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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1908)
190S. V iff ll Mil . I -4.'- - j-' I """ VS k'l I. -J A :f 1 SO C3Q tjp , f m lie ciiiiea wrsonzsveoeert I f'-"- y' IB 1 ''&S Y-;-;V 1 I ' ' ' UrfUl "k i r ii mm wSWBk if If 'J 1 ill M V x Vf J. l 4 W jA.-. ti: ,-vsr ' -... ;$ -.J. 5. . . ;fcf Mi ill V BY JUH.V S HAKWOUD. OK THE 13 archbuhops of the Roman Catholic Chunti in this country, six have serloiiy been mentioned from time to time as possible recipients of the red hut Ireland of St. Paul. Ryan of Philadelphia. Farley of New York, Hfssmcr of Milwaukee. Quieter of Chi rago, and O'Connell of Boston. It Is probable that one or two. or even three, of theso prelates of the Church, will bo made Cardinals at no sreat distant date. It however, heyond the bounds of pos sibility that all of them will ever hava the distinction of wearing the red hat. Who. then, will lx the lucky archbishop or archbishops? This l a question that Interests deeply not only the Catholic portion of the country, but the Protestant population a well. Of these six archbishops who have been put forward by their ardent adherent as worthy of cardmalale honors. William Hnry O'Connell. archbishop of Boston. Is the younsest. both In point of years and in servU-c as archbishop. H did not receive his presert office until late last ear. and now within a few days of his forty-niuth birthday, he i 3i years yotnper than th? dean of the cardinal candidates. Archbishop Patrick John Kyan. of Philadelphia, who Is approach ing l;is seventy-seventh milestone. He is 12 j ears ihe junior of the next yonncest of the s;r car.didat.-s. Archbishop Sebas tian Messmer. of Milwaukee: and when lie was appointed bishop of Portland in ltl. hte preat youth for so responsible a post led many a Komi Down Kat Cath olic to exclatm. "Think of a bishop with out a ray hairJn his head!" He is. in fact, the American Church's younjrest archbishop. The history of the Church In tills country can show very few youiuj men o signally honor'd by it as Arch bishop O'Connell already has been hon ored. The archbishop, when all la said, really ohm hto ecclesiastical success to the fact that, at what proved to be the crucial point In hi life, he was not afraid to present to Cardinal Gibbons his, own eia'nu for appointment to the reclonsltlp of the American follow in Rome. o'Con tell. at the time, was simply a curate in or '3 tm. mm ill si' ell a alums parish In Boston; with no hopa of great advancement, he had been f ill ln this post since his return from the American College, whore he received the major portion of his priestly education. He believed that he could fill acceptably the office of rector, lately made vacant by death, and. gettinp leave of absence from St. Joseph's Church, he hurried to Baltimore. where Cardinal Gibbons. Archbishop Ryan, of Philadelphia, and Archbishop Willisana, of Boston, were in consultation over the selection of a new rector. Seeking out the Cardinal, the yountr curate frankly put his case, telling lils'auditor why he- believed he should be the man named to head the college. Tho Cardinal, naturally, was consider ably surprised to have O'Connell person ally plead his own appointment, the more so as hi name had not been mentioned in tho conference by the Boston arch bishop, one of the curate's earliest and firmest church friends. But after his surprise had somewhat abated, the Car dinal beean to see something in the real worth of the earnest, enthusiastic and hitherto to him unknown curate, and be fore loi: he u enlaced in a lengthy examination of his visitor's qualifications for the post. When the Cardinal and the two archbishops met again, the former expressed it as his belief that the right man for the rectorship lived In Boston, and when he was asked to enlighten his hearers he gave the name of William Henry O'Connell. to the mingled delight and eurprlse of the Boston prelate. Soma time later Father O'Connell found him self in Rome aa rector of his alma mater. When in Home as a student his piety and intellectuality had attracted the at tention of and caused lilm to be befriend ed on more than one o-caslon by one of liia teachers. Cardinal Satolll. When he returned to the Eternal City as rector, his old teacher, who was close to Pope Leo, brought his old pupil to the Pope's at tention, and In ls97, two years after he had become rector, the Tankee-born rec tor was a private chamberlain to the Pope, with the rank f monsignor. His great success as rector of the American College had much to do with bringing about this promotion, for during the four vcars that he was at the head of the college Father O'Connell instituted nu merous improvements, one being the ac quisition of a spacious Summer residence for the students, an Ideal spot twelve miles out of Rome, where the heat of the clly did not reach and interfere with the college work. Mgr. O'Connell's appointment to the bishopric of Portland, in 1901. was as great a surprise to his friends as had been hiH selection a? rector of the Ameri can College. Indeed, the list of available candidates for the bishopric as sent to the Pope did not contain the name of Mgr. O'Connell, but the Pope, recalling his private chamberlain's success at the college, conferred the honor on him, thereby agreeably surprising Mgr. O'Con nell himself. Three years later, when a list of names was-sent to Pope Pius to guide him in choosing a coadjutor arch bishop of Boston, Bishop O'Connell's name was not on this list. Neverthe less, he was made coadjutor in January of last year, and In September of the same year, following the death of Arch bishop Williams, he became, the head of tle archdiocese. Just as his work In the American Col lege made hirti a firm friend In Pope I.eo. so Bishop O'Connell's successful mission to Japan, on behalf of the church, fol lowing the war with Russia, made him an equally firm friend In Pope Pius. The war over. Pope Plus decided to send an envoy to the Mikado that the status of the church in Japan might be clearly established. As Bishop of Portland, O'Connell had made several visits to Rome, and In this way come to the notice of Pope Pius. His holiness thereby con ceived a strong liking for the compara tively youthful bishop, and when the lt ter'e friends urged that he be. named as the Japanese envoy the Pope readily con sented, and was highly delighted later that he had done so when he learned that the bishop had obtained from the government more favors than the church had asked or hoped for. What particu larly delighted the Mikado and his Em press with the envoy was bis ability te converse fluently with them In their own language. Bishop O'Connell's reward for his excellent work in Japan was his ap pointment as coadjutor archbishop of Boston, with right of succession on the death of the archbishop. Like most , of the other archbishops' of his church in this country. Archbishop O'Connell takes a strong and active in terest in all civic and social movements looking toward the betterment of the average American. As a worker In this field he has become aldose friend of such Influential New England leaders as Presi dent Eliot, of Harvard, . and Governor Guild, of Massachusetts. ' From the days when he was a slums curate he has had a large Protestant following, because of his broad humanity. His congregations, when he was a curate, were made up of n appreciable number of Protestant friends and admirers. - Taking lr.to consideration the Vati can's friendship and admiration for Archbishop O'Connell. his growing pewer in he. church In this country, sns hi. comparative- .youth.- .making him available for many years to come, no one should be surprised to hear some time of his receipt of the red hat. Ireland a Brave Civil War Chaplain. Taking the country by and large, the best known of the six candidates for the red hat is doubtless Archbishop John Ireland, of St PauL For 20 years or more the general public has been avcustomed to seeing the Archbishop's views on ecclesiastical and various im portant profane questions given pub licity in tho newspapers and periodi cals; and whenever be expresses his views on any subject he receives close attention. Th long; and the short of the matter fa this, that Archbishop Ireland s one of the country's pres ent intellectual leaders, and Is uni versally recognized as such. And to say that the Northwest Is proud ot ,hlm. both on Its Catholic and its Pro testant sides, is to put it mildly. vOne of the National social move ments in which the archbishop has long been a leader is that against in temperance. In fact, he it was who founded the first Catholic total absti nence society. This occurred back in 1869, when he was rector of the St. Paul cathedral, and since then he has been active in his warfare against in temperance. As rector he refused to confess saloonkeepers, and not so very long- after he took this decided stand he could truly boast that the name of a Catholic could not be found flaunt ing itself on the front of a ginmill in St. Paul. He has tried to help the Irish by establishing settlements for ihem in the West; and Ills plea for ever better education of the masses is well known. Unlike some of his dis tinguished colleagues, he believes im- plicitly in public school, education. 'The free scnooi or America: vwuiri cu the hand raised In sign of its destruc tion!" he exclaimed dramatically a few years ago before an audience of some 2000 teachers. Bui while he believes in this system of education, he- hopes that some day every pupil in the public schools of the land will be able to re ceive the religious instruction to which he. Is entitled by creed or race. Of the six men from whom the next American cardinal, or cardinals, will be picked in all probability. Archbishop Ireland Is the only one who has re ceived his baptism of fire. Shortly af ter he was ordained in 18S1, and before he had time to take up his work as priest, he went to the front as chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota Infantry, and served with that regiment until "he was honorably discharged on account of illness. Popular from the first with the boys of the regiment, he won their undying affection at the Battle of Corinth, which occurred on October 2, 1862. While the. fury of the .battle was at Its climax tHe regiment, in consternation, discovered itself rapidly running out of ammuni tion, with no fresh supply in sight. Chaplain Ireland, grasping- the grave situation, lost no time in volunteering and going after fresh foodfor the guns, and Just when his boys wi slacking their fire because of few or no more bullets, the chaplain appeared on the firing line loaded down with boxes of cartridges, and all the rest of the day, while missiles of death whistled and shrieked all about him, he went up and down the firing line, handing out am munition to his boys and cheering them on to renewed effort. It was this cool work on the part of this man of . God that really saved the day for the regi ment, and, in all probability, for the Union side, for he kept the Union line, at a critical stage of the battle, from developing a noticeable weakness that probably would have been taken advan tage of by the Confederates. "When at last the battle was over and night had come, the regiment suddenly missed its chaplain, now its hero. Al most frantic in their grief, small parties of soldiers set out to find him. all hop ing against hope that he would not be found among the dead or wounded, for all. knew how he. had walked with Death the day through. At last, to the great relief of all concerned, he was found uninjured In a little hospital camp that- he had improvised on the battlefield and where he was giving first aid to the wounded and comforting the dying. After that Chaplain Ireland was the idol of the Fifth Minnesota: and the survivors of that regiment never tire of singing the praises of their old chaplain, who proved, when the right time came, that he was as brave a fighter as any of them. Archbishop Ireland was 70 last Sep tember, and so is the second oldest of the six archbishops. He was 11 years old when his father, a carpenter, brought him to this country from Ireland; and three years later he went to live in St. Paul, then nothing more than a fron tier trading post. In St. Paul he has lived since. He grew up with the town and in many ways has contributed ap preciably to Us wonderful development since the Civil War. Archbishop Bryan a Great Orator. Reckoned as one of the Church's greatest living orators. Archbishop Ryan made his first oratorical hit when he spoke before the Irish patriot, Daniel O'Connell. when the latter was held in Dublin Jail by the English government. The future archbishop was then In his early teens, and his declamatory ability so Impressed the great Irishman that he patted the red head of the youthful speaker and advised him to cultivate his talent for speech, adding that by It he would become famous some day. Years after, his fame as a preacher In St. Louis reaching to Rome, he was invited by Pope Pius IX ti deliver Lenten lec tures In English in Rome. That -was In 1868. Four years later he was coad jutor .bishop of St. Louis; eleven years later he was archbishop of St. Louis, and the next year he was transferred to the see of Philadelphia, where hs has been active ever since. During the quarter of a century that he has been in Philadelphia he has broken down, that city's former preju dices against the Catholic Church, end has made the archdiocese of that name one f the strongest In this country. Scores of churches, educational Institu tions and various asylums have been built under the spur :of the archbishop's Insistence He planned and erected Just outside of Philadelphia the second larrest Augusti'nlan monastery in the world, and with the gift of $250,000 presented to him on the occasion of his golden Jubilee he founded n orphanage. Because of Lhis liberal mindedness, not . nine oi the money no nas neeueu w n.oa cessful his varSfUH church enterprises he has obtained from his Protestant friends, who are numerous and Include most of the preiuliient Protestants of the Quaker City and vicinity. Mnre Arch bishop Rvan was transferred to Phila delphia the. Catholic families In that archdiocese have more than doubled In number, slid no parish of the archdiocese Is now without Its parochial school. Archbishop Ryan's wide Influence ue vond ecclesiastical circles was well shown when his Intervention brought to an end the sreat streetcar strike that kept Philadelphia in a turmoil for some days in 1S95. While the strike was on business was transacted under great difficulties and disorder and riot held sway in the business center. Several prominent men tried to bring about a re conciliation of employers and employes, but without success. Then Archbishop Rvan was arked to take a hand. He. consented and straightway hunted out the labor leaders, got "them in good humor by cracking several sly Jokes, and then talked them into promising to ar bitrate the strike. The next day there was peace in the city. The archbishop is generally to be found among the leaders of any movement tCoaduded on Page 7.)
