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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MOBILE The History of the Archdiocese of Mobile (1705-1980) The Diocese of Mobile traces its origin to those colonies planted by Spain and France in Florida and westward along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Though it grew slowly, Catholic life was, nevertheless, for almost two centuries, co-terminus with civilization itself. St. Augustine, oldest of the three settlements within the States of Alabama and Florida that constituted the original diocese, was founded in 1565 by the Spanish Crown. This same power in 1696 strengthened its claims against encroaching French exploration when an expedition from Vera Cruz established an outpost at Pensacola. The King of Spain, as a result of the patronato real, provided for construction of churches in those settlements and for priests to accompany the colonists. As a rule, care of the Spaniards was entrusted to the diocesan clergy, while religious communities were usually occupied with work among the Indians. FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT In Alabama, the first permanent settlement was made by the French in 1702 about twenty-five miles north of the present city of Mobile. Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'lberville, who opened the colony was accompanied by Paul de Rhue, S.J. Shortly afterward the Louisiana missions were transferred by the Bishop of Quebec to the Seminary of the Foreign Missions, and in 1703 the church at Mobile was canonically erected as a parish with Henry Roulleaux de La Vente as its pastor. The parish records are virtually unbroken from 1704 when this priest came to Mobile. As the colonial settlements, following policies determined by their respective mother countries, set about extending their claims and counteracting each other's spheres of influence in America, ecclesiastical jurisdiction along the coast became almost as confused at the question of national sovereignty in the hinterlands. Louisiana under France belonged to the Diocese of Quebec, while Florida had been under the spiritual rule of the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba. When, by the peace of Paris in 1763 Spain replaced France in Louisiana and England assumed control over the Floridas, an already tenuous Catholicism in Mobile, Pensacola, and St. Augustine became weaker still. French episcopal power ceased in Louisiana with the advent of Spanish rule, but the Bishop of Quebec continued to claim jurisdiction over the Mississippi Territory, from which Alabama was eventually formed. As a result of the American Revolution, British rule disappeared along the Gulf of Mexico, and the Floridas were reclaimed by Spain. In 1787 Spanish possessions on the mainland were joined to the new Diocese of St. Christopher of Havana, but not for long. NEW DIOCESE ERECTED A new diocese, Louisiana--the Floridas, was set up in 1793 with Luis Penalver y Cardenas as its first bishop. New Orleans was assigned as the see city, and Penalver remained there until, in 1801, he became Archbishop of Guatemala. After his departure, the vacancy he left was not filled, and once again rival claims arose concerning ecclesiastical authority. In the first years of the nineteenth century Louisiana passed quickly from Spanish through French hands to become a territory of the United States so that by 1806 its spiritual care was assigned by the Holy See to Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore. For six years he tried to provide for this vast area by two successive vicars-general at New Orleans, and finally in 1912, having been given the necessary power from Rome, Carroll sent Louis William DuBourg, S.S., as Administrator Apostolic of Louisiana--the Floridas. The situation was further confused as a result of the Spanish government's having instructed the Bishop of Havana to resume the care of those settlements in the Floridas that were still under the allegiance to His Catholic Majesty. The Holy See, it would seem, did not agree to this move as implying dismemberment of the mainland dioceses. While on a visit to Rome in 1815, DuBourg was consecrated a bishop. His territory consisted of upper Louisiana with St. Louis as its center, lower Louisiana containing New Orleans and the Cathedral, and the old Floridas with Catholics mainly at St. Augustine, Pensacola, and Mobile. In addition the prelate acted as vicar-general for the Mississippi Territory which still belonged to Baltimore. Quite apart from considerations of divided temporal sovereignty, it was an impossible burden for one man. After letters from DuBourg consenting to a division, the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide--perhaps urged by Bishop John England of Charleston who himself acted as vicar-general for eastern Florida—erected the States of Alabama and Mississippi in 1822 into a vicariate-apostolate under Joseph Rosati, C.M. Father Rosati, however, refused the appointment because of his youth and inexperience, and both DuBourg and Ambrose Marechal, S.S., Archbishop of Baltimore, protested the division. Their main objection seems to have been the lack of provision for Florida. In any case, the Mississippi-Alabama Vicariate was suppressed. Propaganda did not act again until it had gathered new information regarding the territory and new candidates had been carefully examined. Meanwhile, conditions reverted to their former status except that Rosati was ordered to receive consecration as co-adjutor to DuBourg. Finally in August 1825, Mississippi was constituted a vicariate-apostolic to remain for the time being under the Bishop of Louisiana, and the States of Alabama and Florida were erected into a like jurisdiction with Michael Portier, as titular Bishop of Oleno, named as vicar-apostolic. Portier was born in Montbrison, France, in the year 1795, and as the revolutionary turmoil subsided sufficiently to allow the seminary of Lyons to reopen, he there pursued his studies toward the priesthood. After Bishop DuBourg visited the seminary in 1817 and asked for volunteers to assist him in the immense field of Louisiana, the student from Montbrison sailed from France, but not without some initial opposition from his family. He arrived in Baltimore with the bishop and a group of thirty recruits in September 1817. Portier remained for a short time as the guest of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and after his ordination to the diaconate left in October for Louisiana. PORTIER ORDAINED A PRIEST The new deacon worked mainly as a catechist for almost
a year in the troubled ecclesiastical atmosphere of New Orleans, then
dominated by the Capuchin Antonio de Sedella. In August 1818. Portier
went to St. Louis where on September 29 he was ordained a priest by
Bishop DuBourg, probably at St. Mary of the Barrens. For some time the
young priest remained in Missouri where he gave much effort to the study
of English before returning to New Orleans in April 1819. With New Orleans
as a base of operations, he made visits to the missions at Bay St. Louis
and Natchez. He was stricken with yellow fever at the latter settlement
while caring for victims of an epidemic in 1819. but survived the disease.
This zealous missionary also acted with competence as treasurer of the
diocesan seminary. But Portier's greatest success came in the organization
of a school for boys in New Orleans which, by the time of his departure,
had an enrollment of some 250 students. Upon learning of his appointment as Vicar-Apostolic of Alabama and the Floridas, Portier, thirty-one years of age, was dismayed, and acting on the advice of DuBourg who agreed that he was not ready for such a task, he returned the apostolic letters with the request to be excused. On March 18, 1826, the Holy See commanded him under obedience to accept the episcopal office and to assume his duties. Since Bishop DuBourg had meanwhile returned to Europe and resigned his see, the bishop-elect was consecrated by Joseph Rosati in St. Louis on November 5. After settling his affairs in New Orleans, he arrived in Mobile on December 20. Within his vicariate the young prelate found about 6,000 Catholics centered in the three principal towns of Mobile, Pensacola, and St. Augustine. Anthony Ganilh at Mobile and Constantine Maenhaut at Pensacola were the only resident clergy. These two priests were shortly to return to New Orleans, leaving as the personnel of the vicariate "one bishop and one subdeacon." Gabriel Chalon, a cousin of Portier and a student at the Barrens, had agreed to serve in the Alabama-Florida missions. The parish at St. Augustine, though more prosperous than either of the others, was vacant. Bishop England was still acting as vicar-general for eastern Florida and had been doing his best to keep the Atlantic coast city supplied with a pastor. There were a few scattered Catholics in northern Alabama at Huntsville, Florence, and Tuscumbia, who were attended sporadically from Kentucky when it was possible for a priest to reach them. FIRE DESTROYS CATHEDRAL Bishop Portier visited the three towns in the south where he labored prodigiously to restore what Catholic life remained. He finished his visitation of St. Augustine in September 1827 and determined to fix his cathedral at Mobile where in October a fire destroyed the Church of the Immaculate Conception along with 260 houses. He arranged for a temporary church and a two-room rectory to replace the destroyed facilities and stayed on in Mobile till the following April, unable to make a trip to survey northern Alabama. In the spring he obtained the services of a priest from New Orleans to care for Mobile and Pensacola and departed for Europe to seek priest helpers and financial aid. DIOCESE OF MOBILE FORMALLY ERECTED The Vicar-Apostolic of Alabama and the Floridas left the
new world in June 1828 and returned as Bishop of Mobile to his see city
on January 6, 1830. The time abroad had been profitably spent. At Lyons,
Portier met with a generous response both in the seminary where he appealed
for missionaries and from the Central Council for the Propagation of
the Faith which considered his request for material assistance. Two
priests, Mathias Loras and John Stephen Bazin, volunteered to work in
the southern mission field as well as six seminarians, four of whom
were already subdeacons. Two other priests, a Father Bourdet and Frederick
Rost, were later accepted and sent ahead to Florida. In Rome the vicar-apostolic
was received kindly by Leo XII, but before any business could be transacted,
the pope died, and all work ceased until the election of Pius VIII in
March 1829. On May 9 the Diocese of Mobile was formally erected with
Portier as its first residential bishop, and on October 31 he sailed
from Le Havre with Loras, whom he had named vicar-general, and the six
seminarians. The group landed first at New Orleans where they spent
Christmas and then went on to Mobile. SPRING HILL COLLEGE FOUNDED Yet, these men carried on heroically, usually in the face of difficult obstacles and often with major setbacks. The bishop began the construction of a college and seminary—an institu¬tion into which he put most of the hopes and resources of his infant see. Well over 600 acres were acquired on the highest point of land near Mobile, and Spring Hill College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of Alabama, was founded. At first Portier and his diocesan priests ran the college, but in 1840 when the increase of pastoral responsibi¬lities made this impossible, the Fathers of Mercy were placed in charge. They were not a success, nor were the Eudist Fathers who followed in 1844. Finally in 1847 the college was given over to the Society of Jesus, with Francis de Sales Gautrelet, S.J., as president, and under Jesuit control it prospered again. BEROUJON DRAWS PLANS FOR CATHEDRAL One of the first concerns of Portier was for the Catholics in the northern part of his diocese, few and scattered though they were. Fathers Loras and Chalon journeyed northward in 1830 stopping at Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, Moulton, Tuscumbia, and Florence. Everywhere they preached, baptized, solemnized marriages, and tried to organize at least mission stations among whatever Catholics they found. Later Chalon repeated these efforts north and south of Mobile bringing some measure of ordered religious life to Mount Vernon, Bayou la Batre, and Mon Luis Island. Wherever possible churches were repaired or built, but progress was slow. In the 1830s a decent edifice was erected at Pensacola and frame buildings constructed in Montgomery and Moulton. The following decade saw the number of churches increased by six with dedication of structures at Tuscaloosa, Summerville, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Isle Key West, and Mobile where a second parish, St. Vincent's, had been started. St. Patrick's was built in Apalachicola in 1850, and the frame building in Montgomery replaced with a sturdy brick church in 1854. In the year before Portier's death, St. Joseph's was built in Mobile for the Germans of the city. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, however, dwarfed all other building projects. Plans were drawn for it by Claude Beroujon in 1833 and construction started two years later. The panic of 1837 halted work until 1843, but by 1850 it was sufficiently complete for consecration and use. Along with these gains there were also losses such as the fire that destroyed the gothic brick church at Tallahassee within a year of its completion, and St. Francis de Sales attached to Visitation Convent at Summerville which burned in 1854. GROUND BROKEN FOR VISITATION ACADEMY In addition to Spring Hill College, other institutions gradually enriched the Catholic life of the diocese. In 1831 ground was broken for a convent, and the following year a group of four Visitandines from Georgetown came to Summerville, then on the outskirts of Mobile, to undertake the management of an academy for girls. This foundation prospered in spite of a serious tornado in 1840 and a fire in 1854 that left the work of years in ruins. Due to the recurrence of yellow fever, many children in the diocese were left without parents, and at the instigation of Bishop Portier, the Female Catholic Charitable Association was organized in 1838 to maintain an orphanage. It was set up at once under the care of a matron, and by 1841 the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul at Emmitsburg were able to spare four sisters to assume charge of the foundlings. The civil officials of Mobile were also anxious to secure the services of that community to manage City Hospital, but it was not until 1851 that sisters could be sent to comply with their wishes. As the sisters found it difficult to care for orphan boys when they grew older, the bishop turned again to his homeland, and in 1847 a group of Brothers of the Sacred Heart came to the diocese to open an orphanage for boys. They also undertook to conduct a boarding and free school. CHURCH SUFFERS FROM NATIVISM AND BIGOTRY Fortunately, extraordinary opposition to the expansion of Catholic life in the diocese was relatively rare. Though Bishop Portier had found trustee systems well established upon his arrival, lay control caused him difficulty only once, at St. Augustine, and when he personally confronted the recalcitrants in 1832, they submitted to his authority. Catholics in the South as elsewhere suffered from the spread of nativism and bigotry, and on one occasion in the 1850s, a Jesuit on his way to attend one of the missions outside Mobile was severely beaten. The zenith of Know Nothing influence in that city was reached in 1854 when the Daughters of Charity were forced from City Hospital on false charges of mismanagement. Sentiment was so aroused locally at such patently unjust treatment that Catholic and other outraged citizens subscribed a sum of money to build the sisters a hospital of their own. Father James McGarahan went to New York at the invitation of Archbishop John Hughes to collect the balance of funds needed, and by May 1855, Providence Infirmary was ready to receive patients. Within five years conditions at City Hospital had become so bad that the sisters were again approached to take it over. This they did after sufficient safeguards had been given to repair the damage done to their reputation and to protect their interest in the future. As in other parts of the United States, organized prejudice died in Mobile through, one might say, a combination of distraction over the slavery issue and the sheer weight of its own animus. PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH AIDS DIOCESE While the diocese was not financially affluent, there was no large outstanding debt. This was due mainly to the constant aid which had been received from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In the decade of the 1840s alone Propagation funds totaled 266,418 francs. Conditions were also improved by the changes that took place on the ecclesiastical map of the United States in 1850. A new diocese was established at Savannah, which included all of Florida east of the Apalachicola River. Only that western strip of the state beneath the southern border of Alabama was still subject to Mobile. At the same time New Orleans was raised to the dignity of an archdiocese with the Diocese of Mobile the most eastern of its suffragan sees. BISHOP PORTIER DIES As Michael Portier closed his life, the lowering clouds of war over secession and slavery had not yet reached the point of acute danger to the fruits of thirty-two years' labor in the field God had chosen for him. The number of his clergy was still small, but the Catholic population had almost doubled during his rule. If a few were not yet able to be given adequate care, most had the necessities of religion, and some even its luxuries. In any case, conditions were immeasurably better than Portier had found them in 1826. Institutions that had developed but slowly displayed the constancy of their foundations by storms already weathered; nor would they founder in the days ahead. The picture of the Church in Alabama and northwest Florida, though far from a perfect one, was a source of consolation to the aging bishop as he entered Providence Infirmary in the spring of 1859 for what proved to be his last illness. God had blessed his efforts; his generation had done its pioneer work well. He died on May 14 at noon and was buried three days later beneath the sanctuary of his cathedral--itself a monument to the man, his hopes, and his accomplishments. BISHOP JOHN QUINLAN The second Bishop of Mobile, John Quinlan, was born in Ireland on October 19, 1826, and came to the United States when eighteen years of age. His family settled at Cincinnati where the young man, after studies in that city and Emmitsburg, Maryland, was ordained to the priesthood in 1852. After two years of parish work, Quinlan was named rector of Mt. St. Mary's of the West at Cincinnati until appointed by the Holy See to Mobile in 1859. He received consecration as a bishop in New Orleans from Archbishop Anthony Blanc on December 4, 1859, and on December 11, was formally installed in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. GREAT NEED FOR PRIESTS Bishop Quinlan surveyed his diocese and found enthusiasm and opportunity for the spread of the faith, especially in the outlying areas. A donation of land and a building, for example, had been received in Camden, and the Catholic community at Eufaula had organized to build a Church. The greatest need was for priests, and the bishop determined to seek additional clergy overseas, as Portier had done, but now from his native Ireland. Such a move was entirely appropriate since immigration from the Emerald Isle had altered the predominant national background of the majority of Catholics in Alabama and northwest Florida. While the fleur-de-lis had by no means disappeared, it was now overshadowed by the shamrock, at least numerically. A voyage to Europe in 1860 and liberal assistance from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith enabled the bishop to recruit ten seminarians and six undergraduate students for his diocese. A relationship was established with Irish seminaries, especially All Hallows, that has, over the years, been a major factor in the life and growth of the Diocese of Mobile. CIVIL WAR BEGINS The promise offered at the close of 1860 was not to be realized at that time as the diocese soon found itself absorbed in the agony of the Civil War. Catholics joined their fellow citizens throughout the South in support of the Confederacy, and special needs for pastoral and physical support developed rapidly. Priests took up duties as chaplains wherever possible: three diocesan priests and three Jesuits from Spring Hill College received official commissions, but many more served on a voluntary basis as the need arose. This need in some cases was very real, as, for example, in that of the Emerald Guards, Company I of the Eighth Alabama Regiment, in which all but five of its 109 man roster had been born in Ireland. Bishop Quinlan himself accompanied a relief train to the site of the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 and ministered in the field to the wounded and dying. Father A. Usannas, S.J., left the college late in the conflict to care for wounded Union prisoners at Andersonville, and his service there has been noted in the official accounts of that terrible experience. The chronicle of the college reported simply that the priest returned home "covered equally with merit and vermin." DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY CARE FOR SICK AND WOUNDED No less effective and far more visible was the care given the sick on and off the battlefield by dedicated nurses from the ranks of the Daughters of Charity. Their white coronet and blue habit became the hallmark of selfless service and grateful admiration North and South. As early as 1861 six sisters from Mobile, two each from Providence Hospital, City Hospital, and St. Mary's Home, spent eight months in field hospitals outside Pensacola only leaving when the fall of Fort Barrancas ended hostilities in that area. Hospital care was offered away from the front by religious moved to Montgomery for that purpose. At the fall of Mobile in April 1865, the evacuating Confederate forces sent all their wounded to the City Hospital knowing, as Sister Gabriella Larkin, the superior, later wrote, "that they would not be molested while in the charge of the Sisters of Charity." DIOCESE SUFFERS SEVERE LOSSES As the war ended, the diocese took note of severe losses. Catholic population suffered a setback immediately as a result of war related deaths, and for the remainder of the decade it would show almost no growth as substantial waves of Catholic immigrants brought new life to the Church in other parts of the country. Almost annual outbreaks of yellow fever both diminished the local population and further discouraged newcomers. Physical losses were notable against a background of economic ruin. Churches had been destroyed in Pensacola and Warrington as the result of the battle, and the parish in Selma was burned in the sack of that city in 1865. Mobile's Cathedral was damaged when a powder magazine exploded on the waterfront in the same year. Before the decade ended a disastrous fire destroyed most of Spring Hill College in February 1869. Bishop Quinlan led the effort to rebuild enough of the college to resume classes there in the next academic year. This action was typical of his zeal and energy in helping his flock to recover in the post-war years. Reporting to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1869, the bishop outlined some of the progress that had been made. The number of priests had increased to twenty since 1860 with thirteen of the newcomers educated by the diocese and ordained by Quinlan; twelve seminarians were currently enrolled; the war ravaged churches had been replaced and eleven new structures completed. These served three new parishes in Mobile and a new parish in Huntsville in addition to the older Catholic communities. The work of education, health care, and concern for the orphans continued but did not expand. An effort to establish an Ursuline community of teaching sisters at Montgomery was not successful despite initial enthusiasm. NEW PARISHES OPENED The period after 1870 until Quinlan's death in 1883 was different. New parishes were opened in the closer mission stations to Mobile, but major strides were made in the north of Alabama. The future metropolis of Birmingham got its start as Elyton in 1872 and by 1880 the bishop had acquired the downtown property for St. Paul's parish to grow and prosper even as the city did. Large numbers of German Catholics settled even farther north at Cullman and the nearby counties. A parish was quickly organized and by 1873 had received its first pastor, Father Michael Mertz. When this priest died several years later of smallpox, Bishop Quinlan approached Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., of St. Vincent's Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, hoping his community could undertake the care of the German families. So generous was the Benedictine response and so successful their work in these missions that by 1881 ten additional counties in north Alabama had been entrusted to them. These monks filled the posts at Cullman and Hunstville and established new parishes at St. Florian and Tuscumbia. In that same year at the other extreme of the diocese St. Patrick's Parish in Apalachicola, Florida, received its first resident pastor. ADVANCES MADE IN EDUCATION Even more impressive were the advances made in Catholic education as individual parishes founded or strengthened their schools. In Mobile the Cathedral parish shared in this endeavor by constructing a new building entirely devoted to the boys' division in 1877. It was, however, the influx of new communities of teaching sisters that made this dimension of the apostolate so successful. By 1875 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet had a convent at St. Patrick's parish in Mobile and before the decade ended had worked at two other parishes. The Sisters of Loretto opened an academy at Montgomery in 1873 and after ten years had expanded into Birmingham. From the four Sisters of Mercy who began their work at St. John's in Warrington, Florida, in 1877 would grow a community of religious centered at Mobile but serving in all parts of the diocese. Similarly, in the north, Benedictine sisters by 1883 were an important part of the educational picture in several parishes and would eventually reach out from their motherhouse at Cullman as far south as Baldwin County on the Gulf of Mexico. As the Quinlan years came to a close, Catholic education, independently of Spring Hill College, involved some 110 sisters, and ten Brothers of the Sacred Heart who staffed twenty-eight schools with approximately 1,500 children. An adequate number of priests to care for the vast mission
field would remain a problem for all the Bishops of Mobile. Despite
an almost threefold increase since 1859, Quinlan lamented to his Roman
superiors at Propaganda in 1881 that only three of the thirty-five priests
were native to the diocese. During these difficult years, education
of young men for the priesthood was limited both by financial capability
and due to lack of candidates. From 1870 to 1883 only seven priests
were ordained for the diocese. BISHOP QUINLAN DIES Bishop Quinlan died on March 9, 1883, in New Orleans where he had gone for his health. He was buried beneath the Cathedral's classic portico which was completed in the 1870's. The Catholic population had increased to 18,000. BISHOP DOMINIC MANUCY Dominic Manucy succeeded Bishop Quinlan to become the third Bishop of Mobile. Born on December 20, 1823, in St. Augustine, Florida, he was educated at Spring Hill College and ordained by Bishop Portier in 1850. He labored twenty-four years in Mobile and Montgomery. On December 8, 1874, he was consecrated by Bishop Quinlan as Bishop of Dulma for the Vicariate Apostolic of Brownsville, Texas. On March 9, 1884, he was transferred to Mobile still retaining the administration of his former jurisdiction. Ill health and the difficult situation in Mobile led to Bishop Manucy's resignation before the year's end. He was then appointed to the titular see of Maronea. He died in Mobile on December 4, 1885. BISHOP JEREMIAH O'SULLIVAN The Fourth Bishop of Mobile was Jeremiah 0'Sullivan. Born in 1844 in County Cork, Ireland, he came to the United States in 1863 and entered St. Charles College, Ellicott City, Maryland, later moving to St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. He was ordained a priest in June 1868 by Archbishop Spalding, and consecrated Bishop of Mobile September 20, 1885, by Cardinal (then Archbishop) Gibbons. A gifted administrator, Bishop 0'Sullivan was successful in extricating the diocese from its financial difficulties. During his tenure the towers were added to the Cathedral, and conditions developed which enabled the diocese in years to come. However, the estimated Catholic population suffered a slight decline. Bishop O'Sullivan died August 10, 1896, in Mobile. BISHOP EDWARD P. ALLEN Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, March 17, 1853, Edward
Patrick Alien was educated in the public schools of Lowell and Lowell
Commercial College before entering Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg,
Maryland. The son of John and Mary Egan Alien, he received his M.A.
in 1878 and was ordained for the priesthood December 17, 1881, by Bishop
Thomas A. Becker. Bishop Alien taught at Mt. St. Mary's and then worked
for two years in the Archdiocese of Boston. He returned to Mt. St. Mary's
in 1884 and served briefly as vice-president and treasurer before his
election as president of the college in June 1885. On May 16, 1897, he was consecrated fifth Bishop of Mobile by Cardinal James Gibbons. Under Bishop Alien the diocese advanced with great strides. The Catholic population increased from 18,000 to 48,000. Bishop Alien's sound fiscal policy and administrative ability enabled the diocese to keep pace with its rapid growth. Many churches and missions were erected. Hospitals, orphanages, and schools were established. The number of priests more than doubled, and considerable property was acguired with a view toward further growth and development. The diocese was hit by a devastating storm and tidal wave in September 1906. Many churches either totally or partially destroyed were rebuilt under Bishop Alien's guidance. GREAT INTEREST SHOWN IN BLACK APOSTOLATE Bishop Alien's interest in the black apostolate was apparent. The Josephite Fathers came to work in the black missions in Mobile, Birmingham, and Montgomery. St. Joseph's College was founded in 1901 near Montgomery with the primary objective "to educate young colored men to be catechists and teachers." In 1909 Bishop Alien sanctioned the founding of a black fraternal order known as the Knights of St. Peter Claver. Important benefactors of the diocese at this time included
Messrs. Felix and Arthur McGill, who started McGill Institute, which
bore their name. The Hannon House for the Aged (now Sacred Religious orders working in the diocese during Bishop Alien's tenure were the Jesuits, Benedictine Fathers, Josephite Fathers, Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of the Visitation, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Loretto, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Benedict, Little Sisters of the Poor and Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Significant progress was achieved in hitherto undeveloped rural areas of the diocese under Bishop Alien. He died in Mobile October 26, 1916. ARCHBISHOP THOMAS JOSEPH TOOLEN Thomas Joseph Toolen was born February 28, 1886, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was one of six children of Thomas and Mary Dowd Toolen, both natives of County Roscommon, Ireland. He attended Our Lady of Good Counsel School, Loyola High School and College, St. Mary's Seminary, all in Baltimore, and Catholic University in Washington, B.C. He was ordained by His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons in the Basilica of the Assumption, Baltimore, on September 27, 1910. As a young priest, he served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore for seventeen years, fifteen years as assistant at St. Bernard Parish and two years as Diocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. His outstanding ability as a leader, organizer, and fund-raiser was soon apparent, and on February 28, 1927, Pope Pius XI named him the sixth Bishop of Mobile. Archbishop Michael Curley of Baltimore was the principal consecrator at his ordination to the episcopate in the Basilica of the Assumption on May 4, 1927. KEY GOAL Bishop Toolen sought to strengthen and unite the diocese by instilling in his people a greater self-respect as Catholics. From his first day as bishop, he emphasized that Mobile was a missionary diocese, and he challenged every one to do his or her part in the Church's mission of spreading the Faith. The annual practice of Catholics making a public witness to Christ the King was begun in Mobile in 1932. Through the years Catholics gathered in Bienville Square for a special service which included a sermon and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The service at the square followed a huge procession of Catholic men and school children through downtown streets lined with spectators. It was not unusual to have more than 30,000 turning out for the demonstration of faith. GREAT BUILDING PROGRAM When Bishop Toolen came to diocese in 1927, Catholics numbered about one percent of the population. Forty-four of seventy-seven counties had no Catholic church. In striving to achieve his dream of building at least one Catholic mission in every county, Bishop Toolen built over 189 churches, many of them mission chapels. CATHOLIC CHARITIES Within five months after his arrival in Mobile, Bishop Toolen established his first Catholic Charities Bureau. Located in Mobile, the bureau was staffed by Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Trinity. The bureau's programs provided direct aid to the poor. In 1932, Bishop Toolen built the Alien Memorial Home to care for unwed mothers and for the aged. He also started the Catholic Charities Drive, which provided funding for many charitable projects including the Catholic Boys' Home and St. Mary's Home in Mobile and St. Thomas Home in Birmingham. EDUCATION In 1927, construction of a diocesan high school for girls began. Named Bishop Toolen High School, the first classes were held September 24, 1928. A total of 84 grammar schools and 17 high schools were built by Bishop Toolen. He paid special attention to the educational needs of black people. In 1964 he decreed full integration of all the schools in the diocese. Bishop Toolen showed a great concern for students who could not attend Catholic schools. On October 28, 1930, he ordered the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (C.C.D.) to be established in every parish, and he continued to support such programs throughout the time he was bishop. HEALTH CARE Four general hospitals were built under the direction of Bishop Toolen: Blessed Martin de Porres Hospital, Mobile; Good Samaritan Hospital, Selma; St. Jude Hospital, Montgomery; and Holy Family Hospital, Birmingham. Several special hospitals were built during Bishop Toolen's time along with two nursing homes for the aged. Three hospitals already established were rebuilt. The Diocesan Catholic Hospital Conference, Mobile-Birmingham, was established in December 1954 to further interest in Catholic Hospitals in the diocese. APOSTOLIC SOCIETIES The St. Vincent de Paul Society was founded in Mobile in 1896. Bishop Toolen revitalized the local foundations of the society in 1929 and continued to promote it vigorously. The Knights of Columbus became well established in the diocese under Bishop Toolen. He also supported the Knights of Peter Claver, one of the oldest black fraternal organizations in the United States. In 1930, fifteen Catholic women's organizations affiliated with the National Council of Catholic Women, and four deanery units were formed. In 1931 the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women was established. One important work of this organization is promoting the Priests' Burse Club, which Bishop Toolen founded in 1953 to raise money to aid in educating men for the priesthood. Today, the foundation is worth over a million dollars. Bishop Toolen actively promoted the Holy Name Society. In 1951 at a Holy Name Society convention in Montgomery, a chapel fund program was organized, and on December 4, 1955, Archbishop Toolen dedicated the first chapel, the Holy Name of Jesus Chapel in Childersburg. Bishop Toolen inaugurated many other spiritual movements including the annual celebration of Mary's Day in honor of Our Lady, the Family Rosary Crusade, as well as retreats for lay men and women. TOOLEN MADE AN ARCHBISHOP Archbishop Thomas J. Toolen was honored on numerous occasions for his work in the Church. In October of 1949, Pope Pius XII named him "Assistant at the Papal Throne." Pope Pius honored him in 1954 by designating him an archbishop ad personam. The Diocese of Mobile was then redesignated the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham, and St. Paul Church in Birmingham was made the Co-Cathedral. In 1955 the diocese received its first auxiliary bishop, the Most Reverend Joseph A. Durick, who was later Bishop of Nashville. The Florida portion of the diocese became part of the Diocese of St. Augustine on July 1, 1968. Since November 6, 1975, that territory has formed a large portion of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. Thomas Joseph Toolen was a bishop forty-two years, the longest period of service of any Bishop of Mobile. When he retired in 1969, Archbishop Toolen was the oldest active bishop in the United States. He had covered more than a million miles in his pastoral visitations throughout a territory which once covered 58,821 square miles. Seven years after his retirement, Archbishop Toolen celebrated his ninetieth birthday. He died on December 4, 1976, and was buried in the crypt beneath the Cathedral. BISHOP JOHN L. MAY John Lawrence May, the seventh bishop of Mobile was born on March 31, 1922, in Evanston, Illinois. The son of Peter M. and Catherine Allare May, he attended St. Nicholas School, Evanston; Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago; and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mudelein, where he earned his M.A. and S.T.L. degrees. On May 3, 1947, Father May was ordained at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, by His Eminence Samuel Cardinal Stritch. He then served as assistant pastor of St. Gregory Church, chaplain of Mercy Hospital, vice-president and general secretary and president of the Catholic Extension Society, all of Chicago. On June 21, 1967, he was named one of three new auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Chicago. On August 24, 1968, he was named pastor of Christ the King parish in Chicago. BISHOP MAY APPOINTED TO MOBILE Bishop May received his appointment as Bishop of Mobile on September 28, 1969. Installation ceremonies were held in the Cathedral on December 10. Archbishop Luigi Raimondi, Apostolic Delegate in the United States, was on hand for the occasion. The next day, the Most Reverend Joseph G. Vath was installed as the first Bishop of Birmingham-in-Alabama, a diocese comprised of the thirty-nine counties in northern Alabama which had been part of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham. CHURCHES, PARISHES, AND SCHOOLS DEDICATED Since coming to Mobile, Bishop May served on a number of committees of the N.C.C.B/U.S.C.C. However, he devoted most of his energy to developing the diocese by building on the foundation laid by Archbishop Toolen. New parishes established by Bishop May include St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Millbrook; Church of the Holy Spirit, Montgomery; St. Patrick Church, Robertsdale; St. Thomas, Citronelle; Immaculate Conception, Orrville; Holy Name of Jesus, Semmes; Church of Our Savior, Mobile and St. Vincent de Paul Church, Tillman's Corner. In addition, Bishop May, assisted by hard working priests and people, built or dedicated new churches at the following sites: St. Martin, Troy; St. John, Grand Bay; St. Bartholomew, Elberta; Sacred Heart, Grove Hill; Holy Family, St. Dominic, and St. Ignatius, Mobile; St. Columba, Dothan; Christ the King, Andalusia; St. Mary's, Geneva; St. Joseph, Lillian; and Good Shepherd, Columbia. Two schools were started, St. Vincent de Paul, Tillman's Corner, and St. Patrick School, Robertsdale. A new convent was erected at St. Patrick's. Old St. Vincent de Paul Parish and St. Peter Claver Parish, both in downtown Mobile, were united and formed a new parish, Prince of Peace. Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Elizabeth Parishes of Selma became Our Lady Queen of Peace. The parish of St. Patrick, Mobile, was closed. OTHER BUILDINGS Other buildings dedicated during Bishop May's time included the John XXIII Center at Hurtsboro; St. Michael's Student Center, Auburn; the parish centers at St. Michael's, Heron Bay, and St. Philip Neri, Belle Fontaine; the rectory-CCD hall, at St. Elizabeth's, Greenville; the educational building at St. John's, Enterprise, and the multi-purpose buildings at St. Agatha's, Bay Minette, and St. Lawrence, Fairhope. Housing for the elderly, Cathedral Place in Mobile and Seton Haven in Montgomery, were constructed. A new Sacred Heart Home, served by the Little Sisters of the Poor, was built and dedicated; also a new Convent of Mercy for retired sisters was dedicated. The Portier House, residence of the first Bishop of Mobile, became a museum. The exterior of the Cathedral was also refurbished. Martin de Porres Hospital in Mobile was closed, but the edifice was renovated and blessed for use as the new Alien Memorial Home. A nine million dollar wing and I.C.U. Unit was dedicated at Providence Hospital, also in Mobile. PASTORAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES During Bishop May's tenure parishes throughout the diocese continued to implement the liturgical reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council. Lay persons were authorized to distribute Holy Communion. The new Rite of Reconciliation and the option of receiving Communion in the hand were initiated. Bishop May founded the Office of Youth Ministry, which became responsible for conducting youth retreats and the annual Diocesan Youth Convention. Bishop May also established .>a retirement program for all lay church employees, a new health insurance program, a marriage preparation program, and pro-life programs. Two new deaneries were established in the diocese; namely, Baldwin-Escambia and Dothan. This action brought the number of deaneries to four. The other two are Mobile and Montgomery. A council of priests had operated in the diocese since 1968. Bishop May approved a revised constitution in June 1973. He approved organization of the Pastoral Council of the Diocese of Mobile in March 1974, after some three years of study, planning, and education. McGill Institute and Bishop Toolen High School were merged into one co-educational high school on July 1, 1973. Bishop May founded the Diocesan Board of Catholic Education to enable lay people to help direct the educational ministry of the diocese. The board met for the first time in September 1973. In June 1977, Bishop May implemented a program endorsed by his priests whereby pastors were limited to a tenure of six years, renewable for another six. Bishop May ordained the first class of permanent deacons. On April 20, 1979, four were ordained at St. Jude Church, Montgomery, and the next day eleven were ordained at the Cathedral, Mobile. Bishop May changed the Feast of Christ the King from a march through downtown Mobile to Mass at Municipal Auditorium to which pilgrims come from around the diocese. The sesquicentennial of the diocese was celebrated at the Feast of Christ the King, 1979. On January 29, 1980, Bishop May was appointed Archbishop of St. Louis. He was installed in the Cathedral of St. Louis the King on March 25, 1980. ADMINISTRATOR ELECTED On March 27, 1980, the consultors elected Reverend Monsignor Oscar H. Lipscomb, who had been chancellor under both Archbishop Toolen and Bishop May, Administrator of the Diocese of Mobile. He guided the local church while the see was vacant. ARCHBISHOP OSCAR H. LIPSCOMB On July 29, 1980, Archbishop Jean Jadot, Apostolic Delegate in the United States of America, announced that Pope John Paul II had approved erection of the ecclesiastical Province of Mobile, which includes the States of Alabama and Mississippi. Mobile was made an archdiocese and the Archbishop-Elect Oscar H. Lipscomb was named the first Archbishop of Mobile. The new Province is made up of the Diocese of Birmingham-in-Alabama, Diocese of Jackson, and the Diocese of Biloxi. In 1980, the two state area had a Catholic population of 202,252, served by 513 priests, 45 permanent deacons, and 986 religious sisters and brothers. The first Archbishop of Mobile was born in Mobile on September 21, 1931. The son of Oscar H. and Margaret Antoinette Saunders Lipscomb, he attended St. Patrick's School, and McGill Institute before entering the seminary at St. Bernard in Cullman, Alabama. He studied at the North American College in Rome and was ordained a priest in Rome on July 15, 1956. From 1966 through 1980, he was chancellor of the Diocese of Mobile Archbishop Lipscomb was consecrated in the Mobile Municipal Auditorium on November 16, 1980, the Feast of Christ the King. Co-Consecrators were the Most Reverend John L. May, the Most Reverend Raymond G. Lessard, Bishop of Savannah, and the Most Reverend William B. Friend, Auxiliary Bishop of Alexandria-Shreveport and a former Chancellor for Administration of the Diocese of Mobile. Source: Archdiocese of Mobile Clergy Handbook
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