Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-02-13

impressive Features Of the Career Of
the Archbishop.

! make YOU famous. Don't neglect it: q Is
/ your talent"
/ These words we're addressed by Daniel
O'Connell, the famous emancipator to q
/ boy Of Is, who had been chosen by his fell
/ low students in a Dublin school to deliver
a congratulatory address on the occasion
| OF O'Connelrs release from prison on a
reversed verdict
! The time was September lstl The repeal
] OF the Union movement In ireland reached
the eliminating point just year before
when projected meeting on the battlefield
| Of Clantorf near Dublin. was prohibited
and O'Connell and his associates were in
dicted, tried and convicted. An appeal taken
to the law court OF the House OF Lords
resulted in reversal OF the verdict, and the
school incident was part of the island wide
rejoicing over the event
OConnells words were prophetic The
boy whose ambition was thus kindled was
Patrick j. Ryan, the Roman Catholic arch
bishop OF Philadelphia, whose death in
widely mourned
Seventeen years later the civil war, had
begun. Thousands OF exiled Irishmen were
flocking TO the standard OF the union
Among the Irish volunteers in St. Louis
was a young priest. Father Patrick J. Ryan
who had come to America in 1852 and was
ordained in st. Lous in the following year.
His services were accepted and he was
assigned TO the local federal prisons and
hospitals
BY this time Father Ryan had Begin to
justify Daniel O'Connelrs prophecy. His
sermons, from the time or his ordination,
had attracted attention.
They are different" said the people. and
they went In increasing numbers to hear
the priest who could touch the heart
strings was not afraid to tell witty story
In an imitable brogue, and in the next in
slant draw picture that would bring
tears"
Services NJ Chaplain.
So Chaplain Ryan went among the sol
diers in the prison as he had gone among
the people in the slums of St. Louis. He
made those who were wounded laugh even
in and at their pain by his wit; he
cheered up others with droll stories: he kent
the whole prison as cheerful as any prison
can be by means Of his tongue and there
are men down south today who will tell
you stories that they heard from the lips
OF Chaplain Ryan, when they we're prison.
ers between the years 1861 and 1866
In his work Chaplain Ryan came in con-
tact with men Of all sorts OF religious be-
Hers and creeds. Never q radical he came
TO understand how men could feel differ
emily on the subject Of religion and stlll
be sincere, and so when he was mus
tered out of the army and returned 10 his
pulpit his sermons were marked not only
for their eloquence and wit as before, but
for their liberal views as well.
As result, Father Ryan's name soon
became known to Protestants, and before
long his speaking acquaintance with men
Of other faiths was as large as with his
own, and good Presbyterians were repeat
ing and laughing at HIS latest stories every
bit as heartily as the most pronounced
Catholic in his congregation.
Thus things drifted on, Father RYAN
winning the respect and regard OF all
creeds, to the year 1872 when the priests
eloquence brought him his first ecclesiasti-
cal reward, that of coadjutor bishop of St
Louis.
The promotion was fuel for his oratorlcal
fire. For the next twelve years whenever
be preached or spoke in public thousands
representing all sects, crowded to hear
him, and went away to tell his stories and
to discuss the liberal views which he had
expounded.
1t was the broad attitude he took as
coadjutor bishop that first caused Pope
Leo TO hear Of Bishop Ryan, The pope
sent for Bishop Ryan, received him in the
vatican, and, in recognition of his work,
which had been almost solely that OF A
speaker gave him the honorary title Of
archbishop Of salamis.
This occurred in the same year that
Archbishop Wood OF Philadelphia died
Archbishop Wood had been ultra-conser-
vative. Among other things, he would not
let member Of the Grand Army OF TIE
Republic be buried In a Catholic cemetery.
He held that the Grand Army OF the
Republic was a secret society. He was op-
posed to all such organizations, and he
would have no rites other than those OF
the church at the grave AS result in
Philadelphia, the leading Protestant city
in America, the city of the most pro-
nounced antiCatholic riots of 1874, when
eight churches were burned and many
people killed, the progress OF the Catho-
lie church was by no means what leading
Catholics desired.
Upon the death Of Archbishop Wood the
church began looking around for his
successor. 1t did not take It long TO dis
cover that Bishop Ryan was the only man
in sight who was fitted for the post.
man was wanted who could soften the
widespread hostility against the church;
he would have to be something OF q diplo-
matist and a man who could use his
tongue well. Bishop Ryan, by means OF
his wit and liberality, had won a host
Of Protestant friends in st. Louis; his
policy had received the pope's stamp OF
approval; he was the man for the place.
Succeeds Archbishop Wood.
So Patrick ]. Ryan, coadjutor bishop of
the archdiocese Of st. Louis, became sec !
ond archbishop OF the late created arch !
diocese OF Philadelphia.
His first act caused the town 10 gssp
A Grand Army OF the Republic man. A |
Catholic, died, and, anxiously. the mem. |
bers OF the dead mans post presented
themselves before the archbishop and asked |
IL they might bury their oomrade In a
Catholic cemetery.
He not only gave his permission, but |
he put on his chaplain's uniform, preached
the sermon and led the way 10 the grave.
And the veterans. forgetting that they
were IN church and the solemnity Of the
occasion, cheered their new-found comrade
in arms. ~
That act. supplemented by a few sermons
revealing the speakers tolerance, oratorical
powers and overlooking humor, broke down