The Irish standard., 1901-07-13
THE AMERICAN HIERARCHY.

In recent address at Letterkenny,
county Donegal, the eloquent Archbish-
op Keane Of Dubuque said among 9th
err things: Everybody knows am an
American; everybody in America recog
nzes me rs an exponent of the princi-
pies that constitute our Americanism;
and yet everybody knows that l am
Irish, Donegal man, and Bally-
shannon man,
Referring to the patriotic discourse
of the eminent American prelate the
Dublin Freeman's journal enumerates,
as follows, some of the great archbish-
ops that Ireland has given to the Cath
Ollie church in Americas:
Dubuque. Iowa, the See of the arch
bishop. is one of the most important
cities in the great West. His predeces-
sor in office was Archbishop Hennessy,
a Limerick man. The great arclldio-
ccsc of Chicago is presided over by an
eminent Tfpperary man, Most Rev. DR..
Patrick A. Fcehan. New York. where
there are more Catholics than in even
Catholic Ireland itself, has distin-
guished lrish-American presiding over
its archtepiscOpal destinies; and so has
Philadelphia in the person of DR.. Ryan.
The primatial See, Baltimore, claims
Cardinal Gibbons the son of Irish pa
rents, who settled in the South. In
Missouri, Bishop Burke, also a Celt
is in episcopal authority. Nor is this
gratifying feature in Irish religious
matters of recent growth. The pretle-
cessurs Of these Celtic prelates We're
also from Ireland. The services of
Archbishop Peter KenricE of st. Louis
are not forgotten. The archbishop was
a Dublin man, and ruled the great
western See for upward Of fifty years.
John Baptist Purcell, late archbishop
of Cincinnati, is also remembered for
his great ability and zeal in building
tip tire fortunes Of the church in Amer
lea. In like manner is the Irish prede-
ccssor of Archbishop Corrigan, of New
York, household word in the Catho-
lie homes of the great Empire state
The roll of honor in this direction is a
long and glorious one. and seems, in
tleel-digiti monstrari-to point out
that the Island Of Saints is anything
but unmindful of its ancient spiritual
splendor."
The foregoing paragraph from our
Dublin contemporary has prompted the
Irish Standard to look over the list of
American prelates from the establish
mcnt of the church in this republic in
1884, when Rev. John Carroll was ap.
pointed prefect-apostolic in the United
States by Pope Plus vi. We find by
careful examination that more than
one-half of the archbishops and bishops
of the church in this country during
more than one hundred years have been
Irish by birth or descent.
Without detracting from the merits
OF the non-lrish prelates of the church,
many of whom have been noted for
their learning and sanctity, we have
no hesitation in saying that the growth
ana development Of the church in
America is mainly due to the zeal Of
the Irish element in the hierarchy.
Or the thirteen archbishops now in
the United States ten are Irish by birth
or extraction, and the same can he said
or forty-two out Of the eighty bishops,
The former are Gibbons, ireland, Kahn,
heane. Ryan, Feehan, Corrigan, Rior-
dan, Christie and Williams. Among
the latter are Foley of Detroit Ryan of
Alton, Gallagher Of Galveston, McFaul
of Trenton, O'Gorman of Sioux Falls.
McGolrick Of Duluth, Stanley of Far
so, Cotter Of Winona, Tierney of Hart
ford Lenihan of Cheyenne, Scannell
of Omaha, Hennessy of Wichita, and
thirty others whose names are "as Ir-
ish as the hills"
Among the bishops present at the
Cretin celebration in st. Paul last week
We're three who received their ecclesias.
teal training at All Hallows' COLLEGE.