James Gibbons

His Eminence
James Cardinal Gibbons
Cardinal, Archbishop of Baltimore
See Baltimore
Installed October 3, 1877
Term ended March 24, 1921
Predecessor James Roosevelt Bayley
Successor Michael Joseph Curley
Other posts Bishop of Richmond (1872-77)
Orders
Ordination June 30, 1861
Consecration August 15, 1868
Created Cardinal June 7, 1886
Personal details
Born July 23, 1834
Baltimore, Maryland
Died March 24, 1921 (aged 86)
Baltimore, Maryland
Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}
Gibbons on May 5, 1914
Cardinal Gibbons statue outside of the Baltimore Basilica

James Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as ninth Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 until his death in 1921. Gibbons was elevated to the cardinalate in 1886, the second American to receive that distinction, after John McCloskey.

Early life and education

The fourth of six children, James Gibbons was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Thomas and Bridget (née Walsh) Gibbons. His parents were from Tourmackeady, County Mayo, Ireland, and settled in the United States after moving to Canada. After falling ill with tuberculosis in 1839, his father moved the family to his native Ireland, where he believed the air would benefit him. There, Thomas operated a grocery store in Ballinrobe and young James received his early education. His father died in 1847, and his mother returned the family to the United States in 1853, settling in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Priesthood

Gibbons decided to pursue Holy Orders after attending a sermon given by Paulist co-founder, Clarence Walworth. In 1855, he entered St. Charles College in Ellicott City. After graduating from St. Charles, he entered St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in 1857. He suffered a severe attack of malaria during his time at St. Mary's, leaving his state of health so poor that his superiors almost considered him unsuitable for ordination.

On June 30, 1861, Gibbons was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Francis Kenrick of Baltimore.

He then served as a curate at St. Patrick's Church in Fells Point for six weeks before becoming the first pastor of St. Brigid's Church in Canton. In addition to his duties at St. Brigid's, he assumed charge of St. Lawrence Church in Locust Point and was a chaplain for Fort McHenry in the Civil War, during which he supported the Union despite having been born and largely raised in the South.

In 1865, Gibbons was made private secretary to Archbishop Martin John Spalding. He helped prepare for the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in October 1866. At Spalding's prompting, the Council fathers recommended both the creation of an apostolic vicariate for North Carolina and the nomination of Gibbons to head it.

Episcopal career

On March 3, 1868, Gibbons was appointed Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina and Titular Bishop of Adramyttium by Pope Pius IX. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 15 from Archbishop Spalding, with Bishops Patrick Neeson Lynch and Michael Domenec, CM, serving as co-consecrators. At age 34, he was one of the youngest Catholic bishops in the world and was known as "the boy bishop."

His vicariate, the entire state of North Carolina, had fewer than seven hundred Catholics. In his first four weeks alone in North Carolina, Gibbons traveled almost a thousand miles, visiting towns and mission stations and administering the sacraments. He also befriended many Protestants, who greatly outnumbered Catholics in the state, and preached at their churches. Gibbons made a number of converts, but finding the apologetical works available inadequate for their needs, he determined to write his own; Faith of Our Fathers would prove the most popular apologetical work written by an American Catholic.

Gibbons became a popular American religious figure, gathering crowds for his sermons on diverse topics that could apply to Christianity as a whole. He was an acquaintance of every president from Andrew Johnson to Warren G. Harding and an adviser to several of them.

From 1869 to 1870, Gibbons attended the First Vatican Council in Rome. Aged 35 years and 4 months when the Council opened, he was the youngest American bishop present by a mere six days (which he conceded to Jeremiah Francis Shanahan, Bishop of Harrisburg) and the second youngest in all (Basilio Nasser, Melkite Bishop of Baalbek, Lebanon, was more than five years his junior, aged just 30 years and 3 months at opening). Gibbons voted in favor of the doctrine of papal infallibility. He assumed the additional duties of Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, in January 1872.

Gibbons was later named the fourth Bishop of Richmond on July 30, 1872. He was installed as Bishop on October 20, and served there until May 1877, when he was named Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore. He succeeded as Archbishop that October on the death of Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley.

In 1888, Gibbons was created a Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere, becoming the second American, after John McCloskey, to attain that rank in the Catholic Church. Gibbons advocated the creation of The Catholic University of America and served as its first Chancellor upon its creation in 1887. He was the first American cardinal to participate in a papal conclave, in 1903. He would have participated in the 1914 conclave but he arrived late.

In 1899, Pope Leo XIII sent Gibbons a letter, known by its first words in Latin Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, concerning new opinions on virtue, nature and grace, religious life and other matters, with regard to so called "americanism".

Labor advocate

Gibbons advocated for the protection of labor, an issue of particular concern because of the many Catholics who were being exploited by the industrial expansion of America's urban East coast at the turn of the century. He was once quoted as saying, "It is the right of laboring classes to protect themselves, and the duty of the whole people to find a remedy against avarice, oppression, and corruption." Gibbons had a key role in the granting of Papal permission for Catholics to join labor unions.

Gibbons successfully defended the Knights of Labor (a union which had a significant Catholic membership) from papal censure, thereby winning a reputation as labor's friend, though in fact he deplored class consciousness and condemned industrial violence.

Controversy

Gibbons' close support of King Leopold II of Belgium and the atrocities committed in the Congo Free State has come under scrutiny in recent times. Gibbons defended King Leopold II and his treatment of the local Congolese people, going as far as to claim that the Congolese quality of life was being improved by Leopold II's humane influence. Gibbons repeatedly told Americans that Leopold II's Congo was humane and peaceful. Gibbons defended Leopold II's policies, even though Gibbons himself neglected to carry out any type of investigation into the treatment of the locals in the Congo Free State.

Papal infallibility

The dogma of papal infallibility is restricted to a pope defining a doctrine concerning faith or morals. The limitation on the pope's infallibility "on other matters" is frequently illustrated by Cardinal James Gibbons's recounting how the pope mistakenly called him "Jibbons".[1][2][3][4][5]

Works

Part of Gibbons' popularity derived from the works he authored. The Faith of Our Fathers (1876) remains the most enduringly popular. Also widely read were Our Christian Heritage (1889), The Ambassador of Christ (1896), Discourses and Sermons (1908), and A Retrospect of Fifty Years (1916). He contributed a number of essays to much-read journals such as the North American Review and Putnams' Monthly. His style was simple but compelling. Protestant Americans looked often to Gibbons for an explanation of the Catholic position on contentious issues.

In 1876 Gibbons published The Faith of Our Fathers: A Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ .

In 1899, Gibbons granted the Imprimatur for the Challoner edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible.

Legacy

President William Taft honored Gibbons for his contributions at his 1911 golden jubilee celebration. In 1917, President Theodore Roosevelt hailed Gibbons as the most venerated, respected, and useful citizen in America.

In his later years he was seen as the public face of Roman Catholicism in the United States, and on his death was widely mourned. He is famous for his support of the labor movement in the United States, and for the numerous schools named after him. Mencken, who reserved his harshest criticism for Christian ministers, wrote, in 1921 after the Gibbons' death, "More presidents than one sought the counsel of Cardinal Gibbons: he was a man of the highest sagacity, a politician in the best sense, and there is no record that he ever led the Church into a bog or up a blind alley. He had Rome against him often, but he always won in the end, for he was always right."

Coat of arms of Cardinal Gibbons

In 1932, sculptor Leo Lentelli created and installed the The James Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Statue in Washington, D.C.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 1952, vols. 3–4
  2. ↑ Commonweal, vol. 57, p. 405
  3. ↑ William V. Shannon, The American Irish (University of Massachusetts Press 1989 ISBN 978-0-87023-689-1), p. 120
  4. ↑ Leslie Allen, Liberty (Simon & Schuster 1985), p. 236
  5. ↑ Ashley Horace Thorndike, Modern Eloquence (New York 1928), p. 2

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Gibbons.

Works

Biographies

Movie footage

Photographs

Schools named after him

Episcopal succession

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Erected		 Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina
March 3, 1868 – May 20, 1877 		Succeeded by
Stanislao Marco Gross
Preceded by
Vincenzo Cima		 Titular Bishop of Adramyttium
March 3, 1868 – July 30, 1872 		Succeeded by
Louis-Taurin Cahagne, O.F.M.Cap.
Preceded by
John McGill		 Bishop of Richmond
July 30, 1872 – May 20, 1877 		Succeeded by
John Joseph Keane
Preceded by
Wincenty Lipski		 Titular Bishop of Ionopolis
May 29 – October 3, 1877 		Succeeded by
Francis Xavier Leray
Preceded by
James Roosevelt Bayley		 Archbishop of Baltimore
October 3, 1877 – March 24, 1921 		Succeeded by
Michael Joseph Curley
Preceded by
Lorenzo Nina		 Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere
March 17, 1887 – March 24, 1921 		Succeeded by
Giovanni Tacci Porcelli