Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-08-15
DELAWARE
Last of the Thirteen Original
States to BE Made
Diocese.
Rev. Thomas Andrew Becker, a
Convert, Was Its First
Bishop.
His Request For Education of
Young Men Has just
Expired.
WAS ARCHBISHOP'S SECRETARY
BY James A. Rooney. LII. D.

BY James A. Rooney, LII. d.
Though Delaware was the last oil
the original thirteen States to BIZ
given a Bishopric, as the diocese
of Wilmington was not established
until March 3, 1868, and her first
Bishop was not consecrated until the
following August, it is not to be sup
posed that Catholicity had not made
its influence felt in the colony
prior to that time. The early mis-.
sionaries were not harassed in Della.
ware by the anti-Catholic enactments
that disgraced the statute books OF
the other colonies, for in its consti.
tuition Of 1875 it was declared thai
"there shall be no establishment OF
any one religious sect in this State
in preference to another" Besides il
was too convenient to the Maryland
missions to be long neglected by the
Jesuits of those d;.ys.
As early as 1850 the Fathers OF
st. Francis Xavier's in Bohemia
Manor are recorded to have estab-
lished a mission at Apoquiniminck
in New Castle county, and even
twenty years before that it is not
improbable that the first mass in the
colony was offered up in the home
of Cornelius Hallahan, an Irish Cath
Ollie who lived near the present
Mount Cuba.
The Episcopalians were watching
the adherents of the ancient faith,
for from their records we learn of
the presence of Catholics in Dover
in 1S4S to 1851. They were attended
from Maryland by a Jesuit who was
known as Father Manners, by
Father Faure, Father John Rosseter,
an Augustian, who had been an Of
ficer in Rochambeau's army; by
Father Cibot, a French refugee from
San Domingo, and by Father Charles
Whelan, a chaplain of De Grasses
fleet and for two years pastor of Old
st. Peters in Barclay street, New
York. Father Whelan was pastor OF
st. Mary's log church at Coffee Run
in Mill Greek Hundred, about six
miles from Wilmington, that had
been built by Father Manners, and
his successor was Father Patrick
Kenny, who had for an assistant
Father George A. Carroll, S. j., who
was consecrated the first Bishop OF
Covington on November 1, 1853. II
was from this first church that the
Catholics of the surrounding country
were attended. Some portions OF
this historic edifice are still stand
ing. 1t was also Father Kenny who
in 1916 built st. Peters church,
Wilmington, which greatly enlarged
and beautified, is now St. Peters
Cathedral. Adjoining it in 1889 was
built the first of the fourteen
parochial schools with which the
diocese is now supplied.
When the War of the Rebellion
was over the Catholics of Delaware
fluence that division of the diocese
of Philadelphia was decided upon and
on March 3, 1868, the diocese OF
Wilmington was erected with juris-
diction over the State, together with
the eastern shore counties of Mary
land and Virginia. The Rev. Thomas
Andrew Becker, pastor of st. Peters
church, Richmond, was appointed
as the first Bishop of the new see
and he was consecEated by Arch
bishop Martin John Spalding, OF
Baltimore, on August 10, 1868.
Bishop Becker was a convert to the
faith. He was born in Pittsburgh OF
German Protestant parents, but he
became a Catholic while yet a young
man. He completed his studies for
the priesthood at the Propaganda
and was ordained in Rome, July IS
1859. He returned home and after
a brief ministry at Martinsburg was
appointed to a professorship in
Mount st. Mary's, Emmitsburg. He
then served for time as Archbishop
Spalding's secretary, after being pro
NOTED to the Richmond pastorate.
On his conservation a census Of
the diocese of Wilmington showed 6
Catholic population of about 5000
fourteen churches, mostly in bad
repair and some mere sheds; ant
only eight priests. In eighteen years
he had increased the number o.
churches to twenty-six and the
priests to twenty-one, besides thu
Catholic population had nearly
doubled. He was transferred TO thu
see OF Savannah, March 26, 1886, al
its sixth Bishop, to succeed tn,
Right Rev. William II. Gross, who
had been promoted to be Archbishop
of Oregon City. Bishop Becker'i
health failed rapidly and Will,
recuperating at Washington, Ca, hi
died July 20, 1889. A notable be
quest in his will was a legacy o.
$4,000, in trust for twenty-five
years for the education of worthy ant
deserving young men for the priest
hood, on condition that they be ma
tive Americans. total abstainers ant
willing to devote their lives 10 tn,
service of God In the diocese o.
Savannah. The trust has Just ex,