 'God and Country' was the battle cry. No matter from what aspect it may be viewed, the exemplary life of this ideal citizen teaches lessons of duty, patriotism, religion and love. It was a life whose influence more than aught else in his time and generation contributed to eradicate intoler- ance and fanaticism, which blinded honest but mis- guided minds, and brought them to a realization of the civic truth that they must respect the constitu- tional rights of others, as they would have their own respected."
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CHAPTER XXX
The Conversion of George Hobart Doane
Tributes to the memory of the late Mgr. George Hobart Doane have been told in prose and sung in verse; but the story leading to his conversion to Catholicity remains in part an unwritten history. Because of the lesson which it imparts that story must now be related. George Hobart Doane was a son of the first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey, and a deacon at Grace Church, this city. He was deeply interested in the Puseyite Movement. At that time there was an Irish Catholic employed as a domestic at the rectory. The young deacon found her prayer book one day, "The Key of Heaven." He examined it and became interested in the instructions relating to the Sacrament of Penance. He was of a bright disposition and not infrequently joked with the domestic about the Confessional. "Mary," he would ask, "When did you go to confession last?" "What did the priest say?" "Are you going to con- fession next Saturday?" These and kindred inquiries were jocosely made. One morning there was a knock at his door; and, in answer to his "Come in," the domestic entered. "Mr. Doane," quoth she, "you lost a silver coin about six months ago; here is your half- dollar. I am going to Confession and must make restitution or the priest won't give me absolution." George H. Doane recalled conversations he had
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had at his father's home at Burlington with an Irish Catholic, who was the "man-of-all-work," and the attempts he had made to make an Episcopalian out of him after returning from the visit to Rome, which he describes in "A Letter" to Right Reverend James Roosevelt Bayley, D. D., Bishop of Newark, and his discussions with the "man of all work" about the Confessional and other matters pertaining to Catholic Faith and Practice.
These thoughts caused him to think and ask: "If priests of the Roman Catholic Church have power to hear confessions and give or withhold absolution, why should not priests of the Protestant Episcopal Church exercise such faculties? Have they not the power, if their ordination is valid and our Church is a branch of the one true Church Catholic?" He went to Burlington, made a short visit to his father and then returned to Newark.
When the train stopped at Rahway, the Right Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, Bishop of Newark, entered the passenger coach and took a seat near the front. George H. Doane was seated near the centre of the car. He and the Bishop were not acquainted- only knew each other by reputation. Arriving at the Market Street Station, two cabs were in waiting. The Bishop entered one and was driven to No. 35 Bleecker street, the Episcopal residence. The Protestant Epis- copal Deacon took the other and was driven to Grace Church rectory. That night, hewent to Bishop Bayley's house. He rang the bell, and one of the Assistant Priests opened the door. He first took Deacon Doane for a Seminarian from Seton Hall, because he wore a Roman collar. The visitor asked to see the Bishop. The priest told him he could not until next morning
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because Bishop Bayley had retired for the night. The young man was persistent-he must see Bishop Bayley then. The Bishop was informed by the priest, and word was sent out that the caller should come again. George Hobart Doane was not satisfied, and he expressed his determination not to leave the house until he saw the Bishop. This being reported to Bishop Bayley, he came from his room and invited the young man to enter. George Hobart Doane unbosomed the secrets of his soul to Bishop Bayley. He came to "a higher power" and had the inestimable happiness soon after of finding himself In Haven at last, having weathered the tempestuous storms which had threatened to wreck his hopes eternal.
Right Rev. Joseph M. Flynn, in his history, The Catholic Church in New Jersey, thus describes the visit of George Hobart Doane to Bishop Bayley :
"One Saturday evening, after Confessions in St. Patrick's, Mr. Matthew O'Brien, the sexton, called on Father McQuaid to tell him that a young man had walked into the Church and insisted on seeing Bishop Bayley. The sexton directed him to go to the Bishop's House. While Fathers McQuaid and Venuta were discussing the character of the visitor and the nature of the errand, the night-bell rang. It was then after eleven. At the suggestion of Father McQuaid, Father Venuta answered it. He found a tall, handsome young man, who excitedly asked for the Bishop. He was told that as it was already late it would be difficult, if not out of the question, to see him. He so persisted, that finally Father Venuta went to Bishop Bayley's room, and delivered the young man's message. The Bishop replied, 'Tell him I can't see him to-night; it is too late, and let him call again.'
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But, undaunted by this rebuff, the young man replied that he would not leave the house until he saw the Bishop. On hearing this, Bishop Bayley came out of his room and invited the stranger to enter. They talked far into the night, and George Hobart Doane returned to Grace Church rectory and informed the Rector that he could take no part in the services that day. He paid a short visit to his father, who was the Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey, and promised him to wait two months-in Newport- before taking any decisive step. In that fashionable watering place he met Mrs. Peters, of Cincinnati, and other devout Catholics, who instructed and con- firmed him in the doctrines of the Church of whose priesthood he has been these many decades of years its glory and its boast."
The "visit" to Burlington to which reference is made in this excerpt had been made by George Hobart Doane before his call upon Bishop Bayley. It was the very Saturday night on which the Bishop entered the railway train at Rahway that the call was made; and this is evidenced by a perusal of "A Letter" written by George Hobart Doane to the Bishop of Newark in 1856, when he was pursuing his studies in the Collegio Pio: "That night, at Rah- way, you stepped into the car in which I was. It seemed to me providential, and I took it as such, and determined, yes, before I slept, for who knew that that night might be my last, to seek counsel, and comfort from you, who, if anyone could, I knew, could give to me. * *
* You advised me to be patient, and to wait, to write to Burlington and state my condition. I did." etc. Some years elapsed before Bishop Doane and his son met again; and at
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this meeting a reconciliation was effected, as related by Mgr. Flynn (The Catholic Church in New Jersey, page 211). "After some years in the Priesthood, Father Doane was invited by the Pastor to preach in the Catholic Church in Burlington, his home, and the Episcopal See of his father. Bishop Doane remarked to his man-of-all-work, a Catholic: 'Well, I see the prodigal is coming home. Then we must kill the fatted calf.' He sent ornaments from his home and flowers from his garden for the adornment of the altar; and in the evening father and son were reconciled."
But the author must let George Hobart Doane continue the interesting narrative of his conversion : * "A LETTER "TO
"THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD "JAMES,
"BY THE GRACE OF GOD, AND THE FAVOUR OF THE "APOSTOLIC SEE, BISHOP OF NEWARK,
"Containing some remarks upon a statement lately published in the Journal of Proceedings of the Seventy-third Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in the State of New Jersey, held in Grace Church, and in Trinity Church, Newark, on Wednesday, 28 May, 1856, and published at Burlington, by Samuel C. Atkinson, Printer, purporting to give an account of his Conversion to the Catholic Faith,
"BY
"G. H. DOANE, A. M.
"Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are delivered."
"A Letter," thus described, was written by George H. Doane, November 13th, 1856, when he was a student of Theology at the Collegio Pio, Rome, Italy.
*NOTE .- The narrative having required in some of its parts the use of the Protestant version of Holy Scripture, it has been used in all. The writer deems it proper to add that, in doing so, he disclaims any intention of recognizing it as the authorized translation of the Word of God.
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It was addressed to Bishop Bayley. After the latter was promoted to the Metropolitan See of Baltimore and just before taking his departure from the See of Newark, Archbishop Bayley placed "A Letter" in the hands of the late Dr. James Elliott; and through information received from Hon. James Smith, Jr., former United States Senator, who was one of the late Right Rev. Mgr. George H. Doane's executors, the precious document as it emanated from the pen of George H. Doane nearly fifty-two years ago, has come into the author's possession and is herewith published for the first time:
A. M. D. G. COLLEGIO PIO, ROME, FEAST OF S. STANISLAUS KOSTKA,
Nov. 13, A. D. 1856. Right Reverend and Very Dear Father in God:
You will remember during the short time I was with you after it had pleased God to give me the Grace of Conversion to the Catholic Faith, that you quite agreed with me as to the inadvisability of my making any reply, to the numerous attacks which were made upon me in consequence of the step which I had taken. Many of them, were so absurd as to refute them- selves to any unprejudiced reader, and all of them were written in the heat of excitement, the evidence of which very much impeded their effect. Yesterday, however, I met for the first time with a document purporting to give in an official form an account of my conversion preceded by a short history of my life. The sources from which it proceeds while on the one hand it gives an authority to the statements which it contains, on the other renders it a peculiarly difficult and delicate matter for ine to know what notice I should take of it. Leaving myself entirely out of the question, I deem it my duty in the most respectful way to make a counterstatement, which while it will not deny any of the facts alleged, will show that these facts when fully stated and explained are calculated to cause a very different impression from the one which must necessarily be left by them as they at present stand. I do so in the form of a letter to you, and leave it to you to make what use of it you
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think will most redound to the glory of God, and the extension of His Church-as a small tribute of my gratitude to Him for having led me out of a barren and dry land where no water was, into the green pastures of His blessed fold, and beside the pleasant waters of comfort.
I should do violence to my nature, and to the truth, were I to deny the happiness of my early years at Burlington. In religious matters, it was one of the chief centres for the dis- semination of the views which took their origin in Oxford, and were first broached in the "Tracts for the Times." I took them at their word, and fondly believed that as a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, much as I disliked the name, I was in communion with the Church Catholic. I tried to be consistent in that belief, and to act up to it, as well in doctrine, as in practice. It was very hard work as you well know. The fact that in that communion opinions the most different are held on the most important articles of the faith, such as the Apostolical Succession, Regeneration in Baptism, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, as well as the existence of practices the most opposite in liturgical matters, often gave me serious uneasiness, but I supposed that they were permitted by God to try my faith, and endeavored to bear them patiently. When Rome, as the Catholic Church was called, was mentioned, remarks were made which were rather inconsistent with what little I knew of it, but yet I held my peace, often rather glad to hear them, as they served to make me feel securer in my then position. About that time I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a Catholic Priest, the Rev. E. I. Sourin, now a Father of the Society of Jesus, the first priest I had ever known, whose character seemed so entirely different from that which I had commonly heard attributed to that class of men that I even then began to wonder if there were not more good in the Catholic Church than is generally allowed by Protestants. That impression I think I never lost.
My occupations as a medical student left me little time for thought on religious controversy. The journey on the con- tinent still less. It is said that in Rome, when I was here I saw nothing to attract me. Be it so. I was here, for a month, and while here was occupied with the remains of antiquity, the pictures, the churches considered as specimens of architec- ture, and all the countless objects of interest which fully occupy the attention of a traveller. So far as I was concerned, the Church was as if it were not. Pagan Rome I saw, and saw it well,
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but of Christian Rome as I know it now, I saw nothing. The Pope I saw but in a function at St. Peter's in all his grandeur as Head of the Church, not as I have seen him lately, the tender, simple Father at the Quirinal. The Cardinals I saw in their carriages as Princes of the Church, and supposed driving about the City to be their sole occupation. I have lived to learn their great labors and boundless charity, The Churches 1 saw, but long after those who had assisted at the Holy Sacri- fice, and received the Body of the Lord had gone, refreshed thereby to their work and labor. A simple priest might have been saying mass, and no doubt the impression was left upon my mind, that he was doing all the devotion of the people-while they had thronged the Church before I had left my bed. The pious works in Rome, the schools, the asylums, the hospitals, all escaped my attention, and so they do the attention of ninety- nine out of every hundred Protestants who visit this Holy City. They do their wonderful works of charity in perfect quiet, known but to God and to those whom for His sake they befriend. The Church of the Gesu I looked at with a half sus- picious eye, not as now drawing fresh comfort from every visit to the holy priests who live and minister there to countless thousands. In truth I did not want to become a Catholic, and so I fostered the Protestant feeling, avoided all those who could possibly have undeceived me, and never was so bitterly Protestant as when here. Anglicanism had not yet been sufficiently tried by me, and so supposing it to be right, I acted upon the necessary consequence that "Romanism" was wrong. How much my visit to Rome tended, or could have tended, to undeceive me, you may imagine, without my going farther into detail. But to return to America, and to the time I spent at home after my journey. What followed is given in the statement which I have quoted. Had I remained in Burlington, the dream might perhaps have continued, and I have awakened from it, but at my death, to find that I had died, as I had lived, a heretic. But it pleased God, in his inscrutable way, to lead me where I could put my belief to a more searching test. So far as is possible in a Protestant Society, Catholic practices are to be found there, sufficient to satisfy one who has never had any experience of the reality. The poor are looked after, the ignorant instructed, the sick attended to. But this is a single instance.
Were one-tenth of the Episcopal parishes conducted in this manner, the claim to Catholicity, as far as externals go, might be sustained with some force. But who does not know
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how far this is from being the case. Without perhaps my knowledge at the time all this had its weight with me, and I sighed for more consistency and unanimity. The Catholics of the place were for the most part poor, and unlettered, the priest, as in most American towns, was, from the very fact of his being such, as a man proscribed; nothing better offered itself to me, and I dreamed on. I deceived myself and suf- fered myself to be deceived. I did not see it then, but I do most clearly now. Of the doctrine of the Church I knew nothing except as it is misrepresented in Protestant controversy. The remarks I have made with reference to my visit to Rome will apply to the pleasure I experienced in reading Dr. Hopkins' late book. It quieted doubts, and gave me, for the time, a firm hold of my position. I did not wish to be convinced of the truth of Catholicity. My heart rebelled against it, my home, my relatives, my friends, the friends of my childhood, and of my manhood, all, all, forbade the thought. That very affectionate nature of which the statement speaks would not bear the idea, and so I succeeded, as so many have, and as, alas, so many now do, in keeping my conscience quiet, and forcing myself to believe what, now that the full flood of grace has poured into my soul, I see to be utterly devoid of any semblance of the truth. And so the time passed on, and my ordination approached. With Dr. Newman I can safely say, the place alone being changed, "Can I forget,-I never can forget the day when in my youth I first bound myself to the ministry of God in that old church of S. Frideswide, the patroness of Oxford? Nor how I wept most abundant, and most sweet tears, when I thought what I had then become?" Anxious to exercise the office which, at the time, I thought had been given me, I went to Newark, and became the Assistant to the Rector of Grace Church. Here for the first time, practically, the differences in the Episcopal body were brought to my notice. In the Church of which I was the Assistant, the Sacramental System, as it is called, was earnestly taught, while in a leading church of the same denomi- nation, the opposite, or Evangelical System as it is called, was as earnestly preached. The utter inability of Protestantism to cope with the irreligion and infidelity of a large town, was evident, the need of religious orders, of clergy living in community and leading mortified lives was abundantly manifest. Reluctantly I was brought to see that the clergy of the denomi- nation to which I belonged were respected simply in their per- sonal, and not in their official capacity. The mode of electing
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