James Gibbons
Baltimore, Maryland | |
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Previous post(s) | Bishop of Richmond (1872–77) |
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James Cardinal Gibbons (July 23, 1834 – March 24, 1921) was a senior-ranking American
Gibbons was consecrated a bishop on August 16, 1868, at the
In 1872, Gibbons was named bishop of Richmond by
Early life and education
Gibbons was born on July 23, 1834, in
After contracting tuberculosis in 1839, Thomas returned with the family back to Ireland, hoping the Irish climate would help him recover. He opened a grocery store in Ballinrobe, where James Gibbons worked as a child. Slight of build and a little under than average height, James Gibbons suffered from gastric problems and consequent periods of anxiety and clinical depression. Thomas Gibbons died in Ireland in 1847; in 1853, Bridget Gibbons moved the family back to the United States, settling in New Orleans, Louisiana.[2]
While attending a Catholic retreat in New Orleans, Gibbons heard a sermon by Reverend
Priesthood
Having recovered from his malaria, Gibbons was ordained a priest on June 30, 1861, for the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Archbishop
In 1865, Archbishop Martin Spalding appointed Gibbons as his personal secretary.[1] Gibbons helped Spalding prepare for the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in October 1866. At Spalding's prompting, the Council fathers recommended the Vatican created an apostolic vicariate for North Carolina and appoint Gibbons head to it.[5]
Episcopal career
Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina
On March 3, 1868,
Gibbons' vicariate contained fewer than 700 Catholics spread over the state of North Carolina. During his first four weeks in office, he traveled almost a thousand miles, visiting towns and mission stations and administering sacraments. During his road trip, Gibbons befriended many Protestants, and was invited to preach at Protestant churches. Gibbons made a number of converts to Catholicism.[5][1] Gibbons became a popular American religious figure, gathering crowds for his sermons on diverse topics that could apply to Christianity as a whole. Over his lifetime, Gibbons met every American president, from Andrew Johnson to Warren G. Harding, and served as an adviser to several of them.
During the
In 1869 and 1870 Gibbons attended the
Bishop of Richmond
Gibbons was named by Pius IX as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Richmond on July 30, 1872. He was installed as bishop on October 20, 1872.
Coadjutor Archbishop and Archbishop of Baltimore
On May 29, 1877, Pius IX named Gibbons as coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese of Baltimore. He automatically succeeded as archbishop on October 3, 1877, after the death of Archbishop James Bayley.[5] For the first twenty years of his administration, Gibbons had no auxiliary bishop to assist him. He therefore travelled extensively throughout the archdiocese, coming to know the priests and parishioners very well.
Cardinal Priest
On June 7, 1886,
In 1885, the bishops in the
In 1903, Gibbons became the first American cardinal to participate in a
During World War I, Gibbons was instrumental in the establishment of the National Catholic War Council. He allowed Reverend William A Hemmick to serve American troops in France during the war. Hemmick became known as the patriot priest of Picardy. At the end of the war, Gibbons supported American participation in the new League of Nations.
James Gibbons died on March 24, 1921, in Baltimore at age 86.[10]
Viewpoints
Americanism
In 1899, Gibbons became embroiled in a controversy with the Vatican about a biography of Reverend Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulist Fathers. A biography, Life of Isaac Hecker, had recently been published in French. The Vatican decided that the preface to the French edition contained controversial opinions about individualism and liberalism. The translator, Abbé Félix Klein, had attributed those views to Hecker. The book inflamed an ongoing dispute over Americanism, liberal attitudes on obedience to papal authority in the United States that the Vatican considered a heresy.[11][12]
On January 22, 1899, Leo XIII sent Gibbons an encyclical, Testem benevolentiae nostrae ("Concerning New Opinions, Virtue, Nature and Grace, with Regard to Americanism"). The encyclical condemned the Hecker biography for Americanism.[11][12] In response, Gibbons and other American church leaders assured the pope that the opinions in the book preface belonged to Klein, not Hecker. They further asserted that Hecker never promoted any deviation from or minimization of Catholic doctrines.[12][11]
Relations with Jews
During his tenures in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, Gibbons established cordial relationships with local rabbis.[13] In an 1890 letter, Gibbons said:
For my part I cannot well conceive how Christians can entertain other than most kindly sentiments toward the Hebrew race, when I consider how much we are indebted to them. We have from them the inspired volume of the Old Testament which has been consolation in all ages to devout souls. Christ our Lord, the Founder of our religion, His Blessed Mother, as well as the apostles, were all Jews according to the flesh. These facts attach me strongly to the Jewish race.[13]
In 1890, Gibbons condemned pogroms targeting Jews in the Russian Empire. In 1903, he condemned the Kishinev pogrom in present day Chișinău, Moldova, in which rioters killed 49 Jews and injured hundreds more. He pleaded for the public to assist Russia's Jews.[14] When Jewish leaders in 1915 in Ohio were opposing a state law that would promote bible readings in public schools, Gibbons sent them a letter of support. During World War I, he supported American Jewish Relief fundraising in Baltimore.[13]
Women's suffrage
Gibbons initially opposed the
Organized labor
Gibbons advocated for the protection of working people and their right to organize in labor unions. He believe that industrials in America's eastern cities were exploiting Catholic immigrant workers. 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."[15] Gibbons played a key role in the granting of papal permission for Catholics to join labor unions.[16]
Gibbons successfully defended the Knights of Labor, which had a significant Catholic membership, from papal censure, thereby winning a reputation as labor's friend. However, he deplored the concept of class consciousness as outlined in Marxism and condemned industrial violence during labor disputes.
Colonialism
In early 1904, Congolese activists established the
According to the historian
Works
The Faith of Our Fathers
During his many speaking engagements as a priest, Gibbons' audiences included many Protestants wanting to learn about Catholicism. He wanted to recommend books on Catholicism to interested Protestants, but he found the existing apologetical works to be inadequate for Americans. To fill that need, Gibbons in 1875 published The Faith of Our Fathers: A Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.[5][1][21]
Understanding that many Americans viewed their faith as coming directly from the Bible, Gibbons took pains to explain the biblical roots of Catholic doctrine and rituals. He also wanted to show readers that Catholicism was an American faith, rebutting the claims by anti-Catholic nativists that Catholicism was a heretical belief imposed by Europeans.[21]
The first printing of 10,000 copies, a large number for that era, sold out quickly.[21] By 1879, 50,000 copies had been sold. Sales reached 1,400,000 by 1917 and it remained the most popular book in the United States until the publication of the novel Gone With the Wind in 1939.[21]
Other Publications
- Our Christian Heritage (1889)
- The Ambassador of Christ (1896)
- Discourses and Sermons (1908)
- A Retrospect of Fifty Years (1916)
Gibbons wrote essays for the
See also
- Catholic Church in the United States
- Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
- James Cardinal Gibbons Medal
- List of Catholic bishops of the United States
- Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops
- Papal infallibility
References
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 936–937.
- ^ a b c "His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons". Archdiocese of Baltimore. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
- ^ a b ""His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons", The Archdiocese of Baltimore". Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "St. Brigid's Church, Baltimore". Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2009.
- ^ a b c d Blog, McNamara's (2 July 2013). "Cardinal James Gibbons, Baltimore (1834–1921)". McNamara's Blog. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ The Encyclopedia Press. 1917. p. 65. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "James Cardinal Gibbons [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
- ^ a b University, Catholic. "A Brief History of Catholic University". The Catholic University of America. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ Acta Sanctae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XIX. 1886–87. p. 429. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f Ellis, John Tracy. Life of James Cardinal Gibbons (abridged by Francis L. Broderick), The Bruce Publishing Company, 1963
- ^ a b c Smith, Michael Paul. "Isaac Thomas Hecker." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 4 October 2015
- ^ a b c Pallen, Condé. "Testem Benevolentiae." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 4 October 2015
- ^ JSTOR 43059497.
- JSTOR 43059497.
- ^ Glass, Andrew (23 July 2009). "Cardinal James Gibbons is born, July 23, 1834". Politico. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ^ interview, A. U. S. Catholic (1 September 2015). "Catholic priests and the labor movement". U.S. Catholic magazine – Faith in Real Life. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-226-82820-6.
- ISBN 9781760785208.
- ^ p. 224
- S2CID 73371517.
- ^ JSTOR 24584769.
Further reading
- Ellis, John T., The Life of James Cardinal Gibbons Archbishop of Baltimore, 1834–1921 (1952)
- Shea, John Gilmary. The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States, (New York: The Office of Catholic Publications, 1886), 82–84.
- Will, Allen S., Life of Cardinal Gibbons (1922).
External links
- Works by or about James Gibbons at Wikisource
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore
Works
- Works by James Gibbons at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James Gibbons at Internet Archive
- Works by James Gibbons at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Gibbons, James Card. "Personal Reminiscences of the Vatican Council." The North American Review 158, no. 449 (1894): 385–400. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25103307.
- Gibbons, J. Card. "The Teacher’s Duty to the Pupil." The North American Review 163, no. 476 (1896): 56–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25118675.
- Gibbons, J. Card. "Catholic Christianity." The North American Review 173, no. 536 (1901): 78–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105190.
- Gibbons, J. Card. "Lynch Law: Its Causes and Remedy." The North American Review 181, no. 587 (1905): 502–9. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105465.
- Gibbons, James Card. "International Peace." The North American Review 185, no. 616 (1907): 252–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105893.
- Gibbons, J. Card. "The Church and the Republic." The North American Review 189, no. 640 (1909): 321–36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25106311.
- James Cardinal Gibbons (1876). The Faith of Our Fathers: A Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. John Murphy Company. via Google Books
- James Cardinal Gibbons (1889). Our Christian Heritage. J. Murphy and company. via Google Books
- James Cardinal Gibbons (1896). The Ambassador of Christ. John Murphy Company.
- James Cardinal Gibbons (1908). Discourses and Sermons. John Murphy Company.
- James Cardinal Gibbons (1916). A Retrospect of 50 Years. John Murphy Company. via Google Books
- Pastoral Letter of 1919
- Gibbons (August 1920): Preface for American Catholics in the war; National Catholic war council, 1917–1921
- Phayer, Michael (2008). Pius XII The Holocaust And The Cold War. Indiana University Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 9780253349309.
Biographies
- Ellis, John Tracy (1963). Life of James Cardinal Gibbons. The Bruce Publishing Company. (in the one‑volume abridgment by Francis L. Broderick)
- "Library of Congress Biography".
- Will, Allen Sinclair (1911). Life of James, Cardinal Gibbons. J. Murphy Company. ISBN 9780795017902.
- "His vocational timeline at Catholic Hierarchy".
- "Catholic Home Study Service Biography".
Movie footage
- Conversation with Theodore Roosevelt at Liberty Loan Drive (MPEG 8 mb.)
- Another angle on the same event at Sagamore Hill (QuickTime 3mb)
Photographs
- James Cardinal Gibbons (Catholic University Archives)
- Cardinal Gibbons (Maryland Historical Society)
- Cardinal Gibbons Day October 16, 1911 (MHS)
- Cardinal Gibbons & Theodore Roosevelt (MHS)
- Golden Jubilee Celebration at Basilica of the Assumption (MHS)
- Service in progress at Basilica (MHS)
- Cardinal Gibbons' Cortege passes Washington Monument (MHS)