Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-12-12
PRIEST CORRIGAN' CASE:
The Trial of the Hoboken Pas
 tor Begins To-Day.
HIS CONTEST WITH BISHOP WIGGER

of the Most Important in the Catholic
 Church in Recent Years-Fathcr Corri- l
 gan vs. Editor Walsh. l
 NEWARK, Dec. 12.-To-day in the pas toral residence of St. Patrick's Cathedral. | in this city, begins the trial of Rev. Pat rick Corrigan, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Grace, Hoboken. The case will probably be one of the most famous in the Catholic Church in recent years The whole country is interested in it.
 At first the affair was personal matter between Father Corrigan and Bishop Wigger. The priest attacked the recent German Catholic Congress at Newark He said that it's members were aiming to Germanize the country through the Catho- lie Church. Bishop Wigger resented this attack, declaring that Father Corrisan had insulted him, Archbishop Corrigan and the others who attended the Con gress.
 Father Corrigan then severely criticised Bishop Wigger's administration of the Newark diocese The Bishop cited the priest for trial before the ecclesiastical court of the diocese. Father Corrigan was not silenced by the Bishops action. He continued to write letters i'll which he reiterated his earlier statements.
 Father Corrigan, it is said voices the sentiments of the majority of the priests of the country who are not Germans. There is a bitter feeling between the Irish American and German priests of the United States Father CorriSan's stand at this time against Cahensly makes him the mouthpiece of the priests who are op- posed to the attitude of the Germans 1n his trial the contest between the two ele- ments of the Catholic clergy will natur- ally come up, it is said. For this reason the case is one of national importance.
 The Rev. J. J. OConnor, Vicar General of the Newark diocese and professor of dogmatic theology in the diocesan semi nary, is to be the judge. Father Corrigan is to be represented by the Rev. Dr. Rich ard Labor Burtsell of Rondout, formerly pastor of the Epiphany church in New York, who was Dr. McGlynn's ecclesiastical lawyer in the depOsed priest controversy with Archbishop Corrigan.
 For his action in the McGlynn case Dr. Burtsell was transferred from the Epiph- any church to a country parish at Ron dout He is regarded as one of the ablcst ecclesiastical lawyers in the country. Bishop Wigger will be represented by the Rev. Dr. s. $. Smith of Paterson, who is the author of work on ecclesiastical law. The charges against Father COrrigan are maliciously melting odium against the members of the German Congress- held at Newark, as Germans, and against Bishop Wigger, as Bishop of the Newark diocese. It is believed that Bishop Wig ger will not appear at the trial. In dio- cesan trials the bishop generally acts as judge, but because Father Corrigan had | attacked him personally Bishop Wigger decided not to be the judge. Father Cor rigan protested against the appointment of Father O'Connor as judge, and asked Bishop Wigger to let Archbishop Satolli l try the case. Bishop Wigger would not consent to these proposals
 Father Corrigan's statements regarding Editor Walsh, of the New York sunday Democrat" have excited particular comment He said:
 '' 1 see by morning paper that Michael Walsh, the disreputable greenhorn Irish journalist, continues his scurrilous charges l against me ill his capacity of orthodox l Catholic editor and defender of Archbsh- | op Corrigan, Bishop Wigger and Mgr. | Satolli.'
 l :sIt is disgrace to have this man s | name. connected with the defense of any | cause, much less with that of honorable men and distinguished ecclesiastics, and l l would not have touched him at all had he | not, by distorting and misrepresentint l facts that were known only to Bishop Wig l ger and his chancellor, Rev. Denis McCar- | tie revealed to some extent the source of | his inspiration.
 | "Bishop Wigger unconsciously disgraced l Seton Hall by conferring upon this bosom
 friend of his reverend chancellOr-and pre-
 sumably at the request of the latter-the | title of LL D.
 'During the late presidential campaign | this man, who claimed an interest in two
 little obscure weekly papers, is charged
 with having offered one of them to the l Democrats and the other to the Republi-
 cans, and he now claims that he has | Archbishop Corrigan's influence in his | aspirations to the office of Internal Reve-
 nue,Collector, now held by Major kirwin.
 This claim must be false, and a person Of | Walsh's antecedents is the last man that
 MT. Cleveland would dream of appointing
 to office.
 "His assertion that Archbishop Corri
 gan, Bishop Wigger and Mgr. Concilit
 have convicted the Hoboken rector oi
 misrepresentation and lies is false anu
 he knows that it is false, if he has any re
 gard for the truth.
 ''The Archbishop has not disprovcd ol
 attempted to disprove, the truth of my | statement of his strained relations will
 Bishop Wigger.
 l ''Mgr Concilio has not denied that he ! wrote a secret pamphlet to the Pope, ant | when charged him with having accuset l the lflSn, CnOuSn ne nllnSell IS plStor Ol
 an Irish parish while claiming to be a ho
 Cahenslyite, he did not dare to produce q
 copy of the pamphlet as final settle
 ment of the question.
 q have the authority of a distinguish l ed Archbishop, now in Europe, that sucl
 was the charge. Let him produce tn
 pamphlet if l have been misinformed. ''The charge that my statement of Bis ] hop Wigger's treatment of Mgr. Doan is a lie, is also false l am aware tha Bishop Wigger, in a communication t r the papers under his own name, has de nounced my statement as an 'unmitigatet falsehood,' but am also aware that m statement is perfectly true to the lette
 and that Mgr. Doane, himself has in hi
 possession the proofs of my truthfulness.
 Not His First Attempt at Arson.