April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
How Albany outdid Los Angeles (and other tales) part of lecture
As the Albany Diocese continues the year-long commemoration of its 150th anniversary, Catholics have a unique opportunity to learn more about its history. On Feb. 28, Rev. Gerald Fogerty, SJ, a historian and professor of religious studies and history at the University of Virginia, will present a lecture placing the history of the Diocese within the context of American Catholic history in general. Father Fogerty recently gave The Evangelist a brief glimpse into his lecture.
Q: Have you ever visited the Albany Diocese?
Father Fogerty: I've only been to Albany once, I confess. I had a Baptism there last May of the child of a former student of mine at the Church of St. Vincent de Paul. It was May, and it was snowing! I couldn't believe that it was snowing.Q: Why was the Albany Diocese formed, and why in 1847?
Father Fogerty: Because of the population growth due to immigration along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. There were four dioceses created that year -- Buffalo, Albany, Cleveland and Galveston -- an indication of the rapid growth of the country [due to] the waves of immigration that had started in the 1830s.But this was before the famine [in Ireland], so they 'ain't seen nothin' yet!' After 1848, you started to get these huge numbers of Irish people coming up [the Hudson]. Already, the majority of the people were the Irish -- it was a combination of the canal system, followed by the railroads. Shipping and manufacturing were big in Albany and Troy.
Q: What process had to occur to create a new diocese?
Father Fogerty: The bishops of the United States at that time were meeting every three years in council. During the council of 1846, they voted to establish four new dioceses, one of which was Albany. They also made their recommendations on who should be bishop, and their first choice was [Rev. John] McCloskey. Obviously, the recommendation would come from Bishop Hughes of New York [City].The bishops could not legislate to establish a diocese; but while meeting as a council, they could petition [the Vatican] that there be new dioceses. The process they followed at the time was to recommend the diocese and submit a list of three names of people they thought would be good bishops. In the 19th century, the Holy See always acted on those recommendations. Until 1880, seldom if ever did they reject the list of three names.
Q: How were the boundaries of the Albany Diocese -- originally much larger than today's -- established?
Father Fogerty: This would be done in consultation with leading priests of the area and the bishop of New York, since in 1846 there was still only one diocese in New York.To a great extent, it was determined by transportation. Because the state was now divided between three dioceses -- New York, Buffalo and Albany -- Albany would include everything up to Canada. Albany was chosen partly because it was the capital, partly because it was an industrial center and at the confluence of the Hudson and the Mohawk rivers; plus by now, you have the railroad, the New York Central, as the northern route west.
Q: Why should people attend your lecture?
Father Fogerty: To give them a sense of where the Church has been. I'm placing Albany within the broader context of American Catholic history to learn a little bit about what our past has been as we move into the future. Sometimes, a knowledge of the past will help us realize previous solutions to similar problems: [for instance,] the decline of vocations to the priesthood.The problem of Sundays without a priest is not new -- and Albany would be a prime example of where the priests were circuit riders and where the bishop was primarily a circuit rider.
Q: What are some of the issues you hope to explore in your talk?
Father Fogerty: One role of the Church was to urbanize rural immigrants, protect them and educate them. The vast educational system established by the Church enabled immigrants to move rapidly from barely being literate into the middle class -- these are some things I want to stress.When McCloskey came to the Diocese in 1847, there were only 10,000 blacks in the entire state, most of them freemen. None of them were Catholic. By time you get to the 1930s with [Bishop Edmund] Gibbons, there are a number of black Catholics, and he becomes very much involved with national movements in that regard.
Then, what do you do when the Church no longer has to deal with immigrants, but with the working class? I want to try to trace some of these things up to the present.
Q: Who are some of the more notable Catholics who spent time in the Albany Diocese?
Father Fogerty: John Carroll probably passed through on his way to Canada, but he didn't leave much of a record. In terms of Isaac Jogues, I'm certainly going to mention his friendship with the Dutch Reformed minister. There was a recent study of the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam, and the minister there was accused of being a papist. In fact, he was friendly with a papist: Isaac Jogues. McCloskey later on becomes archbishop of New York, and then becomes the first cardinal [in America].Q: In your research on the Albany Diocese, have you come across any notable pieces of history that area residents would not be aware of?
Father Fogerty: The same year [that Bishop McCloskey became a cardinal], the bishops of the metropolitan province of San Francisco met. They had a diocese that was vacant: Los Angeles. Cardinal Farley [of New York] was highly indignant when he was approached about his other auxiliary bishop, Patrick Hayes, being named to Los Angeles. He said, `It's bad enough that you've taken one of my bishops away for Albany, but what are they going to say when you take my other bishop, and for Los Angeles?'My point is at that time, Albany was more important than Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a tiny village, and it had three parishes.
(Father Gerald Fogerty, SJ, will speak on the history of the Albany Diocese on Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hart Theater of the Empire Center at the Egg, Albany. The event is hosted by St. Bernard's Institute. Free tickets are available by calling your parish or the diocesan Pastoral Center at 453-6670.)
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