Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-08-08
PROPHETIC.
Pope Gregory's Reply to Prayer
of Pittsburg's First
Bishop.
Was Consecrated I'm 1S43 and
Ruled Successfully For
Seventeen Years.
Resigned His Charge to Become
Member of the Society OF
Jesus.
PLANTING The SEED OF FAITH
By James A. Rooney. III. d.

you shall be Bishop first and
Jesuit afterwards" was the reply of
Gregory XVI. to the Rev. DIR. Michael
O'Connor, who while in Rome, hear
ing that the fifth Provincial Council
of Baltimore had named him as
Bishop of the newly established See
of Pittsburgh, threw himself at the
feet of the Holy Father and begged
him to withhold the appointment and
permit him to enter the Society of
Jesus. The Pope's response was
prophetic for the brilliant young
doctor of the Propaganda, who
though only ten years in the priest
hood had filled successfully such inn
portant posts as professor of Sacred
Scriptures in the Propaganda, Vice
Rector of the Irish College, President
of st. Charles Borromeo's Seminary
in Philadelphia and Vicar General of
the diocese Of Pittsburgh, did indeed
die Jesuit after an energetic and
successful episcopate of seventeen
years, supplemented by twelve years
as a follower of st. Ignatius.
The planting of the seed of the
faith in Western Pennsylvania prior
to the erection of the diocese of
Pittsburgh, August IL, 1S43, forms
a chapter in Catholic history that
carries the student back nearly 100
years.
The first priest to settle per-
manently in Pittsburgh was Father
William F.. X. O'Brien, who arrived
in November, 1908, and it was he
who built "Old st. Patrick's" and
had it ready for dedication by the
Right Rev. Michael Egan, Bishop of
Philadelphia, in August, 1911. He
was succeeded in 1920 by the Rev.
Charles B. Mcguire. He had been
pastor of the Catholics at Sports
mans Hall, where the first per-
manent Catholic settlement in West
ern Pennsylvania had been made in
1890 by Father Theodore Bowers.
Father Mcguire began the erection
of st. Paul's church, but he died of
cholera July II, 1898, before its
completion. The church, which was
the largest and most pretentious in
the United States at that time, was
completed by his successor, the Rev.
John O'Reilly, and was dedicated
May 4, 1884. Father O'Reilly was a
remarkable man and a Jealous mis-
sionary. He had been assistant to
the prince-priest, Father Demetrius.
Gallitizin, in his Allegheny mountain
mission at Loretto, and he remained
as pastor of st. Paul's until 1S41,
when he was succeeded by the future
Bishop of Pittsburgh, who assumed
the post of Vicar General.
Father Michael O'Connor relin-
pushed the Presidency of st.
Charles Borromeo's Seminary to the
Lazarist Fathers Mailer, Pence,
Frasi and Burke to become Bishop
Kenrick's Vicar General in Pitts
burgh. AS early as 1885 the divis-
ion of the immense diocese had been
advocated, but it was not accom-
plished until the recommendation of
the fifth council of Baltimore was
ratified by the Propaganda and DIR.
O'Connor was named as first Bishop
for the new see, which was estab-
lished August IL, 1843. He was
consecrated four days later in the
Church of st. Agatha, on the feast
of the Assumption. He arrived in
Pittsburgh on December 81, of the
same year, which then happened to
be Thanksgiving and a legal holiday,
bringing with him Mother Mary
Frances Warde and the following
Sisters of Mercy: Mary Josephine
Cullen, Mary Elizabeth Strange,
Mary Aloysius Strange, Mary Philo-
mena Reid, Mary Veronica McDarby
and Mary Margaret O'Brien. These
Sisters came from Carlow, Ireland,
and they were the first of Mother
McCauley's children to reach the
United States.
He found in his vast diocese,
comprising nearly half OF the State
Of Pennsylvania. about thirty
churches, sixteen priests and a Cath
Ollie population of about 900. In
1882, when the diocese of Pittsburgh
was in turn divided by the establish
ment of the diocese of Erie, the
Catholic population and the number
OF churches had doubled and the
sixteen priests had increased to
sixty-four. Various religious COM
munities of men and women had
been introduced and many religious
and charitable institutions had been
founded, including the archabbey Of
st. Vincent's, now the largest Bene-
dictine institution in the world.
After a brilliant successful episco-
pate of about seventeen years Bishop
o'Connor resigned his charge May
23, 1850, to carry out his long cher
ished intention OF becoming a mem
Der OF the Society Of Jesus, and he
died SON of ST. Ignatius on October
IS, 1872, at Woodstock. Md. and his
remains lie in the Jesuits cemetery
there.