Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1911-06-03
Right Rdv. Edmund Prender-
CAST Is Worthy Every
Honor.
Clergy and Laity of the Quaker
City Rejoiced Over the
News.
TALLEST OF AMERICAN BISHOPS

The Right Rev. Edmund Francis
Prendergast has been appointed
Archbishop of Philadelphia to sue
coed the Most Rev. Patrick John
Ryan, who died on February IL of
the present year. The appointment
was announced at the Vatican last
Saturday. While the appointment
meets the approval of Philadelphia
Catholics, many were surprised be-
cause they believed that Monsignor
Kennedy, Rector of the American
College in Rome, would succeed to
the archepiscopacy.
When the cable message reached
Philadelphia Bishop Prendergast
was on the altar of the Cathedral, Of
ficiating at the ordination of twenty
two candidates for the priesthood.
OF course he did not learn of his new
honors until he had concluded the
ordination ceremonies. Even then
he had nothing to say. In fact he
declined to discuss the matter at all
until he had been officially appraised
Of his elevation.
Edmund Francis Prendergast was
born in Clonmel, County Tipperary,
ireland, on May 8, 1843, and is con-
sequently sixty-eight years old. In
1859 he came to the United States
and six years later, in the very same
Cathedral where he received the
news of his elevation to the arch
episcopacy, he was ordained a priest.
He served in various charges in
Eastern Pennsylvania until 1874,
when he was made rector of St.
Malachy's church in Philadelphia, of
which he still nominally the rector.
Fourteen years ago he was made
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia,
and three years later the venerable
Archbishop Ryan appointed him adj
ministrator of the archdiocese, to
take effect at the death of the Arch
bishop With his conservation as
Archbishop Monsignor Prendergast
will become Metropolitan of Penn
sylvania. AS such he will be superior
to the suffragan Bishops of Pitts
burg, Scranton, Altoona, Erie and
Harrisburg.
The news of the appointment had
been eagerly awaited since last
February. According to the rule Of
the church several names were sub
mitted to Rome from which to pick
successor to the late Archbishop.
Many believed that the names of
Bishop Kennedy, of the American
College; Bishop Prendergast, of
Philadelphia, and Bishop Dougherty
Of the Philippines, had been for
warded by the rectors of 1.-THE arch
diocese. 1t was also reported that
the names of Archbishop Glennon, Of
st. Louis, and Bishop Hoban, of
Scranton, had been submitted.
Both the clergy and laity of Phil
adelphia regard Bishop Prender-
CASTS appointment as an act of rev.
erence in Rome for the late Arch
bishop Ryan, because 1t was gen.
orally known among the friends of
the dead Metropolitan that he want
ed Bishop Prendergast to succeed
him.
The new Archbishop is probably
the tallest member of the hierarchy
in the United States. He is a man
of colossal build, with an amiable,
fatherly face, from which large,
clear gray eyes beam brightly. His
extraordinary height appears greater
when he dons the tall episcopal
mitre or Bishops hat.
The diocese of Philadelphia was
established in 1903, and was erected
an archdiocese on February IL.
1875. The diocese, Independent of
its suffragan sees, comprises an area
Of 5,043 square miles. 1t has a
Catholic population of $4,000.
Until further official notice no
action will be taken, but when the
date is set for the comforting of the
pallium the Catholics of Philadel-
phia and Pennsylvania will arrange
TOR one of the most imposing and
impressive religious celebrations
ever witnessed in any of the Eastern
States, one that will be attended by
practically the entire hierarchy OF
This country