page_title: Anthony Kohlmann
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Anthony Kohlmann / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Kohlmann Hall of Fordham University, part of its Rose Hill campus in the Fordham neighborhood of The Bronx, New York City. It was built in 1920.
context_page_description: Anthony Kohlmann, was an Alsatian Catholic priest, missionary, and Jesuit educator. He is known for playing a decisive role in the early formation of the Diocese of New York, where he was the subject of a lawsuit that for the first time recognized the confessional privilege in the United States, and for becoming the president of Georgetown College.
  In his youth, Kohlmann entered the Capuchin order before fleeing to Switzerland due to the persecution of Catholics during the French Revolution. In Fribourg, he was educated at the Collège Saint-Michel and was ordained a priest. He then joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, with whom he ministered and led educational institutions in Austria, Pavia, Bavaria, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Eventually, Kohlmann sought admission to the Society of Jesus, which continued to operate in the Russian Empire despite its worldwide suppression by the pope. He entered the order in 1803 and was sent to the United States as a missionary in 1806, following Bishop John Carroll's call for Jesuits.
  In the United States, he taught philosophy to the Jesuit scholastics at Georgetown and ministered to German-speaking congregations in the mid-Atlantic.
context_section_description: In 1824, Pope Leo XII placed the Pontifical Gregorian University under the care of the Society of Jesus, as it had been prior to the order's suppression. Impressed by Kohlmann's book on Unitarianism, he named Kohlmann as the university's chair of theology. He held this post for five years, during which time one of his students was Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, who would go on to become Pope Leo XIII; another was Paul Cullen, who would become the Archbishop of Dublin and the first Irish cardinal.
  Kohlmann's inquisition of Pecci during the latter's public academic defense again caught the attention of the pope, who named him a consultor to the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. He also became a consultor to the staff of the College of Cardinals. Pope Gregory XVI promoted him within the curial staff to the position of Qualificator of the Inquisition and considered making him a cardinal. In 1830, he resigned the office and spent a year as spiritual director at the Roman College. In 1831, he retired to the Jesuit house attached to the Church of the Gesù, where he served as confessor, aided by his knowledge of several languages. By 1836, Kohlmann's health had begun to deteriorate, and he is said to have overtaxed himself hearing confessions during the Lenten season. He died on April 11, 1836.
  Kohlmann Hall at Fordham University was constructed in 1923 and named in his honor. Originally the headquarters of the Jesuit Order's New York province, it was later converted to house the Jesuits teaching at Fordham Preparatory School.
caption: Kohlmann Hall at Fordham University was constructed in 1923.
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