Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-19

Inently from the rest: the right of
private Judgment; the separation of
ton the diocese had owned in Harris
burg valuable property, finely To-
Gated on an eminence overlooking the
! Capital City and the beautiful Susque-
hanna river. Here Bishop jeremiah
Shanahan had established an &C.
clesiastical seminary, but lack of
means, after a few years, brought this
| project to an end, and from the time
of the first Bishops demise Sylvan
Heights had served as an episcopal
residence. But the second Bishop
Shanahan, finding the manor house
on the property too spacious for his
needs, came to the resolution to
transform the structure into an Or
phanage The only thing he needed to
carry out this purpose was funds, but
the one matter about which the third
Bishop of Harrisburg never worried
was money. For the mammon of
iniquity he personally cared nothing
when he died less four hundred dol
lars, more than half of which had just
come in, was found in bank to his
credit. This indifference to the root
OF all evil does not mean that the
Bishop did not realize that money has
its legitimate uses; on the contrary, he
so well knew how much good could be
done with it that he expended his own
as fast as it came to hand And he
expected other, if not to go quite so
far at least to make real sacrifices of
respectable portions of their worldly
possessions, for the common cause.
Neither did his diocesans, both lay and
clerical, disappoint in this regard his
high expectations: in a few months
after his appeal for the wherewith to
remodel Sylvan Heights, and to pay
off the large debt on the property, the
means for both purposes was at hand,
and well-equipped orphanage, capa-
BILE of accommodating eighty children,
was opened November 81, 1901. Sub
sequently a wing was added which
greatly increased the accommodation,
but unfortunately, in December, 1915,
two months before the Bishops death,
and to his great grief, the main build
ing was destroyed by fire. But, never
losing courage, he at once had plans
drawn for its reconstruction as a fire.
proof edifice, and the last official act
of his life, while he lay on what
proved to be his deathbed, was to give
directions for the contract to be
signed. That the spirit which he in
fused into his see has not departed
with his personality is shown by the
fact that when the new Sylvan
Heights is again completed at q cost
of 40,000-more than twice the in
per cent. of this amount shall have
been paid.
After five years of arduous labor
the time arrived for carrying into eff
feet another article of Bishop Shana-
hans initial program; the erection of
a cathedral. During this period the
debt on the pro-cathedral had been
paid off, and, March II, 1904, ground
was broken for the proposed structure
with, in the treasury-just nothing.
In a little over three years a fine
Renaissance ediflce took the place of
the original st. Patrick's Church, dedi-
Gated, October 21, 1927, by Bishop
Conwell. The new cathedral was dedi-
Gated with the usual solemnities, May
16, 1907, and, although, for the re-
sources of the diocese, it cost the con-
siderable sum of $1S5,00O, hundred
thousand of this amount had, in three
years, been raised by the united eff
forts of the Bishop, the diocese and
the cathedral parish. 1t need only be
added that in the intervening years,
to the time of Bishop Shanahan's
death, more than three-fourths of the
remaining Indebtedness has disap-
peared.
1.-The cathedral completed, there
were among us not a few who now
hoped for a little breathing space,
both to recuperate from strenuous toll
gree of satisfaction what had been
achieved in the previous eight years.
But Bishop Shanahan had no inten-
tion, just yet, of resting on his oars.
For, even before the cathedral was
finished, he was already at work to
provide home for boys, and the first
large gift for this object, according to
his ledger. was received on the feast
of Our Lady's Assumption, 1906.
Those who knew him will best under
stand his profound satisfaction and
gratitude to the Mother of Cod under
whose tender patronage, after that of
her Divine Son, he loved to work, at
the favorable omen. From that time
to the day of his death, ten years
later. Paradise Protectory for Boys
was the Bishops constant preoccupa-
ton. Erected on a large farm which
the diocese had long owned, in one of
the fairest portions of the State, the
structure of the Protectory, and it's
equipment, cost a little over a hun
dred thousand dollars. exactly nine
tenths of which had been raised by its
founder when God called him to his
reward.
"In the seventeen years of his ad-
ministration Bishop Shanahan cre-
ated twenty new parishes and gave to
seven missions resident pastors, thus
increasing the number of parishes in
the diocese by more than a third. He
was a firm believer in the policy of
establishing churches in all localities
where a sufficient number of people
was present to justify their erection.
1t was, of course, sometimes difficult
to persuade, for example, the pastor
of a comparatively small parish, that
It would be for the good of religion
to deplete still further his resources.
Rut the Bishop was an adept ut con-
vincing men against their will, and,
after his experiments in a few in
stances had succeeded. thereafter in
this regard he experienced no difficult
ties"
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