Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1902-10-04
OF the Work Performed Under
the Direction of Our
Bishop.
Built Churches and Schools and
Provided For the
Orphans.
Number of Priests i'm the Do
cese Has Increased
Three Fold.
FEW FACTS AND FIGURES

When the Right Rev. Bishop Nc
Closkey came to Louisville in 1868 he
found twelve Catholic churches. Some
of them were completed, dedicated and
consecrated, but others were in course of
erection while the members of the con-
gregations worshiped in temporary quar-
tiers. The churches established when
Bishop McCloskey arrived were in order
of seniority: The Cathedral, as it had
replaced the old Cathedral; st. Boniface,
Church of Our Lady, Church of the I'M
meculate Conception, St. Patrick's, St.
Martins, st. Johns, St. Peters, St.
Joseph's, st. Louis Bertrand's, St. Mich
ael's and St. Anthony's. These churches
were scattered over a great tract of
territory, and the worshipers in many in
stances were miles from the house of
God. The new prelate at once sought to
remedy this, and people who wondered
why he had started seminary for the
education of young priests ceased to mar
vel. AS soon as young theologian was
ready for ordination a parish was found
for him, and the work of church building
went on rapidly. 1t will be remembered
that this was only few years after the
civil war. The South was stricken and
Kentucky and Kentucky Catholics felt
the stress of it. There were hundreds of
colored people, recently emancipated
slaves, living in Louisville. They had
no particular place of worship. The first
church built in Louisville after the adj
vent of Bishop McCloskey was St. Au-
gustine's. 1t was built for the colored
people, and Rev. Father !. Lancaster
Spalding, now the Right Rev. Bishop of
Peoria, ILL.,, was its first pastor Then
followed in quick succession the erection
of the Church of the Sacred Heart, ST.
Brigid's, St. Cecilia's, St. Agnes, St.
Vincent de Paul's, St. Columba's, Holy
Trinity, st. Frances of Rome, St. Charles,
st. Francis of Assist, St. Mary Magda-
lens, St. Paul's, st. Aloysius', Church of
the Holy Name, Holy Cross, St. Philip
Neri, St. Helen's and St. Williams. In
some cases two and even three new con-
gregations were established each year,
and in no case did more than four years
elapse without the founding of new
congregation or the building of a new
church. Several of the old churches
were torn down and built in more modern
style. For instance, St. Columba's, a
frame structure, gave way to handsome
brick edifice and the name was changed
to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament,
and again the old St. Brigid's church. on
Baxter avenue, was torn down and new
modern edifice was erected on Won Bor-
ries avenue in honor of St. Brigid, while
the congregation was divided in half,
part of it becoming st. Aloysius' congre.
cation.
But Bishop McCloskey did more than
this. He was interested in the education
of the Catholic youth. He insisted on a
parochial school for each church. and he
encouraged academies founded by the
Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of Mercy,
Sisters of Loretto, Dominican Sisters
and by the Xaverian Brothers. Infirm-
aries were being enlarged and new ones
built. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd
enlarged their home and built new one
for unfortunate young women. In fact
every manner of good work was looked
after and encouraged. Particularly was
this so in the case of the orphans Bishop
McCloskey has ever had warm spot in
his heart for the motherless waits, and
has left no stone unturned to make them
happy, to educate them and to make
them good men and women.
In brief. when Bishop McCloskey took
charge of the diocese of Louisville he
found about fifty priests in the whole
diocese and score of churches, of which
more than half were in the city of Louis
vile. During his thirty-four years he
has built up the diocese to ITO secular
priests, about sixty priests of the various
orders; he has ninety-two churches with
resident pastors and forty-three without
resident pastors. OF these churches with
resident pastors thirty-one are in Louis
vile and Jefferson county. In this do
cese are fifty religious institutions, pre-
sided over by priests or Sisters of various
orders; two colleges, twenty-one acade-
mics. four orphan asylums and eighty
seven parish schools. The total number
of children attending the Catholic schools
in the city of Louisville alone is more
than 1900, and it is estimated that the
total number of Catholics in the diocese