Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-07-23
THE NEXT BISHOP.

The death of Bishop Stanley
makes a vacancy in the head of the
Catholic church in North Dakota and
there will be much interest, not only
among Catholics but in the state
generally, as to his successor. For
the welfare and upbuilding of the
church in the state, the vacancy
created by the death of Bishop
Stanley will be difficult to fill. He
had a wide knowledge Of the state
and the church in the state and he
had the untiring energy that is nee
essary to the carrying on of mission
airy work in a new land. This is
set forth in a single paragraph from
the address Of Archbishop Ireland
at the funeral services:
Humble, indeed, were the belong
inge of Catholicity in North Dakota
in 1S90-much more humble than
the statistics of the directory indi-
cate. The churches were, without
, exception, mere huts; the schools
counted their pupils by the dozens;
the priests, 80 of them, we're home
less wanderers ever the vast prairies
of wilderness, finding shelter where
best they could in rude hostelry or
the weather-beaten shanty Of the
pioneer settler. Those, too, in the
early days Of North Dakota, when
poverty was the common lot, when
settlers scattered to and fro, far
removed from one another. wrestled
with an alkaH soaked soil under
fainless atmosph eres, amid vhordes of
Devastating insects. Stout the hearts
that put high hopes in the future of
North Dakota; the many either rush
ed away in despair, or, hoping
against hope, remained solely be-
cause circumstances forbade their
departure. Was Bishop Stanley one
to fear and tremble, one to pause
In Impotence, or abandon the field
opened to him by the hand of Provi-
dence? Not of this timid fibre was
the spirit of Bishop Stanley. He set
himself to- his work resolutely and
earnestly, travelling through other
states in search of aims to help him
to get food and shelter in his chosen
home and, at the same time, to aid
him in building modest chapels
where the need was urgent and in
preserving his for1orn missionaries
from encouragement and starvation.
Well, score of years have gone by,
and what see: we today? The state
of North Dakota, one of the most
promising commonwealth in the
American Union-its early ADVERSE
ties buried in oblivion; its prairies
proving themselves most fertile
lands. its cities and villages busting
with: commerce and industry; the
hundreds of thousands of it's popula-
ton rejoicing in prosperity and social
happiness. And the church in North
Dakota? quote figures from the
Catholic Directory Of 1909: Priests,
JOG; churches, 225; stations, places
as yet of slender Catholic settlement.
preparing, however, to build churches
in the near future. So; academies, 6;
5parochiaI schools, "a; hospitals, a;
But figures only tell of numbers; to
realize the absolute fact, we must
recall that the churches in North
Dakota are in great number superb
monuments of architecture. that
schools, academies and hospitals are
possessed Of splendid buildings and
thronged with indwellers, that priests
are housed j In most comfortable
presbyteries and hold = gathered
around them a numerous Catholic
5laity, fervent in their faith, generous
in their offerings, enterprising In
their temporal caIlings, and no less
so In all that makes for a strong
ana prosperous Catholicity in the
diocese Of which they are proud to
be the children priests and laity,
flonored and esteemed In their sever
al communities, In all things men Of
that vivid devotion to religion and
that largeness Of mind and Of heart,
such as insure to Catholicity a con-
tinuous and most prosperous deyel-