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DECEMBER 24, 1955.
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
THIRTEEN
Savannah’s second parish, St.
Patrick’s, had Father John S.
McCarthy as pastor from 1894
until his death in 1920, when
Father Emmet M. Walsh suceed-
ed him. Father McCarthy at the
time of his death was one of the
oldest priests in service in the
Diocese; his priestly career start
ed nearly 40 years before at the
Cathedral in the days of Bishop
Gross. After some years in' At
lanta at the Church of the Im
maculate Conception, he return
ed to Savannah, and was for a
long generation pastor at St.
Patrick’s. He also was a Diocesan
consultor. Father William Quin
lan was assistant at St. Patrick’s
from 1886 to 1906. followed by
Father Schohhardt for a short
period. Father Jeremiah O’Hara
was at St. Patrick's from 1910 to
1920; Father Walsh as pastor had
no assistant.
BENEDICTINE SCHOOL
Savannah’s Sacred Heart
Church experienced phenomenal
growth during the regime of
Bishop Keiley. Father William
Mayer, O.S.B., was succeeded as
pastor in 1901 by Father Aloysi-
us O'Hanlon, O.S.B. The year
following, Father Bernard Haas,
O.S.B., rector of the college at
Belmont, went to Savannah as
prior. The little community com-
sisted of Father Bernard, prior,
Father Aloysius, pastor of Sacred
Heart Church, and Father Greg
ory Windschiegel, O.S.B., pastor
of St. Benedict’s Church, minis
tering to the colored people.
Father Bernard put into effect
the Benedictine Fathers’ and the
Bishop’s plan of an academy for
boys. He renovated the old
building erected by Father Osw
ald, called it Benedictine Col
lege, and started sessions Sep
tember 29, 1902, with 21 pupils
and one instructor, himself. He
introduced the military feature,
with Col. Jordan F. Brooks as
commandant.
In February, 1902, a tract of
land between Bull, Whitaker,
33rd and 34th Streets was ac
quired and the building of a
church a priory started. Bishop
Keiley laid the cornerstone that
fall, assisted by Bishop Leo Haid,
O.S.B., Vicar Apostolic of North
Carolina and Abbot of Belmont,
and Bishop Northrop of Charles
ton; Bishop Keiley dedicated it
February 12, 1905. In the mean
time work on the new Bene
dictine College was inaugurated;
Bishop Keiley officiated at its
dedication June 16, 1905. The
name was later changed from
Benedictine College to Bene
dictine School.
In 1916, Father Bernard acquir
ed a site for a parish school at
Abercorn, 38th and Drayton
Streets, and remodeled the two
buildings on the property, one
as a school and the other as a
convent. The Sisters of St. Jos
eph, who had come to Savannah
originally in 1867 and moved to
Washington in 1876 to establish
St. Joseph’s Home, were given
charge of the school. The first
enrollment was 125, in five
grades; Sister Angela, superior,
and five other Sisters constitut
ed the community.
FATHER BERNARD IN
SAVANNAH
Father Bernard remained pas
tor of Sacred Heart Church and
prior of the community until
the last days of the episcopate of
Bishop Keiley. He was also rec
tor of Benedictine School until
1919, when the increasing work
in the parish required him to
release his scholastic post. Fath
er Ambrose Gallagher, O.S.B.,
was his successor as rector of
the school. Assisting him during
his generation as prior, pastor
and rector in addition to Father
Aloysius, who went to Pennsyl
vania in 1906, were the Bene
dictine Fathers Jerome Finn,
Anthony Meyer, Matthew Gras,
Ambrose Gallagher, Cornelius
Diehl, C. Rettger, Lawrence Mc-
Hale, Eugene Egan, Dominic Vol-
lmer, Philip Fink, Basil McKee,
Maurice McDonnell, Raphael
and Wilfrid Foley. They w'ere
aided by lay teachers, the first
of whom was Walter J. Hoxie,
instructor in sciences. After. the
retirement of Colonel Brooks,
Capt. John A. Dailey succeeded
him as commandant of the Bene
dictine Cadets.
An era at Sacred Heart
Church and Benedictine School
ended with the retirement of
Father Bernard in 1922. He came
to Savannah in 1902, the year
in which the cornerstone for the
new church was laid. As pastor
and prior, he directed the erec
tion of the new church, founded
and developed Benedictine
School with its splendid facili
ties, and established Sacred
Heart Parish School, securing
the Sisters of St. Joseph to teach
in it. His final • contribution to
the parish was the preparation
he made for the new parish
school.
PIONEER AT BELMONT
Born in Erie, Pa., June 6,
1866, he entered the Benedic
tines at St. Vincent Abbey; he
was one of the little group of
pioneers who came to North
Carolina with Bishop Haid in
1885 to lay the foundations of
that apostolic work. Ordained
at Belmont December 20, 1889,
he did missionary work in North
Carolina and from 1896 to 1902
he was rector of the Abbey Col
lege, where he had previously
taught. He spent himself in the
work in Savannah; returning to
Belmont, he died there in 1933
after a long period of ill health.
His funeral was held there De
cember 2 from the Abbey Ca
thedral he had helped to estab
lish.
The growth of Sacred Heart
Parish made a new congregation
in the rapidly developing Vic
tory Drive section advisable; in
1919 Bishop Keiley appointed
Father Daniel J. McCarthy, for
merly pastor at Milledgeville and
recently a chaplain in World
War I, to establish it. The de
velopment Qf native vocations
was one of the most important
achievements of Bishop Keiley.
Vocations among native or resi
dent Georgians had not been
numerous through the years; af
ter a lapse of some years Father
McCarthy was the first of a
long line of zealous native Dioce
san clergy.
NATIVE OF SAVANNAH
The son of Mr. and Mrs.
Michael C. McCarthy, his grand
father, Daniel O’Sullivan, was
one of the founders of Cathedral
parish after the erection of the
Diocese, when the church be
came a Cathedral instead of a
merely parish edifice. He was
educated at Cathedral School,
Savannah High School, Belmont
Abbey College and St. Bernard’s
Seminary, Rochester; he was at
St. Bernard’s when the famous
Bishop McQuaid guided it and
when men like Dr. Edward J.
Hanna, later Archbishop of San
Francisco, were members of the
faculty. Ordained February 16,
1910, he was , assistant at Albany
and, from 1912, pastor of Sacred
Heart Church, Milledgeville, and
the Central Georgia Missions.
From the earliest days of the
Church in Georgia, the care of
the colored was of great concern
to the Bishops, priests and reli
gious. A number of the slaves
of the early French settlers were
Catholics. They were a special
consideration of Bishop Eng
land, who braved public opinion
by starting a school for them in
Charleston. Bishop Barron, for
mer Vicar Apostolic of Liberia,
who died in Savannah in 1854,
made them the particular object
of his ministrations. The Cath
olic Directory of 1855 reported
that at Jekyl Island there was
“a small frame chapel erected
by Negroes on the Island, who
form a principal part of the con
gregation. Attended from Sav
annah.
SCHOOLS FOR NEGROES
When the Sisters of St. Joseph
arrived in 1867, they established
a school for Negro children in
Savannah, thus augmenting the
work of the Sisters of Mercy.
The Benedictines in 1875 found
ed a school for Negro boys at
Skidaway Island and received
them as novices in their monas
tery there; they established St.
Benedict’s Parish for the color
ed in Savannah when they were
laying the foundations of Sacred
Heart Parish. The Missionary
Franciscan Sisters of the Im
maculate Conception had an
orphanage and school for Negro
children in Augusta in 1880; it
suspended for a time but was
re-established in 1901. In Aug
usta and Macon the Jesuit Fath
ers had special priests assigned
to the work.
No class or race has a mono
poly on the Church and all with
in the confines of a parish have
equal rights in the parish church.
But persons of the same language
or racial background like to as
sociate with one another, a hu
man tendency the Church recog
nized by permitting the formation
of parishes predominantly Irish,
German, French, Italian, Polish,
Lithuanian, etc. The success of
St. Benedict’s Parish in Savannah
under the Benedictine Fathers
and the slower progress among
the colored people elsewhere in
the Diocese made it evident that
if the Negroes were to be won to
the faith in large numbers, it
would ,be necessary to provide
them with their own churches
and parishes.
SOCIETY OF AFRICAN
MISSIONS
Bishop Keiley therefore invited
into the Diocese the Society for
African Missions, an association
of secular priests founded in Ly
ons, France, in 1856 by Msgr. de
Marion-Bresillac for work among
Negroes. They were given charge
of the Vicariate of Benin, Africa,
in 1860, and later of the Gold
Coast, Nigeria, the Delta of the
Nile and the five prefectures
Apostolic of the Ivory Coast. With
preparatory seminaries in France
and Holland, seminaries at Cler
mont-Ferrand, France, and Cork,
Ireland, and a motherhouse in
Lyons, the Society for African
Missions had been sending a
stream of missionaries to Africa
for fifty years when Father Ig
natius Lissner, who was to be pro
vincial of the new American Pro
vince, Father Gustavus Obrecht
and Father Dennis O’Sullivan ar
rived in Savannah in 1907 to start
the Georgia work.
Father Gregory Windschiegel,
O.S.B., was then pastor of St.
Benedict’s Church, having suc
ceeded Father Gregory Meier,
O.S.B., in 1897. Bishop Keiley in
1907 assigned the parish to the
Society of the African Missions.
Father Obrecht was named pas
tor, remaining in that capacity
until 1944, when he was named
pastor emeritus. His assistants in
Bishop Keiley’s time were Fath
ers Joseph Dahlent, John B. Thu-
et, Eugene Peter, J. L. Ehret, Pet
er Hess and J. Schomnesser.
ST. ANTHONY'S PARISH
The work flourished so that a
second parish, St. Anthony’s, was
founded in 1909, with Father M.
Pfleger, S.M.A., as pastor, and
Father F. Herrbrecht, S.M.A., as
assistant. Father Joseph Zimmer
man, S.M.A., succeeded as pastor
in 1911 and Father Alphonse
Barthlen, S.M.A., in 1920, when
Father Zimmerman became pas
tor emeritus. Assistants during
those years included Fathers Con
stant Viau, J. B. Thuet and A.
Reber, all of the Society of Afric
an Missions.
An indication of the progress
of the work is the manner in
which the school developed.
When Bishop Keiley retired in
1922, the school of the original
parish for Negroes, now known
as that of St. Benedict the Moor,
had 201 boys and 314 girls. There
were also 60 boys and 72 girls at
the new St. Anthony’s School,
and a third one had been started
at the Mission of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary; the schools were
taught by 13 Missionary Francis
can Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception and a Sister of the
Immacplate Heart of Mary, a new
order founded by Father Lissner.
THE ATLANTA PARISHES
In Atlanta, Father Louis Bazin,
who had succeeded Bishop Keiley
as pastor of the Church of the
Immaculate Conception when he
went to Savannah as Cathedral
rector in 1896, likewise succeeded
him as vicar general in 1900.
When Father Bazin went to St.
Patrick’s Augusta, in 1907, Fath
er Robert F. Kennedy became
pastor of Atlanta’s mother church.
A native of Savannah, where
he was born in 1861, Father Ken-
nedy attended \ St. Patrick’s
School there, and St. Mary’s Se
minary, Baltimore; he was or
dained in 1888 by Cardinal Gib
bons. After a short stay as as
sistant in Atlanta, he was pastor
in Milledgeville for five years,
then returning to Atlanta as as
sistant to Father Keiley.
When Father Keiley went to
Savannah as rector of the Ca
thedral, Father Kennedy soon fol
lowed; when Father Keiley be
came Bishop, Father Kennedy
succeeded him as rector, also
serving as chancellor. He was pas
tor of the Church of the Imma
culate Conception, Atlanta, from
1907 until failing health occasion
ed his retirement in 1924; he died
March 12, 1930, after 42 years in
the priesthood in his native Doce-
se.
Assistants to Father Bazin as
pastor of the Church of the Im
maculate Conception were Fath
ers O. N. Jackson, W. A. McCar
thy and Joseph Hennessy; Father
Kennedy’s assistants included
Fathers Edward McVeigh, Wil
liam Quinlan, Emmet M. Walsh,
Timothy A. Foley and Joseph E.
Moylan.
FATHER JOHN E. GUNN, S.M.
In the latter days of Bishop
Becker’s episcopacy Father John
E. Gunn, S.M., had succeeded
Father Gibbons as pastor of Sacr
ed Heart Church, Atlanta. Father
Gunn was one of te outstanding
scholars of the Society of Mary.
Born March 15, 1863, in County
Tyrone, Ireland, he was educat
ed in the Marist Houses of Study
in Ireland, England, and France,
at the Catholic University in Dub
lin and at the Pontifical Gregor
ian University in Rome, where he
was awarded his doctorate, in
theology. Ordained in Rome Feb
ruary 2, 1890, by the Patriarch of
Constantinople, he spent two
years in parish work in the Arch
diocese of Westminster, London.
Coming to the United States, he
was for the next six years a mem
ber of the Faculty of the Marist
House of Studies at the Catholic
University of America. From
there he went to Atlanta in 1898.
EXPANSION OF THE PARISH
There was a substantial debt
on the new church, which also
had a growing monthly deficit.
The new edifice was a commodi
ous and attractive one, but it
lacked-such necessities as a serv
iceable organ, a good furnace and
many furnishings. The little rec
tory was too small. Father Gunn
was stricken with typhoid; he
spent his time in St. Joseph’s In
firmary planing the future of the
parish. He bought the organ, in
stalled the furnace and other nec
essary furnishings, added a sec
ond story to the rectory and,
through a loan from Dr. R. D.
Spalding, bought for over $6,000
the adjoining property of a neigh
bor who had made himself ob
jectionable.
But this was only a beginning.
The Sisters of Mercy Academy
in Immaculate Conception Parish
educated girls through the high
school grades. The Sisters of St.
Joseph at Loretto School taught
boys in the grammar school.
There was no high school for
boys. The need for one was felt
long before, when the Jesuit
Fathers received permission to
start one. But they centered their
efforts elsewhere, and Father
Vincent Brennan’s history of the
Marists in Atlanta says that they
fell heir to this permission. On
the First Friday of June, 1901, a
favorite day for starting projects
in the parish, Father Gunn had
work on Marist College inaugur
ated. In October it welcomed its
first students. The Marist mem
bers of the faculty had their liv
ing quarters in the school until
the erection of the new rectory.
MARIST COLLEGE FOUNDED
The difficulties of starting the
school were increased by a
mounting wave of anti-Catholic
ism sponsored by the most notori
ous anti-Catholic of his day, Tho
mas Watson, publisher of The
Jeffersonian and, when that got
into trouble with the government
in the war days, of the Columbia
Sentinel. But despite all handi
caps, Marist College was a suc
cess from the first day; not only
Catholics but members of leading
non-Catholic families of the city
entered their sons there. By 1907
it had 125 students enrolled.
Father Gunn then felt that a
parish grammar school was nec
essary; he secured two houses
on Courtland Street, remodeled
them, and threw their doors open
in October, 1909, to 150 pupils in
six grades, taught by the Sisters
of St. Joseph; In 1910 he could
report that practicaly every child
in the parish of school age was
in the parochial school.
(To Be Continued)
(Copyright 1955)